A Theory Of/Cloud/: Toward a History of Painting 0804734402, 9780804734400

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A THEORY OF jCLOUDj Toward a History of Painting

Hubert Damisch

Translated

STANFORD STANFORD,

by Janet Lloyd

UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA

PRESS 2002

Contents

/llustratio1u

A Tlxory of/Cloud/ was origirully published in Frcnc:11 in 1972 under me title n1lont Ju /nU4tt/, 0 Editions du Seuil, 1971-

Sc:anford Uniw.rs1ty Press Sunford. California English cranslaoon o 1001 by the Board of Trustees of the Lcbnd Stlnford Junior Univcnny

1

Sign and Symbol

2

Sign and Representation

3 Syntactical Space

Printed in the United States of Amelia on acid-free, archival-quality paper

4

IL Series.

NDJL40 .01813

1001

7S9·9-i-dC2J

OrigUW Printing 201 Lui 6gwc below anc:L~u:s year of this printing: II

10

09 08 Je '>pace. ..lruc, these: cffecu of :in :ill-consuming decoration u c the product of a later period of B:iroque, but the determining feature of this an, the unconcrollcd revdling in sp:acc and light, ''-;is ~crongly felt from the 6m...•

Prtsngr But it w:u not onlv srvlislic analysi~ 1ha1 cn.ablcd historians such as ' ' BurckharJt) to sec in the cupolas of P:a.rma \'lffiin) c.har an of""'1rron to use t b · 9 :uul.k1 be regarded as '"a kind of sryle or manncr"? \V/e cannot e certain this ilia the Canaccis' underscanding of style, C''cn if, for ncade1 • · kind of Platonism, according to which physical beaucy a>n!stt.~tcs the visible appearance of perfection, has af,vays fined in well With scnsu2licy. \Vhcre the cupolas of Parma arc concerned, 'vhac is imporwn is that Annibale Carracci saw fit to distinguish bcC\vecn the arrangement of the paru. the perspective o~nization of the "machine," and the judgment. the gnce and the quality of the color, :ill of which Mengs \vas to call •st)ic. or "manncr." 10 The comparison promprs a number of questions 11 m the mechanisms of che operation and the relations between "style:'' (is IYlcjust a mmcrof accution?) and the srrucrurc of the \vork ("a machine so well understood").

::rain

MODP.L/SEIUES

If the search for "sources" has a meaning (and in the present conIUl it ccruinly has, but perhaps not the most obvious one), it would at &mt appear that we have here the model, explicitly recognized, acknowledged, apprcciitcd as such, of a mode of illusionist decor, both spectacular md 6Jlcd with dynamic movement. The historians were to label this "Ba-

mquc; and it was to predominate in Rome a whole ccncury at least after Correggio: cupolas. V2Ulu, and ceilings where a Virgin, a sai~t. a fan:ily, or : :: whole ~o~ order can be seen ascending in ~glory" or "triumph" . Rr SW1 mg wtth clouds. Key examples arc provided by the c~pola

:;n: :.~fran~o :-'"'6 by

in S~t' An~ della Valle (The Assumption, 1615tbe• Pietro di Conona in the Barbcrini Palace (111e Glory of G ~lUrban VIII, i633-39), the vaulted ceiling of the nave of the ~ £ - of Jesus), painted by Baciccia (The Trium11h ortl1t Name ol' ~ lv1...- 83) and the ccil' 0 f r 'J 'J (71st Trillm..J. tht , . mg Sant' Ignazio, by Father [Andrea) Pozzo 'r" "J . Jt1UllS, 1691-94).ll

:r

A 8l.OCK£0 DEVEl.OP~I E NT

As \Ve have noted, the Carraccis rook a great interest in Correggio's ''machines." Yet che decorarion of the vault of the Farnese g:iJ lcl)' (15971604) consriruccs, in ics very principle, a contradiction to Corrc:ggio's con1in11011S composition. which adopts a perspective thar passes from the bottom up,vard (dal sotto i11 s11), as in chc cupolas of Parma. Correggio, as earJy as 1520, appears co have been prompted by rhe vertical relation beC\veen the spectator and the scene presented before his eyt:S to establish the vanishing point of che composition ac its zenith. Bur the Carraccis, at the beginning of chc following ccncury (and also Pietro di Cortona, around the middle of thar century, in the nave of the Santa Maria in Vallicclla church) continued co apply rhc Venetian schema of the q11adro riportato. [n such a schema, a painting, or a cycle of paintings, was conceived in accordance with rhe norms of an easel painting and a horizonl21 perspective, but \vas arranged on the vault or ceiling in such a 'va)' that the Boor level swung through ninety degrees in relarion to the \\'a.II, and any visitor who wanted to study the collection of picrures was obliged to perform a feat of veritable optical gymnastics. (As Wolffiin perccived1 such a fear was inevirably ncccmry, given the way in 'vhich the composition was organized: "Michdangdo's clcu, archicccconic arrangement has been sacrificed in order to achieve a richness beyond one's full comprehension. The principles of the design arc difficult co recognise and in the face of this intangibility. the eye remains pcrpecually in a state of unrest. Image overlaps image, and ir seems as if removing one will only reveal another; the comers open out into unending visras.") 12 The solution adopted by Correggio may at 6m sight seem more "natural," or at any rate more homogeneous and coherent, and less contradictory given that it is founded in all its pans, not just the ..comers," on a unifying principle. Nevenhclcss, as the result of a historical blockage (the reasons for which-among other things-the present study aims ro discover), more than a century was to pass before that solution came to predominate in Rome, and from there to spread throughout the whole of Europe. (In the eighteenth century, though-this kind of quam:l was nothing new-it was claimed that Correggio himself had got the idea of his cupola from an C2!lier master, one ofwhose works was in Santi Apostoli. in Rome.)'' We know from Ludovico Cigoli, who hdpcd to introduce this

'

~

and .r111bol

"Tl'rlcss angels who arc here rushing cowards ~ch ocher \vtth greatest pmion, and embracing. is \\-ithollr ~pie 1~ an.... : ~c xasion gt'"Ctl by thC$C figures is almost one of a kind of 1ntox1car1on. ) Correggio's ..cdcsml" an and his ..vaporous" manner thus seem to Khievcd and to manifest themselves through one particular clement, a cmcwbose value and functions Burcklwdt was the first to recognize. For Jdoodf, considctcd as a pictorial graph, may appear to conuatbe assumptions and principles of an an founded upon a strict delinof forms and upon gcomcuic perspective. and although it funhcrm•kcs it possible to free figures from the physical laws that govern and sanctions many aerial eJfccu, rapnucs. and paradoxical rupjumpoairions, it is not nccasarily the case that its occurrence, its IUio . and its vay aatmcnt ac:m solely fiom whim or from •man• in cbc pcjomM smsc of that team. The: •intoxication• proffered • is Jnciscly ca)nalatcd, and """4 plays its pan in that calaa• • a YCaot dw lends itsdf to operations the nature of wbicb. comedy rca>gJ•in:d, is semiotic. both in a signaling seose -L -

S1g11 111ul SJ·n1bol

17

L._

:n

me

F acoraU,. /Coad/ is noc jua an insuummt adopted by a style; it "!f:l1 marrrial of a ttmstnaion. Evm if Cor1cggio did provide die Of~ in me bqood with •• maswablc cubic space that he filled • '--• A:..&. ••L __ • ID powww._,..r. wat space is not defined according to the ~norms of ham peapeaivc. But neither is it ddined accoftl. ·~and l~ous norms of aerial perspective. For me

Comggto ~ ncvu without tloutJs, the ambiguous appearance of well pcn:civcd by Burddwdt, who noticed the way in which

k pouible to combine two kinds of pcrspcaivc: •me design&· the palndng'a aubsuan•m and the surface upon which the plintcd, ud ~the~ and m1•nca of the painting ate l>;dooda, which Correggio trats u raistcnt, compaa mas_,

