MAKART, Hans
Austrian painter. He studied (1860-65) at the Akademie in Munich under the history painter Karl Theodor von Piloty whose influence is evident in Makart’s Death of Pappenheim (1861; Vienna, Historisches Museum). Makart visited London and Paris in 1862 and Rome in 1863. The Papal Election (1863-65; Munich, Neue Pinakothek) reveals Makart’s skill in the bold use of colour to convey drama as well as his virtuoso draughtsmanship. Two decorative triptychs, Modern Cupids (1868; Vienna, Zentsparkasse), and the Plague in Florence (1868; private collection), brought Makart both fame and disapproval (mostly because they lacked a literary original) when exhibited in Munich in 1868. His plan for the second work (c. 1868; St Gall, Kunstmuseum) shows a setting of sombre magnificence.
In 1869, he was called to Vienna where he shaped Viennese aestheticism like no artist before or after him. The “Makart style” determined the culture of an entire era. Makart attracted the public through the sensuous appeal of his large-scale, theatrical productions of historicising motifs painted in brilliant colours. He was deeply interested in the interaction of all the visual arts and thus the implementation of the idea of the “total work of art” which dominated discussions on the arts in the 19th century. This was the ideal which he realized in magnificent festivities which he organised. The culmination of these was the pageant of the City of Vienna organised to celebrate the silver wedding of the imperial couple in 1879.
With his sketchy, fleeting mode of painting, Makart, whose artistic successor is said to be Gustav Klimt, exerted a seminal influence on the development of painting after 1900.
