[370] of man occurred. We call it, if we use terms taken from the history^a of art^b, the period of Mannerism and, in the further development, of the Baroque. If we take concepts from the history of religion, we call it the period of Counter-Reformation and Reformation^c, whereby Counter-Reformation in the visual arts is more important. And if we take it from the political^d point of view, we can call it

the period of bourgeois absolutism, of the absolutistic powers^e of the kings, or of special groups. All this is a reaction against what first broke out in the Renaissance^f. If we have similar reactions, since the end of the 19th century, then we must be very humble in praising these reactions as I did when I showed you the second and the fourth levels of art, namely humble in the knowledge that this may be ALSO a transitory reaction, and that finally the spirit^g of industrial society^h will remain victorious--we don't know. But one thing we know is that from the point of view of RELIGION and culture, this reaction, since the end of the 19th century, has behind itself great religious motives: it is a BREAKTHROUGH, not because of the success of revivalist preachers, but because of the expression in all great cultural activities of the 20th century of the ground

breaking under our feet. The reaction which I called Mannerism and Baroque, or Counter-Reformation and Reformationⁱ, or absolutism in different realms, was shown to you in pictures of El Greco^j and Rembrandt^k-- El Greco, an expression of the Counter-Reformation; in Rembrandt, an expression of the Reformation in its combination with humanism^l. About the Counter-Reformation, I can say that here-- and I think I said it briefly when I showed you pictures of El Greco--the mystical^m reality which in