FA 451 Symbolism and Art Nouveau -- Syllabus

FA 451 SYMBOLISM AND Art Nouveau
Prof. Jeffery Howe

Spring, 2001
Wednesday, 3-5:30

SYLLABUS

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The arts in Europe at the end of the last century were permeated with symbolic images of mystery and beauty, and there was a widespread fascination with themes of cultural decadence. This seminar will be an exploration of the parallels between the visual arts and literature of this era. The course will involve study of some of the most intriguing artists of the period, such as Gustave Moreau, Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Fernand Khnopff, Edvard Munch and Gustav Klimt.

Corresponding themes in Symbolist literature will be examined to enlarge the context of the inquiry. Readings will include works by Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, J.-K Huysmans and Oscar Wilde. As Symbolism was truly a multidisciplinary movement, the sculpture of Rodin and Art Nouveau architecture and decorative arts will also be included. This spring Boston College will host a major exhibition of the works of Edvard Munch, and this seminar will particularly focus on his art.

This course will be run as a seminar; vigorous class participation is expected. A short paper will be due February 21, and a longer (15-20 pp.) research paper will be due on May 2. In addition, you must present a version of your research paper to the class. (Schedule of presentations to be determined later.)

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Symbolist Art Theories : A Critical Anthology, by Henri Dorra (Editor)
University of California Press, 1995.
Against Nature, by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Robert Baldick (Translator)
Viking Press, 1959. ISBN: 0140440860
Symbolist Art, by Edward Lucie-Smith. Thames & Hudson, 1985.
Edvard Munch (World of Art), by Josef Paul Hodin
Thames & Hudson, 1985.
Art Nouveau: 1890-1914. by Paul Greenhalgh (Editor)
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, 2000

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch : The Vivian and David Campbell Collection, by Elizabeth Prelinger, Michael Parke-Taylor (Contributor), Peter Schjeldahl, Michael Park-Taylor
Yale Univ Press, 1996.
Decadent Style, by John R. Reed. Ohio University Press, 1985.

ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES: Class web page – texts, images, other:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/symbolist/

AMICO Image Library (50,000 images of art works from North American museums):

http://www.bc.edu/amico SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

JANUARY

17 INTRODUCTION: Definitions and Aesthetic Issues.

Civilization and its Discontents: Romantic art and other precursors.

Readings:

J.K. Huysmans, Against Nature (1884)
John Reed, Decadent Style, ch 1: "Introduction," 1-18; ch 2, "Decadent Fiction," esp. 19-40 (Huysmans)

Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, "Charles Baudelaire: ‘Correspondences’," 1-11.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, preface, pp. 5-6. (photocopy)

24 SOURCES OF THE SYMBOLIST MOVEMENT: PAST AND PRESENT.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and The Aesthetic Movement – the Harmony of Art and Life
Literature: D.G. Rossetti, Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde

Readings:

Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, ch. 1: "Romantic Symbolists," 12-34, ch. 2: "Decorative Arts and Architecture," 80-97.

WWW page – http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/symbolist/

Texts: poems by Rossetti, writings of Whistler, Walter Pater Reserve Readings:

Christopher Wood, The Pre-Raphaelites, "Part III: The Later Years," pp. 94-147.

Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, "Reality and Symbol in Early Flemish Painting, vol. I, pp. 131-148.

Maurice Berger, "Edward Burne-Jones' Perseus Cycle: The Vulnerable Medusa," Arts Magazine, April, 1980, pp. 149-153.

Ron Johnson, "Whistler's Musical Modes: Symbolist Symphonies," Arts Magazine, April, 1981, pp. 164-168.

Ron Johnson, "Whistler's Musical Modes: Numinous Nocturnes," Ibid., pp. 169-181.

31 THE FIRST GENERATION IN FRANCE: Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon.

Literature: Charles Baudelaire: Flowers of Evil (1857)

Preliminary topics for research paper due.

Readings:

John Reed, Decadent Style, ch 4, "Decadent Art," 128-185.

Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, ch. 1: "Romantic Symbolists," 35-58; ch. 3: "Literary Symbolism," 125-152.

