MUSEUM-MAUSOLEUM-PANTHEON. THE ULTIMATE POST-ROMANTIC SACRALISATION OF THE ARTIST'S HOME (Muzeum - mauzoleum - panteon. Sakralizacja ostateczna domu artysty po romantyzmie)

• Authors: Pienkos Andrzej
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

When the cult of the artist reached its apogee during the Romantic era, the microcosmos of the home became a frequent part of archetypical associations: a castle with a turret, an armoury, a magnate's palace with gardens full of sculptures and fountains, a chapel, etc. Such associations situate artists as the spiritual heirs of feudal lords, ruling over a given territory, knights battling for the faith and honour, or priests guarding over spiritual order. Domes, 'knightly' ceilings of 'armouries' and stained glass windows not only granted splendour to the seats of the artists, but brought to mind a sequence of associations with the olden days and the sphere of the sacrum. Some artists settled down in the direct proximity of a sacral building (L. Poliaghi's 'Sacro Monte' in Varese) or directly on the site (A. Munthe on Capri, I. Zuloaga in Zumaya, M. Denis in Saint-Germain-en-Laye). Sacral descriptions of their residences were used outright by, i. a. W. Scott and G. D'Annunzio. Historical models best expressed the glorification of the artist when assisted by eschatological references. Special proof of a cult was the custom, increasingly universal in the nineteenth century, of displaying dead writers and artists in their studios, in the manner of the pompa funebris of the rulers of old (B. Thorvaldsen, A. Wiertz, H. Makart, F. von Stuck). The body of the sculptor V. Vela was on view amongst his masterpieces, comprising an exposition of his oeuvre featured in an octagonal hall at the artist's home in Ligornetto. This installation of a post-Romantic cult of the artist in the central, domed hall of the 'Vela Pantheon', which brought to mind sacral (as well as ancient and Christian!) connotations, lasted for two days. The artist's home and studio became his mausoleum, albeit ephemeral, while the catafalque was depicted on Vela's tombstone in the Ligornetto cemetery. The house, erected on a hillock and surrounded with an Italian garden maintained in the Renaissance style, designed on the ideal ground plan of a square and with the an inscribed central domed hall, served both as a home-atelier and as Vela's museum. Finally, it became his monument. In his home village of Possagno, A. Canova, the initiator of transforming the Roman Pantheon into a monument of great artists, built for himself a church-monument containing his grave. The return of the body (diminished, since certain 'relics' were buried separately in Venice and Rome as a symbol of the veneration of the artist) and the most private fragment of his oeuvre rendered the small locality of Possagno the centre of a cult. The Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, which brings forth numerous associations with temples, urns and sepulchres, is also the sculptor's mausoleum. The sacralisation of museum space, reconstructing the home, life and works of the artist, was ultimately accentuated by placing an authentic sepulchre of Thorvaldsen within its 'heart', the building's courtyard. Post-Romantic artists were often obsessed with imbuing their residences with maximum contents. This enhanced 'home quality' could assume highly unusual features, best exemplified by the London home-museum of J. Soane. Eschatological allusions appear here upon numerous occasions and upon different levels of literalness or mediation, attaining ironical relief in the concept of a 'crypt' with the tomb of a fictional Padre Giovanni, Soane's alter ego. In this case, the artist's home appears to be both a monastery and a sarcophagus albeit a rebours! It turns out that the architect had actually buried his favourite dog. A 'family' mausoleum, i. e. the tomb of both owners, is the crowning of an axis of the villa-garden premise of R. Wagner's last residence in Bayreuth. Originally, Wagner wished to call his home 'Zum letzten Glück'. The Il Vittoriale complex belonging to D'Annunzio is the zenith of a longing for the sacralisation of the artist's dwelling. The lavish mausoleum, built after the writer's death, towers over the whole complex: the palace/museum/sacral premise is topped with a tomb of the owner and author. The G. Vigeland Museum in Oslo contains an urn with the artist's ashes in a tower situated along the axis of a building that served the sculptor as a home and an atelier, and already during his lifetime was envisaged as a museum. It is worth recalling that the edifice in question is part of Frognerpark, featuring sculptures by Vigeland and comprising a sui generis materialised philosophical-religious treatise. The culmination of reflections on fundamental ideas, conducted by symbolic means, is found in the author's soaring sepulchre. In Oslo E. Vigeland also created a temple of his own cult, known as Tomba Emmanuelle. This enormous sarcophagus, enclosed and devoid of windows, was no longer a home and a studio. On its walls the artist depicted the Way of Life and a syncretic apology of fire, to which he had entrusted his body, previously designing a central altar on which the urn was to rest. The death of the artist and the presence of the ashes of his body, devoured by divine fire, endow ultimate significance to this personal space of life and creation. In homes similar to the above described the functions of the studio and the dwelling seem to vanish under the symbolic burden of a museum, a monument and a mausoleum. They remain, however, an indispensable basis, since all functions are bound together by the sacralisation of the person of the artist.

Keywords

EN

ARTIST'S HOME; HOME; MAUSOLEUM; MUSEUM; PANTHEON

Discipline

• ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Sztuki PAN
• Journal: Konteksty - Polska Sztuka Ludowa
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 2-3(289-290)
• Pages: 207-213
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Pienkos Andrzej

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11PLAAAA094139