“Art and Climate” is the title of an article published by Richard Wagner, the famous German musician, in 1841. Wagner explains in the introduction that his opinions on the future of Art had been criticized for failing to take into account the influence of Climate upon man’s capacity for Art. Broadly this criticism suggested that northern Europeans had a poorer capacity for art than those who were blessed with the Ionic skies of the warmer climates of the Mediterranean. Wagner was not impressed with this criticism and set out to prove in the article that “Everywhere, in every climate, will these works of Art be inspired by native skies: they will be beautiful alike and perfect”. However, many of Wagner’s ideas have been controversial and considered almost racial and linked to what Livingstone (2002)has called moral climatology. Hence we have to be careful and state that the quality of art in a region is not in any way determined by climate. Climatic determinism will undoubtedly...
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Cultural Climatology
Literature and Climate
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Neuberger, H., Thornes, J.E. (2005). Art and Climate. In: Oliver, J.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3266-8_18
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