Die Wildnis: visuelle Neugier in der Landschaftsmalerei. Eine ikonologische Untersuchung der niederländischen Berg- und Waldlandschaften und ihres Naturbegriffs um 1600 (Dissertation Universität Freiburg 2000), Freiburg, 2005. (original) (raw)

In the period between Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish landscape painting underwent decisive changes. World landscape or overview landscape as a type lost its importance, while at the same time new landscape types emerged, which focused on singular aspects of reality in landscape. This era marks a turning point, at which the aesthetic concept of landscape changed fundamentally. The representation of mountain and forest landscapes, in which wilderness was regarded for first time as worthy of depicting as an independent topic of landscape painting, signifies a key in this process and forms the subject of this study. These new landscape types are interpreted as a coherent phenomenon set against the backdrop of contemporary ideas of nature and art and placed under the new term „visual curiosity“ – derived from Hans Blumenberg’s concept of the „process of theoretical curiosity“. Concurrently and often in close connection with scientific exploration of the world, the process of visual curiosity in art exploited the appearance of reality, environment and visible nature. In a short introduction the most distinctive features in the development of Netherlandish mountain and forest landscape painting from 1550 until 1620 are presented. This forms the basis for the ensuing study, which is divided into three methodological aspects. The first part deals with this phenomenon in the context of the history of concepts and ideas and art theory. The emergence of the aesthetic concept of landscape, the contemporary concept of nature and the changing relationship between both of these ideas within the process of visual curiosity are discussed. Then the idea of praise of creation as a catalyst and justification for visual curiosity with regard to landscape painting is treated. The next chapter discusses the theory of imitation and the idea of emulation of nature by artists and their relationship to landscape painting. Finally, the emergence and development of the notion of the „picturesque“ („schilderachtig“) is interpreted as a characteristic feature of visual curiosity. The second part is devoted to the image of wilderness with respect to the cultural horizon at that time, which is determined by the interaction of cultural traditions and contemporary experiences. First, the ambivalent and varying attitudes toward „the forest“ are examined. The next chapter explores the implication of the new culture of travelling for understanding of landscape painting, which appears as mediator of foreign landscapes and scene of imaginary travels. The last chapter deals with different aspects of the fascination with the Alps as a new phenomenon in contemporary literature and Netherlandish painting. In the last and most detailed part the question of the image of wilderness is elucidated and specified with the help of the most common subjects of staffage that appear in mountain and forest landscapes. The manner in which the staffage subjects bearing iconographic traditions were treated as interacting with specific landscapes types offers the opportunity to interpret the image of wilderness in these pictures. The following subjects are examined: the Biblical desert, the poetic wilderness of antiquity, farmers and forest workers, the hunt in the forest, woods of pleasure, travellers in the landscape, robbers, the draughtsman in the landscape, landscapes without human staffage.