Creativity of Wilhelm Kiesewetter translator, artist-ethnographic the basis of traveling to the Crimea

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Creativity of Wilhelm Kiesewetter translator, artist-ethnographic the basis of traveling to the Crimea

The article deals with issues related to the work of the then outstanding Berlin translator, artist and ethnographer Wilhelm Kiesewetter. The desire to present to the wider public a variety of looks, mores and customs of different, less known and less cultural tribes prompted to study them during many years and r display pictures of their life on the spot. The result of his travels was a collection of ethnographic travel sketches, which consists of embossed images and canvases painted with oil paints.

The article presents important elements of creativity of the traveler, translator, artist and ethnographer.

The purpose of the article is to highlight some stages of his stay in the Crimea, to show an example of everyday scenes of children and teachers in school, to reveal his talent of knowledge of other worlds.

Research methods: theoretical and historical analysis, synthesis of scientific literature. His philosophical reflection of reality is based on his experiences through the world of pictures and models of reality.

Keywords: creativity; translator; painter; ethnographer; Wilhelm Kiesewetter; travel in the Crimea, Tartar village school.

Анотація

Творчість Вільгельма Кизеветтера перекладача, художника і етнографа на основі подорожі по Криму

Панов Сергій, кандидат технічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри зарубежной филологии, Таврійський національний університет імені В.І. Вернадського

Ключові слова: творчість; перекладач; художник; етнограф; Вільгельм Кизеветтер; подорожі по Криму, сільська школа татар.

Introduction

Many European scientists and artists of the XVIII-XIX centuries travel to many distant countries. They dreamed of exploring the world, in order to subsequently transmit their knowledge and discoveries in the form of reports, paintings, texts, books and sculptures. With the help of their paintings they wanted to convey the experience of communication and at the same time tried to entertain the viewer. This didactic aspect was generally characteristic of genre art, which in the XIX century, gained popularity from the German public. At the same time, plot pictures are based on the artist's personal experience. The principal was the depiction of life and everyday situations, clothing and people who lived in the countryside. These include Eugиne Delacroix [1-2], Johann Moritz Rugendas [3-5], Pablo Diener-Ojeda [6], Jon Catlin [7-8].

One of these artists was the Berlin artist-ethnographer Wilhelm Kiesewetter [9]. He made two different journeys and for fourteen years traveled in Scandinavia, the European part of Russia, the Crimea and the Caucasus. He traveled on foot, riding and riding in a carriage, traveling with the help of camels and ships. It was financed by making portraits that sold well in Sweden.

While traveling, he wanted not only to open up as an artist, but also to know the life of other nations. Kiesewetter was especially impressed by his stay in the Crimea in 1845-1847. He lived in Kerch, Simferopol, Bakhchisarai, and also on the southern coast of the Crimea - in Sudak, Gur- zuf, Yalta, Alushta and Sevastopol. Moving from one place to another, he stayed in Tatar families, got acquainted with the life of the Gypsies. About how the life of the

Tatars and the Gypsy camps flowed Kiesewetter described in his diaries. He published his diary entries in 1854 in Berlin. Kiesewetter described his impressions in this way «How pleasant the nights are in a small village near the seashore! Each hut here radiates peace and joy among the aromas of cool gardens with flower beds. How sweet is the peace of the carefree followers of Mohammed among the thick foliage in the harem, where a deep mystery of love is hidden under the quiet murmur of the stream and the singing of the nightingale».

Methodology of the Research

Wilhelm Kiesewetter was born in 1811 in Berlin. He received his artistic education from Karl Retig, who was a student of the senior master of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Johann Friedrich Schulz. Later, Karl Retig taught science at his drawing school in the Royal Botanical Gardens.

