In the period after 1945, Georg Schmidt, a Swiss art historian, attempted to define the hitherto not very precise art historical concept of "naturalism" even more precisely and to describe it on the basis of clear criteria.
Schmidt distinguished naturalism from realism, for example, by the thesis that naturalism is about achieving "correctness" in the sense of the greatest possible external, i.e. visible, approximation to the original. This is mimesis. Realism, on the other hand, wants to depict a "truth inherent in society", thereby also motivically exaggerating the visible conditions.
Through this explanation, Schmidt was also able to demarcate naturalism from ideological claims, thereby clearly separating it from idealism, which distances itself from mimesis in the depiction of exaggerated, pure beauty and grace.
To illustrate his thesis, he established the "criteria of naturalism", creative characteristics that, when fulfilled in the work of art, created the illusion of the model.
#art history #art theory #naturalism #realism #idealism #georgschmidt #mimesis
22 июл 2023
