Gothic panel painting in Austria; special emphasis on its coloration

Object of this study is the gothic panel painting in Austria (from 1330 to about 1460/70) with special emphasis on its coloration. This subject reflects even urgent need, for ever though some individual studies on this topic do exist - mainly in form of exhibition and museum catalogues - they seldom deal with the coloration of such panel paintings. So far Eva Frodl-Kraft has done some research on it. By listing certain "elements of the Gothic colour language", she lays the foundation of an analytic apparatus of criteria which must be taken into account by any further search into this topic. Her investigation being based on (in terms of quantity) rather modest series of preliminary studies the author stresses the conceptual character of her inquiry, appealing to future studies to deal with "coloration" more thoroughly, unlike Frodl-Kraft`s phenomenological approach of dealing with "coloration" as a phenomena entirely separated from analytic aspects, this investigation intends to analyse each piece of art in a comprehensive formal way, i.e. by including stylistic analysis and intellectual history as well as iconographic, topological, historical, sociological and church-political premises. With respect to research work in the field of coloration, incorporating the theories of colours in the 19th and 20th centuries seems to be justified: when applied to medieval painting, these theories may reveal regularity in coloration, this approach thus becoming an innovative methodical transfer. The investigation sets out by taking stock of panel paintings from 1330 to about 1460/70 as found in collections within and beyond the Austrian borders. It is planned to analyse the individual pieces art on the basis of historical, iconographical and formal criterias with a descriptive-comparative style analysis as the prevailing approach and backed by the "laws of vision" as developed by the Gestaltpsychologie. This will help to group certain pieces of art which correspond in style, and will less the suggestions how to solve the problem of dating them. In addition to that, the relationship between colour, form and iconography will be inquired, culminating in the question to which extent a typically Austrian coloration-idiomology can be extracted; a question which is accompanied by the development aspect of language of colour in charge. Asking for the genetic relationships between Austrian and foreign panel painting is of considerable importance. Nevertheless, this question has been rather neglected by the Austrian research in the history of art: After revealing influences from abroad on Austrian panel painting, this study will examine in what way such influences were adapted and modified by the local Austrian artists.

When describing the project "Gothic panel painting in Austria", colouring aspects were considered a highly desirable field of the investigation to come. As it turned out, present research has not only missed to deal at least with the formal-analytic aspects of these panels more thoroughly, but has also neglected the topic of their colouring aspects altogether. This fact resulted in expanding the original project desricption by approaching the works referred to in an analytic way first. There is no denying that any research in the field of colouring aspects has to be preceded by a fundamental investigation of the panels under interdiscipli-nary aspects (of history, ecclesiastical history, sociology etc.). As to the analytic practice, it was necessary to make use of the methodological device of gestalt psycology based on sense perception, an innovative procedure in the field of the history of art. Only after considering these premises, it was possible to start a systematic investigation of the colouring aspects as based on the current theories of colours. A tremendous amount of time had to be spent on this forefield research which makes it plausible why the project has not been brought to a close yet. Dealing with the central topic exhaustively would have required extra time. Nevertheless, numerous notes and contributions to catalogues already do exist (Ektachrome slides have been scanned and are available for incorporation into CD-ROMs), thus guaranteeing a solid basis for further research. Examining these pieces of art and taking pictures of them consumed a considerable amount of travelling expenses and time, for far more do exist than it has hitherto been asssumed: there are some seventy works of Austrian origin. Only in thirty cases the colour quality of their photo copies was sufficient, while new pictures of the remaining works had to be taken (colourproof Ektachrome). In addition to this, Ms Trattner, who was collaborating in this project, studied many originals of some one hundred and eighty supra-regional paintings. Besides, thinking in terms of the protection of monuments and stirred by reports on restoration under way, an "autoptive" confrontation with these works was imperative. - Contrary to all expectations, even basic research has yielded rather fragmentary knowledge so far which explains the intensive consultation of various archives.Trattners trips to Prague, Budapest and, above all, to Troppau turned out to be a full success, the museum in Troppau thereupon revising its knowledge of Gothic panel painting in Austria, and the museum in Budapest rearranging its collection of Austrian paintings. - The discourse on the "Master of the votive tablet in St.Lambrecht" takes a special place in this project (for more information see final summary). Ms Trattner has written a manuscript of about two hundred pages, its publication is taken into consideration. It is worthwhile mentioning that Ms Trattner has already published a number of research papers in close context with the the FWF-project (see enclosed bibliography in final report). Parallel to the FWF-project, Ms Trattner was granted a two-term lectureship by the University of Salzburg, which met considerable approval by her students, not least its Web-presentation (power point). Her taking part in a ring lecture on research on the Middle Ages turned out another success for her. And so did her participation in symposia in Linz ("Gotik-Schätze in Oberösterreich", 2001) and Ljubljana ("Bayern und Slowenien in der Spätgotik", 2001). Summing up and not waiting for the final results of this investigation, it is evident that Gothic panels in Austria demonstrate a highly characteristic way of colouring. Trattners efforts toward the problematic nature of colouring aspects have certainly got on so promising that - thanks to them -future investigations on this topic will find an ideal starting-point.