In order to better understand the artist-ethnographer Wilhelm Kiesewetter, it is necessary to trace his beginning of a creative journey through the countries of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The route of his journey began on June 16, 1838. He from Berlin went on foot to the island of Rьgen. Then he moved to Sweden, where he lived for a year in various cities of Ram- les, Helsingborg, Norrkeping, Stockgolm, and Umea. At the end of 1839 he went to Finland Vasa, Tornio, Bjornborg, Tavastehus, Vyborg and stayed there until February 1841. From Vyborg his way lay to St. Petersburg, where he spent only three weeks and then went to Moscow. Until August 1842 he visited cities such as Tula, Ryazan, and Nizhny Novgorod.

Then his route was sent to the southwestern direction such cities as: Kazan, Saratov, Penza, Narovchat, Voronezh and Sebastianovka on the Volga. In March 1844, he was in Zarepta, from where on horseback, he moved south to the steppe region of Kalmykia. He stopped in Cher- noyar on the Volga and passed Lake Elton across the steppes of nomadic Kazakhs to the Khan's residence on the shores of the Caspian Sea. After three months of travel, Kiesewetter returned to Zarepta. Now his path lay in Novocherkassk to the Don Cossacks. In the spring of 1845, he was sent to Nakhichevan, an Armenian colony near the Sea of Azov.

After a short stay in Rostov and Taganrog, he moved to the Crimea [10-11]. Here it is located for two years. He lives in the cities of Simferopol, Bakhchisarai and Gur- zuf. And from the middle of October, 1847, Kiesewetter moved from Yalta to Redut Kale. This city is located on the west coast of the Caucasus. From here he becomes acquainted with the life of the Imeretins and Mingrelians on the territory of today's Georgia. For some time he lived in Kutaisi and in Tiflis. In April 1848, Kiesewetter was sent with a camel caravan to Yerevan. After that, he went on a horse to the Kurds, and then there were Shemakhi, Baku.

From Baku he went to the Tempel gardens, where the temple complex of the Indian priests of the Zoroastrian faith is located. The path of Kiesewetter went from west to east by the southern slopes of the Caucasus and so on to Drebent. After that, he traveled by ship across the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan. Then it remains for the winter of 1848/49 in Saratov, and only then in the spring of 1849 he sets off on a long journey along the Volga to the north to Belozersk. Having reached Lake Onega, he sets off for Vitegru, and through Lake Ladoga gets back to St. Petersburg. And in a few weeks Kiesewetter takes a return trip through Stetsin to Berlin. After a long eleven-year journey in October 1849, Kiesewetter returns to his hometown.

He arranges here an exhibition of paintings, layouts, which displayed pictures of the life of other countries and peoples. With his works, exhibitions and publications, he wanted to awaken the ability to understand the life of other nations, their customs and traditions. With his paintings and mock-ups, he first of all sought to really show the Europeans in those days the Crimea, far from them. He viewed his paintings rather not as works of art, but as a way of knowing other worlds. In this capacity, they retain their charm so far.

Regionally and with respect to certain cultures, the museum collection of paintings, as well as mock-ups made by Kiesewetter through local crafts, can be classified as follows:

The main source of research is Kiesewetter's paintings and models. They are historical documents of the time and represent, on the one hand, the view of the XXIX century on foreign cultures, and on the other, they acquaint themselves with unknown ways of life and, despite the subjective point of view and the artist's creative freedom, describe foreign material cultures.

For this reason, paintings and models serve as ethnography sources of historical studies of foreign cultures, and art history as an example of a certain type of art, as examples of ethnographic genre painting.

The current Berlin collection of works by Kiesewetter consists of 162 oil paintings, 10 mock-ups and not yet classified works. During the Second World War, during the evacuation, presumably, 15 paintings and three models were lost.

In the 19 th century, travels of European artists and scientists to distant lands were not considered something unusual.

The increasing attractiveness of travel was the result of the Enlightenment, when the forefront of the scientific study of man. Increased interest in a comprehensive study of man, especially to representatives of other cultures. No one was satisfied with the general assumptions and statements, and scientists were eager for objective information about unknown countries and people. This was done by collecting information and data on new lands, by detailed description in travel notes. Description of the culture of the people, sketches of people of different classes, landscapes, the surrounding nature and vegetation. Special interest among researchers enjoyed research in the field of botany.

