Synthesis of religious and mythological motifs in the visual arts of the Vienna Secession. Decadence as a blurring of intra-cultural boundaries

Cherkasov Danila Sergeevich ORCID: 0009-0009-6838-6847 Postgraduate student, Art History Department, Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design 191028, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Solyanoi, 13 cherk-danila@yandex.ru

This article will focus on the interpenetration of Christian and mythological motifs in the work of artists of the Vienna Secession. This association played a major role in the art of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, spreading its influence from New York to Shanghai ^{[1, p. 91]} and was the forerunner of many important artistic movements for the twentieth century. However, many researchers consider the artistic heritage of this creative union as the forerunner of modernism ^{[2, p. 64; 3, p. 282]}, not noticing (or not wanting to notice) the iconographic eclecticism inherent in the decadent aesthetic paradigm under the formal novelty ^{[4, p. 38]}.

Many scientific works are devoted to the work of the masters of the Vienna Secession, one of the most outstanding among them is the monumental study by K.E. Shorske, describing the cultural and political landscape of the fin de si cle of Vienna ^[3]. P. Vargo's book has a similar theme, but with a greater emphasis on the personalities of artists ^[5]. There is a clear imbalance among the creators of the Vienna Secession in the amount of attention paid to them. While the creative biographies of G. Klimt ^[6-8] and E. Schiele ^[9,10] have been studied in great detail, and many exhibitions are devoted to them (e.g.. ^[11],[12]), other artists, such as the sculptor Otmar Shimkovitz or A. Roller, are deprived of the attention of researchers. Of course, light is gradually being shed on the legacy of these masters, an example of which is the large–scale exhibition of K. Moser in Vienna in 2019, accompanied by a catalog ^[13]. Despite the research of the topic and the fewer and fewer "white spots" in the history of the association, this article offers a new interpretation of the artistic heritage of the Secession, introducing it into the context of European decadence at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, and recognizing decadence as a separate vector of the evolution of Western art associated with symbolism, modernity and modernism, but identical to them[i].

In the beginning, it is worth defining the concept of "decadence". As Charles Bernheimer, a major researcher on this topic, put it: "for more than 20 years I have been studying decadence and reading literature considered decadent, but I still do not understand what it is" ^{[15, p. 3]}. Indeed, it is incredibly difficult to define decadence as a cultural phenomenon, since it consists of paradoxes: it is attractive and dangerous; liberating, but perhaps excessively; joyful, but perverted and destructive.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who considers the problem of decadence one of the most important for his time, simultaneously considers it both a tendency that must be overcome and a property inherent in any society in small quantities. In decadence, Nietzsche sees a potential collapse for both society and art, formulating it as follows: "What characterizes every literary decadence? The fact that the whole is no longer imbued with life. The word becomes sovereign and jumps out of the sentence, the sentence comes forward and obscures the meaning of the page, the page gets life at the expense of the whole - the whole is no longer the whole. But here is what is the image and likeness for any style of decadence: every time anarchy of atoms, segregation of the will, "freedom of the individual", in the language of morality, and if we develop this into a political theory – "equal rights for all"" ^[16]. Thus, F. Nietzsche, one of the most influential philosophers for art at the turn of the century, sees the main property of decadence in the loss of integrity due to greater autonomy of parts, the absence of hierarchy. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, this decadent "anarchy" contributed to the blurring of invisible boundaries that existed within culture, separating, among other things, religious subjects from mythological, and fantastic subjects from realistic ones, and gave rise to the desire for the synthesis of heterogeneous elements characteristic of modern art.

Both of these aspirations – to overcome boundaries and to synthesis, found their embodiment in the program of the Vienna Secession, which was broadcast through the official press organ of the association – the magazine Ver Sacrum. The artists of the Secession considered one of their main tasks to be the creation, i.e. synthesis, of a new language of art, which, according to the secessionists, was supposed to help overcome ethnic, linguistic and religious barriers ^{[3, p. 310]} that existed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was living out its last decades[ii].

An example of erasing the line that separated the real world from the mythological or fantastic world and the synthesis of these two incompatible worlds is the painting by Coloman Moser (1868-1918) "Self-portrait with a Mermaid" (circa 1914, Leopold Museum, Vienna), painted in the last years of the artist's life. Two preparatory sketches were made for the painting – a self–portrait and an image of a mermaid (both circa 1914, Leopold Museum, Vienna), and subsequently the author "combines" these two images, creating a scene of his meeting with a mysterious underwater inhabitant.

