Emocje w sztuce europejskiej na przykładzie twórczości Gianlorenza Berniniego i Auguste' a Rodina

Abstract

At the beginning of this text the author poses the following questions: Do artists hide or display emotional aspects of their lives? And if the emotional sphere is displayed, how is it presented? What means are used to enable the beholder to read the emotions that the artist intended to show? The author analyses the creative work of Gianlorenzo Bernini and Auguste Rodin. Moreover, the author emphasises the fact that Bernini is a type of an artist that has never been forgotten. Already during his lifetime Gianlorenzo Bernini was a symbol of the artistic quarrels, perhaps because of the emotional charge introduced into his sculptures. Bernini did not allow neutrality - some worshipped him as an archmage of the art, and others condemned him as the enemy of temperance and harmony. He was admired by some and loathed by others; however, even those who despised him could not deny his great talent and technical mastery. It is evident that even the life of the artist evoked emotions. Also his majestic and freely wielded chisel introduced permanent emotional expression into his marble figures (e.g. the sculptures depicting the rape of Proserpina and the ecstasy of Saint Teresa). Auguste Rodin was able to feature even the smallest stir of life, the lightest whisper of mystery revealing humble, silent, shivering and unexpected emotion. He was a very complex figure; no wonder then, that his art was the same. Thanks to its unconventional character, his art perfectly fits into the tradition of 19th century Romanticism, which attached great importance to the human emotions related to love, suffering and death. The author analyses the selected works of the sculptor. The individual and highly intriguing style of Rodin was a result of many factors, including great ease and physical proficiency, as well as the ability to combine various elements of form and content. The drawings of the artist are also important for the purposes of the topic raised in the article, especially those works created from 1900 up to the day of his death, indicating that in the late phases of his life, the sculptor seemed to lose control over his own emotions. The works of the two artists from the different eras, described only in a small fragment, show that emotional sphere constitutes an important element of an artistic space.