You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This volume, first published by Rascher in 1954, contains three essays concerned with the
relationship of the artist to society. Neumann postulates that it is the artist's task to give expression to the original, formless archetypal patterns. The resultant images are, in his view, influenced by the era, by society, and by the context in which they are conceived, while at all times taking on their own individual mould from the psyche of the creative artist. The task of the artist, therefore, is to create by means of his own imagination, rather than be dominated by prevailing norms and the culture of the time in which he lives.
The three essays are headed: ‘Leonardo da Vinci and the mother archetype’, ‘Art and its epoch’, and ‘Comments regarding Marc Chagall’.
In his essay on Leonardo da Vinci, the author concentrates on the connection between the creative artist and his work, combined with the influence of the collective unconscious, most particularly the archetype of the great mother. This leads him beyond the point where Freud made his stand. Furthermore, a clarification is pursued of how Leonardo's creative genius was predominantly affected by those very core problems which eventually became the collective unconscious of modern man.
The fundamental connection of the creative individual to his epoch and the central tenor of the current climate in which he lives, which find their expression in modern art—these are the themes of the two remaining essays. Through an understanding of modern art and its creative representatives, it is stated, we clarify our interpretation of the current cultural setting, and in addition, we gain insight into the overall psychic dilemma of modern man.
The creative person is said to be the most profound representative of his time, or else his unconscious may throw up the very content which is missing in his culture. These people come closest to the psychically ill who, just like their creative counterparts, may be affected and overwhelmed by