WWW page – http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/symbolist/

Texts: Quotes from Moreau, poetry of Baudelaire and Mallarmé

WWW page: Digital Archive of Art -- http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/ Reserve Readings:

Eugen Weber, France, Fin de Siècle, chs 1 & 2, "Decadence?" and "Transgression", pp. 9-50.

Shearer West, Fin de Siècle. Art and Society in an Age of Uncertainty, Woodstock, NY, 1994. Chapters 1 & 2: "The Fin de Siècle Phenomenon," "Degeneration" pp. 1-32.

R. Goldwater, Symbolism, chs. 3 & 4, "Suggestion, Mystery and Dream," "Supernaturalism and Naturalism," pp. 115-178.

R. Delevoy, Symbolists and Symbolism, ch. 3, "A Time of Manifestoes and Demands," pp. 45-67.

John Rewald, Post-Impressionism From Van Gogh to Gauguin, ch. 3, "Symbolists and Anarchists from Mallarmé to Redon," pp. 147-184.

Lacambre, Genevieve, ed. Gustave Moreau : Between Epic And Dream. Paris and Chicago, in association with Princeton University Press, 1999: Douglas W. Druick, "Moreau’s Symbolist Ideal," 33-39; also G. Lacambre, "First Achivements as a History Painter," 75- 98, also 160-171 (Salome), 234-240 (Jupiter and Semele).

Brooks Adams, "The Poetics of Odilon Redon's Closed Eyes," Arts Magazine, Jan. 1980, pp. 130-134.

FEBRUARY

7 BODY AND SOUL: Rodin. / Symbolist Themes.

Literature: Stéphane Mallarmé.

Readings:

WWW page: Digital Archive of Art -- Rodin

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/ Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity, Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siècle Culture, begin reading.

Reserve Readings:

Rainer Crone and David Moos, “Trauma of the Divine: The Critique of Convention – Fragments in the Work of August Rodin and Friedrich Nietzsche,” in Rodin: Eros and Creativity, edited by Rainer Crone and Siegfried Salzmann; Munich: Prestel, c1992, pp. 9-34.

Albert Elsen, Rodin: The Gates of Hell, skim.

The Decadent Reader : Fiction, Fantasy, And Perversion From Fin-de- Siècle France, edited by Asti Hustvedt. New York: Zone Books, 1998, "Science Fictions: The Future Eves of Villiers de l’Isle Adam and Jean-Martin Charcot," 498-518.

C.F. MacIntyre, French Symbolist Poetry, 57-63, 65, 67-69. Stéphane Mallarmé, "The Afternoon of a Faun," "Saint," "Prose (for Des Esseintes)." Paul Verlaine: "Apathy," p. 33.

14 PAUL GAUGUIN / THE NABIS.

Short paper due.

Readings:

Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, ch. 4: "The Post-Impressionists," 185-217, 235-241.

WWW page: Digital Archive of Art --

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/ Reserve Readings:

R. Delevoy, Symbolists and Symbolism, ch. 3, cont., pp, 69-93; ch. 7, "The Writing of the Riddle," pp. 157-162.

R. Goldwater, Symbolism, ch. 2, "From Synthetism to Symbolism," pp. 73-114.

John Rewald, Post-Impressionism, ch. 4, pp. 185-206; ch. 9, "Gauguin and the Symbolists," pp. 435-490.

G.A. Aurier, "Symbolism in Painting: Paul Gauguin," in Theories of Modern Art, H. Chipp, ed., pp. 89-93.

Wayne Andersen, Gauguin's Paradise Lost, chs. 9 & 10, "Calvary of the Maiden," "Calvary of Eve," pp. 95-127.

Thomas L. Sloan, "Paul Gauguin's D’où venons nous? Que sommes nous? Où allons nous? A Symbolist Philosophical Leitmotif," Arts Magazine, Jan. 1979, pp. 104-109.

Recommended -- Not on Reserve:

Jirat-Wasiutynski, Vojtech, "Paul Gauguin's Self-Portraits and the Oviri: The Image of the Artist, Eve and the Fatal Woman, Art Quarterly, n.s., vol. II, Spring 1979, pp. 172-190.

George Mauner, "The Nature of Nabi Symbolism," Art Journal, vol. 23, 2, 1962, pp. 96-103.

Paul Gauguin, Noa Noa, New York, 1957.