The painting "Light" (circa 1914, Private collection) by the same artist can be considered as an example of iconographic synthesis. On the one hand, the torch in the hand of the central character and his nakedness bring him closer to the image of Prometheus. Although the scene of the torture of the rebellious titan by the Zeus eagle is more often depicted (both old masters and contemporaries of Coloman Moser, for example, Gustave Moreau, addressed this plot). The closest painting to Moser's work is the 1908 Prometheus painting by the Belgian symbolist, philosopher and occultist Jean Delville (1867-1953) (Royal Library, Brussels). Here he is also depicted completely naked, and the importance of fire as a source of light is emphasized, in a symbolic sense - knowledge, secret wisdom or the light of art.

At the same time, compositionally, the painting bears great resemblance to the plot of the Transfiguration of Christ, which is common in painting: Jesus rises above the earth in the center, surrounded by radiance, at his feet are the disciples blinded by divine radiance. It can be assumed that the artist combines the image of the Savior and the image of the main defender of mankind from Greek mythology, creating an image-a symbol of superman, the Messiah, bringing light to the human race. Artistic life in Europe at the turn of the century was closely connected with the search for esoteric truth beyond the framework of traditional religion ^[18]; therefore, it is not surprising that the author allowed himself such a bold experiment with the image of Jesus[iii].

Another work by Coloman Moser, "Venus in the grotto" (ca. 1914. The Leopold Museum, Vienna) by its name refers to the story about the medieval Minnesinger Tannhauser, popularized by the German composer Richard Wagner in the opera of the same name. Wagner's work also intertwines the ancient principle (expressed mainly by the seduction of the title character – the Roman goddess of love Venus, in whose grotto he spent seven years indulging in the pleasures of the flesh) and the inherently Christian idea of atonement, which is expressed in the repentance of the protagonist, his visit to the Pope in the hope of begging forgiveness, and what happened in the finale of the work, there is a miracle with the flowering of the pontiff's staff, repeating the miracle with the Aaron's rod, set forth in the Old Testament [iv].

In the Austrian Art Nouveau era, the apotheosis of the disappearance of the boundaries between the real and the fantastic, mythological and Christian, religious and secular, was the XIV exhibition of the Association of Artists of the Vienna Secession, dedicated to one of the greatest composers in Europe, the last representative of the Viennese Classical School, Ludwig van Beethoven. This exhibition was held in the house of the Vienna Secession and was available to the public from April 15 to June 27, 1902 ^{[5, p. 67]}.

Especially for this exhibition, the German sculptor and corresponding member of the Vienna Secession ^{[5, p. 44]} Max Klinger (1857-1920) created a sculptural portrait of the composer (1902, Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig), which became the semantic and compositional center of the exposition. It is noteworthy that Beethoven, in Klinger's interpretation, acquires the features of Zeus-Jupiter– the ruler of the gods in ancient mythology. The sculptor gives his hero the attributes that were inherent in the statue of Zeus in Olympia: a massive throne, a draped robe that leaves the torso naked, and an eagle sitting submissively at the feet of the great musician. The meaning of such a visual parallel is clear: Just as Jupiter is the supreme deity, so Beethoven appears to be the greatest of composers, and art is thus likened to religious service.

However, the sculptor is not limited only to the ancient allegory: the throne on which the composer sits thoughtfully is decorated with four winged heads of cherubs, which makes it possible to compare Beethoven not just with a pagan deity, but with the Christian Creator God, often depicted surrounded by a host of angels. Here, if not equality, then at least the similarity of the Artist (in the broadest sense of the word) is already manifested The God who created the universe out of nothing. Artistic creation appears to be a small Creation, and art is given a role no less important than religion.

It is not the first time that M. Klinger has resorted to mixing Christian and ancient subjects in his work. In his monumental painting "Christ on Olympus" (1897, Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig), the Savior appears before the Olympian gods. In this picture, the contrast between the Christian and pagan world is clearly visible: the nakedness of the "false" gods and the long robes of Christ and the righteous who came with him carrying the cross; Jesus calmly standing confidently on the ground and Jupiter angry in impotence, as if hiding behind a very young naked body of Ganymede. The painting can be interpreted as an allegory of the decline of the Roman religion and the beginning of the history of Christianity. However, there is no such contrast in Beethoven's sculptural portrait: cherubic babies and an eagle made of black stone coexist in the same space, embodying the idea that art can reconcile the irreconcilable.

 Thanks to the free layout of the Secession exhibition hall, a kind of labyrinth was built for the exhibition, in the center of which the statue of Beethoven was located, as in a secret sanctuary. Researcher G. Kern wrote about the ritual role of the labyrinth: "... the labyrinth appears primarily to be the embodiment (at the same time perfect) of the initiation rite. Let's take a closer look at the shape of the maze — it's an internal space separated from the rest of the world. Having reached the center, a person remains completely alone, alone with himself, with the divine principle, with the Minotaur, or with something else that can be filled with the content of the concept of “center”. In any case, the center is a place where a person is given the opportunity to discover something so important and significant that this discovery requires a radical change in the direction of movement"^{[20, p. 15]}. Thus, the veneration of the composer of the "Vienna classical school" was given the appearance of a religious action (it is also worth remembering that labyrinths are also found in Christian churches in Western Europe, for example in Reims Cathedral). The impression of the mystery represented by the exhibition was enhanced by the Beethoven Frieze created by G. Klimt specifically for the exhibition (1902, Secession House, Vienna).

