El 2 de enero de 1911, un grupito de pintores pertenecientes al

movimiento expresionista Der Blaue Reiter (El jinete azul) asisti a

un concierto de cmara en el Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten de Munich. Los
nombres de estos artistas eran Vassily Kandinsky, su
compaera Gabriele Mnter, Franz Marc,Alexey von Jawlensky y su
novia Marianne von Werefkin. El programa del concierto estaba
formado por varias piezas de Arnold Schnberg, el no va ms en
modernidad en ese momento (y es que los miembros de Der Blaue
Reiter eran muy pero que muy trendy).
De todos ellos, el que sali ms impactado fue Kandinsky. Llevaba
ya algn tiempo tonteando con la abstraccin, pero no acababa de
lanzarse a la piscina. Su objetivo era que las lneas y los colores se
liberasen para siempre de la tirana del arte figurativo, que tuviesen
un significado simblico propio, sin necesidad de que representasen
nada tangible.

Vassily Kandinsky, Cosacos (1910-1911), Tate Modern, Londres

El lienzo Cosacos, pintado en esta poca, puede parecernos

abstracto a primera vista, pero en realidad todos sus elementos son
reconocibles. Generalmente, los ttulos de los cuadros de Kandinsky
son un buen punto de partida para empezar a descifrarlos. En este
caso, lo primero que tenemos que hacer es buscar a esos cosacos.

Los veis? Estn en la parte derecha del cuadro. Aunque son bastante
esquemticos, podemos distinguir sus sombreros naranjas, y sus
manos y rostros de color amarillo. Dos de ellos sostienen unas lanzas
enormes de color negro y el tercero se apoya en un sable malva.
Estn de pie frente a una colina bordeada de azul. En su cima, vemos
una fortaleza o ciudad amurallada de color blanco, con una puerta
enorme en forma de arco. Est siendo sobrevolada por una bandada
de pjaros, iguales que los que pintbamos de pequeos en el
colegio. A la izquierda del lienzo hay otra montaa, con un borde
negro ms abrupto y dos rectngulos azulados. Son los caones
enemigos que estn disparando (las rayitas que salen de ellos nos
indican la direccin del disparo). El can de arriba ha dejado una
llamarada roja en el cielo. Entre las dos montaas, podemos ver el
sol, asomndose o escondindose, y el arcoiris. Posiblemente, lo ms
dificil de distinguir sean los dos cosacos que estn luchando a caballo
en la parte superior del cuadro, justo encima del arcoiris. Los dos
caballos que montan, de color blanco, estn encabritados y
entrecruzan sus patas delanteras en el aire (las patas traseras y las
colas son unas simples lneas paralelas). Los cosacos, con los
sombreros naranja que ya conocemos, blanden sus sables color lila
uno contra el otro.
Es una obra de un dinamismo agotador. La disposicin de las lneas y
los colores hace que nuestros ojos pasen constantemente de unos
elementos a otros, sin dejarnos descansar en ninguno. Esto se
consigue en parte, evitando utilizar lneas horizontales y verticales. La
sensacin de caos de la batalla est plenamente conseguida.
Y ahora que ya sabemos cmo leer los cuadros de Kandinsky, sigamos
con la historia del concierto...

Arnold Schnberg, Autorretrato azul (1911), Arnold Schnberg

Center, Viena

Para Kandinsky, el concierto de Schnberg fue una autntica

revelacin. La msica atonal de Schnberg se alejaba de la armona y
las formas tradicionales de la msica clsica. Kandinsky se dio cuenta
de que ambos estaban recorriendo el mismo camino hacia la
abstraccin, cada uno en su campo respectivo. Emocionado por haber
encontrado un alma gemela, se puso inmediatamente en contacto
con el compositor (que adems de componer, tambin pintaba). En la
primera de las muchas cartas que intercambiaron a lo largo de su
vida, Kandinsky le deca:

"Ha conseguido con su trabajo lo que llevo buscando desde hace

tiempo en la msica. La autosuficiencia de la msica para seguir su
propio camino, la vida independiente de las voces individuales. Es
exactamente lo que yo estoy intentando hacer con la pintura."

