Archetypal Motifs in Art History

by Peter Stebbing

We are at a point in the fifth post-Atlantean age when current views must be directed to spiritual forms in art.

— Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 31st August 1918, GA 183

In both Western and Eastern European art the subject of the “Madonna and Child” occurs most often. ”The Crucifixion,” “Saint George and the Dragon,” the “Archangel Michaël” and motifs of the Old and New Testaments are similarly to be accounted as being of a higher, transcendental or archetypal nature. Of the same order are representations of the upper and lower gods of archaic and classical Greek sculpture, such as Artemis, Apollo, Zeus, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hermes, Poseidon, or Athene. Looking further back, to ancient Egypt, we find depictions of Isis and Osiris, of Horus, Hathor, Anubis, Nephthys, Nut and other deities, along with their earthly representatives, the pharaohs or priestkings and priest-queens.

Gerard Wagner: New Life (Mother and Child). Plant colors, 67 x 49 cm

With regard to our own time, the sublime element in the art of the past would seem as though reduced to insignificance in the various “isms” of Modern Art. The current art of our time, even if justified in its own way, appears for the most part fragmented and without connection to a higher state of being – to the supersensible.

Gerard Wagner: Easter (Three Crosses). Plant colors, 67 x 49 cm

A widely held conception of art in our time is that it is concerned with “self-expression.” Properly understood, however, authentic artistic activity, of whatever kind, presupposes the ability on the part of artists to transpose themselves into something “other,” and to identify fully with it. In effect, the artist says to himself, “I am that.” In the case of painting, this means immersing oneself in a particular color. – Hence, an element of selflessness can be said to be an inherent part of all genuine creativity, leading to a truer sense of selfhood, to greater self-knowledge.

The renewal of the arts inaugurated a hundred years ago by Rudolf Steiner—with the architecture, sculpture, and painting of the first Goetheanum, and with the series of 23 motif sketches and 5 large watercolors given to Henni Geck for a new painting training—has become an ever more crucial need of the times we live in. Here it is a matter of a higher order of motifs, capable of unlimited further development.

We have the pioneer painter Henni Geck to thank for making the original watercolors of Rudolf Steiner possible. After the destruction by fire of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922–23, it had become her greatest wish that Rudolf Steiner might find the time, despite an intensive schedule, to paint once again. She kept everything constantly ready for this purpose and he complied gladly with her request. In this way, in the limited time available, five large watercolors arose from his hand:

The Moon Rider (Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson): 17-19 Jan 1924

New Life (Mother and Child): 1529 Feb 1924

Easter (Three Crosses): 7-19 April 1924

The Archetypal Plant: 21-22 May, 5 June 1924

Archetypal Human or Archetypal Animal: 9-11 July, 5-8 Aug 1924.

The last of these was concluded only weeks prior to Rudolf Steiner’s sickbed confinement of the final six months. Following the loss of the cupola paintings of the first Goetheanum, these are the only actual paintings by Rudolf Steiner that have come down to us. Their importance can hardly be overstated.

Rudolf Steiner’s “New Life (Mother and Child)” stands in self-evident, reciprocal relation to “Easter (Three Crosses),“ while “The Archetypal Plant” has its counterpart in the “Archetypal Human Being / Archetypal Animal.” Here Goethe’s morphological discoveries are the underlying starting point. As archetypal motifs originating in our time, they are without antecedents in the history of art.

A lecture on Raphael (Jan 30, 1913, Berlin) can be regarded as an important key to understanding the concluding phase of Rudolf Steiner’s work in painting. This lecture points to an ever greater inwardness or “internalizing” of the human soul in the future development of humanity—clearly evident in the works of Raphael. Steiner’s large-format watercolors are an unmistakable further expression of this, as are the genial works of the painter Gerard Wagner in recreating these motifs. Though it may seem improbable at first to link Raphael’s works so directly with the painting impulse of Rudolf Steiner, separated as they are by four hundred years, an underlying relation becomes apparent, nonetheless, despite the manifest contrast. The Madonnas of Raphael will self-evidently never be surpassed. Yet, the future development of art, always “a daughter of the divine,” implies, in Rudolf Steiner’s sense, an ongoing spiritualization.

Gerard Wagner: Archetypal Plant, 67 x 49 cm; plant colors

With Gerard Wagner’s paintings in elaboration of Steiner’s motifs, it is a matter of pictures arising out of direct color experience that possess imaginative character. As archetypal motifs they prove to be of significant pedagogical and artistic value. A number of examples of Gerard Wagner’s paintings concerned with the above mentioned watercolor motifs are published in Gerhard Wagner: Four Large Watercolor Motifs of Rudolf Steiner, conceived as a sequel to The Art of Colour and the Human Form , both available from SteinerBooks. – The former includes possible “color buildups” for each of the latter four archetypal motifs, indicating in this way, how form can arise out of color.

Gerard Wagner: Archetypal Human/Archetypal Animal, 49 x 67 cm; plant colors

“The art of the future will be an art of inner maturity. What leads to artistic activity will be sensed only at a relatively advanced age in life. It will no longer be assumed that one cannot have the necessary youth forces for artistic creation in later years—as is still often asserted today. It will be found that only by way of inner deepening augmented by spiritual scientific insight are the forces released that lead to artistic creation.” —Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, February 7, 1915

Peter Stebbing

Peter Stebbing, born in Copenhagen in 1941, studied art in Brighton and London and emigrated to the USA in 1966, earning the MFA at Cornell University. While teaching design and color courses at the City University of New York, he began a practical exploration of the scientific color phenomena set forth by Goethe. This led eventually to the crucial question of finding a correspondingly lawful approach to color in painting. The new and wholly different training in color experience begun in 1976 with the painter Gerard Wagner on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s motif sketches, resolved fundamental artistic questions with a coherent and systematic approach fully in accord with Goethe’s discoveries and method. Peter subsequently established a painting school at Threefold Educational Foundation, teaching there 1983–1990. Since 1992 he has been director of the Arteum Painting School (www.arteum-malschule.de) in Dornach, Switzerland. He is editor and translator of The Goetheanum Cupola Motifs of Rudolf Steiner, by Gerard Wagner, and Conversations about Painting with Rudolf Steiner: Recollections of Five Pioneers of the New Art Impulse .