Passions and Fervour. The Art of Powerful Emotions

Intro

Passion and Fervour. The Art of Powerful Emotions 9 October 2020 – 14 February 2021 LWL– Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster

Where there is no passion, everything is missing. There is nothing that can be attained without passion.

Alberto Moravia (1907-1990)

Passion / Leidenschaft – do the two words have exactly the same meaning? In modern English, “passion” evokes very powerful emotions, but the word originally referred to the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Leidenschaft, the German equivalent, was coined in the 17th century by the writer and language reformer Philipp von Zesen to fill a gap, as even Martin Luther, who produced the first German version of the Bible, had not translated the Latin word passio.

Jacopo da Montagnana, Lamentation of Christ, around 1480 tempera and oil on canvas, 148 × 109,5 cm, © Landesmuseum Hannover

In both languages, the word “passion” has now lost its connotation of suffering and most people understand it as a positive synonym for “enthusiasm” or “ardent love”.

Ignaz Günther, Saint Theresa of Avila with an Angel, 1771 limewood, painted, 62,5 × 40 × 12 cm, © Bayerisches Nationalmuseum München / Krack, Bastian

The saint seems to be enraptured as she ascends to the skies together with an angel. She looks upwards, fulfilled by the divine love…

Käthe Kollwitz, Two Lovers I, around 1909/10 black chalk, 48,8 × 31,5 cm, © Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

… like this voluptuous woman, who also leans her head backwards as she abandons herself to pleasure. In both works, the artists chose similar devices to express two kinds of passionate love.

The saint seems to be enraptured as she ascends to the skies together with an angel. She looks upwards, fulfilled by the divine love…

Robert Arnold (born in 1954) used a comparable stylistic device for his video, inspired by the covers of cheap novelettes that take up the old cliché of the handsome macho man with a seductive power that no glamorous woman can resist.

Robert Arnold, The Morphology of Desire, 1998 video, 6 min, © Robert Arnold and LIMA Amsterdam

Which message do the Western fine arts convey with these images that create an enthralling tension between body and soul, emotions and reason? And which style is best suited to expressing powerful emotions?

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