"Ul11mc-.•

SI GNS ANO FIGURES

Cloud is thus an iconic clement regularly used 1n Correggio's paintings for precise and limited purposes, and aJ,vaY" in combination with other motifs. Ho,vevcr, Ln some instances, 1t S\vamps the cnurc figurnti\-c fidd and underpins an cncirdy original mode of organ1i1ng. aruculating. and defining ( Vtrdmrlicln1ng) ordcsignaring the space. the substratum, the surface upon which the picture is painted. DNignat111g-. the choice of ~'Ord is important, for by its VCI)' nature, the idea of a sign is surely always linked with that of designation.'-: Contrary to the phenomenological theory according to which an object cannot be given simultaneously both as an image and as a conccpr,38 analysis associates a given pictorial graph with a linguistic: sign (its intnprttmrt. as Peirce puts it): it designates that pictorial graph as ,/ouJ, at the same stroke establishing it as a rrpmm111mm. an iconic sign. But though the graph functions as a sign. it is not a sign only through language, description, and the separation that the latter establishes between the level ofthe signifier and that of the signified. The /cloud/ graph docs not play a solely piaorial or decorative role; it also ser..u to dcsi~~ aapaoe. Its iteration and prolifaation partio•larly dcsavc our ancoaoo ~ rlwt the sensible appearance ofsuch a •sign• is apparcndyexpecu:cl to sadsf7tbe demands of a particular Wtc (if nor style),~ Anm"balc ~.Was a necessary c:orrcam: co the rigor of the machi~y that used It u ~M'7 terial. But this is the point ar which the shoe p•ncbc1 and we pera:M die cquivoeality and the limiu of the problmwic of a sign in die contm ·Oltbe analysis ofartisOc compositions. Thevayamc unla opmtear~•mfi

levels. playing saua1 roles at once. DOW as the signUicd. now as signI&..Although they niay be identical &om the point ofview of~ ~oFd)l! piaorial process in its iconic consdruena, the obJeca are gard to the functions that they assume and the operadou dw define thmt. The unit denoted as t/qJ may, at die level the making oFthe piiinting, play the role of aftgrm, in the Hjelmalevian acnse (dw!is, a nooltft ~ u pan ofa sign. belongs to asys1e11a ofalp"~ is a p~~ dc6nidon. but one dw docs not erdude ambiguity When ~ illlccn inm 1rco&1nr. alongwhh i~ Which COIKlpond tO a: lcvd than dw of ibe sign. IA me i1iicctm'C ofa\GID).~

or

aec1•11 co shift. widiOiit ••~ &oa11 oae M fimcdoa$-as'aJfp thit>at1C1:a». cldiiMliJ

i.'.'

if!I ,111d

..

)·111bol

h od·ficacion? TI1e fact rhar rhe piccorial element 1 1 f · 11.11 r~lauonshtp. '\v n ouc n rdr pointed our, cake on the appearance o a solidly kh B cloud/ can. as urc a d. . h _.i bod . f determinate "olumc (thereby conua 1cc1ng c e vaporJeltnc:ircu ~ o 3 · · fi ous. C'-anescenc conno(acions chat are arrached 1n the semantic . . cld. co a t:. d "cloud") indicaces clcarl)' enough chac the relac1ve organ1z.ar1on of ~1gn1ne . d . d'al . the ,'aJious pictorial levels or registers needs co be conceive 1n a 1 cct1cal fuhion. rather chan ic being assumed rhac elements frorn lo\vcr lt:vels arc mechanically integrared 'vich those at higher levels. This \viii be seen even more clearlv, ,vhcn \Ye consider the symbolic (iconographic, rhetorical, chematic. ere.) funcrions char chis element assumes \\1chin che corpus of 'vorks co which Correggio's name is attached (aJchough, ic must be said, che very notion of an "element" no\v seems questionable). .

.

vr

The Machine and che Dream Thnnts MOVEMENT

"In ~rrcggio, (VC:rything is in movcmenc." 40 That is obviously a

~honcal formula-, For there are no mobile demcnts or parts in these

pamungs, these machines that are animated by no mechanism or motor an~:;r: unlik~ many present-day works of arc, do not aim to create any op . ' ane~t1c effects. The "movement" claimed to characterize Cornggio s an 1S in no sense rtal N h does it· depend 1n . any way . · or, owevcr, upon the pcrccpuve mechan. 0 f ·11 • • tbco .__ , .gh isms i w1on. Yet if the assertion carries any rcal.~.. them -rr-u tO UIC ICDSc:s, the material object SCC1DS to c, for the fundamental cxpc • tha • .d . • '• atylc iu own peculiar tonalirv •ncnthcc t as saa to gm: criria, be IWIUned • ·1 can, m e unanimous opinion • "pacion in the IU~ as ; ~ of tallUJ• r1111is/nnm1, or effusion, a 0 .. • for the scmiol ~ ~ ~ But by the same token, the IJ•nbolic nrw-. .L~cal proJea itself seems to be placed in doubt.. r - - uqt produced thc:sc • . -'IUpfUcmiodc: in&ucmiotic. ~nngs seems to be at once ~fOWa offorms Csigna) and ~t ~ts sourc:e secnu to lie deeper to die C!'ast char CA>rr • , m nifot arnculation; and supia-6:wadnu&y between themc:s l«'t'Dl to imply the ncga~ -'tllo bnpUe.111 im,,,..,,ia of~ material and the level of th4 te ba1111aoo between the two; wirhllC>

•• me

m:

d::

reference: ar all co a signifymg order and solely through che mediacion of the:. imagination. The: "style" of Correggio seems co be so much in rune \\'ith his sensible and bis chcmacic maceriaJ that 1c \vouJd be pointless, if nor ,,·rong, co seek co analyu: it 1n an objecr1ve fashion in order co reveal its formal bases. Far better to "live" ir through a kind of subjccrive participation guided by ics movemenc. and cvenruaJI)• to recognize these images for '''hal chC)• are: uperators ofeler1atio11 (chc expression Bachelard used ro describe the poetic images of Shelley, \vho, incidcncally. \VOlS che author of a poem encitltd The Cloud). T H £ AIR, TH E H EAVENS

Mcngs. who respected rhc established tradition of interpretation. regarded Raphael as divi~ and Correggio as ttllstiAI. The nuance is not without importance. The reason why Mcngs declared that the cupola of Parma cathedral resembled a product of the imagination or even a dream was not solely cba1 Correggio was indifferent to the "fine ideal•: is not the inlt»rica1ion encouraged by his painting of a dreamlike nature, linked to the d,namics of an asccnsional imagination, and connected, first and foremost. 10 a """"' offlyinx; and does not Correggio seem to be the prototype of a •vertical• pain1u, altogether devoted to rhe aerial clement? Fust there arc the almost too perfect enmplcs dw tbe Parma cupolas provide a surge polarii.cd both by height and by light (and furthe111iorc puncaaatea bycharaacristic: ambiguous and elusive signs ofthe aerial imaginatlon. 11xh as wings and clouds). In addition. many of his other most famous ClCllD.BPi sirions also manifest a prcdominandy vertical axis, the axis ~ wl1kh munication bctwccn canh and heaven opcr.ues. One is the «Ding Of~ Camera di San Paolo, with ics &Ice n•nncl of grcencrypierccdbf open•!R to the sky (a theme introduced earlier by Mantegna. in The Vi~ OfVlf ID'1• now in the Louvre), aff'ording glimpses of putti in ihe andent ma• ner.4 ' Another is the Dresden Night, in which a bank of doud l.clen M'dl cherubs is associated not only with a pillar (an obligatory~tor; Nativity), but also with a staircase, the top oFwhich is tnm

or

there are images of Madonnas, in which the double rcgiaca ~ is underlined by the addition ofadoud ofpucd figures. In one of these (TM~ Girl, in Naples) at ts ~ asicfc a SCICCn of foliage; iii aat>rhet (n,~ that wk is lcfi to SaintJoseph. Bl*'Cwhere; ~

to*

1[!1111:15)tllb'11

::!

