Long Cycles in Fine Arts: Towards A New Theory of Style
Introduction
The idea af life cycles or biological metaphors has been used for centuries in art history. Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) for example, believed in his study on the history of Italian Renaissance art that style, like human bodies, has a birth, growth, an aging anci a death.
At the turn of this century Alois Riegl tried to explain the dynarnics of style by cycles of evolution. At the same time, Heinrich Wölfflin offered a theory af preorciained evolution from classical to baroque form in tcrrns af polar forrnal categories such as closed-open and linear-painterly. As compared to the earlier biological tradition that of Riegl and Wölfflin tried to describe universal patterns of style, though areas remained – among them nineteenth century art – that gave little support ta their systems. In this century there has not been much interest on the theories af style
(Ackerman, 1962).
The purpose of this paper is to look at the biological life cycle approach of art in the economic long cycle context. Especially the cycles of the slyte of the nineteenth century painting seem to fit well in the long cycles of the economic life. The intepretations of the 20th century art are less straightforward.
- ISSN: 0357-9603
- ISBN: 951-9281-78-9
