Towards the end of the 18th century, about 200 years ago, Germany was about to be conquered by a new style of painting: the romanticism. The objective was, just as we understand it today, to emphasise feelings. But it was much more than this …
It was about the self-conception of an entire generation of artists, poets and musicians, who were trying to oppose the, up until then, reigning reason of the enlightenment era and also the classicism that was concerned with order. They countered with irrational contents i.e. fantasy, infinity or transcendency. It was what Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) expressed about the artist in general at a much later point in time: »The fortune of an artist is the possibility, to express longing in forms.« [read more]
It was about 100 years ago when a special kind of postcard was fashionable in Europe: the moonshine card. This is a kind of postcard with motifs of cities or landscapes that was to convey the effect of a nightly moonshine scenery. It was supposed to be romantic and this obviously appealed to people in those days. There were printed cards as well as photo-postcards that were »dipped into moonlight« in this way. [
Maybe it lies within the plan of creation that we are so susceptible to everything that is bigger than what we already know or have already experienced. However, the following merely relates to heavenly bodies …
That people connect and come together in the full moon light is not new and has always been this way. But what regularly occurred during the second half of the 18th century in Birmingham, Great Britain around full moon time, was an encounter of a special kind. The countries most brilliant and influential minds met back then (natural scientists, physicians, poets, theologians, philosophers, inventors and industrialists), within the scope of the, by Erasmus Darwin initiated »Lunar Society« in 1765. [
Does the full moon have anything to do with our weather? Does the weather change at full moon or at new moon? Is there actually more or less rain and does the temperature therefore drop or rise? A few questions that everyone has surely heard of in one or the other form … [