Art, Architecture, and Music of Austria
Art, like science, also found its early home in the monasteries, and it was from these sources that it spread among the people.
From: Unknown To: 1899 C.E.
Location: Austria
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Austria by Sydney Whitman and J. R. McIlraith, 1899.
Art, like science, also found its early home in the monasteries, and it was from these sources that it spread among the people. These monasteries being German, it follows that the early advances in art are likewise due to the German element in Austria. In the days of the Carlovingian dynasty, however, the art that prevailed was of a very rude order. At the same time its objects were uniformly confined to the service of the Church, and it was beneath the protection and patronage of the Church that both painting and architecture flourished. Nevertheless a considerable period elapsed before any very solid work was done.
The earliest churches in Austria were built of wood, without towers, small and unadorned. It was Bishop Altmann of Passau (1071-91) who first began the building of stone churches ornamented with paintings. After the thirteenth century, when the Gothic style was introduced, a further degree of improvement was marked. Then was built the cathedral at Wiener Neustadt, the Church at Lilienfeld, and the Cathedral at Gurk. The Roman porches of most of the churches of that time show the strong influence exercised by the Italian school.
And not only fine churches were erected, but the hills and mountains throughout the land were crowned with gorgeous castles, homes for the nobility, the remains of which still testify to the artistic sense then prevailing. When the Magyars overran the district, however, most of the old rude buildings of the Carlovingian time got destroyed, and from the eleventh century downwards, new castles, churches, and ordinan' buildings were erected. Examples of those early specimens of architecture may be found in the little square of the castle of Ranna in Lower Austria, the ruins of Starhemberg, the mansion at Hainburg, and, above all, Liechtenstein.
After the end of the thirteenth century, the style of architecture employed is pure Gothic. Take, for example, the nunnery at Imbach, founded in 1269, and the choir of the church at Pettau. In the fourteenth century a large number of new churches were built. In the reign of Frederick III. especially, fine Gothic churches arose on every side. In Styria at that time, no less than forty-nine such were built. Magnificent monasteries and convents also sprang up about the same period.
Painting also in the early times was almost wholly confined to the monasteries. Towards the end of the eleventh century, Archbishop Thiemo, of Salzburg, was specially distinguished for his artistic skill. Sculpture, too, was practised by the clergy, and even by the laity, receiving a decided impetus with the introduction of the Gothic style. Both painting and sculpture were in these days much influenced by the schools of Germany and Italy. As examples of the work of the Middle Ages, may be cited the frescoes of the fourteenth century in the cathedral at Gurk, representing scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the pictures of events in the life of Christ in the church at Gerlamos, and the apostles and other pictures in the church of St. Michael at Berg, painted by Johannes Hauptheller (1428). The altar paintings of the early period are specially notable, and miniature painting was also practised, chiefly in the monasteries.
Of painting on glass we find numerous early specimens, but few of the thirteenth-century painters are known by name. There is hardly a cathedral or monastery of that period without paintings on glass, and as we approach the sixteenth century we find that art becoming better and better. Specially interesting are the paintings in the choir of Heiligenkreuz, and at Klosterneuburg, in the royal chapel at Wiener Neustadt, the cathedral at Gurk, the convent church at Zwetl, and the church at Hall.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many churches were built, but so numerous were they that they were all erected in pretty much the same style, and little care or originality was exercised in their design. The Renaissance had great difficulties to overcome, and a hard struggle to fight in Austria.
To this middle period belongs the palace of the Princes Porzia, at Spital in Carinthia. About the same time a great alteration began to be manifested in the mansions of the nobility—who left their mountain residences, and built summer seats on the plains with huge parks, and all that luxury and comfort could suggest. As examples may be cited Schönbrunn, the splendid Rosenburg, Schalaburg, Riegersburg, Eggenberg, Hellbrunn, and Mirabell. The great monasteries of Melk, Herzogenburg, Gottweih, Klosterneuburg, and Admont also belong to the same period. Throughout, the influence of the Italian schools is conspicuous. The dwellings of the middle and lower classes at that time do not appear to have been in any way remarkable.
As was the case with architecture, so was it with painting and sculpture, and during the Renaissance both these imitated the Italian schools. Most of the sculpture that survives consists of monuments hewn out of rough marble, and these are known to have been executed by both German and Italian masters. In the eighteenth century the art of painting received a decisive impulse through its being patronised by the Imperial house, the nobles, and the clerics, and in the nineteenth century especially it has attained a high state of bloom. Of recent artists we need only mention the names of Wurzinger, Kupelwieser, Karl Rahl, Moritz von Schwind, Eduard Steinle, and Hans Makart. As to landscape and animal painting, these branches have only been developed first in the present century. Still they have made great progress, and good examples are in existence, in the works of Johann Christian Brand, Franz Steinfeld, Thomas Ender, Josef Feid, Ignaz Raffalt, Johann Fischbach, Marcus Pernhard, Josef Hoger, Ferdinand Waldmüller, Johann Rauch, and Friedrich Gauermann.
One word in conclusion upon music, of which at all times Austria has been the home. Austria is the place for feasts and celebrations, and no feast or celebration can be held without music or dancing. The "stampenîe," the "radewanzen," and other Austrian dances are world famous. As to music, that, too, like the rest of Austrian culture, originated in the monasteries and among the clergy. Originally it seems to have been limited to organ music and chanting, but later on other instruments such as trumpets, violins, and flutes were introduced.
Already in 1234 there was an organ in St. Stephen's Church; and in the fourteenth century the best organ builders of the world were resident at Vienna. By the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century a high degree of perfection had been attained, especially during the reign of Maximilian I. At the University of Vienna music was taught both in theory and practice, but the Italian taste was allowed chiefly to prevail. Since the seventeenth century operatic music has been much favoured, but in a more truly national form, Italian influences giving way. In 1771 was founded by Gassmann the Viennese musical society, which numbered among its members princes and other high nobles, and this was soon followed by the institution of the German opera.
Chief among the musicians who brought about this revolution was Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, the organist and composer, and the Austrian music of "Father" Haydn, to whom is due the creation of sonatas, went far into Germany and Great Britain. Haydn was born at Rohrau, in Lower Austria. Mozart, according to many the greatest musical genius the world has ever seen and the founder of the Romantic Opera, was a native of Salzburg, and won his first triumphs when a boy of twelve at Vienna. Beethoven, though a born German, was also of the school of Albrechtsberger and Haydn, and lived and died in Vienna; and Franz Schubert, the schoolmaster's son, whose centenary was celebrated but the other day, was born at Vienna. Lanner and Strauss, the most renowned of valse composers, too, are in every way truly Austrian. In 1877 there were in Lower Austria alone 165 singing clubs, in Upper Austria 32, in Salzburg 5, in Styria 45, and in Carinthia 14. That of itself is indicative of the fact that Austria is still, as it always has been, as notable for its music as, say, Holland and Italy have been for their schools of painting.
Whitman, Sydney, and J. R. McIlraith. Austria. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1899.
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