• e • · 71it \'i"'i11 or5'1111r }ero111e (Pann:i), a large: cursuhsurutcs· ior irut.:incc. an ".,) 'J , I f I d . - suspc:nd-..1 wn ro euom thc br:lnch~ of 3 tree 1:ikcs rhe p ace o c ou s, and - L- SJ.me umc l d·J· ::lt uu; m thc ·sense of an un,'tiling to the up,\'3J'd surge of the

b Co h ~1C2ll\\·hilc. in :motht°f ~rio of paintings \' rrcgg10, c c ascens.iocu.I, 2 criaJ clement, along '"i1h clouds. is rreatcd in an unusual \vay. 'The four mythologial p.tncls c:onimi~sioncd by Fcdcng~ Gonzaga. che second duke of ~hntw, "·ere uid by \ 'a.sari to have been 1nccnded for Emperor Clwfcs \', buc it tw now been sho"·n tlut they were originally destined for a room in the Pal01no dcl Tc. known 25 the Hall of Ovid.46 These paintnowdispcrscd, were designed both iconographically and thematically isalinglc wliL Each of the four panels in mis cycle- the first in the his...,. of modem painting to be devoted to the loves of Jupiter- illustrates ale of the god'1 union with a mortal creature. The compositions r2lce variety of forms. bur all arc aerial or belong in some way to "dreams of 47 ranc115.•· In one (/o) Jupiter appears to lhe object of his desire as a doud; IUDC>Cbcl (llrnM) U a ofgold pouring from the clouds; in another µMl u a swan with ouuprcad wings; in the founh (Gll1lpl~M), transiaro an eagle. be is bearing the loY'Cd one aloft. The allegorical (and

3ppcara11cc of the: divine bird through to its final dcpart u~c as it soa~ up into the sky. conferring upon the image ic~ \'Crtical and acnal d1mc:ns1on.

p.iinting.

mowu

inlapimbcxi of tbac mythological morality tales is pcrfccdy ~ widi the rhcayfic intapacwion. The abduction of Ganymtdc 1 rhea ~as p"6gun~ and ~cute for John ~Evan­ IO me ~ 1?'1n whose YWon Comggio also painted) JS supl)'lnbolizc the aarcllea. libcrucd fiom all ta1csa ial desires. soar· ;illlDllOD chc ~ o(contanpbtion.41 fn dJe /Jmw pand the at ••

fOoroldaebcdofewoliulecupids,oncwidi win__ the ~thcr= ii to ftptacat the onn-: • ...____ --.,,... lallrsc•bl ~aon .,,....-=i cdcsrial Venus (sacred love) pairol • c.lic~ love). while a more manm: Cupid. with. or ~P. Cesare Ripas /'°"""1p regards as the essential lhe /JJ/o, desire die objca ofwhich is God), awuls pneJ J>Clla of an inrerressor.•' The composition of'• 11 allegwy ~ onl;roblem ~r inrcrpraarion. lt is supPOSI ~priadplcaotmnUc.:Jt:1bon ~the Apollonian an o(~-.ncn in • ~doesllot rule: outdctccdng -..,, ~lloeuld ~DP.raiclcof'tbc piaurcother raear:arioa. and with it thu of .L_ • • • • ..1._i (>C~aons

rk cfocs we: ICOIUC Stgnt IS gm• Rama; Jt alms ~ woshow not set out~ resolve dw question directly. wicb -~~ • ~ the quesuon of the sign and its spc:ci1I liillOlblly, hu ncvtr the: ICpttscnmlional system itself~ -n(whida is to be~~t work there. But such a way of~ 10 • ~ is oac of tbc: funcla the: ICD.le of humidity being at wodt ~ an.-T&ia "'CDW kuures of what we call the •JUs.i poetic praaicc and piccodll fol. die iarttc:N~ or • ,_ .J , offunaions that consdtu • clebaq v- llgD& rnneed, when linjuisdc • Ced. &.e who Pmmoted ii tboudir dw the ~?1Jie pracn

::S:t

w-==~=

"ar co define poeuc language ,.,.as co oppose it to everyday language. They suggested char in poetic language, in contrast ro ,.,.hat seemed to them to be the rule 1n prosaic language, the formaJ linguislic consuruencs (sounds. morphologiul elements, ecc.) acquired a value of their O\vn, and the practical goal of communication (the tr.tnsmisston of informauon) cook second place.66 ~ormalisn1 defined itself, on che strength of being a science of literature, as a science of "lirerariry.. (Liner11111mo11), rhe t.uk of \Yhich was to define the discinaivc: fearurcs thar cha.ractcriu: a literary object as such. An theory, on the ocher hand, was never particularly concerned ro pick out rhc specific difference of painted images. chat is to say the features that distinguish painted images from every other kind of image. A painted image cannot be reduced to whaccvcr it is that it depicts and/or n:prcsenu (its ..subject"), nor to its contents; and as for plastic formal •constlcuenu• (if one can accept such an idea), they cannot be regarded simply as the instrument of communication whose success depends upon negating the matter there to be perceived. The phenomenological theory of rhe image has it that sensible clements that function as an analogous rcpracntlbvc the object targeted by the image must be 11neutnlized• (Hnsscd) or CV'Cll •annihilated• (Sartre) in order for the imagiziag synthesis to operaie. But this theory fails t0 explain the pandox ofa form that is not a aigni&er but"doa signify itsJf.'7 a form that is iu own conwics. matter which, dpt~~

or

the swt, ahady functions as form, something dw is signi6ccl that under any circumsanca be separated &om ia signifier. Thatis a well suited to reveal the consth,dV"e~ ofapmcdccJn,~~ of expttnion are putm~in waystbat)lealim to the~ of communication.

But the &ct is diattbe

&om normal languag.; tCDdt into a commonplace dilt ......... p.eculiar to pocav. Jn pan autonomy ofpo.edc-cocans &m~.~nto~

011rJcsuc~1~10t indie • ~·

(icontcf~~ of:

~,,_

0

-.man:! .J)71:/Jol ~..

•

.

l

. · . r0 r ~·er\ innovation - even ofpl~tlClt\ • l4 '

h

\v en

m pWi• rcnns. in tern . .d.cologic:al order-in che lase analysis c. uS('S of 2 !.OCla1or 1 . • . lt st:rn.s 1ron1 a . ._1 . here ic finds expression m a nc'v d1stri1 thi 1ht p1aona1 cncs. '' opcntcs" n d fu ctions. There is no a priori juscificacion for bution of lt"-el • mean ' :in n . c d . • prod uas to "tgn · "or !\\'.stems of s1uns. or 1or re • uc1ng spen:d arosoc ., b • • uang /r mu ·.-.. tive cffcct.s Bue if the sensible qual1r\' a6ca1ly pbStic rucctS to com 111".. · . ·/ !..... • • color texture-is co be anything more chan a of me a·~11-1ts grain. ' . . . · t to the information chat 1c conve}'S, ic rf!ma1ns ncccs: ;tO scitt upon~u the relation that exists between the pietorial order and

me Older of signs, and the complementary relationship chat unites the sys-

a:zn of figurative rules-which confer legibility upon the image- with the m of formal variations that consticutc it as a painttd image.

