Modernidade e desmaterialização na obra tardia de Gustave Moreau

Em sua fase final, a obra de Gustave Moreau passa por um processo de desmaterialização que é comum a outros artistas de sua geração. Por meio da análise da pintura e das anotações pessoais de Moreau, este artigo busca compreender as estratégias artísticas e as implicações teóricas envolvidas nesse movimento de idealização do conceito de “obra de arte”. São discutidos o uso simbolicamente carregado do inacabamento da pintura e a descentralização da “obra”, desdobrada em múltiplos estudos e trabalhos menores. Partindo do caso específico do artista, busca-se também contribuir para uma perspectiva geral sobre questões-chave da pintura moderna.

Le paysage thanatique et féminin chez Gustave Moreau. Étude mythocritique de Orphée sur la tombe d’Eurydice

This article proposes to define the thanatic landscape as the manifestation of Hermes-Mercurius archetype within the symbolic universe of Gustave Moreau, specifically on Orphée sur la tombe d’Eurydice (1891) and his preserved writings. This is defined according to the duality that is so present in Moreau’s pictorial and literary work; between the text and the image, the tangible and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane, the masculine and the feminine. How do the human and sepulchral landscape elements, of religious and mythological origin, merge in the imaginary of the decadent literary painter? In response, this study includes a myth criticism approach and aims to apply the archetypal theory to the symbolic hermeneutics of landscape

L’epifania della gran meretrice: La Pisanelle e la lubrica arte di Moreau

La Pisanelle is a work in which the author realises his ideal of ‘total theatre’. Written in French, it presents all the typical elements of d’Annunzio’s work. In particular, it is characterised by a remarkable visual component and by the repetition of the topical of the dancer-harlot. So there is an evident link with the painting of Gustave Moreau, the painter known and loved by decadent artists, who has presented in his paintings many figures of femmes fatales, cruel and insensitive prostitutes. On this model d’Annunzio built the character of the protagonist of his work, and also the particular exotic scenography of the pièce.

As "formas simbólicas" na pintura tardia de Gustave Moreau

Este artigo busca analisar o papel exercido pelos elementos pictóricos de desenho e colorido dentro da pintura tardia do artista oitocentista francês Gustave Moreau, utilizando como ferramenta teórica o conceito de “forma simbólica” de acordo com as concepções de Ernst Cassirer e Erwin Panofsky. Argumenta-se que a noção de “forma simbólica” oferece a possibilidade de integrar os aspectos visuais e simbólico-filosóficos peculiares a esse período da pintura de Moreau, quais sejam: a dissociação da linha e da mancha e a construção de uma mitopoese que explora dualismos como o de espírito e matéria.

Salomé, el nacimiento de un ídolo de perversidad: Stéphane Mallarmé y Gustave Moreau

La primera alusión a la historia del banquete de Herodes, donde Juan el Bautista fue decapitado y su cabeza entregada a la princesa Salomé a modo de recompensa por la interpretación de un magnífico baile, la encontramos en los Evangelios de Mateo, Marcos y Lucas. A través de los siglos, el breve relato fue objeto de múltiples y variadas reelaboraciones, desde el siglo I d. C. hasta nuestros días. La historia de la joven princesa Salomé comenzó su formación como mito literario a partir de 1841 con la publicación de la obra Atta Troll de Heinrich Heine; posteriormente siguió su expansión en los círculos literarios franceses con la inconclusa Hérodiade de Stéphane Mallarmé, la cual se convirtió en una fuente marcada de inspiración para los célebres cuadros Salomé danzante (1874-1876) y La aparición (1876) de Gustave Moreau, en donde la reescritura de la vieja historia bíblica se reviste de una nueva y compleja simbología. El presente artículo se centra específicamente en el análisis de la construcción simbolista del tema-personaje de Salomé en las obras mencionadas, una literaria y una secuencia pictórica, en las cuales se pueden identificar vínculos intertextuales y cuyo objetivo en común es la construcción de un personaje que, más allá de representar la típica imagen de la mujer fatal, se transforma en una encarnación del arte mismo.

Certain aesthetic aspects of art of the Symbolists

This article is dedicated to examination of the main creative motifs of the artists of Symbolism: eternal femininity, living landscape, mythological and religious images in their not uncommon intersection in a single artwork and expressed by fine artistic means. The goal is set to demonstrate how such pointers as Maurice Denis, Odelon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Franz von Stuck and Mikhail Vrubel, using the means of artistic reflection of the listed thematic lines, were able to create the unique symbolic images. Special attention is given to the symbolist specificity of creative expression, embrace of the metaphysical bases of the depicted. Such approach allowed determining the exquisite harmony of landscape and female images (Denis); initiation of the mystical and unknown in lilac-purple twilight demonic spirituality of the night landscape and artistic expression of the demonic itself (Vrubel); demonstration that being charmed by the mystical, embrace of the abstract origin of landscape lead the work with a religious theme to the expression of mystical elements of being (Redon); while combination of classicist clarity of the image with symbolist mystery and abstract picturesqueness creates a myth itself as an increment of the profound sacral nonverbal knowledge (Moreau).

Symbolism and imagination of the medieval period: The lady and the unicorn in the works of Gustave Moreau

The French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau often used the motifs of fantastic beings and animals in his works, amongst which the unicorn found its place. Moreau got the inspiration for the unicorn motif after a visit to the Cluny Museum in Paris, in which six medieval tapestries with the name "The Lady and the Unicorn" were exhibited. Relying on the French Middle Age heritage, Moreau has interpreted the medieval legend of the hunt for this fantastic beast (with the aid of a virgin) in a new way, close to the art of Symbolism and the ideas of the cultural and intellectual climate of Paris at the end of the 19th century. In the Moreau's paintings "The Unicorn" and "The Unicorns", beautiful young nude girls are portrayed in the company of one or multiple unicorns. Similarly to the lady on the medieval tapestry, they too gently caress the animal, showing a close and sensual relationship between them. Although they were rid of their clothes, the artist donned lavish capes, crowns and jewellery on them, alluding to their privileged social status. Their beauty, nudity and closeness with the unicorns ties them to the theme of the femme fatal, which was often depicted in the Symbolist art forms. Showing the fairer sex as beings closer to the material, instinctual and irrational, Moreau has equated women and animals, as is the case with these paintings. Another important theme of the Symbolic art forms which can be seen on the aforementioned paintings is nature, wild and untouched. The landscape in the paintings shows a harmony between the unrestrained nature and the heroes of the painting, freed from strict moral laws of the civil society, or civilization in general. Putting the ladies and the unicorns in an ideal forest landscape, Moreau paints an intimate vision of an imaginary golden age, in this case the Middle Age, through a harmonic relationship of unicorns, women and nature. In that manner, Moreau's unicorns tell a fairy tale of a modern European man at the end of the 19th century: a fairy tale of harmony, sensuality and beauty, hidden in the realms of imagination and dreams.