Klimt's monumental work, 34 meters long and 2 meters high, was located in the northwestern part of the pavilion. This symbolist work reflects images from ancient myths, medieval legends and Christian iconography. The complex and synthetic nature of the work, which is also found in Klimt's University Cycle, was noted by the music critic Robert Hirschfeld (1857-1914), who visited the exhibition, concluding: "Once again, Klimt created a work of art that only three people can appreciate: a doctor and two orderlies" ^{[21, p. 36]}.

The first figure group, called "Longing for Happiness", depicts a knight in golden armor going on a pilgrimage, as if he came out of a courtly chivalric novel. Two figures hover above him: Victory, holding a wreath, that is, the winged goddess Nika, or, in the Roman manner, Victoria, and Mercy in the form of an Angel, looking at the knight.

The central, shortest and most "filled" part of the frieze, which is called "Hostile Forces", depicts the chthonic giant Typhon, the spouse of Echidna, embodying all the troubles of the human race. The entire right side of the frieze is occupied by his mighty wings and the interlacing of many tails of the father of monsters, whom the gods themselves defeated with great difficulty. To the left of Typhon's ape-like head are the three Gorgon sisters[v], behind whom stand the personifications of disease, madness and Death. The latter is depicted as the emaciated figure of a woman whose face looks more like a skull. To the right of the monster is another group of three figures: personifications of Lust, Vice (depicted as seductive beauties) and Immoderation (appearing before the viewer in the guise of a fat old woman). In the distance, the figure of Tosca can be seen alone, covered with a translucent black veil. Thus, in the central composition of the frieze, there is again a mixture of monsters from ancient mythology and allegories of the vices reprehensible in Christianity.

The last group of Beethoven's frieze is the Choir of the Angels of Paradise, which also received the title of the final movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony "Ode to Joy". It shows two lovers frozen in an embrace in a golden alcove while Angels sing divine hymns in the background. Thus, the final part of this visual narrative is dominated by Christian motifs, as opposed to the "Hostile Forces" that are personified by pagan monsters. However, Klimt, unlike Klinger, does not demonize the gods of antiquity, but takes frightening monsters in advance, as if using double optics, and observes the world both as a Christian and as a contemporary of Homer. Of course, there are many more examples of intercultural transgression, as in the examples described above, typical of Austro-Hungarian art of that time; however, within the framework of this article, it seems reasonable to focus on the most striking embodiments of the trend under study.

It should be noted that the 1902 exhibition was the culmination of the work of the Vienna Secession association. She embodied both the synthesis of various works of art, and allowed the artists to free their figurative language from any spatial and temporal constraints, which helped them combine both ancient and Christian motifs in their work on the way to their cherished goal – the transformation of the disparate nations of Austria-Hungary into a united Kunstfolk – a single people connected not by politics, but by art. Unfortunately, this beautiful dream, like most utopian Art Nouveau projects, was not destined to come true, but the works created during this period became the pearls of Central European Art Nouveau.

 In no case should it be argued that decadence is the core of the aesthetic paradigm of the Viennese Secession, although it echoes it in some points. Nevertheless, few people, with the exception of the "damned poets" from the circle of S. Baudelaire (1821-1867), proclaimed the decline as part of their artistic program. On the contrary, the secessionists dreamed of renewing art, and even named their official print organ "Ver Sacrum" - "Sacred Spring", trying to emphasize the positive vitality of their own aspirations. Decadence, and a special case of its manifestation – the destruction of boundaries and hierarchies that existed in culture, is manifested in the works of Secession artists as part of the Zeitgeist – the zeitgeist to which Klimt, Moser and their brothers in the workshop were susceptible due to the innovative, to some extent experimental nature of their association.

Thus, decadence, which F. Nietzsche associates with the disintegration of a single whole and the loss of hierarchical relationships in favor of individual individuals, released the creative energy of an entire generation of Austrian artists who created their works, ignoring the boundaries that existed before between secular and religious and, as a result, between Christian and pagan, real and imaginary.

[i] The Belvedere Gallery in Vienna hosted the exhibition "Decadence: Aspects of Austrian Symbolism" in 2013 ^[14]. The author of this article, unlike the curators of the exhibition, does not consider decadence and symbolism to be different names for the same phenomenon.