bel'\\een the figuracive (iconic) funccion~ and the p1ctor1al on less it is eonneaai with a W, (a social consaua, jun as language is) andi! pas9'.'d on by that body to ocher bodia and t0 ~ md£n.~ irJ#I;§ ture and painting have the~ power" it is ~ beca•tl(" dw:j ar,e,in,gwt.iUt.t linked with the vay ~b5tance of,~W.kh ia veg .. once,again. such an alliance MC:QIJ •

ine.vhibr

lo.gicaL &om tbe~int of~ew.:of.~ &.it:Pf. STAINS

2

Sign a,,d ~»111bol

. --') Thar comparison 1.s no 111ore arbicra')· . cd h"15 to rht' sc:i1ns on a '';u · - chac \ \.'aS alien to r e or er of 1 run.· ru.inting to an c emcnc. Th. . b b ccn ., ". ) ·r chat of ..truth" (color). 1s 1s ornc out y ~on (dnY.1ng • I not to . r II . --r·-:-. of p·aero di Cosi'mo• \vhich ' it is .,,·onh noang. co O\V!i on 1mVann's life .

aw:diatdyaftcr that of Correggio. \vhich, for 1cs pfartG.' LS ~c:par:i\~ed f ~?m.:hatf of Lcocwdo onl b the biographical ponrait o 1o~g1~nc. asar1 s 11c o PiaodiCoamo~~with paragnph in \\·hich Vasan tries ~o demonstrate ..Lcharacter and behavior. the: bizarre nature of ussuangcncssof·Lwe rmintcr's lii mind, and the annaion that he felt to~ difficult md un~ual. t~ings •....... kllnllllrM Jtl""' mwDo tJ iJ mr11tt clJt tglifaava tk/k rost di.ffici/1 ). All things were attested by the attention that he paid to cloud formations Ibo to the marlcs left oo walls by the accumulation of "spit left by sick • autofwbichheconjuml up all kinds offmwtic battles and cities ibe1nostgnndiosc landscapcs.75One hardly needs the testimony pro.. ~ Vaari.. rc1t to see that such exercises arc regarded as symptnu, of.a sklc•v:n, the nigmata ofwhich arc not borne solely by the di Casin!O. Howeftr. 1, cbaraaeristic: that in the case of one he regarded as neurotic takes on a quite dilferenr ~ itappa11 to KaJ~ t0 w objective historial ~'*': me~wme inlaat in mins and doud forma. oft mrnbiddisposidon in the ase ~,• ll"•l·~•a in the guise ofa mnhotlto 6Dowed ilLGina (albeit in difkr.w \lbltMl'ltD encounter: ~uivoc:J

2

••aptp".

1

invent some scene (sr l111t1ai 11 i1111rnrt1rt q1111/rl1r sito), }'Ou can sc:e Lherc rcsemblanco co a number of landsc:ipcs (porr111 /1 vtd.er s11111/i111d1111 d1 dit m1 P11es1) adorned in various \\':l\'S \vith mounca1ns, nvers, rocks, rrecs, 0o-rear plains, vallc)TS, and hills. Moreover, you can ~cc various harries, and rapid actions of figures (11m pro1111 d1 figure), strange expressions on faces, cosrumes, and an infin1re number of rh1ngs. \vhich }'Ou ca.n reduce co good, inregratcd form (Ir q11n/1111 porr111nd11rr1111nrtgr11 r bo11aJonna). This happens thus on ,vaJJs and varicoloured scones. as in che sound of bells, in \vhosc pealing you can find f:OiiVi ~m:whiffi. IQ

SiK'I n11d Represt11r111io11

Sign anJ Rtprtst11111tio11 /111ages ECSTASY AND RA PTU RE

sixn and Rtprnr11rat1011 •

42

S1g1111nd Reprtse11r111io11

Jr docs nor S«m pmicularly difficult ro underscand chesc images. The figunti'-c schcm:ar.i :idoprcd by Zurbar:in _are p~cccl)' con\'Cnt1ona.1, even when not dircct.ly borrO\\'cd from pious pnncs. as 1n rhe C35e of S11111r Bo1111Mt1n't Ill Pnzytr. noy,•in rhc Dresden an museum. painred for rhe Franciscans ofthe College of S.iinr Bonaventure. The composition of rhjs picture mclosc to that of Tht Alass ofFathrr Caba11utlm, and is imirarcd from 12Yi11° produced in Anns.-crp in 1605:' The constructional plo}' of a .imroducc a divine group or symbol into a perspective composirion common in religious paintings of the sixteenth and the seven~ The intcrcst of such compositions,

most of which dcpia the imagwe praents to die spcctat0r both as a "real" scene vision. doea not chidfylie in the spatial dichotomy that Rather, it 1ia in the modalities ofcommunication cstablishecl ' and the cehtialJevds and, within each ofthese, bethat.inbabltlhan. lilsome, tbecleafigureranains firml_i • ~the canh (aridied with this world. as he is?)/i

