Vagabundske figure v slovenski likovni umetnosti in literaturi na začetku 20. stoletja

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between visual and literary motifs in Slovenian painting (and illustration, graphics, and drawing) and literature (both prose and poetry) at the beginning of the twentieth century. It uses examples to show the popularity and rich variety of vagabond figures and their transformations and reciprocity at the level of the painting/text. However, a distinctive feature of this article is that it places the subject within the context of hermeneutics, a method that has not been used in Slovenian art history. In addition, it also reveals the symbolic complexity of the vagabond figure in the context of writers, other works, and social-historical circumstances. The emphasis is placed on artists that showed enthusiasm for this figure as a subject during the Belle Époque and also those that followed the very popular bohemian lifestyle in their everyday lives. The reception of Slovenian folk and traditional motifs from the past produced visual and semantic oscillation in which the phenomena of vagabond figures were systematized and interpreted. Many painters (e.g., Gvidon Birolla, and Maksim Gaspari) and writers (e.g., Oton Župančič, Cvetko Golar, and Ivan Cankar) clung to the Slovenian tradition with romantic overtones and, in line with their artistic atmosphere, integrated vagabond figures into typical Slovenian landscapes or environments. Some of them followed Symbolism and modernized the figures with autobiographical references (e.g., Fran Tratnik). The situation among the youngest generation of artists in particular showed that they managed to “escape” from copying traditional motifs and instead used them in a modern form in the “here and now” (e.g., Ivan Cankar). The discrepancy between the lack of the vagabond theme in oil painting and strong diversification in illustration, drawing, graphics, and literature could be explained by consumers’ perceived difference between “high” and “popular” art.