Term: Stimmung

"Stimmung" is a German word that means "mood" or "tuning." It's a noun form of "stimmen," which means to tune one's voice, but it refers not only to the outward voice, but the inward voice of the soul. As such it has deep musical and poetic associations beyond the visual arts alone.

In the book Prague 1900, Petr Wittlich writes that Stimmung "refers not only to the particular emotional content of these paintings, but also to a certain philosophical undertone." Stimmung was seen as a special personal quality "preferable to normal sensory impressions: it was that additional element that inscribes miraculous signs of the world on the soul and is accompanied by feelings of exaltation and passion."

The great Russian abstract painter Wassilly Kandinsky, described what is essentially the same quality Rodin refers to as the "stimmung" (roughly translated as the sentiment) of an artwork. He conceives this "Stimmung" as "the lofty emotions beyond words" that enables artworks to "fulfill their purpose and feed the spirit."

From Gurney Journey (by James Gurney)