Home Der Wald im Bild. Die Entwicklung eines Motivs vom Mittelalter bis zum Donaustil
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Der Wald im Bild. Die Entwicklung eines Motivs vom Mittelalter bis zum Donaustil

  • Margit Stadlober
Published/Copyright: September 25, 2009
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

In various compositional stages and with intensifying force of expression, the forest has been a pictorial subject of the visual arts from Antiquity to the present day. It is a topos addressing the recipient on a supra-individual level. This lasting impact, rooted in neuronal structures, can be utilised to intensify the overall signification of a picture and revaluate the depiction of landscape, which had been of secondary importance until the end of the Middle Ages. The forestmotif′s form and meaning oscillate between emblematic symbol geared towards abstraction and content-wise enriched naturalism. This paper traces the various stages of the forest as a subject-matter in the visual arts by examining selected examples from painting and the graphic arts from their beginnings to the early modern times. It can be noted that a reduction on the formal level causes a decrease in the interactive capacity of the statement as made by an image. Inspired by Albrecht Dürer, such statements first peaked in the Donaustil′s rendering of the forest.

Published Online: 2009-09-25
Published in Print: 2008-12

© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany

Downloaded on 27.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1524/mial.2008.0023/html
Scroll to top button