著者

石井 康夫

出版者

麻布大学

雑誌

麻布大学雑誌 (ISSN:13465880)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, pp.5-21, 2009

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Ernst Barlach was a German sculptor who lived his life in Germany when the country was controlled by the government of Nazis. The persecution of his art was due to the characteristics of the sculpture's forms and ideas that did not correspond to Western aesthetic ideas which are based on Greek, or Renaissance art. That was the reason why the Nazis denied his works. Most representative works, the monuments for the World War I, which were for the cities of Magdeburg, Güstrow, and Hamburg, were criticized by the establishment and people who considered the works unsuitable monuments for each city, because the faces of the figures appealed eminently to the pacifistic public. The characteristic factors which constitute Barlach's sculptures are ascribed to his experiences of a journey to Russia. The Mother Nature of Russia and Russian people affected him significantly. The encounter with the landscapes of Russia and her people were such a stimulating experience for him that this experience remained in his mind and fueld his art. Also, Asian ideas that are based on religious images of Buddhism and the thoughts of Chuang-tzu can be noticed in his works. As he admired the sculptures of the Japanese Buddhism arts, his works and Buddhist art have a common spiritual essence. The philosophy of Chuang-tzu, "all things are equal," seems to have influenced Barlarch's creative ideas. They are converted to concrete forms as mercy and tolerance which are immanent in Barlach's sculptures. These tolerant and merciful ideas are realized in slender bodies with few wasted expression. The simple body lines and facial expressions are sophisticated and include sacred and religious images. The slenderness and tolerant expression are common to those of the Budhisattva. It is necessary to realize that Barlach's works are affected not only by Russia and Buddhism, but by his fundamental German tradition. Sculptures of Romanesque and Gothic art ornament the walls and capitals of cathedrals in Germany as peripheral decorations that create a religiously solemn world. It is thought that these sculptures which include people, animals, birds, monsters, and plants expressed in abstraction affected Barlach. He himself recognized that he was a successor of masters who made European traditional art in Medieval age. Barlach created modern sophisticated sculptures through unsophisticated people's figures in which he found essential humanism. He carved the modern saints in the figure of beggars, and offered resistance to Nazism.