• mar

die~ brwlildaheishonored and also to disp~ Ttbo ~-it.thanks ID his:mediation (7M Vii/ill

~~~.In~thesaiody~ ~o_atof~space. lnyctocfK1I Z.n:badaa ew:ls), lhevisiou is granted ~lill'~•Ilim~ercluded &om ic;

··~to·~ ~ltDhlMS~

a@

• • ., but ¢llqJ

ill"~'Jl

43

acrr:tcl vapor, or so I have heard ic said. The divine cloud rises into che heavens, carrying chc soul wirh ic, and begins ro disclose co ic che splendors of rhe kingdom chat is prepared for ir." le as '''Orth noting che mobilizing and iniriarory force char Saine Teresa arrribuces ro che divine cloud, and the po\\·cr of aruaccion chat ic is believed co exert upon che soul chac ir carries along ,vich ic (rhe separation bcf\veen chc £\VO levels being rhus clearly underlined). Zurbarin's saindy figures may noc l~vc the ground (in conformity 'vich rhe mechanism of 11111011 in 'vhich, unlike in ravishment, "\ve remain on our O\vn cerrain"). Bur char \\135 nor the case for Saine Teresa, whose body, like chat of Sainr Diego, in Murillo's A11gtls' Ki1cl1m, did sometimes lose all irs wcighc: "My soul was uplifted and ordinarily my head fol-

lowed. it being impossible to resuain it. Sometimes even my whole body was also uplifted and no longer touched the ground." This phenomenon usually occurred without witnesses; but when it did happen in public:. the saint•s followers were obliged to hold it down. ..However, that~~

occwrec1.·'

lil the writings of Saint Teresa. cloucl.aoclbib\tof~ a role comparable lO that im~ ID t~ ill • • and also in thcwmb OfCougio;~ two paintcn: mhis paintings ~~.tli ~'.!lih'· lC the giarat possible mom com of common erpedcno: but

the onlce Disposed Ill the carbtdral, Oil i/Jis~ CO(DCr of the comi~ IJIQplecf&A;o tO ilie,.man1ratiii

•

44

Sign and Reprtst11t11t1011 S1g11 r111d Represe11tat1on

· t he obJ'ect of his or her adoration-a gracificacion that is person to perceive . denied to the followers of Saint Bonaventure and the companion of f.acher Calnnuclas in Zurbar.in's paintings. for divine r~icies can onl)· n1an1fc:st tbansdvcs through rents in the screen thac c~nceals ~hem fro.m comn1on ;a,wmcu. At other times cloud appears as an 1mmed1acc n1an1fesrat1on of 1ac1cd in the guise of a divine expanse of cloud that descends to share • of human beings, as did once the pillar of cloud that served as a tbecblldrcn of Israel when they departed from the land of Eg)'Pt.1

45

SEQUENCES

Even a very superficial examination of 1he '''ork of Zurbacin suggests chat it might provide prime marcriaJ for r~carch of a comparative order. Many of the elements, chc "figuracivc ObJCCts" 11 thac are noticeably presenc 1n Zurbar.in's painting-a limiced number of elements thac reappear remarkably frequently-may be descnbcd as ''h1crophanic." Significantly enough, many of chem are elements chac a phenomcnologisc \vould consider to belong co a symbolism closely related to celcsrial symbolism. The association of cloud \vith a massive pillar, generally positioned ac rhe axis of the con1position, clearly seems from the "symbolism of the ccnrre," srudied by Mircca Eliade.11 However, that reference is, in itself, of no operative value. The same pillar around which the terrestrial scene is arranged and the top of which is lost in the clouds, thereby establishing communica-

• uuuaianspa•nanp. '7•• _L _ __r_, • • tion bctwccn earth and heaven, regu1arly reappears m from hisAnnundatUm and two Al/ortllilJnsin the Graioblc IJUM•m, aaoss the board to Tht MllSs of IWlbn- ~.and indudhlg a)e_~ sis ofStlint 11»nuu~ in the m•1m•m oESeYille. In 11it Bm«m Popt Ur/Nm J/ 111111 &lint~ painred fbr thii SancaMariadelas CUevu,.a manive ~Ol'CU with the two prin9pal .. c>Fihitaxi~Iai'thisoasts tb6

QVICealCdby'f»otk ~~,raint.-l

~ ~

......

Sign and &prtSm1111io11

Tht Funrtions ofRrprtsm1ario11 EXP£1U£NC£ AND ITS FIGURES

S1gt11111d Rrpresr11111tio11

47

craftsmen "\vho sculpr chcrn so badl)· thac, instead of cncour::iging dt:\'Or1on. rhey remove 1c," and 'vho oughc co be b:inned from cxcrcistng an arc chat the:) practice 1n suc.h an inepc and clunlsy fashaon.20 To be suic, images should nor be valued for rhc1r O\\'ll sake or for their sensual atrracr1ons; bur cle:irl}· their funccions arc noc solely decor::inve, and chc conremplacion of \vorks of art can somec1mcs encour:igc and suc;ca1n prayer ON TH£ RIGHT USE OF IMAGES

Sigt1 a11d Reprt1m1nt1011

Sign and Rtprtsmuztion

spcaivc. among both the common people and those who claim co be its •guides." ..There is nothing more delectable or that more easily gees aching co slip into the soul than painting, nothing chac etches it more deeply on the l)kluory, or that more effectively affects the will, giving impetus co ic and ~ ~oving iL" 25 The list of functions imputed to painting in the SlrlliUmlm suffices to show that images were no longer created for a asre~ as ~osc of Rap~d sometimes were. The very same means to ~ch the c:xpcncncc of a handful of solitary figures as were .e the masses, without this being considered contradic~ that prod~~ ~t mystics simultaneously saw

cstabl1sb1ng itsclE m the contemporary age; and Of tbis debate in his painting that "1io had drawn the best ofhii 11n11ke Murillo, who was ~fltPdmental rcligi " BIYJip~ m Ylhich the~ ~tteat&oin

49

The 1\vo Modes of Reprcsencation ~Vriti11g and Represer1t11tio11 PRESENTATION/REPRESENTATIO N

The lace fifteenth and early si..xceench cenruries produced man}' religious composicions in ,vhich a saint, a prophet, a marC)rr, or a Church dignitary presents the spectator \Vich a group {generally a Vi rgin and Child) that cakes on the properties of an icon. In Correggio's cupolas and- in a quite different context- rhe paintings of Zurbar:in, it is a marcer no longer of the presentation of an image, but rather the represencation of a vision. The point-and also the reason why the Parma paintings and Zurbacin's piaurcs elude the norms of pious imagery-is that the spectator only accedes to the miraculous vision thanks to the intervention or intC1n1cdiary

of an intcrc:cs.wr, himself in many caSC'S auistcd by further iote• nicdia~ some angelic. others not. The point .is worth r.epc:adng: itJs thanb.19 painting that the spectator gets to take.illtU• p.A~bo~ tion of an individual at prayer and thato~~ ~o · '"~~J>ICSeDCC (as is c)Qrftdm_g

anclSliM 10

So

Sip and Rrprrst111111io11

S1g11 and Rtprtst111n1io11

following the principle adoprcd by Raph~cl in Tl1e Virgr11 of~11111r Sixtus. But ai:n before rhc sixrecnth ccntUI)' and 1n the sevenceench sc11l, rhc scag. ing in a painting (as in a thC'2rcr) of raprures. asce~sions, and apparitions ofOuist seems to h.t\·c posed problems of a figuraave as ' veil as a thcologiCil nawrc. Far from following the teaching of che biblical ccxcs, ho\Vt."\·cr cliJic:it. it seems chat, where both the Ascension 19 and an ApparitionJO conc:ancd. many wen: reluctant, not to recognize C hrist's po\vt:rs of but to pretend chat those po\\"Crs depended upon some kind an accasory with sometimes equivocal associacions.31 The)· It. pinch. that elect might need to be carried by clouds ~ wen dw the Virgin might. But Christ? Tician, who ti£~ cbwdi (in Venice) on a solid-looking cloud,

me

~above the ground without the help of

of'~,,p.les ofDguratlvc rcprescntad~ rKei~a.ce-, in the: sixteenth. Jnade manifie:st bytbe ~tcxttocM ~ w-sup,..

:firil q

!fl&$c)D -or

51

APPARITIONS IN CLOUDS

