Emil Node: Inspiration

(LEFT) Unknown Master, Italian - Crucifix with the Stories of the Passion (detail) - around 1200 - Tempera on wood - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence - (RIGHT) Emil Nolde - Crucifixion - 1912 - Oil on canvas - 220.5 x 193.5 cm - (87 x 76.2 in) - Nolde-Stiftung Seebull - Berlin, Germany (click photo for larger image)The German Expressionist Emil Nolde (1867-1956), was deeply moved by the both the appearance and content of medieval art. Looking at the medieval work on the left, we see no attention paid to formal considerations such as scale, perspective and anatomical integrity. Most of the people in the painting are taller than the cross. But that doesn’t matter. The work is moving and powerful by virtue of its color and design. What would become the concerns of the Renaissance weren’t important in the Middle Ages. And this approach—on all levels—is what appealed to Emil Nolde. Nolde was a deeply religious artist…and also part of an art movement occurring at a time when Germany was isolated. The German Expressionists’ take on modernism was not quite so optimistic as the work coming out of Paris at the time. The anguish we see in both interpretations of this subject matter is palpable. All of the figures are simplified. It is not only what the artists show, but how they show it that causes us to react emotionally. And of course the subject matter is serious and somber. Now, Nolde has integrated the lessons of modernism and influences other than the medieval into his work. In this work, for example—one can see the color influence of Matisse and other Fauve painters, as well as the modernists’ fascination with African masks. Nevertheless, medieval work long ignored found itself reincarnated in the 20th century.