Gesamtkunstwerk

A ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.

Background

The term was developed by the German writer and philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff in his 1827 essay ''Ästhetik oder Lehre von Weltanschauung und Kunst'' (or 'Aesthetics, or Theory of Philosophy of Art'). The German opera composer Richard Wagner used the term in two 1849 essays, and the word has become particularly associated with his aesthetic ideals. It is unclear whether Wagner knew of Trahndorff's essay.

In the 20th century, some writers applied the term to some forms of architecture, while others applied it to film and mass media.For discussions of architecture as Gesamtkunstwerk, see the relevant section of this article. For discussions of film and mass media, see for instance Matthew Wilson Smith, ''The Total Work of Art: From Bayreuth to Cyberspace.'' New York: Routledge, 2007; Carolyn Birdsall, ''Nazi Soundscapes: Sound, Technology, and Urban Space in Germany, 1933–1945.'' Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. pp. 141–72; and Jeongwon Joe, 'Introduction: Why Wagner and Cinema? Tolkien Was Wrong.' In ''Wagner and Cinema,'' edited by Jeongwon Joe and Sander L. Gilman, 1–26. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2010.

In opera

Before Wagner

Some elements of opera had begun seeking a more 'classical' formula at the end of the 18th century. After the lengthy domination of opera seria and the ''da capo aria'', a movement began to advance the librettist and the composer in relation to the singers, and to return the drama to a more intense and less moralistic focus. This movement, 'reform opera', is primarily associated with Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The themes in the operas produced by Gluck's collaborations with Calzabigi continue throughout the operas of Carl Maria von Weber, until Wagner, rejecting both the Italian ''bel canto'' tradition and the French 'spectacle opera', developed his union of music, drama, theatrical effects, and occasionally dance.

However, these trends had developed fortuitously, rather than in response to a specific philosophy of art. Wagner, who recognised the reforms of Gluck and admired the works of Weber, originally wished to consolidate his view as part of his radical social and political views of the late 1840s. Previous to Wagner, others had expressed ideas about union of the arts, which was a familiar topic among German Romantics, as evidenced by the title of Trahndorff's essay, 'Aesthetics, or Theory of Philosophy of Art'. Others who wrote on syntheses of the arts included Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Ludwig Tieck and Novalis.Millington (n.d.) Carl Maria von Weber's enthusiastic review of E.T.A. Hoffmann's opera ''Undine'' (1816) admired it as 'an art work complete in itself, in which partial contributions of the related and collaborating arts blend together, disappear, and, in disappearing, somehow form a new world'.

Wagner's ideas

Wagner used the exact term ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (which he spelt 'Gesammtkunstwerk') on only two occasions, in his 1849 essays 'Art and Revolution' and 'The Artwork of the Future', where he speaks of his ideal of unifying all works of art via the theatre. He also used in these essays many similar expressions such as 'the consummate artwork of the future' and 'the integrated drama', and frequently referred to 'Gesamtkunst'. Such a work of art was to be the clearest and most profound expression of folk legend.

Wagner felt that the Greek tragedies of Aeschylus had been the finest (though still flawed) examples so far of total artistic synthesis, but that this synthesis had subsequently been corrupted by Euripides. Wagner felt that during the rest of human history up to the present day (i.e. 1850) the arts had drifted further and further apart, resulting in such 'monstrosities' as Grand Opera. Wagner felt that such works celebrated bravura singing, sensational stage effects, and meaningless plots. In 'Art and Revolution', Wagner applies the term ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' in the context of Greek tragedy. In 'The Art-Work of the Future', he uses it to apply to his own, as yet unrealized, ideal.

In his extensive book ''Opera and Drama'' (completed in 1851), Wagner takes these ideas further, describing in detail his idea of the union of opera and drama (later called ''music drama'' despite Wagner's disapproval of the term), in which the individual arts are subordinated to a common purpose.

Wagner's own opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', specifically its components ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'', represent perhaps the closest he, or anyone else, came to realizing these ideals. After this stage, Wagner came to relax his own strictures and write more conventionally 'operatically'.

Arts and Crafts movement

William Morris (1834–1896), a British textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist, was associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement and largely influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin, who believed that industrialization led to a qualitative decline in artistically crafted goods. Morris believed a home must nurture harmony as well as infuse its inhabitants with a creative energy.

The quote 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful' epitomized Morris' way of living of ''Gesamtkunstwerk''.

Morris' and Philip Webb's Red House, designed in 1859, is a major example, as well as the Blackwell House in the English Lake District, designed by Baillie Scott. Blackwell House was built in 1898–1900, as a holiday home for Sir Edward Holt, a wealthy Manchester brewer. It is situated near the town of Bowness-on-Windermere with views looking over Windermere and across to the Coniston Fells.

In architecture

Some architectural writers have used the term ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' to signify circumstances where an architect is responsible for the design and/or overseeing of the building's totality: shell, accessories, furnishings, and landscape. It is difficult to make a claim for when the term ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' was first used to refer to a building and its contents (although the term itself was not used in this context until the late 20th century); already during the Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo saw no strict division in their tasks between architecture, interior design, sculpture, painting and even engineering.

Historian Robert L. Delevoy has argued that Art Nouveau represented an essentially decorative trend that thus lent itself to the idea of the architectural ''Gesamtkunstwerk''. Of course, it is equally possible it was born from social theories that arose out of a fear of the rise of industrialism.

Nonetheless, evidence of complete interiors that typify the concept of ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' can be seen from some time before the 1890s. An increasing trend among architects in the 18th and 19th centuries was to control every facet of an architectural commission. As well as being responsible for the structure itself, they tried to extend their role to also include designing (or at least vetting) every aspect of the interior work. This included not only the interior architectural features but also the design of furniture, carpets, wallpaper, fabrics, light fixtures, and door-handles. Robert Adam and Augustus Welby Pugin are examples of this trend to create an overall harmonising effect which in some cases might even extend to the choice or design of table silver, china, and glassware.

Art Nouveau

The form and ideology of ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' was regularly engaged with by the Art Nouveau artists and architects of the period. Belgians Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde, Catalan Antoni Gaudí, French Hector Guimard, Scottish Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Austrian Josef Hoffmann, Russian-German Franz (Fyodor) Schechtel, Finn Eliel Saarinen, and many other architects also acted as furniture and interior designers.

Many Art Nouveau masterpieces were results of cooperation of artists of different fields:

* Villa Majorelle (1901–1902) in Nancy, France was created by architect Henri Sauvage, furniture designer Louis Majorelle, ceramist Alexandre Bigot, and stained glass artist Jacques Grüber.

* The Municipal House (1904–1912) in Prague, Czech Republic was designed by Osvald Polívka and Antonín Balšánek and painted by famous Czech painter Alphonse Mucha, and features sculptures of Josef Mařatka and Ladislav Šaloun.

* The Gresham Palace (1904–1906) in Budapest, Hungary was created by architects Zsigmond Quittner and Jozsef Vago; sculptors Géza Maróti

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