He no longer attached much value to the artistic improvement of his paintings, and viewed painting rather as a means of displaying his travels. Kiesewetter said: «I explained to the khan of Kyrgyzstan that I absorbed everything that old and new masters taught and embodied them in art - fantasy. But I moved away from such a science. When I paint on the canvas a variety of peoples in different parts of the world, I depict characters, customs and traditions, good or ugly, depict them as they appeared before me, as they were in reality, so that in my paintings the audience could observe the opposition of valor and disadvantage”.

In order to better understand the lives of foreigners, Kiesewetter tried to learn some local languages or work with translators. He usually stayed in families and lived their lives. In order not to draw attention to himself, he sometimes dressed as the owners. He watched the locals and embodied and fixed everything seen in the pictures and layouts. He sketched ceremonies, occasionally interviewed, asking about cultural characteristics that he could not observe. He interpreted the history and social conditions of the people he visited in order to better understand and classify the knowledge gained about the culture of a given people.

Kiesewetter became so close with the Crimean Tatars that he received from them the native name of Abdul and accepted him.

Kiesewetter's ways of meeting foreign cultures are similar to the methods of modern ethnographers who use them when they live in foreign groups. First, he addressed the highest-ranking member of the tribe, explained his intentions to him and asked for permission to live in a group and make drawings. After obtaining permission, he asked permission to draw from everyone whom he wanted to draw. Some refused, some took money for it. And there was a case when one Kalmyk Buddhist priest was very happy when he heard that his portrait would see a large unfamiliar world, and very modestly designed the interior of the background.

Sitting in front of the artist while posing, he constantly moved his lips, because he wanted me to portray him in prayer.

Sometimes Kiesewetter felt that the locals did not understand him and he was forced to embellish the portraits against his own will, which was contrary to reality. Sometimes he became a victim of problems and misunderstandings. Living among Kalmyks, he witnessed the abduction of the bride and did not understand the meaning of this national ritual. He was not aware that this act of abduction of the bride relates to a wedding ritual and everything was agreed among all relatives. He thought that the girl was in danger and began to protect her, which shocked the ritual participants. As a reward for bravery, Kiesewetter was presented with a bride, but this was not part of his plans to found a family among Kalmyks and spend his whole life among these people. Kiesewetter refused such an offer.

Much of what he observed, experienced and recognized, Kiesewetter wrote down, sketched and designed in plastic art forms.

By spreading his knowledge through pictures, mockups and stories, Kiesewetter pursued an ethnographic goal, so that his collection would acquaint the peoples with each other, find mutual understanding and know themselves.

Fig. 1 Tartar village school in the Crimea

Of course, Kiesewetter, to a certain extent, wanted to entertain the public with his art and his knowledge, but first of all he wanted to teach people, that is - quite in the spirit of enlightenment - he was eager to impart knowledge.

During his travels, Kiesewetter painted and painted portraits of many people of different backgrounds. In addition, he did many works on order and sold them, although he kept a significant amount of them. Large portraits depicting particularly illustrative features of faces and typical clothes (for example, hats), he painted in detail and realistic. Such a conclusion suggests itself when comparing the objects depicted by him with similar ethnographic exhibits of current ethnographic museums.

Kiesewetter describes the learning process in the Tatar school so «At the beginning of a lesson, children receive assignments from the teacher that they must complete during the day. Then the children are divided into separate groups. Near the older child there are always a few new children. He should help them complete the tasks.

They are engaged mostly in memorizing the sayings from the law of God. They repeat their lessons, jumping and jumping, playing and joking. Whether they are sitting, lying or running, jumping and at the same time they study diligently. All the time they repeat the lessons assigned to them. In this you can see elements of the classics of children's pedagogy by Friedrich Frobel, Rudolf Steiner, Ms. Montessori [12].