Kandinsky (izda) y Schnberg (dcha) con sus respectivas, Nina y Gertrud, en 1927

La msica de Schnberg le sirvi de inspiracin para un famoso

cuadro titulado Impresin III (Concierto), que empez a esbozar a
los pocos das de asistir a la famosa representacin. Se conservan dos
bocetos previos, el primero mucho ms figurativo que el segundo,
que nos permiten ver el proceso que segua Kandinsky para
simplificar los elementos de la escena. En ambos casos, la figura
central es el piano y la mujer que lo tocaba en el concierto, Etta
Wendorff.

Vassily Kandinsky, 1 boceto para Impresin III (Concierto) (1911), Centro Pompidou,
Pars

Vassily Kandinsky, 2 boceto para Impresin III (Concierto) (1911), Centro Pompidou,
Pars

En el segundo boceto, muy prximo al lienzo definitivo, Kandinsky ha

anotado algunos de los colores que tendr la
pintura: Schw[arz] (negro, sobre la tapa del piano), W[ei] (blanco,
para dos grandes columnas que atraviesan el lienzo de arriba abajo)
y Gelb (amarillo, para representar la msica). El piano y la intrprete
se distinguen bastante bien. Alrededor podemos ver las cabecitas del
pblico, que se han convertido en pequeos arcos convexos. En la
parte superior, dos lmparas (en la versin final solo ser visible la de
la izquierda).

Vassily Kandinsky, Impresin III (Concierto) (1911), Stdtische Galerie im

Lenbachhaus, Munich

Aqu tenis el resultado final. La msica amarilla lo inunda todo y

rodea al pblico, que se inclina extasiado hacia el piano. En realidad,
la velada no fue tan idlica, puesto que parte del pblico protest
airadamente ante la incomprensible msica de Schnberg. El piano se
ha convertido en un manchurrn negro y la intrprete, en una forma

azul plido inclinada sobre el instrumento. A qu ahora ya no parece

tan abstracto?
"El color es un medio que ejerce una influencia directa sobre el alma.
El color es el teclado. Los ojos son los martillos. El alma es el piano,
con sus muchas cuerdas. La mano del artista toca una tecla detrs de
otra para causar vibraciones en el alma."(Vassily Kandinsky, De lo
espiritual en el arte, 1911)

Las fronteras del arte. Interrelacin msica-pintura.

Schnberg-Kandinsky, la extraa relacin de dos
revolucionarios del arte.
Hace varios aos que le un libro muy interesante: la correspondencia entre Schnberg y
Kandinsky. Producto de esta correspondencia surgi una de las relaciones ms intensas con la
bsqueda de las fronteras artsticas como fin. El progresismo artstico que dira un cursi.
Kandinsky asisti a un concierto de Arnold Schoenberg. Este concierto le sorprendi mucho a
Kandinsky, quien posea un especial paladar para la msica (tocaba el violonchelo y el piano).
Qued impresionado por la msica de Schoenberg escribiendo una carta al compositor, a quien
no conoca, iniciando una correspondencia que continuara durante varios aos.
Su relacin fue una especie de amistad entre compaeros de igual jerarqua creativa. En su
correspondencia los dos comparten similares inquietudes filosficas, artsticas y estticas, en
una bsqueda que les llevar a creaciones paralelas en las dos artes tan distintas. Schoenberg a
su vez tambin era pintor aficionado, con lo que ambos conocan la actividad del otro.
Schoenberg reduce la extensin de sus composiciones, sintetiza el concepto, renuncia a la
reiteracin, y amplia los lmites de la tonalidad. En el caso de Kandinsky, se empieza a notar el
alejamiento de lo figurativo. En sus obras el objeto queda cada vez ms relegado a un segundo
trmino, a su esencia pictrica, y se abandona progresivamente la perspectiva. Cuando
Kandinsky pinta su primera acuarela abstracta, Schoenberg ya se ha deshecho totalmente de la
tonalidad. Ambos se aferraron durante mucho tiempo a su rebelda contra la tradicin.
Schoenberg y Kandinsky continuaron trabajando sin embargo las formas tradicionales a modo
de retrocesos deliberados: la sinfona, la pera, los oratorios y la msica de cmara siguen
siendo tratados en muchos aspectos al modo tradicional por Schoenberg, mientras que
Kandinsky sigue pintando leos sobre lienzo y realizando dibujos y acuarelas. Lo que es distinto
es que para ellos la obra de arte ya no significa la representacin de la belleza (como
representacin de la verdad o de una realidad objetiva), sino un medio de comunicacin
intelectual que a la vez expresa y suscita algo ms all de lo expuesto.
Ambos artistas son excepcionales porque anan la inteligencia analtica con el talento creador.
Son pioneros y aventureros, expedicionarios artsticos, que han abierto vas inexploradas,