ln Oi.ircr's Apocalypse (498), che Evangelist is seen consuming chc book proffered ro him b)• an angel whose feet seem co be pillars buc \vhosc bod)· is concealed boch by clouds and by che r:l)'S that shine forch from his countenance. le is an asconishing image, but one chat in face foUo,vs the Gospel text co the lecter.3S Scnpcurc abounds in rexes char justify the use of cloud for purposes ac once chcacrical and figurative. It 'vas in the form of a pillar of cloud char Yah,veh led his people out of Egypc, according ro Raphael's representation of che scene in rhe Vacican Loggia-or rather a pillar in which cloud alcernaccd \Vith fire, eirbcr because Yah,veh 'vished co illuminate cht: night or because he desired co thicken ics shadows (Exod. 13 :21- 22, 14: 19- 20). Bur chat alternation docs nor suffice co account for the hierophanic functions of cloud and its relationship with the fire that it sometimes contained: far from cloud representing an immediate manifestation of the God of Israel, it appears primarily as a scrrm that he spread above his people in the daytime, as if to shade than (& 1s:38: oE SoL 10:17-18)JI a sacen thar, when it arvacd die 1ibe11ilcle.~~ t0 meet them.and rbat1was fillccl wids.h\~ ~ S. _ ~_c.... Wfiom~tering(E1rtif.,40•-~).Jtis in-~ ~

W'.._

o-.. ·

.

• Sign 11,,J &prtsm11111011

.~ig1111nd Rtprrsrnr.111011

were all bapriscd unto f\1osa in rhc cloud and in lhc e . . . 1ov. tbcse~rcourcxampl~ ..."''111ese lutes front 1he l·1r l I 1>1tie10 chc • tbians nor only manifest rhc ampo"an~ of 1he loucl lh it annou r11.:a gby in the mental iconogniph)' of Chri tianit : the • I «J offer 2 of jusdfication. in advance of rhc hun1:anist • ,n c,llo\\ t'.'li ''> rtasr and W by the Jcswrs, for the sttt1ng up of. d ript1\ e KJ ~ imaga. •ckviccs," ·emblems," and other 1111 he 1llu bid kn capmnng pcop1t•s ~nation C\-Cr u1cc the drs· 1

1H11t:'fb~rm an 1419 ~.too, cloud rl1at t'C\W1

cwm a at ccma•ls, appears as a kc) rcr1n, C\ en an Med witb thcwnnm word an 111 most fundJ.

ab•ted ID clilc:oYer a modern cquavalau · - - - - nthcr Kircher COii.... of wbldt all

,,...

53

hc1,,ccn rl1c J>(>caran c of the fir t cx2n11>lc in 1hc gcnrC', the £111blrmar.1 h)• Al 1.tto (l.) on , 1530) 2nt...~·~)~r ~conology, is pcifecdy p1rei

~ RiAthercaresomeim~­ g,o.~lzc at~ glqce., and Q~ ·~» t

5-

"bod)'" of che image nlust cxcicc in the mind rod' h . " I" h d . . b d . iscover c e meanin ch . g acts 1cs sou, r ac es1re is oun ro increase in rhevi 'bl s1 e presence of the n . h . . .6 d ("Q of chc t h1ng t ac 1s s1gn1 e uesca curiosira vie . ame . .,,) 7i"L L . ne ancora accresaur daJ veder 1 nom1 . As r1t og1c of Port-Royal also held · · . h a . . h .d • ir is in t c narurc of a sign co excite t c 1 ea of the thing that represents du0 ugh th . . h · d c idea•of the th1ng t ac 1s represente . G.1ven the recognized primacy of the signified, and rhe perfect transparency between the sign and th idea,thing between the idea and the sign, and given the representation's ~'-~ • .J: • • • If. P···~ 111 1cs wscurs1v1cy, t~ represent 1ts_e , scmiologyandhermcneudcsovabpand fuse: to analyze signs and to discover their meanings are one and~. since the signifier is only valid as such to the extent that it i$ accordance with the thing that is signified." To know a thingit able to name it ("pucht," as Ripa writes, "stnDlltt~ si puo pmetrart a/la cognitiont Ml'4 COSll signijiazltt [becaJ1se ,_,;,-;s-~'t· edge of the name, it is not possible to accede to k~ nified]"). The possession of the name, ifnotitsviSible. both the reading of the image and its interpretadoAt • ing to the meaning that the classical age ~to~ the thing that is signified. But even if the im9 mode of knowing that gives access to the • so much on account of resemblance of i~le! objects of the extcmal world (however mudi ~ vide the objective mainspring of dq>icdo6) resemblance that exists benvecn the ima~,,...~...

a similarity founded upon order anCl m ~us conceived into a kind of ddiniajm ~ ridutefadlmmR aJl4 similinuli111 lk/14 . . The image must be thcm.~o non JS the measure ofthe thing d~ t~ •1sed above:

aQalogytbatdefin~ the~s of expression that o~~~-il!ifJ rcveal~dconeeal~

1~~

ti

~is de~ ~CO·""'•

i;i;vi

•

S1g11 and Represenratzon

1111d Rtprt!t11t.zt1011

s~

fi D~tfl~ ii~· t IA for= tklltl imllgine bm for7nata) still implied • P ~ ~~lvcd ~ t~, as in classical rhetorical theory: 6m kind of amwlanty comasted m the equal proportion in which two diRina 6:°~ each other related to a third (nell' tgu4lproportione ch; ilu awtlistinttfta sestase llll rnuz so/a tlivma Ja ambJue. to resemble< .one might paint a pillar holding up a building just as, in a hl1man It~~ that enables him or her. to resist adversity). The second 11m1lanty ame into play when two distin thin . ;elilfaent &om both of-L- (-1-..1... ..I••~ met m ano 4i/forrnle u1C111 , . . . . , _ """ cost nu tonutn. ~ art): to denote magnanimity one might take a Ii ~in~ wbichallQdyowc:s less to analogy but still d ma single aign, was, in Ripa's opinion less praiscwortli common. • •

•

•

1.•.

~.J

L

.a.

anibiguous or even contradictory Ripa's terms may

~~dyexplicit intention: his aim is to~ ~tb':ce) ofimages. Itwua project that· Ii plm ror•• genaaJ. grammar that die; t

"-"~ atleastwith felp«t t0its •:a.oak-:was m . many ways escep bart:offiis!day bOrrowed: ,.,._h1 __ ca1 moalVdi tiliarl

59

cenrun:, occupied •1 11arado:-..1cal •posicion. According co .L d' . . •/ • UlC era 1aonal VIC\V Quactrocento arc srood for cond1c1ons and rules of a cype of" b' . " ' . l'b dc o Jecnve rc:presencarton that \Y.lS t cracc rrom rhe norms of medieval symbor B ism. Ut . l c ll . ir seems t hac 1n c le ro O\V111g century che vogue cnjo,•ed by thew ks f .. . I . ,. A / or o cmblematists and icono og1sts re ecccd, on the contrary, the resurgence of a caste for allcgOf)'. a passion for metaphor that scholais believe to be echoed in the figurative arts. It is as if it was cxpcacd of painters-just as of poets: ut pict11rn potsis- ~u?1c ~ allegorical role and to speak the language of resemblance, of SlDlilanry, 1nanagcthatonanintdlecrnalletel

t?

wished co recognize only identities and differences upon which mdJui& the science of order and measurement. could opcrate.Andyct,al!rio9'•• conceived by Ripa. as it was visibly used, was part and parcel of the!"' rial order established in the Quamoccnto to which dassial still subscribed (as is shown, in the seventeenth cen~, tween Abraham Bosse and the Academy, overthemnas: Chapter 3, pp. n6ff.). INTARSIA I

That is confirmed, indirectly, by me against allegorical poetry, in partia1]ar tbaof.: ofmodem science. In his • • 'Al~ gory constrains the reader to interprcte.'i~ to something else. It forces natWal. and designed to be seen faceon;'.io ada and no more than implied:~ in th uneducated eye no~but-aCbaosq landscape in which, howevei;.,....,

~~iblctQdiscempo~ unpUcd thc:rc. In. pri,na;ipkj O'\QJtrqction_. ofwhich.lt

.1\utche~ wi ~~1iAo·s StOl.y.

lts 0,qdbics lb •

-S1"g11 nnd R.eprese11rar1011

6i

•

zgt1 anti Rtpromu1no11

. d b "\'..Cl'l rhe procedures of allegory' and a nrne . h r k hat ex1stc e•. ~ . 'r c1on tot e in t : red right from che scart \V1rh rhc: inscirur.tfi ship ch.ic \\"35 3.>!iOC:Ja f o c tsnlaru f . . ... "'nd bv che same roken. chey c.onfirn1ed rhe tion of a rodeo pe~peccr~c. ,, .' . . . fh · 1 g·1-al proicct. For even 1f the cheor)· of signs devclambagwn 0 t e 1cono o 'J • • .-.,,1 by 'Ri ·10 his rocm is in some respects in accord \Vt th che theory vrpaclassicalpage was to rally, nocw1"thscandi · way which the chr.ough 1~s 10 focusing upon and manipula~ vario~ ~emencs 1n che image, 1t also to a long-stmding figuraovc uadioon.

?g,

THI Cl.OUD OF llEPRESINTATION

dcfinicion of a sign sec~s co cons~i rurc buc one figure among ocher possible nes in che represe11cac1onal field 1c.self, one thar does nor necessaril}' possess 0 he uriC)' and cransparcncy \vich \vhich 1c is crediced in The Logic ofPorrr ,p/. \~ich respecc co che 1"d ea that tt · produces ('ics 1nterpretan1), · Ro a sign, or 11 rt%resrnta111e11, co borrow che by ?ow ~lassi~ definition of Peirce, scands in che scead and in place of somcthmg {1cs object). But the object of representation can be nothing but a representation ofwhich theme rcprcscncacion is the intcrprctant..•• The meaning of a rq>1&nt1tbl Cd Ii nothing but a representation. In fact, it is nothing but the ieprescnradiil ceived as stripped of irrelevant dothing. But this clothing an nmr tfe stripped off; it is only changed for something moie diaphanous.~