In his portraits, Kiesewetter attached importance to anthropological characteristics and cultural differences in dress; and in the genre scenes he portrayed the same people regardless of the ethnic group. Kiesewetter was not engaged in landscape painting in its pure form; he painted landscapes as scenes for actors, or for houses.

Realistic images of the mountain landscape in Southern Crimea, which serves as the background for a Tatar wedding.

Many paintings, supplemented with models, give an idea of cities and villages, churches, monasteries, palaces and their interiors.

Also look and Crimean paintings and layouts. Kiesewetter realistically registers at home in Bakhchisarai, the capital of the Crimean Khanate. Characteristic for this type of houses are two floors, a veranda on the second floor, a flat roof and slender cylindrical chimneys. The layout of the cafe is similar to this pattern. Such houses in the present Bakhchisarai can be found extremely rarely. Although the palace of Khan has survived to the present day. The model of the huge complex Kiesewetter made very detailed and truthful, a verbal description was attached to it. The palace has not changed much, to some extent this also applies to its interiors.

Another layout, or, more precisely, a relief, is dedicated to the village of Gurzuf, located east of Yalta. This is a typical village of southern Crimea with characteristic terraces on the slopes of the mountains dotted with houses with flat roofs. Their Kiesewetter drew well and modeled it. Separate houses of this type can still be found on the south coast, but the village of Gurzuf has changed a lot in our time.

The realistic work characterizes Kiesewetter as an excellent master, who has the remarkable gift of an observer who can, at the same time, understand and feel the situation. The central theme of his paintings, and especially stories, were the people with whom he dealt every day and the culture of which he tried to study.

kiesewetter crimea school ethnographer

Conclusions

Thus, he used his talents in order to fix another's reality in artistic form, in layouts, in writing, and later to show to the public. In this sense, its goal, from the present point of view, is specifically ethnographic, to convey «to the general public an idea of different types of people, traditions and customs of obscure, less developed culturally peoples”. Kiesewetter created numerous portraits. More often, he painted scenes of the everyday life of foreigners, rural and urban landscapes, houses, palaces and temples, as well as their interiors. Achieving the reality of what he saw, he supplemented the paintings of houses and settlements with mock-ups that he made himself.

References

1. Castelot A. (1980). Eugиne Delacroix biography. Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 2007/06/14. Talleyrand ou le cynisme, Paris, Librairie Perrin

2. Hannoosh, M. (2009). Eugиne Delacroix, Journal, nouvelle йdition intйgrale йtablie par 2 vols., Paris, Josй Corti.

3. Diener-Ojeda P. (1993). Johann Moritz Rugendas. Bilder aus Mexiko. Bildband und Katalog zur Ausstellung Augsburg, Wissner, Augsburg.

4. Richert G. (1959). Johann Moritz Rugendas. Ein deutscher Maler des XIX. Jahrhunderts. Berlin.

5. Metzger, Ch. Trepesch, Ch. (2007). Chile und Johann Moritz Rugendas. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaf.

6. Diener-Ojeda, P. (2012) : El viaje de Rugendas por Chile 1834-1842. Origo Ediciones. Santiago.

7. Catlin J. (1876) . Illustrations of the manners, customs & condition of the North American Indians. London: Chatto & Windus. Vol. 1.

8. Catlin J. (1861). Life Among the Indians. London: Gall and Inglis, Vol. 2.

9. Tietmeyer E. (2004). Kiesewetters ethnographische Reisebilder, Bomann-Museum Celle.

10. Barbara K., Tietmeyer, E. (2005). Der Maler und Ethnograph Wilhelm Kiesewetter (1811-1865) auf der Krim. Kiev: Goethe-Institut Kiew.

11. Kiesewetters ethnographische Reisebilder (1854). Berlin.

12. Bildung und Wissenschaft. (1999). №4.

Размещено на Allbest.ru