caminos a seguir por artistas venideros. Pero la esencia de esta bsqueda queda matizada
perfectamente en los mensajes de ida y vuelta, de esta correspondencia que le en su da, y de la
cual no he encontrado muchas referencias. Creo que el libro en castellano actualmente est
retirado.

n January 1911, the painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was

in Munich and went to a concert. He and the other members of
the Munich New Artists Association heard something that
changed Kandinskys whole artistic theory. The concert was of
music by Arnold Schoenberg (1974-1951) and it prompted
Kandinsky to start writing to Schoenberg.
At the time he heard the Schoenberg concert, he was working on
series entitled Impression. The first painting he made after the
concert was Impression III: Konzert (Impression III: Concert).
Kandinskys use of the word impression referred to paintings
that reproduce a direct expression of an internal nature. This
picture is not the particular concert he heard, but his overall
impression of the music performance. But, the central image of
the painting is the piano the black angular block so this
particular concert is at the heart of this picture.
The piano, shown as the black block, seems to float on a yellow
sound. The listeners, shown as circles and arcs are covered in
the sound but, at the same time, are focusing on the piano. The
difference between art and reality is that we know that the piano
would never have been set on a stage so that the performers
back would have been to the audience, but the identity of the
piano that black monolith and its position is clear in
Kandinskys interpretation.
The work that influenced Kandinsky so much at this concert
were Schoenbergs 1909 work, 3 Klavierstcke (Three Piano
Pieces), Op. 11.
Schoenberg:3 Klavierstcke: No. 1. Massig (Glenn Gould, piano)
This work marks Schoenbergs decisive break with tonality. The
first movement may be constructed as a compressed version of
sonata form and we may hear a bit of Brahms in the chords, but
the organizing element is actually the first 3 notes, which are
transposed, expanded, or made part of the vertical harmonies,
but which are always present.
Schoenberg:3 Klavierstcke: No. 2. Massig (Glenn Gould, piano)
The second piece, begins with a dark 2-note repeated figure. It

goes from a nearly silent pianissimo at the beginning to grow to

a somber greatness.
Schoenberg:3 Klavierstcke: No. 3. Bewegt (Glenn Gould, piano)
The final piece kills all idea of structure and turns the powerful
chords of the opening into a work of color and rhythms with
changing moods. It closes almost meditatively, nearly silent at
the end.
Schoenberg and his theories of composition were very influential
on Kandinsky and even in this first piece, a reaction to his first
hearing of Schoenbergs defining piano work, sound becomes a
painted volume. In later works, Kandinsky depicts music through
a web of synesthesia, where sound can be represented by color
where a particular timbre (the brassy sound of a trumpet) might
take a single color. Colors could be combined to create the visual
equivalence of musics vibrating frequencies. Abstract art meets
music head on.

