20. July - 24. September
ORIENT
Austrian painting between 1848 and 1914
Today's Sphinx" (30Kb)
(from folder and catalog to the exhibition)
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The Orient has always held a certain fascination for the Ocident. The magnificent presents offered by the caliph of Baghdad Harun ar- Rashid to Emperor Charle magne became a legend and inspired the barbaric crusaders. Many such objects became church property. „Egyptian style“ - the contrast to the so called „mauresque style“ stretch through Imitations of the history of art from the looted art of Roman Empire (obeliscs) to J.B. Fischer von Erlachs „Design of an Historical Architecture“ and G.B.Piranesi. The baroque synthesis of the arts like to made use of bizarre and exotic elements to embellish ist phantasmagorias without really appreciating the special quality of the foreign cultural assets. Until Japonism the visual art remained commited to the aesthetic standards of the Renaissance period. After the Peace Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) Turkish costumes became a fashion. (Turqueries of the Rococo). The concept exotic first appeared in French in the 18th century used for foreign plants and animals and for marchandises exotique (colonial-goods). After Napoleon’s military expidition to Egypt and Syria (1798-1801) - accompanied by a team of 170 scholars and draughtsman for study Old Egyptian Culture-Painters started to deal extensively with th Orient. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire began with the Greek War of Independance (1821-29). Other spectacular Western interventions in the sphere of Influence in the Empire of the „sick man on the Boosporus“ were the French occupation of Algeria (1830), the Crimean War between Russia and Turkey (1845-56), the Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1878) and the British Occupation of Egypt (1882). Since 1855 a railwayline had been operated between Alexandria and Cairo. Since 1869 Thomas Cook & Son founded in 1841 by Thomas Cook in Leicester, since 1888 also in Vienna, had organised steamboat trips on the Nile. Cairo already had a considerable number of European-style hotels and guesthouses in abaout 1870. Where as the development in Egypt was incredibly rapid other regions such as the southern coast of Turkey remained almost untouched. The railway along the Turkish coast on the Black Sea to Batum was not a tourist destination but famous for the border conflicts between Turkey and Russia. Palestine and Syria could not be considered tourist destinations. The ride along the Dead Sea, the visit of Petra and the crossing of the Sinai peninsula were no less fatiguing. On the north-African coast the tourist followed the French military compaigns. The construction of the railway link between Algier and Tunis began in 1860. Towards the end of the century the railway network axtended over almost 3000 km to the Maroccan border. Previously Tangier had been the only European outpost in the land of the Moors. The itineraries of the Orientalist painters rarely deviated from the existing transport links. There were few chances for reaching places far from the well known tourist routes. It was extremly difficult to work on location in the open air (noise, dust, unbearable heat), therefore photography became a popular tool. Initially there was few oppotunity for panters to travel to the Orient, except as member of public personalities. Therefore there are no Austrians among the pioneers (before 1850). The first individualist was Alois Schönn, followed by Bernhard Fiedler. With the tourist came Leopold Carl Müller, Carl Rudolf Huber, Hans Makart and Hans Fischer. Among the last generation of Austrian painters were the Hungarian Gyula Tornai, who stayed in Marocco, Rudolf Ernst, who lived in Paris and also visited Marocco and Alphons Leopold Mielich,who copied the frescos in the Transjordanian desert castle Qasr Amra (dicovered by Alois Musil in 1898). A wonderful exhibition in the marvellous Residenz-Gallery in Salzburg shows for the very first time 58 pictures by 21 Austrian Orient painters. They are not voyeuristic cruel as like as French examples, but they are poetical realistic, silent and with true colours. Most surprising: their high quality. |
| Univ.Lektor Dr.Günther Berger |
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