Maxův cyklus Obrazových fantazií k hudebním skladbám

Title in English Gabriel von Max Cycle Phantasie-Bilder zu Tonstücken
Authors

FILIP Aleš

Year of publication 2013
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Musicologica Brunensia
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web Digitální knihovna FF MU
Field Art, architecture, cultural heritage
Keywords Gabriel von Max; cycle of drawings Phantasie-Bilder zu Tonstücken; the reception of music in the 19th century; Ludwig van Beethoven; Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; romanticism and presymbolism
Description The Munich, Czech born painter Gabriel von Max (1840–1915) created the cycle Phantasie-Bilder zu Tonstücken in the years 1861–1862, i.e. at the time, when he finished his study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Within the cycle, he connected his drawings with five piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, Lieder ohne Worte and oratory Christ by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, piano compositions by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann etc. Max appreciated an emotive impact of instrumental music and aimed to achieve a similar effect through his drawings. Matching his drawings to concrete musical compositions was motivated for the most part subjectively, for the orientation of public, he appended a minute explanation to the first edition of his cycle (with photographic reproductions) in the year 1862. At this paper, the cycle is analysed with the use of hitherto unexploited sources from the estate of the artist at Deutsches Kunstarchiv (Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg), but also through the summarisation of published interpretations and a detailed probing of drawings. Gabriel von Max continued a romantic tradition of an approach of painting and music and at the same time he begun to outline his presymbolistic concept of visual arts through this early work by him. The theme of the reception of music in the 19th century is devoted a special attention at this paper.
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