Romantic Painters on Art

Abstract

Philipp Otto Runge and Caspar David Friedrich, well known Romantic painters, were not only notable masters of the brush but also theorticians of art. The present essay is devoted to an analysis of their theories. Its novelty consists in the fact that it analyzes for the first time the theoretical views that are expressed in the texts of both artists. Runge’s charactertistic feature is a pantheistic experience of God. According to him, it must be expressed in art. He proposes his own dialectic of being, which essentially consists of development, struggle, and mutual annihilation of opposite elements at the moment of achieving perfection. It is precisely this dialectic that, according to him, forms the foundation of art, where he sees an opposition between feeling and reason. Runge pays special attention to the notion of the “spirit of art,” which appears on the basis of the feeling of mutual connection between the human being and the universe, as well as of the artist’s foresentiment of God. In its foundation, art is symbolic and therefore close to religion. The spirit of art manifests itself in what one can call the music, poetry, or symbolism of a work of art. In art, Friedrich sees the spiritual foundation of the world. He distinguishes between skill and “spirituality” in it. According to him, one can master the skill, but one inherits spirituality from birth, and few artists possess it. As a Romantic landscape artist, he opposed illusionism in painting. He considered the creative element in art, which is born in the artist’s inner world, as pivotal. Feeling plays the principal role in art. For this reason Friedrich foregrounds the uncon-scious, although he is convinced that reason and skill must actively participate in the creative process as well. Friedrich preferred winter, foggy, and crepuscular landscapes, which expressed Romantic moods well.