Misia Sert Muse and Patron to

Poets, Painters and Musicians (I)

Misia Godebska (1872-1950)

One of the most extraordinary and colorful women in France at the

turn of the 20th century was Misia Nathanson-Edwards-Sert, ne
Godebska muse, inspiration and patron of the arts to many of the
most prominent writers, painters and musicians.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, La Revue Blanche, 1895

Born in 1872 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Marie Sophie Olga Zenade

(Misia) Godebska was the musically gifted child of a prominent noble
Polish family, which included, on both fathers and mothers sides,
jurists, court chamberlains, government officials, musicians and
artists, many engaged in the Polish struggle for independence. Some
emigrated to France when Poland disappeared from the map of
Europe after its last partition in 1795. Misias father, Cyprien
Godebski, a well-known sculptor, was born in France and was a
contemporary of the illustrious French painters and writers such as
Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Verlaine and Mallarm, all of
whom would be part of Misias world as well. Misias maternal
grandfather, Adrien-Franois Servais, was one of the most celebrated
cellists of his time Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Anton Rubinstein and
Hans von Blow were frequent visitors to his salon. Beethoven, Liszt,
and above all, the avant-garde Wagner, were venerated in the
Godebsky household Misia absorbed it all and started playing the
piano even before she could read notes or words, or write. She once
found herself on Liszts lap playing Beethoven with the master
exclaiming (tongue-in-cheek) Ah, if only I could play like that, and
promptly predicting a great future for her. Gabriel Faur became
Misias teacher, convinced that she had the talent to become a
professional pianist. She, however, clever, charming, vivacious and
beautiful in an unconventional way, decided to marry Thade
Nathanson (a wealthy distant cousin), and to Faurs chagrin, to
abandon her professional career as a concert pianist. Faur often
brought the young Ravel and Debussy to the Nathansons many
soires. They had become the center of Parisian society, and the
beautiful, young, wealthy Misia would often play Beethoven for their
assembled guests. The Nathansons wealth, as well as their unerring
eye for the works of their contemporaries, allowed them to purchase
many paintings not often appreciated by the general public. However,
in financial difficulties later in his life, Nathanson had to auction off
many of his possessions, among them nineteen Bonnards, twenty-

seven Vuillards, as well as works by Czanne, Daumier, Guys, Redon,

Seurat and Vallotton.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Misia, 1887

Nathanson had founded La Rvue Blanche, to which many famous

symbolist writers and artists contributed. The Nathansons Parisian
salon as well as their country estate, La Grangette, became the
meeting points of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie, with regular visitors
such as Prince and Princess Poniatowski, Mirabeau, Colette, Redon,
Vuillard, Sisley, Pissarro, Zola, Toulouse-Lautrec, Proust, Verlaine and
Mallarm, many of whom became Misias close personal friends. In his
poem Apparition, Mallarm evokes Misia:

Edouard Vuillard Misia and Thade Natanson, c. 1897

. Et dans le soir, tu mes en riant apparue

Et jai cru voir la fe au chapeau de clart
Qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils denfant gt
Passant, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fermes
Neiger de blancs bouquets dtoiles parfumes.
. And in the evening you appeared to me, laughing

And I thought I saw the fairy with the hat of clarity

Who once passed through my beautiful dreams of the spoiled child
Letting fall like snow from her half-closed hands
White bouquets of perfumed stars.

Edouard Manet Stphane Mallarm (1842-1898)

Misia was heard whispering these lines while she played the piano for
him, which were for her, words carved into a thousand precious
stones whose facets dazzled me, blinding me so wondrously, that my
eyes filled with tears (Gold, A. and Fizdale, R., Misia, 1980, p. 60)
as the music faded away. Mallarm also presented her with fans
every year on New Years Day of which only one survives. It bears
the following inscription:
Aile que du papier reploie
Bats toute si tinitia
Nagure lorage et la joie
De son piano Misia.

Unfolding wing of paper

Flutter fully, if not long ago
You were initiated by Misia
To the storm and the joy of her piano.

