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Art
Nouveau is the name given to a style that was created in France in the last decade
of the 19th century, reached its peak of development around 1900 and was already
on the wane when the first world war broke out.
But what was new about
this art? | |
"Her
beautiful hands, emerging forth from the pink or white, often gaily coloured sleeves
of the crêpe de cine dressing gown, stretched out their fingertips on the
piano keys with the same melancholy that was in her eyes and not in her heart"
(Marcel
Proust , 1871-1922, dal romanzo:
A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs)
As
always occurs in a climate of decadence, there was a quest for something new.
Industrial progress, the use of machines and a new cultural awareness led to the
creation of a "style" that spread quickly in the society of the
1900s, taking on diverse expressions in European countries of varying traditions
and culture.
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inventive forms delineated by artists and architects thus differed in the so-called
Jugendstile in Germany, Modern Style in England, Floral or Liberty Style in Italy,
Modernism in Spain and so forth.
Torino,1902. Exposition of International decorative
Arts of the New Century
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While
new technologies were amazing the world and taking hold in a society where everyone
hoped to see prosperity reign, artists, architects, painters, cabinetmakers and
writers sought new inspiration in nature.
Two
vases from the Daum glassworks, France
In Paris in 1889, the first Universal Exposition was held to celebrate
the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution and the Eiffel Tower was erected.
For the first time people in Paris could listen to Javanese orchestras, Hungarian
bands and concerts of Russian music.
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Tour
Eiffel under construction
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Motion
pictures, the great invention of the century, transformed life styles. The invention
was transformed into art, and the art made available to everyone.
While
the Lumiére brothers were inventing their motion picture camera, automobiles
and motor-driven bicycles were taking over the roads and the whole world was spectator
to the first car races.
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Lumiére
"Cinématographe" | |
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The
first electric trams appeared, the Curies discovered radioactivity. Attention
focused on the skies:
from dirigibles to flying machines… in Europe the
first successful airplane flight was made in 1906.
Monet, Degas, Renoir,
Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin painted their colouristic revolutions.
The
verses by Verlaine, Mallarmé and Pierre Louiis were tenebrous, mystical,
exotic, naturalistic. Proust
and d'Annunzio wrote their introspections and daring affirmations …
"Has
d'Annunzio ever done anything, except for the sake of love?"
And meanwhile
Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt enjoyed worldwide acclaim. |
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Art
Nouveau and Music: form and descriptive sound.
Timbre and colour.
Big
changes were evident on the European music scene. The great Romantic generation
of Wagner, Liszt and Brahms was coming to a close.
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While
Tchaikovsky composed his "Pathétique" Symphony in 1893, touching
the apex of romanticism, in France Debussy created modern orchestral colours with
his "Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune".
As
Verdi ended his career with "Falstaff", Mahler and Strauss exalted colour-tone
and orchestral values in the monumental proportions of their symphonies.
Debussy,
on the other hand, totally revolutionized opera in 1902 with "Pelléas
et Mélisande".
With his symphonic sketches "La mer"
and passages for piano he revealed the new artistic aspirations:
love for
nature, a concern for capturing the immediacy and delicacy of colour. Debussy
and Stravinski | |
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Paris,
1900 Exposition,
Main Entrance | Painters
and musicians conceived a new way of seeing and hearing, also by introducing new
elements drawn from Asian and Eastern cultures. |
Renoir,
woman in Spanish
dress with a guitar |
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Present
on the French music scene,
besides Debussy, were
Ravel, Dukas, Emmanuel,
Faurè, d'Indy,
Saint-Saens, Satie, Roussel
…just to name
a few.
But though many of them were ingenious
innovators, others remained
under the influence
of late romanticism.
The
next generation showed to be a revolutionary one, full of enthusiasm (the generation
of Poulenc, Tailleferre, Auric, Milhaud, Aubert, Sauget, Ibert…): born in
the cradle of Art Nouveau, it would soon seek to abandon this "style",
by then no longer…new.
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Erik Satie | |
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