ABSTRACT
ABOUT the year 1898, a change was manifested in Rilke’s work, a change that we have seen had become imperative. The spontaneous flowering of youthful intuition was finished, and with it youth itself had ended. New roads had to be sought. Outwardly there seemed many opportunities for expansion. Under the tutelage of Lou Andreas-Salomé, Rilke had zealously studied the history of art during the summer months of 1897, especially of Italian art; he had attended university lectures on the subject. In the early spring of 1898, he spent some time in Tuscany where Renaissance art, with its joyous, refined sensuality and the budding of its conscious individualism, was a revelation to him. In 1899, a fresh revelation awaited him on his first journey to Russia in the company of Lou Andreas-Salomé, and again in 1900 on his second and last visit to that country, for which he had thoroughly prepared by study. Rilke customarily dates his ‘real work’ from the time of these journeys, though sometimes he cites his visit to Italy. 1 To us who are concerned with the beginning of the change in his attitude to life and to his work, the latter is more accurate.