21 OTHER WORLDS: Symbolism And The Unconscious. Symbolism and Spiritism. Readings:

Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, ch. 5: "The Artists of the Soul," 252-279.

Reserve Readings:

R. Delevoy, Symbolists and Symbolism, ch. 4, "A Spate of Images," pp. 95-115; ch. 5, "The Ambivalence of Desire and Death, 1870-1900," pp. 117-140.

Jean Pierrot, The Decadent Imagination, ch. 3, "Religious Unease," pp. 79-118; ch. 4, "The Unconscious and Sexuality," pp. 119-146; ch. 5, "Avatars of the Fantastic," pp. 147-165. Also recommended: "The World of Legend," pp. 191- 206; ch. 8, "Elemental Reverie," pp. 207-237.

Sar Joséphin Péladan, "Rules of the Salon de la Rose+Croix," (1892), photocopy.

R. Goldwater, Symbolism, ch. 6, "Ideistes," & Ch. 7, "Correspondence," pp. 186-258.

Bergman-Carton, J. "The Medium is the Medium: Jules Bois, Spiritualism, and the Esoteric Interests of the Nabis, Arts Magazine, vo. 61, 4, 1986, December, 24-29.

A. Balakian, Symbolist Movement, ch. 2, "Swedenborgianism and the Romantics," pp. 12-28.

28 No class; College Art Convention

MARCH

14 BELGIAN SYMBOLISM and ART NOUVEAU.

Symbolism and Literature. Symbolist Aesthetics.
Outlines due.
Readings:
Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity, Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siècle Culture, continue reading.
WWW page – http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/symbolist/
Sections on Art Nouveau
WWW page: Digital Archive of Art --
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/ -- Belgian Symbolists
Reserve Readings:
R. Delevoy, Symbolists and Symbolism, "The Booby Trapped Image," pp. 173-175; ch. 8, "The Space of Dream," pp. 170-190.
R. Goldwater, Symbolism, pp. 178-216.
Jean Pierrot, The Decadent Imagination, ch. 2, "The Spiritual Horizon," pp. 45-78, & ch. 6, "Paradis Artificiels," pp. 166-190.
R. Schmutzler, Art Nouveau; see esp. pp. 15-20, "Form and Structure," and pp. 67-81, "High and Late Art Nouveau," and pp. 207-214, "The Significance of Art Nouveau."
Jeffery Howe, The Symbolist Art of Fernand Khnopff, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982. (also on WWW page –http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/symbolist/)
Art Nouveau:
R. Schmutzler, Art Nouveau, "Early Art Nouveau: The Japanese Style," pp. 21-31; "The Influence of William Blake," pp. 42-58.
Timothy Neat, Part Seen, Part Imagined : Meaning And Symbolism In The Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. Edinburgh : Canongate Press, 1994. Ch. 2: "Mackintosh and the Symbolist Movement," 20-29; ch. 3, "Ideas in Art and Architecture," 30-44; ch. 9: "The Rose Cross and the Golden Dawn," 120-132; ch. 12, "The Symbolism Applied in Architecture and Design," 154-164.
Debora L. Silverman, Art nouveau in fin-de-siècle France : politics, psychology, and style. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1989, chs. 14-15, " Maison de l’Art Nouveau Bing," 270-283, and "The 1900 Paris Exhibition," 284-314.

21 VIENNA 1900. / SCANDINAVIAN SYMBOLISM: Edvard Munch. Readings:

Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity, Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siècle Culture, finish reading.

Reserve Readings:

R. Delevoy, Symbolists and Symbolism, ch. 6, "Signs in Their Proper Place, 1894-896," pp. 141-155.

Carl Schorske, Fin de Siècle Vienna, Politics and Culture, "Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego," pp. 208-278.

Max Nordau, Degeneration (1892), translated by G.L. Mosse, New York, 1968. See especially Bk. II, "Mysticism: Symbolism," pp. 100-143; "The Richard Wagner Cult," pp. 171-213. Also Bk. III, "Ego-mania: Decadents and Aesthetes," pp. 296-337.

Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918 : Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and their contemporaries,

Reinhold Heller, Munch: his life and work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984,

R. Heller, "Symbolism and the Structure of Surface," Art Journal, vol. 45, 1985, 146-153.