Itália
Museu Stadel, Frankfurt, Alemanha
OST - 164x206 - 1787
Goethe in the
Roman Campagna is a painting from 1787 by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, a German Neoclassical painter,
depicting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe when the writer was
travelling in Italy. Goethe's book on his travels to Italy from 1786–88,
called Italian
Journey, was published in 1816–17; the book is based on his diaries.
Since 1887, the painting has been in the possession of the Städel Museum in
Goethe's hometown Frankfurt.
The painting
is a full-length portrait. Goethe is gazing out through the landscape, with his
eyes resting at infinity.
The painter, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, whom Goethe met in Italy,
portrays the writer as an idealized, almost otherworldly, person. Goethe wears
a large wide-brimmed grey hat, fashionable among German artists in Rome at the
time, and a creamy white traveler's duster. He is portrayed in
a classical manner, sitting in the open air, surrounded by Roman ruins, with
the Campagna
di Roma in the background.
The artwork
typically reflects the culture of the time in which it is created. The ruins in
the background indicate the Neoclassicist love of antiquity. In contrast to the
asymmetry of dominant Baroque and Rococo styles,
Neoclassicism praised simplicity and symmetry and the classic principles of
the arts of Rome and Ancient Greece.
The love
of classicism bound
together the two artists, who both shared this interest, which is mirrored in
the painting. Et in
Arcadia ego (in German: Auch ich in Arkadien!) is the
motto of Goethe's Italian
Journey. The artists consciously chose a spiritual collaboration to
produce the painting and used the Arcadian motif of the Roman Campagna.
The
composition is balanced and the colours are restricted. At the time Goethe
was preoccupied with his verse drama Iphigenia in Tauris, and he recited extracts to Tischbein. He
was very impressed by it and depicted the scene of Iphigenia meeting her
brother in the painting, on the relief behind Goethe to his left. Also,
both artist shared an interest for painting. Goethe's occupation with painting
resulted seven years earlier Goethe's Theory of Colours (Zur
Farbenlehre) is a book about the poet's views on the nature of colours and how these are perceived by
human beings. He published it in 1810, and it contained detailed descriptions
of phenomena such as coloured
shadows, refraction,
and chromatic
aberration.
In 1887 the
painting was donated to the Städel Museum by the private collector Adèle von Rothschild (1843–1922),
at a time when the Goethe cult was at its peak. The new German Empire was
looking for significant cultural icons that could form a collective past:
Goethe and Schiller were
elevated to national status. Tischbein's portrait became symbolic of the German
high life of knowledge, art and culture. The painting is one of the highlights
of the Städel collection, and is considered an icon of German national
painting. It played an indisputable role in shaping the image of Goethe as he
is perceived today, as embodying Germany's classical humanistic ideal.
Goethe decided
to travel to Rome to study the ancient world. His choice of Rome fit
entirely in the spirit of the times: many German artists were studying there at
the time. The aesthetic appreciation of the antiquity was typical for classicism. The peace and
serenity of the classical arts
attracted them, as a counterbalance to such recent movements as the Baroque and
Rococo. This was an intellectual and spiritual movement of the time, an intellectual
fashion and a dominant school of thought that typified and influenced the
culture of this particular period in time and that affected even Goethe and
Tischbein. Goethe was also looking for a new balance and a possible inner
transformation, after he had a long-standing platonic love affair with Charlotte
von Stein, which resulted in the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, that became so popular that
Goethe had to travel under a pseudonym to avoid recognition. He called himself
Filippo Miller, pittore. Goethe decided to make the Grand Tour since he
was fascinated by classical Italy, and started his travel in September 1786.
During the journey, in Rome, he met several German artists, and stayed with
Tischbein with whom he had become friendly through correspondence, fixing a
scholarship for the painter, through his connections - a second Rome-stipend.
The Tischbeins were a family of renowned painters well-known in Germany long
before Goethe himself became famous, with Johann Heinrich Wilhelm being the
fourth generation of painters.
