Gesamtkunstwerk
thumb|upright=1.35|Stairway of the Hôtel Tassel, an early example of Gesamtkunstwerk A Gesamtkunstwerk (, 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Background
- In opera
- Before Wagner
- Wagner's ideas
- In architecture
- Arts and Crafts movement
- Art Nouveau
- Modernism
- In art
- Other applications
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|upright=1.35|Stairway of the Hôtel Tassel, an early example of Gesamtkunstwerk A Gesamtkunstwerk (, 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.
== Background == The term was developed by the German writer and philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff in his 1827 essay Ästhetik oder Lehre von Weltanschauung und Kunst (or 'Aesthetics, or Doctrine of Worldview and Art'). The German opera composer Richard Wagner used the term in two 1849 essays, and the word has become particularly associated with his aesthetic ideals. It is unclear whether Wagner knew of Trahndorff's essay.