Auguste Renoir Misia, 1904

Many paintings of Misia by the most prominent painters of her time

attest to her popularity as an artists model, the different paintings
showing her at the piano, in her salons, with husband and friends. It

was said that the painter Vuillard was especially infatuated with her
his numerous paintings of her are a testimony to that very fact.
Toulouse-Lautrec called her LAlouette/The Lark, was one of her
closest friends, and painted her often. One of the covers of La Rvue
Blanche is his drawing of her in a beautiful ice-skating costume and a
hat with feathers like plumes of smoke rising into the air. Very much
part of Lautrecs world, Misia and friends often frequented Montmartre
and its cafs concerts, where they heard Yvette Guilbert (also often
painted by Toulouse-Lautrec), Aristide Bruant performing at the Chat
Noir and Vincent Hyspa singing to Eric Saties accompaniment, while
Claude Debussy, aloof and enigmatic, sat quietly listening in a
corner (ibid, p. 42). The fin-de-sicle world of theatre, dance and art
would become Misias new focus. Divorcing Nathanson, becoming the
mistress, then the wife of the very wealthy business entrepreneur,
Alfred Edwards, she now had the financial resources to support a new
generation of artists. Her involvement and influence in the arts
continued as will her story, next month!

Claude Debussy Music and the

Artists of the Fin de Sicle

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

In 1902, after the successful debut of his opera Pellas and

Mlisande, Claude Debussy published many articles as a music critic
under the pseudonymMonsieur Croche (similar to Paul Valrys
pseudonym Monsieur Teste) in theRevue Blanche and other
publications. The Revue Blanche was the vehicle of Symbolist
writers, artists and musicians, a group which included Verlaine,
Mallarm, Proust, Vuillard, Bonnard, Srusier, Denis and ToulouseLautrec, amongst others. Formed in 1888, they called
themselves Nabis (in Hebrew,nabi means prophet), i.e., avantgarde artists inspired to renew art in their varied artistic endeavors.

Maurice Denis La damoiselle lue (1892)

La Damoiselle lue
One of Debussys first compositions, La Damoiselle lue with its
score frontispiece designed by Maurice Denis, was performed in 1894
in Brussels within an exhibition of works by Renoir, Gauguin, Sisley,
Pissarro, Signac and Denis. Debussys interest in their works, i.e., their
unsystematic, improvised, anti-classical and anti-conventional
approaches, found a counterpart particularly in this composition,
which he had based on a poem and painting by the Pre-Raphaelite
painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Denis frontispiece design also
mirrored the Pre-Raphaelite style, with the figures flowing hair and its
flat, two-dimensional form.

Hokusai The Great Wave (1823-29)

In some of the articles, DebussysMonsieur Croche talked about

musical scores as painted canvasses, where the dynamic of
expanding sound-colors in space, the appearance and disappearance
of the musical phrase, anti-climaxes, ellipses, and multiple
perspectives, all found their equivalence. The titles of some of his
works, such as Estampes, Images, Arabesques, suggests that
Debussy also paid tribute to the typography and graphic form of
musical notes, publishing initially with book- rather than musicpublishers.

La Mer

Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

Inspired by the works of the Japanese artists Hokusai and Hiroshige,

whose prints he collected, Debussy was also influenced by his
personal friendship with, and works by Camille Claudel, an important
sculptor, a sister of the writer Paul Claudel, and the mistress of
Auguste Rodin. She not only encouraged Debussys interest in
Oriental art, but her sculpture, The Wave, mirrors Debussys choice of
Hokusais The Great Wave for the cover of his composition, La Mer.

Camille Claudel The Wave

(1897-98)

Debussy owned Claudels sculpture, The Waltz, a sculpture which

seems to defy proper balance, opposing the massive bronze base,
which seems to anchor the young Art Nouveau style couple to the
earth, and the twisting, light and elegant movement of the figures,
engulfed in a musical moment, in the whirl and movement of the

dance as if they were to take flight.

Nocturnes

Camille Claudel The Waltz (1905)

Debussy also collected many colored reproductions of the works of

Turner and Whistler. Whistler frequented Mallarms circle in Paris,
where he and Debussy met. From the 1890s onward, Debussy made
reference to the color of music in many of his compositions. Referring
to one of his Nocturnes from 1894, Debussy spoke specifically of
the color of the work, where all of the different instruments come
together and project a preponderance of sound, which, in this
particular composition, would be that of a single color in a painting,
namelygrey.

