With their fascination for classical antiquity, the champions of the Renaissance were responsible for the notion of the ‘Middle Ages’: a vacuum of backward barbarism separating their own era of rebirth from an idealized classical age. The ecclesiastical architecture of this dark period was dismissed as ‘Gothic’ on the grounds that its strange, pointed arches could only have come from the barbarian Goths, the tribe that had overthrown the Roman Empire.
The Middle Ages began to attract fresh attention in the 18th century – a time, remarkably enough, of emerging industry and accelerated social change. Two very different strands emerged in this fascination for the mysterious Gothic period. The first was an image of a romantic, chivalrous and devout age: a salutary example for a disenchanted modern world. Against the backdrop of rising nationalism in Europe, Gothic design was adopted as a means of making society real, personal and pure again.
“Indeed, my dear Sir, as kind as you are about it, I perceive you have no idea what Gothic is: you have lived too long amidst true taste, to understand venerable barbarism.” — Author Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann, 1754
François Gérard, Aan de oever van de Lora roept Ossian geesten op met de klanken van zijn harp (uitsnede), c. 1811. Ⓒ Hamburger Kunsthalle (gift van Ludwig F. Hansing, 1910)
At the same time, there was also a growing market for so-called Gothic novels: sensational horror stories in which history was not a picturesque epic of chivalry but a terrifying spectre. Readers revelled in the monsters and barbarism of an earlier age and it is to this ghostly interpretation of the past that we owe our current understanding of the word ‘Gothic’. While these two strands of the Gothic tradition are very different, they share the fact that neither has much to do with the actual past: each of them exaggerates, twists or straightforwardly invents history. The past on which Goth is based is an intoxicating mixture of fantasy and reality.
“I seek antiquity and not novelty. I strive to revive not invent.” — Designer and architect Augustus Pugin, in a letter to John Bloxham, 18401
While these two strands of the Gothic tradition are very different, they share the fact that neither has much to do with the actual past: each of them exaggerates, twists or straightforwardly invents history. The past on which Goth is based is an intoxicating mixture of fantasy and reality.
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So Posthuman (3): Monstrous humans and human monsters
Afgerukte ledematen, ontbindende lijken en afstotelijke monsters. Net als in het posthumanisme staat in gothic het lichaam centraal. Toevallig? Volgens curator Tomas van den Heuvel niet.
Identity and community
From the exposition: goth is a battleground for the great issues of identity, individual and community. Now, and already in the nineteenth century.
The dark mirror of the soul
From the exhibition: a sublime nature in this sense features prominently in the Gothic tradition, not only as a setting for elusive mysteries or unspeakable secrets, but also as a protagonist in its own right.
Atmosphere over form
From the exhibition: The Goth tradition allows you to mix imagery, symbols and styles to your heart’s content. The result is an emphatic atmosphere, which stimulates the imagination and creates darkness. Goth isn’t a style in the traditional sense but a feeling.
The theatre of authenticity
From the exhibition: Goth eagerly pursues a sense of authenticity and is not afraid to evoke it artificially.
Dark technology
From the exhibition: new technologies help to visualize the dark sense of life in constantly changing ways, although it is frequently the shortcomings of such technology – scratches on the film or fading of the photograph – that give a ‘Gothic feel’ to an image.
The haunted city
From the exhibition: the threatening, impersonal and all-consuming metropolis shaped the Gothic imagination of this uncertain period. It is a form of the Gothic where fear of the future becomes entangled with the dread of the past.
Alternatieve stereotypes
From the exhibition: the Goth subculture experiments like no other with gender, sexuality and style, finding new meanings for old stereotypes through endless combinations.
