1 Music: The Second Viennese School
1.1 Origins and Historical Context
The Second Viennese School emerged in the early twentieth century against a backdrop of late Romanticism and the dissolution of traditional tonality. Composers such as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler had already stretched harmonic boundaries, but a more radical break came from Arnold Schoenberg and his circle in Vienna. Their work was shaped by the cultural ferment of fin‑de‑siècle Vienna, a city alive with psychoanalysis, modernism, and the decline of the Habsburg Empire. The term “Second Viennese School” distinguishes these composers from the “First” (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) and reflects their collective ambition to create a new musical language.
1.2 Core Figures
1.2.1 Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was the central figure and teacher of the group. Born in Vienna, he began as a late‑Romantic composer (e.g., *Verklärte Nacht*). He developed atonality around 1908, abandoning key signatures in works such as the *Five Pieces for Orchestra* and *Erwartung*. In the early 1920s he codified the twelve‑tone technique, a method of organizing chromatic pitches into rows. Schoenberg emigrated to the United States in 1933, where he taught at the University of California, Los Angeles.
1.2.2 Alban Berg
Alban Berg (1885–1935) studied under Schoenberg and combined twelve‑tone procedures with a more emotionally expressive style. His operas *Wozzeck* and *Lulu* are cornerstones of the twentieth‑century repertory, blending atonal language with traditional forms and dramatic intensity. Berg’s music often retains a Romantic sweep, making it more accessible to audiences than that of his colleague Webern.
1.2.3 Anton Webern
Anton Webern (1883–1945) was the most radical of the group. His compositions are extremely concise, focusing on pointillistic textures, extreme register shifts, and rigorous serial organization. Works such as the *Symphony Op. 21* and the *Variations for Piano* epitomize his aphoristic style. Webern’s influence, especially after his death, was enormous on the post‑war avant‑garde.
1.3 Theoretical Foundations
1.3.1 Atonality and Emancipation of Dissonance
Schoenberg coined the term “emancipation of the dissonance” to justify the use of formerly dissonant intervals (sevenths, ninths) as equal partners with consonances. In atonal music, no tonal center governs the harmony; chords are treated as autonomous sound complexes. This approach first appeared in Schoenberg’s *Second String Quartet* (1907–08) and was fully realized in his *Three Piano Pieces*, Op. 11.
1.3.2 Twelve-Tone Technique
The twelve‑tone method, developed by Schoenberg around 1921, orders all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale into a fixed sequence called a row or series. The row may be used in its original form, retrograde, inversion, or retrograde inversion, and can be transposed to any starting pitch. This technique provided a structural replacement for tonality, ensuring coherence while maintaining atonal harmony. It became the dominant compositional method for many twentieth‑century composers.
1.4 Major Works
1.4.1 Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire
*Pierrot Lunaire* (1912) is a melodrama for speaker and chamber ensemble, setting twenty‑one poems by Albert Giraud. It uses *Sprechstimme* (a hybrid of speech and song) and a five‑piece instrumental group. The work is a landmark of Expressionist music, exploring vivid, nightmarish imagery through extreme vocal techniques and free atonality.
1.4.2 Berg’s Wozzeck
*Wozzeck* (1925) is an opera based on Georg Büchner’s fragmentary play. Berg uses a variety of traditional forms (suite, passacaglia, symphony) within an atonal framework. The opera’s psychological depth, social critique, and musical innovation quickly made it a staple of the modern repertoire.
1.4.3 Webern’s Symphony Op. 21
The *Symphony* (1928) for chamber orchestra is a two‑movement work exemplifying Webern’s mature style. It employs a single twelve‑tone row, symmetrical forms, and extreme economy of material. The piece lasts only about ten minutes yet conveys an intricate web of motivic relationships.
1.5 Legacy and Influence
The Second Viennese School fundamentally altered the course of Western art music. Its techniques were adopted and extended by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Milton Babbitt, and Luigi Nono. The school also provoked intense controversy; many audiences and performers resisted atonal music for decades. Nonetheless, its emphasis on structural rigor and its break with tonal tradition remain central to the modernist and avant‑garde canons.
2 Art History: The Vienna School of Art History
2.1 Founders and Early Development
2.1.1 Rudolf von Eitelberger
Rudolf von Eitelberger (1817–1885) is considered the founder of the Vienna School of Art History. In 1852 he became the first professor of art history at the University of Vienna. He emphasized the systematic study of artworks within their historical context and helped establish the discipline as an academic field.