These declarations not only echo Ripa's obsermio9: moreover confer an unexpected resonance Up.:)11.00th:tbC cursive functions that cloud asa•mcs in the (and at this point we should re111emberme ;:;;=~~iir" tached to the motifof the veil in ~ue:·

rn

ccals: in every respect, it ap.~ to l>e 'ODC representation, and manifests bO which rq>rescntation IS'

ro

~·

62.

•

"ig7l a1zd Rtpre.se11tnt1011

speccacular), far from being mucuall~· exclusi,•e, n1a)' bccomL linked and complemc."ncar:• on a theaccr scagc and also in an oil p.1incing? le is ar chis point \VOrth repe.tcing that in chc Sl vc11cccnch cenrury imagcJ')'• as "·di as rhc thcacer, was considered as an1011g cl1c mosc cftective weapons of religious propaganda, firsc and forcn1osr cl1ar of rhc Jesuics. lnc latter managed to combine chcir acti\•icies as producers of i1npre.se- printed u.mges accompanied by a saying or motto-with those of impreJarios, orgaofspcccaclcs of every kind: theatrical representations, operas, ballets, parades and processions of various typcs.66 Artists, too, from Brunclro Rubens and from Leonardo to David, were likewise quite prepared u theater directors. designers, gadget makers, or even-why not?of :fhymcs and playlcts. At the lcvd of the men involved and thc4i links ~ thus anestcd between the various sectors of rcprcsc• which poetry should also be included if it is true dw. d ~•representations imagined on canvas arc possibly by which ~ aqcss the beauty of poetic images."67 Does bo~ng and exchanging of motifs and procedures,

..

non. of representations &om one series to ano~ 1iauecms to hllYC'becn~y .scmitivc and a

ofiaccn1..a, and also \vi ch its presenr function i: 3 museum. This \vork \Vas 11oc inrendcd co be revered; bur nor '"'aS ic intended to be a permane11t cxl1ibic in rhc conrcxc of a highly acclaimed collection, ,...here its ''alue as a represe111ntio11 is blurred and- to borro\\' che ,vords of Eug~ne Milnrz- the sccr1c takes on che aspccc of an intimate and mysricaJ drama unrclaced co the concrete universe. caking place, \vichouc pomp or ceremony (as can be seen from the humble metal cunain rod to which the curtains arc fixed), in a place of light and poetry when: neither the notion of time nor chat of space applics.75 Wb Wt v;fut .,..e ha'e here is a (prcmonicory) vision, \vruch is rcprtlmfcd ~~ivcly by a simple commuracion of signs, rather rhan through SDClm UJlltated rrom the theater. That being said, the question Posed br Pmofsky lle't·enhdess retains iu relevance as soon as ic is siruared in its ctur ~10~,r}w orfigurath·e produccion and comprehension, and che mcd'2· nmns u]' 111Wl\ of h. h . . ,._.,J.._ f . . .w ic a \Cmanuc mccrprcracion can be a reached ro a -our- o iconic ngns.

'?

Wri.

ung and Rtpresc:ntacion

Alf /,....:.J_ '" """"" Htn111rlr '- To prcva11 UI)' con(uii ,. . hJI laaons en princi k on .1fl~•ng here, it is important ro expl:un (. • P'*i>lc "' r.tttt•at p u well u of a methodologicaJ narure, it setf11.S &Ill' N . .a • --,.- e a study of th I h . n aod 'foaang o( irrua- . c ru c~ t at govern che elaborar10 -.,,.... 111 rhc CtJ•uc:xr o( a given 6guracive order. 11 '"-"' • "-

Syntarnral Spart

g5

~tudv• of che 'vay that rhey are, quire lirerally, put to work • ..·~ui.i.uy, -··" 1·n concrct e ,vorks. Linguists dra'v a discinccion ber.veen language ;ind~ or-

to make use: of the fundamental concepts of gcnerau\·e gnmrnar, the discourse of 'vhich chc: present tar is, for no,v, imitating-bel\\-cen the ucir system of aptitudes that define the linguistic rumptttnrt of a subicct and 1hetr applicacion (or perfomzana) in real speech acu. But such J distinction \vould have no operational impact in the fidd of the semiology of art, a d1saplinc in \vhich it probably makes more sense not so much co con· )truct hypothetical models of different systems of plastic cxpl'CS)ion. but rather co address, in its O\Vn rcrms, the very question of tht system.- The creativity of articulated language. linked as ic is co chc recursive power of 1hc rules on \vhich ics syscem is founded, L\ expressed, in cum:nt wages. by .tn unlimited proliferation of forms, ,vich chc code of the language as as~imilaccd by speaking subjccrs dettm1i11ing the semantic intcrprc1arion of an indeflnicc collection of real phrases, either expressed or understood.' Ho,vcvcr, \Vhere pain ring is concerned, chc problem of "crc:Jrivity" cannot be posed in che same cerms (even if che-ac leasr rclacive-independencc of expression 1n relation co reflex activity, \Yhich Chomsky claims for ar· ticulated language, is che rule in both cases). . On the one hand, an, in che form assigned to it by W~tem sooety. by no means belongs to everybody and, as a result of 1hc \clccti\"CnOS ~t 11 1mpli~ as a condition for its existence, the number of iu productio_ns u. 1n principle, 6nice. ln chis respect. ic perhaps prcsc.nts m~~ ~ogtC$ \\'1th \vr1ung than \vi ch language: for while bngwge. linktd as n tS WI~ spt11lt1ng 11111JSes, is at every momenr somei.hlng that concerru c_'-c~ . ~ and-of all social inscirurioos-offers the leasroppanunitics forindivi1 • • 9 • · • • th r sense of che term. for a ong 1n1ua11ves, 1n concrasc ,vnung, LD e curren f peci.11 0 5 time rcmainC'd like art icself che prcrogacive of a small group • • · . . ' ' 10 . indeed itS very in· isu or privileged social groups. and 1cs development, __ L . . ddibcrite ~ueme. 1n ~t1tu11on, have frequently been respanscs co some_ Saussure re· language lhere i~ no private property;" and chac 15 whr· ot crue 1 15 marks, language can never be rcvolurioniz.cd. But chat c car Yn1 lesser of an , which is still a long way from being collecrivizcd; nffior- to ...:_1for ms to 0 er matCfllll degrec-is it true of wriring. which constan tiYsee . · ncd abo\-c .. r h d" ·ncuon menuo . rt1orms." On the och« hand, insofar as t e lSU ·cse1r depend upan the 1 is founded upon the Linguistic field and does ~ot al has ro product \lrucrure of rcprcsencarion (for a linguist ccmunly ways

7

86

rtpresmtation of language), \vhere the produces of arc are concerned no one could claim thac "language" {compccence) someho'v rakes precedence over "speech" (performance), or chac arciscic production, in all che relati\.t variecy of ils forms and configurarions, can be reduced co the use of a finiie code that decermines ic a priori. If such a ching as a pictorial syscem exists, thac system has no rcalicy, even of a rhcoretical nature. ourside the producu in which ic can be instiruced in various strict forms. To borro\v (and adjust) Saussure's metaphor, che "treasury" into 'vhich arciscs dip is nor chac of a language that has been deposi1ed \vich chem as a resulc of rheir using ic; ~er ic is a rrczury consisting of "masterpieces," works thac are of rapt· till arn~rcancc by reason of \v~ac chey have achieved and their consequent authoncy. As I am here opposing language (lnngue) to "caste" rarher chan to "speech," as Sa~ss~re docs, ic 'viii be helpful co ser ouc rhe system ac chc level of chose rcaltzauons char have acquired the value and fo rce of models. For (as we shall see by srudying one parricularly prestigious ex.ample) thev revca.l not only ~c q~alicy of invencivcncss and a concern for sryle, b~t also. a SlTOn? dn1rt to zmpan to pai11ri11g the farce of11 language char has no eqfuivalcnc in \vorks of the common run {'vhicb belong simply co che order 0 t4Su), and this confers upo th · " ·tnnovaavc . derail an unprecc· dented h . n cir quest 1or second cmp astS nor to be found 'vherc such a decerminacion is lacking, in -grade works or those all produced from che same mold It should also be · d · IVV....l ,_ • potncc ouc char "casceful" figures {"casce" as opt"'-" co uznguage in the se . d above), inserted in chc lexicon with the ' nse expIainc same stacus as lin011itti h bncr. Both h h . 