{"id":36120,"date":"2021-01-03T10:38:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T10:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=36120"},"modified":"2021-01-05T19:38:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T19:38:35","slug":"max-klinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2021\/01\/03\/max-klinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Landslides in Art Part 34: Landslide (Bergsturz) from Intermezzi, Opus IV by Max Klinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landslides in Art Part 34: Landslide (Bergsturz) from Intermezzi, Opus IV by Max Klinger<\/h4>\n

Max Klinger (1857 – 1920)<\/a> was a German artist renowned for his paintings, sculptures, prints and graphgics, as well as extensive writings on art and graphics.<\/p>\n

In 1881 he produced a folio, published as Intermezzi, Opus IV<\/i>, comprising of seven etchings and aquatints with chine coll\u00e9 and five etchings with with chine coll\u00e9.  There is a copy in the Museum of Modern Art in New York<\/a>.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Intermezzi, Opus IV<\/em> provides a series of whimsical snapshots, arranged in sets of four works.  One set of four etchings features the mythological lives of centaurs, and one of these is named Landslide (Bergstrutz)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"Landslide

Landslide (Bergstruz), an etching by Max Klinger produced in 1881.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n

The etching shows a simple but very beautiful landscape – Max Klinger had studied Japanese art, including the depiction of landscapes.  The influences are clear in the work – look in particular at the representation of the mountains in the distance.  But the main depiction is of a landslide in the centre of the etching.  The landslide looks quite recent – note the smooth, unweathered topography of the landslide source and scar, and no track has yet been created across the deposit.  On the edge of the lake is a boulder-rich landslide deposit – this was a rapid and energetic slide, which bifurcated to leave a bouldery heap on the lower part of the hillside.<\/p>\n

Max Klinger has included in the etching six centaurs, three of whom are approaching the landslide with aplomb.  One is distracted by a snake, to the evident frustration of the team leader.  Clearly the centaurs are a team of engineering geologists, dispatched to investigate the landslide – indeed two are carrying ranging poles.  Presumably the third is transporting a theodolite, out of sight.  These centaurs are the ideal field geologists, with a human upper body but the stability and energy of a quadruped.<\/p>\n

I imagine the centaurs will be quickly able to evaluate the landslide (once they have stopped being distracted by the snake); I wonder what they made of that fractured outcrop on the nearside of the landslide.  I sense that there is a high risk of a toppling failure there, and there is a similarly precarious outcrop on the far side.  The services of a roped access team might be required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landslides in Art Part 34: Landslide (Bergsturz) from Intermezzi, Opus IV an etching by Max Klinger produced in 1881<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":36125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[584],"tags":[502,30608,469,139],"class_list":["post-36120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-2","tag-art","tag-etching","tag-featured","tag-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}