William Turner Shadows And Darkness(1843)

In many of Turners paintings (Debussy admitted to a friend that he

spent many hours in the Turner galleries in Londons Tate Gallery),
light and shadow seem to hide, to diffuse the subject matter and the

paintings seem to emanate an almost cosmic breath. Debussys

compositionNuages replicates this appearance and disappearance of
sound, closeness and distance, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes
ecstatically, sensually and cool at the same time connecting directly
to many of the Symbolist works around him, and to Turner in
particular for Debussy le plus beau crateur de mystre qui soit
en art the most beautiful creator of mystery which exists in art.

Music and Art: The Sound of

Paintings I

Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810) The Lesson of the Nightingale, 1805

In many of my previous articles for this publication I have written

about the close relationship between art and music. Over the course
of the next few months, I would like to concentrate on specific artists
and their direct relationship to music, beginning with the Romantic
period in the 19th century, and continuing through the 20th century.
Often, we can establish many direct connections between painters
and composers, not only in the portraits of composers, such as
Busonis paintings of Boccioni and Oppenheimer, Ittens portrait of
Otto Klemperer, and Schnbergs self-portrait, but also in the
depiction of musicians, instruments and music sheets the
visualization of the invisible the very essence of music itself. Many
painters, particularly those of the Romantic era, considered music to
be the highest and purest of the arts which, through its immediacy,
touches spirit and soul. During their time, music in painting was
generally expressed figuratively, whereas later on in the 19th century
and especially over the course of the 20th century, musics
effusiveness and abstraction paralleled the move towards abstraction
in painting.

One of the pertinent examples in the beginning of the 19th century is

Runges painting The Lesson of the Nightingale, 1805. For Runge,
music is harmony such as in a beautiful poem where words are like
music. For him music appears in beautiful paintings, in beautiful
architecture or sculpture in everything which can be expressed
through lines. Here, he echoes the concept of synesthesia,
emphasized by the French poet, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) in his
poem Correspondances, where perfumes, colors and sounds
respond to each other (Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se
rpondent) which, like music, affect the spirit and senses.

Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871) A Symphony, 1852

Bach: The Art of the Fugue

Even before the rediscovery of J.S. Bach, which in general can be
attributed to Mendelssohns 1829 performance of the St. Matthews
Passion in Berlin, Runge constructed his painting according to the
principle of the fugue. Inspired by Klopstocks Ode The Lesson, the
central oval part of the painting shows Psyche, the symbol of the
nightingale, instructing Amor in playing the flute the motif is then
repeated and varied in the rectangular, grisaille border surrounding
the oval. For Runge the musical phrase which centres the composition
and then reappears in its variations, as memory of the whole
replicates the musical construct of the fugue.
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) Symphony in White, 1862

Half a century later, in 1852, Moritz von Schwind, inspired by

Beethovens Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus in C
Minor, replicated the Fantasy as a four-part symphony in his painting
entitled A Symphony. Different from Runge, who used the figurative
elements in a musical phrase, Schwind paints his symphony in
storybook fashion following events developing in real time. The lower
part of painting shows the exposition of the theme a salon concert
where a young female singer draws the attention of a young man;
the second part shows the meeting of the young couple
the Andante for Schwind; then above in the third part, at a masked
ball, the lovers admit their mutual attraction and love (the Scherzo);
the last rounded part of the painting depicts the wedding
the Allegro. Ones eye moves from the bottom to the top as the story
develops a musical experience achieving its glory in the final
movement.
In general, the fugue and the symphony, the crowning musical
achievements of polyphony and harmony, become synonymous with
musical painting which is often reflected in paintings titles, such as in
Whistlers painting Symphony in White, No. I The White Girl, 1862.
Here, Whistler emphasizes the different shadings of the color white,
depicting the young woman and her surroundings her hair is the
only differing element. For Whistler, music is the poetry of sounds,
painting the poetry of colors, and the theme of the painting has
nothing to do with either the harmony of sounds or the harmony of
color.
From the beginning of the 20th century onward, colors, associated
with different sounds in music compositions, become the
counterpoint in art, and, according to Kandinsky, open immense
possibilities in transforming the paintings themselves into musical
compositions pure art in the service of the spirit. This concept will
be further explored in forthcoming articles.

