1 Schüt^enscheibe, I S.Jahrhtindert, Heimatmuseum Kronach
1 Schüt^enscheibe17 J}, Heimatmuseum Tittmoning
3 Schatrenscheibe, 1. Hiilfte des 1 p.Jahrhunderts, Carolino Augusteum Salzburg
4 Schüt%enscheibe1880, Biirgerportrdts mit Trefferauswertungsapparat
Heimatmuseum Schwab ach
5, 6 Humorvolle Schatten scheiben, 18Heimatmuseum Tittmoning
guilds and associations integrated life in its
entirety and incorporated both worldly and
religious holidays, whose celebration was sub
ject to strict rules, the painted targets introduce
us to a burgher's life in the past centuries. The
variety of reasons which led to the donation
of a target surprises us time and againpolitical,
national and family events, interest in education
and above all the manifestations of popular
humor which parades here in all forms, some
of which would be inacceptable today. All
emotions which moved mind or heart were
represented on the targets. Out of this wealth
of creations, some splendid target collections
have been preserved by a few museums and
rifle-associations, most of them in Southern Ger
many, Austria and Switzerland. These com
prehensive collections offer us important in
sights of the social life of that time. The Baro
que targets vaunt the legends and mythology
of Antiquity which were revived by the Renais
sance, they are resplendent with artful chrono
grams (Latin dates worked into a text) with
proverbs and allegories in florid Latin. From a
pictorial point of view, they, like the brighter
Rokoko targets, are closer to high art than the
targets of the 19th cent., which tend to be
popular and nai've. By the end of that century
they had mostly sunk to the level of bourgeois
and nationalistic trash as on the whole it must
be said that in the 20th cent, we hardly any
longer meet with targets remarkable for their
originality - with the exception of some rustic
ones. During the Rokoko playful and amorous
scenes came to the fore, while the shocks of the
Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th
cent, and the emergence of the National States
supplied many political motifs, until Mr. Bieder
meier represented his respectability and con-
tentedness. From their very beginnings onward,
the targets were «applied art» in the best
meaning of the term. In their colors and their
composition they are designed around the bull's
eye, and their constant harmony of picture and
lettering makes them legitimate ancestors of
today's commercial art.
La resonance des différents styles dans I'art
populaire est comparable a un écho qu'on con
tinue de percevoir lorsque les créateurs ont
depuis longtemps frappé de nouvelles harmo
nies. Mais le folklore lui donne des nuances
et des modulations d un charme suprème. La
coutume qui consiste a célébrer les événements
importants et a fixer une atmosphere sur des
cibles peintes remonte vraisemblablement a
une époque antérieure a 1600; les plus ancien
nes cibles que nous possédions et qui datent de
cette période témoignent déja, en effet, d'une
maïtrise dans la composition sur une surface
circulaire qui laisse conclure a une tradition
plus ancienne. Les sociétés de tir sont les pre
mières organisations bourgeoises; certaines,
qui existent encore de nos jours, ont été fon-
dées dès le moyen age. Ces corporations don-
naient aux habitants des villes, aux bourgeois,
la possibilité de se défendre contre les em-
piètements des princes et de la noblesse. Le
róle joué par cette protection, la fierté d'une
classe sociale qui prenait conscience d'elle-
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