Arthur Schnitzler und die bildende Kunst ed. by Achim Aurnhammer and Dieter Martin (review)

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• Arthur Schnitzler und die bildende Kunst ed. by Achim Aurnhammer and Dieter Martin
• Raymond L. Burt

Achim Aurnhammer and Dieter Martin, eds., Arthur Schnitzler und die bildende Kunst. Baden-Baden: Ergon Verlag, 2021. 433 pp.

In 2010 Achim Aurnhammer and his co-editors released volume 15 in the Klassische Moderne series titled Arthur Schnitzler und der Film. In 2014 together with Dieter Martin and another colleague, he edited an essay collection Arthur Schnitzler und die Musik as the 20^th volume of the series. This current volume, the 45^th, turns its sights on what the editors perceive as a gap in Schnitzler research, namely his relationship to the fine arts. The studies in this volume are a byproduct of a conference organized in March 2020 by Aurnhammer and Dieter Martin, both Fellows of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, the venue of the conference. According to the editors, the fourteen studies fall under four sections. The first explores Schnitzler as the subject of artistic portraits and photographs and highlights how he participated in their production. In the opening essay, Reinhard Urbach analyzes drawings, paintings, etchings, and sculptures that portray the writer at different stages of his life and career. Schnitzler never took the initiative to have non-photographic portraits made and rarely sat as model. Urbach cites journal entries and correspondence showing that Schnitzler preferred representations of his social standing, especially those showing him as a member of the upper bourgeoisie. More often than not, his impetus to pose came at the urging of trusted friends or lovers. Schnitzler, whose writings tended toward Realism, also expected visual artists to lean in this direction. Julia Ilgner's essay covers his relationship to photography, and in this medium the depictions, especially those taken in his early years, show him as a bohemian writer. Studio photography became a strategic tool of the Jung-Wien writers in promoting their careers. Also examined are the photographs in Schnitzler's possession, mentions of photography in his writings, and detailed analyses of how, in career-oriented studio photographs, he placed himself in relationship to Gerhard Hauptmann.

The second group focuses on works of art from the past as well as the art of his contemporaries, both in Schnitzler's private possession and in the museums and galleries he visited. Of particular interest is how these may have influenced him aesthetically. Ilgner joins Martin Anton Müller in a meticulous study of art shown in photographs taken in Schnitzler's various residences or mentioned in his journals and correspondence. Based on placement, the [End Page 115] history of the piece, and a variety of other evidence, the authors speculate on the appeal of prominent pieces, such as reproductions of Guercino's Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ismael and da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and the meaning they may have held for Schnitzler. Aurnhammer joins with Ralf von den Hof to articulate Schnitzler's reception of the art of antiquity and his shift from Naturalism as reflected in his works between 1898 and 1902. This "ästhetische Umorientierung" is articulated using Anton Paul Huber's 1902 photograph of Schnitzler in his study surrounded by works of classical antiquity. Six of these are discussed in detail. Eva Höfflin-Grether seeks to find Schnitzler's aesthetic taste by delving into his journals and correspondence in search of galleries and museums he visited, both on his international trips and in Vienna. While evidence is scarce (Schnitzler rarely mentions individual works of art), her study does reveal insight into his personal life through the interweaving of these visits with his romantic life and his interactions with artists such as Gustav Klimt and Carl Moll. Nikolas Immer traces the influence of the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt on Schnitzler's understanding of the Renaissance, drawing from Der Schleier der Beatrice as evidence.

The third section focuses on studies looking at references in his prose and drama to art works, both actual and imagined. Barbara Beßlich and Judith Becher connect biographical incidents and a censorship scandal to enhance the emotional symbolism of the pieces of art in Die griechische Tänzerin, Die Fremde, and Frau Bertha Garlan. In his essay, Günther...