Music and Art The Sound of

Paintings II

Max Klinger (1857-1920), Beethoven Statue, Secession, 1902

At the turn of the 20th century the great symphonic composers,

Beethoven and Brahms, became symbols for artists such as Max
Klinger (1857-1920), an amateur pianist, painter, sculptor and
engraver. Klinger saw their music as an expression of the fate of
humanity, its combination of sorrow, culpability and happiness all
within the perspective of birth and death.
Klingers Beethoven statue, created for the 1902 exhibition in the
Secession building in Vienna, shows Beethoven sitting in a
concentrated, energetic pose on a richly decorated throne. He is
portrayed as a bare-chested Olympic deity with Jupiters heraldic
animal, the eagle, at his feet human, but achieving godlike status
through his music. For Klinger, music and sculpture as well as painting
are related, even though they use different means of expression and
production. For him, artistic creations emerge from the artists lived
experiences and sentiments. Subsequently, paintings, poems and
compositions are experienced by the viewer/reader/listener, who
projects his own feelings and interpretations onto the works, which
then become the viewers/readers/listeners own lived experience.
For Klinger, it was less the idea of music that inspired him, but
specific works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms in particular
Brahms Fantasies Op. 116 which Brahms had based on Hlderlins
Schicksalslied (Song of Fate). Brahms himself was very interested
in poetry and painting; he felt a deep affinity between the arts despite
their different media and modes of reception. For him music itself was
sounding form in motion reaching towards the infinite and depth
of human subjectivity hence his interest in the works of Anselm
Feuerbach, Arnold Bcklin, Adolf von Menzel and Max Klinger.

Max Klinger Brahms Fantasy, 1894

Brahms: 7 Fantasies Op.116

In 1894 Klinger sent Brahms a printed copy of his graphic illustrations
for the Fantasies cycles with musical opus numbers which had
occupied him for many years. Klinger insisted that his graphic works
did not illustrate the music in the normal sense of the word, but that
they provided musical interpretations of similar themes, again taking
their imagery from Greek mythology, transmitting the spirit of the
music. He also felt that he achieved the most dramatic range of both
line and tone in his prints, etchings and engravings, since they left
more to the imagination than would paintings. They encapsulated a
sense, a form of indeterminacy which equaled the indeterminacy of
Brahmss music.

Max Klinger, Brahms Fantasy

Brahms was very appreciative of Klingers work which, for Brahms,

take the viewer beyond just seeing feelings, with music continuing to
resonate in the infinite, expressing all that he meant and more a
universe of mystery and anticipation. In a letter to Clara Schumann,
Brahms also mentioned Klingers graphic illustrations not as normal
depictions of his music, but as magnificent, wonderful fantasies on
his texts.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Music, 1895

In the ensuing years, artists, musicians and writers would further base
their artistic creations on the symbolic and surreal, such as Gustav
Klimt with his painting Music from 1895. Here, we see a young
woman playing the kithara, instrument of the Greek Sun God Apollo,
the god of music, light, order and symmetry. To the right of the young
woman, Klimt depicts the man-eating sphinx; to the left, Silenius, the
drunken companion of Dionysus, god of wine and drunkenness, both
of whom represent the hidden instinctual, sexual undercurrents,
opposing Dionysian and Apollonian forces. The influence of Sigmund
Freuds Traumdeutung (Interpretation of Dreams), which brought
psychoanalysis into public consciousness, had its effect on literature,
art and music not only in Austria, but in France, Germany and Russia
as well.
In future articles I will further explore this particular relationship
between the arts, which will lead us to the Surrealist and Dada
movements.