The two
artists' values met in the appreciation of classicism and the world of the antiquity,
and they become friends. Tischbein and Goethe traveled together, made short
trips in Italy and experienced adventures together. However, the intense
friendship between Tischbein and Goethe would come to an end after three
months. The characters of the two artists differed too greatly to allow an
enduring friendship. In Naples they
later separated due to their incompatible interests.
No dia 29 de
outubro de 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe chegou a Roma, a cidade dos sonhos
da sua infância. Ele tinha 37 anos de idade, e passou 20 meses na capital
romana, buscando inspiração através da pintura.
"De madrugada,
às três horas, saí furtivamente de Karlsbad, pois do contrário não me teriam
deixado ir. O grupo festejou o 28 de agosto, meu aniversário, de forma tão
amigável, que conquistou com isso um direito de me prender; mas não tinha tempo
a perder. Subi sozinho numa diligência postal, levando somente capote e bornal,
e cheguei às sete e meia em Zwota. […]"
Um homem
rompia com a sua rotina: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 37 anos, conselheiro de
Estado e ministro do duque de Saxônia-Weimar – estadista, naturalista e o maior
poeta que a Alemanha teria em todos os tempos.
Mas o trabalho
como estadista bloqueava a sua criatividade. Goethe necessitava de liberdade.
Em setembro de 1786, ele desapareceu, sem fazer qualquer comunicado prévio, de
uma estação de águas em Karlsbad. No dia 29 de outubro de 1786, Goethe chegou
ao seu destino secreto, a cidade dos sonhos da sua infância: Roma.
Por temor de
ser retido, Goethe viajara sob nome falso. "Johann Philipp Möller, pintor
artístico da Alemanha" foi como ele se registrou em uma pensão romana na
Via del Corso. Nos 20 meses seguintes, ele se tornou companheiro de um outro
morador da pensão, o pintor Johann Wilhelm Tischbein.
Os dois já
mantinham correspondência durante muitos anos, mas só então é que se encontraram
pela primeira vez. Mais tarde, Tischbein pintaria um famoso retrato do seu
companheiro de pensão: com um grande chapéu, um manto de seda branca,
desenhando a paisagem italiana.
O desenho era
a principal ocupação de Goethe em Roma: "Que eu desenhe e estude a arte,
ajuda a capacidade de escrever, em vez de impedi-la; pois só é preciso escrever
pouco, mas desenhar muito. […] A razão e a perseverança dos grandes mestres é
incrível. Se me senti como recém-nascido na minha chegada à Itália, agora estou
começando a sentir-me como recém-educado. […]"
Goethe herdara
do pai o entusiasmo por Roma. Os suvenirs e as narrações entusiásticas do pai
sobre uma viagem pela Itália acompanharam Goethe durante toda a sua infância.
Ao chegar, finalmente, à Cidade Eterna, o que mais lhe interessou foram os
vestígios da Antiguidade clássica, que louvaria depois nas suas Elegias Romanas.
Em Roma, a
criatividade de Goethe retornou. Ele publicaria posteriormente o diário da sua
estada na Itália, sob o título Viagem
Italiana. Através das suas experiências, ele enriqueceu a
literatura com uma nova época. O drama Ifigênia
na Táurida, concluído em Roma, marcou o começo da era dos
clássicos.
Mas acabou
chegando a hora do retorno de Goethe ao cinzento norte da Alemanha. Ele deixou
Roma no dia 24 de abril de 1788 e jamais retornaria à Cidade Eterna.
Na sua Viagem Italiana, Goethe anotou a
despedida com palavras inspiradas em Ovídio, o poeta da Antiguidade: "Cada
noite, passeia-me diante da alma a imagem triste, a última para mim na cidade
romana; relembrando a noite de onde me ficaram coisas tão caras, escorre-me dos
olhos ainda agora uma lágrima. […]"
De volta a
Weimar, Goethe casou-se com Christiane Vulpius. Seu filho August morreu jovem e
foi enterrado em Roma, por determinação do pai: a última homenagem de Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe à cidade dos seus sonhos.
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