2.1.2 Alois Riegl
Alois Riegl (1858–1905) was the most influential early theorist. His work on late Roman art, the decorative arts, and the concept of *Kunstwollen* (artistic volition) shifted focus away from simple biographical or technical history. Riegl argued that art evolves through an internal, quasi‑autonomous logic rather than as a mere reflection of external circumstances.
2.2 Key Methodologies
2.2.1 Formalism and Kunstwollen
Riegl’s formalism examined visual structures such as line, color, and composition as carriers of meaning. *Kunstwollen* posits that each period has a specific artistic intention that drives stylistic change. This approach allowed art historians to study non‑Western and applied arts with the same seriousness as the Renaissance canon.
2.2.2 Stylistic Analysis
The Vienna School developed rigorous methods of stylistic analysis, comparing works across periods and regions to identify patterns. Scholars like Franz Wickhoff and Riegl used the concept of “optical” versus “haptic” perception to categorize artistic modes. These tools proved influential for the later study of iconography and connoisseurship.
2.3 Later Generations
2.3.1 Max Dvořák
Max Dvořák (1874–1921), a student of Riegl, expanded the school’s scope to include a broader cultural history. He linked artistic changes to intellectual and spiritual developments, as seen in his work on Gothic art and Mannerism. His *Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte* (Art History as Intellectual History) became a foundational text.
2.3.2 Hans Sedlmayr
Hans Sedlmayr (1896–1984) continued the formalist tradition but added a strong structuralist bent. His most famous work, *Verlust der Mitte* (The Loss of the Centre, 1948), critiqued modern art from a conservative perspective. Sedlmayr’s emphasis on “structural analysis” influenced later approaches in both art history and literary theory.
2.4 Impact on Art Historical Studies
The Vienna School’s emphasis on theoretical frameworks and systematic methodology shaped art history departments worldwide. Its concepts (e.g., *Kunstwollen*, stylistic periodization) remain part of the discipline’s analytical toolkit. The school also encouraged interdisciplinary dialogue with psychology, philosophy, and musicology, leaving a lasting imprint on visual culture studies.
3 Visual Arts: The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism
3.1 Emergence after World War II
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism formed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, partly as a reaction to both Nazi repression and the dominance of abstract art. Its founders were students at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna who sought to revive figurative painting with a surrealist bent. The group coalesced around the so‑called “Art Club” and exhibitions at the Vienna Secession.
3.2 Principal Artists
3.2.1 Ernst Fuchs
Ernst Fuchs (1930–2015) was the leading figure and a student of Albert Paris Gütersloh. He developed a highly detailed, often religiously inspired style, blending Old Master techniques with fantastic imagery. Fuchs later became a sculptor and architect as well.
3.2.2 Arik Brauer
Arik Brauer (1929–2021) combined precise realism with folk‑inspired and dreamlike elements. His paintings often feature absurd or humorous scenarios, rendered with meticulous glazes. Brauer was also a singer‑songwriter and an architect.
3.2.3 Rudolf Hausner
Rudolf Hausner (1914–1995) focused on psychological themes, frequently depicting himself in metamorphic landscapes. His work *Adam* series explores the concept of the “autistic” self. Hausner’s technique emphasized layered oil glazes and subtle tonalities.
3.3 Stylistic Characteristics
3.3.1 Surrealism and Meticulous Technique
The Fantastic Realists employed ultra‑realistic, almost photographic detail (often using the *Mischtechnik* of egg tempera and oil glazes) to depict impossible or supernatural scenes. This contrasts with the automatism of many surrealists; their work is deliberate, highly finished, and rooted in the craft traditions of the Northern Renaissance.
3.3.2 Allegorical and Mythological Themes
Common subjects include biblical and mythological narratives, dream sequences, and symbolic portraits. The artists frequently referenced Bosch, Bruegel, and Dürer. Motifs of decay, transformation, and the unconscious are central, reflecting the influence of psychoanalysis.
3.4 Reception and Legacy
Initially marginalized by the abstract‑dominant art world, the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism gained international attention in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly through the “Phantastic Realism” exhibition circuit. It influenced later movements such as the Leipzig School and contemporary fantastic and visionary art. In Austria, the school remains a celebrated part of the country’s cultural heritage, with many works housed in the Vienna Museum of Fantastic Art.