Essay

Entzauberung and re-Zauberung

Where are you, beautiful world?Come back,Divine golden age of nature!Alas, only in the world of the nymphs of songYour fabulous trace lives on.The fields mourn their doomNo gods appear to me.Alas, from a landscape of life and warmthOnly shadows remain.¹(Friedrich Schiller, The Greek Gods)

Point and Counterpoint in Landscape AestheticsSinceUniversity Square has also been pedestrianized with continuous paving as it is now, I have seen advertising poets call it an "urban plain". I see here a perfect illustration of the old and irreconcilable tension between urbanity and nature; between the artificialization of our overpopulated planet and the pre-Romanesque Sehnsucht, the longing for the primordial Edenic condition.

Both the paving and the metaphorization of this public space could be couched in para-romantic terms such as "landscaping" or even a little "re-magification" - for just as no man has not written a poem, so no man has not associated the natural landscape with the magic of the paradisiacal site. At least once in his life. The very phrase "urban landscape" contains an intention of warming up the image of an environment too anthropized by modernity, prosaically called "urban environment". The pedestrianization of the square recalls the idealized memory of the medieval city, and its poeticization awakens the senses to the charm of nature. These are "classic" romantic escapes, like. Incidentally, these are exactly the two associations with which we save our architecture today: with history and with nature.

Yes, the world is full of binaries, among them "magifying" and "de-magification". Entzauberung - de-magnification - was Schiller's term, lamenting the abandonment of nature by the gods. But it was not Schiller who tried to magify it back, because he was not a romantic. (Did not classical ideals also have a romantic nature? But let's not delve now into Schlegelian telluric substrata.) He was about harmony, possibly the harmonization of binaries. It was the Romantics en titre who were to revive the authentic nature.

Before them, however, the first re-magification was attempted by Capability Brown, in the landscaping of English estates. It was he who, after le Nôtre's high compositional prowess, but especially after the geometrization of foliage throughout aristocratic Europe, set about the de-gardening of the landscape. He did so, I think, not out of any counter-Latin competitive urge, but out of a sincere Anglo-Saxon feeling, tired of so much light of reason infiltrated into the innermost recesses of ^nature2. And without having lost his reason.

But neither was it given to Adam to languish forever in heaven. Just when the world was contentedly resting its eyes on the scenic parks with their grassy dunes where cows grazed, ponds where deer watered, ruins haunted by prisons, and the tree-lined streams where nightingales sang, the first arrows of criticism began to disturb the peace. A poet of the time, for example, declared that he wished he had died before Capability, so that he might have seen heaven before it was arranged. And after the poor man's death, the Romanticists labeled his parks as tedious attempts to replicate heaven on earth. It's clear he lacked the romantic exaltation, lacked the frisson of the sublime of this Amability Brown.

From now on, landscape design was to follow a destiny of contradictions. Having been half-emerged from the great house of architecture, it too swung between the heights of feeling and the virtue of lucidity, like architecture between form and function.

Read the full text in Arhitectura 5/2013

Notes:1 My free translation from Schiller's Greek Gods- where the term Entzauberung first appears. The term has been taken up by the social sciences and used in the sense of the desacralization of modern life (eng. disenchantment, fr. désenchantement).

Die Götter Griechenlandes

Schöne Welt, wo bist du? Kehre wieder,/ Holdes Blütenalter der Natur! / Ach, nur in dem Feenland der Lieder / Lebt noch deine fabelhafte Spur. / Ausgestorben trauert das Gefilde, / Keine Gottheit zeigt sich meinem Blick. / Ach, von jenem lebenwarmen Bilde / Blieb der Schatten nur zurück.

2 Lessing, his contemporary, was also independently engaged in a struggle against the imitation of French styles and a reorientation towards the study of Shakespeare, more in keeping with the Anglo-German spirit.

Art thou, fair world, no more? Return, thou virgin-bloom on Nature's face; Ah, only on the minstrel'smagic shore,Can we the footstep of sweet fable trace!The meadows mourn for the old hallowing life;Vainly we search the earth of gods bereft;Where once the warm and living shapes were rife,Shadows alone are left.¹(Friedrich Schiller, The Gods of Greece)

Point and Counterpoint in the Aesthetics of Landscape Ever since Universității Square became a pedestrian area made of continuous pavement, as it is the fashion these days, the poets of advertising have been referring to it as to the "urban clearing". To me, this is a perfect illustration of the old irreconcilable tension between urban life and nature, between the artificialization of our overpopulated planet and the all too Romanian Sehnsucht, i.e. the longing for the primordial Edenic condition.

This public space's paving and metaphorical treatment could both be described in para-Romantic terms as "landscaping" or even a little bit of "re-magicking", because, because, as there isn't a man who hasn't written a poem in his life, there also isn't a man who hasn't associated natural landscape with the magic of the paradisiac site at least once in his lifetime. The very phrase "urban landscape" contains an intention to warm the image of an ambiance that modernity has rendered too anthropic and prosaically called "urban environment". The pedestrian works made to the square recall to one's mind the idealized memory of the medieval town, and its new clearing-like appearance awakens one's sensitivity to the charm of nature. These are the "classic" Romantic exits, as it were. Between you and I, these are exactly the two associations which manage to safeguard architecture today: history and nature.

Yes, the world is full of binaries, among which "magicking" and "de-magicking". Entzauberung - dis-enchantment - was the term chosen by Schiller, who deplored the gods' departure from nature. But it wasn't Schiller who tried to magick it back again, because he was not a Romantic. (Wasn't there a Romantic side as well to classic ideals? But let us not delve right now into the telluric Schlegelian depths.) He was an advocate of harmony, possibly of the harmonization of binaries. The revival of authentic nature was to be achieved by the Romantics proper.

However, before them the first re-magicking was tried by Capability Brown, in the process of arranging the English domains. After the remarkable composition that was le Nôtre, but especially after bringing parks throughout the aristocratic Europe under the government of geometric rules, he started to de-garden the landscape. In my opinion, in this endeavor of his, he was not driven by any desire to counteract the Latins, but by pure and honest Anglo-Saxon feelings, saturated with so much light of reason penetrating into the deepest corners of one's ^mind2. And he did it without losing his reason, too.

But Adam himself was not destined to linger for ever in Heaven. Precisely when people were resting their eyes contentedly on the green landscapist parks with grazing cows, on the deers taking water from the ponds, the ruins visited by humming birds and the clumps of trees harboring the warbling nightingales, the first critics began to make sharp comments and trouble that peace. For instance, a poet of the times stated that he would like to die before Capability, so that he would be able to see Heaven before refurbishment. And after the death of the poor man, the Romantics began to call his parks boring attempts at reproducing Heaven on Earth. Clearly, this Amability Brown was devoid of Romantic exaltation and the thrill of the sublime.

From that time onward, landscapin would have a troubled destiny torn between contraries. Half detached from the great house of architecture, it has been vacillating between the high noble feelings and the virtue of lucidity, just like architecture between form and function.

Read the full text in the print magazine.

Notes:1 My free translation of The Gods of Greece, by Schiller, where the term Entzauberung first appears. Such term was taken over by the social sciences and used with the meaning of desacralization of modern life (in English disenchantment, fr. désenchantement).

Die Götter Griechenlandes

2 His contemporary, Lessing, was fighting his own battle against the emulation of French styles and in favor of turning rather to the study of Shakespeare, more appropriate for the Anglo-German spirit.