0-~c mcrap or, arc no less deceptive chan the ave L e menc of dra · · dw: historicirv of _wing arccnr1on to the sysccm that suppartS d~ ·1 art. 8uc whac IS ac st k · th · cunitcly easier co think b . a e tn c question of the system LS expression (snt>..ch) a (ouc tn terms of theory cacher than in rcrms of . . .-- ' sense cascc) or o ( ) ' . rgan tongue . In chis respect, great artistic revolutions are thought than to rh c1oser co rhe revolutions encountered in scientific Iuaons . are not so m e s1ow cvolurion 0 f l' . h 1ngu1sric structures. Arcisric revo· and new methods evuc a conscq ucncc of the inrroduccion of nC\V forms raical brcak !Le engend ' en 1ess of new codCS; cacher, chey seem from a rhc· Dal~"'"'·'--. · · of che sysccm and .1cs 1ntct· . -·....""'uons. (The f. crstha new dcfi n1uon tbauld . CC at such b ~'-. is not mulead us· arc • r~ occur ar 1denci6ablc momen aa of a single individ~ lSd never, under any circurnscanccs, rhe prod· • those of ·its hcroes-Bruncllcsch· ' an che nam cs th ac the Renaissance rccogn1z · ccf 1as well as Giotto, Masaccio as well as

1

Synrart1r11/ Spart

S1nramral Spa«

37

Uccello-are chc effect, nor rhe cause, of rhc historical proiecr kn ") O\Vn as the "Renaissance.

Drpic1io11 r111d Represe11tation On ch~ rheorerical level, che question posed by Panofsky about chc depicuon of :in apparition or-co puc char bettcJ-abour the mechanism of reading as a resuJr of 'vhich a panicular panel painccd b)' Rogicr van der \Veyden can be described, as a firsc approximation, in the terms of a proposition ("The image of the infant Jesus appears co chc Three Kings..)that qucsrion has the merir of providing us with a model. As we have seen, the association of a semancic interpretation \virh a complex of iconic signs operated through the mediation of a syncax, 'vhich, although figurative, nevertheless provided cl1e material for a srrucruraJ description, composed according ro the \vays of articulated language and in a mode ac once induc· tive and comparacivc. \Vie may assume, for mcchodologicaJ purposes. chat recognition or idcncificacion of iconic elements (personages. objects, etc.) stems, in a rc:prescnracional conccxc, from a reAex action. HowC\.-cr, the inte~reration of images i11 tenm of figurative propositions, :miculaccd ,vith 3 view ~o expressing a meaning (as is possibly registered by rhe rirkgi\'Cn to ~hem) •n concrasr brings in co play semiotic mechanisms chac differ according to whether one is dealing ,vith an Orronian miniarure or a 6fiwuhccntury Flemish al earpiece. There is nothing "natural" or ..univessal" about the rule chat governs the formacion of an image and itS incerprccacion. Ir only_ has the force of a rule within a particular order, a system thar can under no Clrcumscanccs be reduced co a simple formula. 'vhccher the formula be ihat of 'vhat is claimed co be perspeccive realism, or that of :an ill-defined mcdievaJ symbolism. le is nor a matter of indifference chat Panofsky chose ~o approach chc question of the apparition scarring 'vi ch an image borrowed r;m .rhc corpus of early Flemish painting. At a very early dare chat sch~I ~- ~trlting, albeit by means of crial and error rather than on a ch.eortttc.il uas1s, claboraced a tradic.ion char involved conscrucung · a pcrsntttivc splCC . h' r--h \Vtt tn'vh'ch 1 rcprcsenrac:ions tbac contradicted chc laws 0 f naru re "-ere. cIe CXccptio . h . I tluc definite )' n. t e exception that proves the rule? Ir \\'35 a rue SCc:ins to have bcen observed more syscen1at1c;u . --'Iy in · fifc-nch·cenrory d ...... . Flan· crs than . h . . h. .call)· ch2t 1S co siy th r.l · in r c place usually associared ,Vlrh it iston ' 'd h"""' c r Oren f h . n to cons• er .. ~ . ·, il cc: o t e Quaruocenro. 12 Bur before movUlg 0 1 Was ch h th . ,vhen an exp ict ac r c problem came to be posed just at c ume

Synt11cric11/ Space

s,nr«rtir,11Sp.1« •

-·

·on '"'35 established beC\veen the arr of painting, scienrific optir• ~~ . . and the ,,"Ork of ..perspcctivisrs," iris 'vorth co~s~der1ng rhe solurions that \\"Ct'C produced ,,,chin 3 dec~r:irive corpus cradiaonall)' recog~iz.ed as one of chc monumencs (in the N1ewchew sense) of che nt!\v SC)'lc, 1f nor as one 1 of its founding cradles {chc coponym1c pun seems unavoidable). J THE A~SISI STOR\"

\Y/e do not kno'v for cercain ho'v much Giotto reLll)' contributed 10 the accurion of the cycle of paintings representing the life of Saint Francis, in chc upper church of Assisi. The many differences of both St)1lc and ccchnique have Jed specialists co decect at leasr rhree different "hands" at ,vork.•• Howtver, a for1na.l analysis of chc cycle reveals char it 'vas certainly organiud according roan overall plan, as can be seen borh from chc unity of the decor and from che symmetf)' observed be(\vecn che nvo opposite \vaJls of the nave. and also from rhe lighring of the various scenes, the arrangement of the painted edifices, and so on.' 5 Bue such is the movement, "the impcrus of the narracive," 16 that even the lease informed observer is impressed by a sense of evolur1on, or even progression. Leooetto Tmtori and Millard Meiss have made a chan of the successive stages of che ' vork of chc: fresco painters on chc: basis of a mericuJous study of similarities discernible in the ~tolllUO of the frcscot.-s and che delineation of the z.ones or portions painted ID the course of chc "same day" (giornara). le provides scriking confirmation of the conclusions reached by scylisric analysis. The scenes from rhc Old and the NC\\' cestamcncs. \Vhich are positioned above che Giorccsque cycle, follow the order char \Yas usual ac char time; the ,vork was carried out from west co ~r on boc~ walls of the basilica simultaneously. In concr:ist, rhe story of Saint Francis (,vich the exception of the very first scene: TIJe S11i111s Ent'J 1111 . 0 ks"' . ., \Yas painted . .1n rhe order of the episodes of the story .nsc:lf; andche scyrisuc · var1at1ons . . chac are d1scern1ble . . occur ar identifiable points . wbtrc · fram •It. ·15 cIaimed, a particular artist can be named, bur always \Vichin che ework ~fa homogeneous narrative sequence. · · was co declare that Giotto changed • '- CcnnmoC~nnin1 arr of paint· ang irom Greek inco Latin •17 and 1c. \YouId be 1mposs1ble . . . c: &he. co overcsr1mat unportance of the face th ac th"ts monumenc of che ne\V arc .lS presentc:u _J • .L_ • ID ux guuc of a story ~cc: . . As wh I 11 h .-~- mau"caJJY toId by the means peculiar co pamnng· 0 c, c c fus1s1 cycled a '_..1 •a sv..c f . cparo rrom the level of painting understoou -,- cm o signs and cnccrs that of pamnng . . conceived as che 11utru1nf11 . r

me

89

•a narracive. In conrradiction co chc principle. scaccd by 1n·e1rce, · . . . . . accordm 0t vhich 1c 1s nor possible co conscrucc propos1c1ons on the b . f. _g co ' . .. asts o 1coruc signs.'9 3 J~guag~. or rather a fi~urat1ve \vnt1ng, is escablisbed through 3 •Jiscourse that links rogecher, .1n an ordered progression• a sequence of u . nugcs each of ,vhich possess~ 1cs O\vn uniry and 1s self-sufficient, bur all 1 o( ,vhich mesh cogecher foUO\VJng the thread of a srory, a "continuous narntivc:." Furchermore, in its linearicy, the sequence of frescoes obeys a necessiry thar is external co the order of painting, namely the demands of che hagiogr:iphical a~~oun.r ,vhich inspire? the rituli char originally accompanied each scene.- This acc~~c provided not only a number of descripdvc elements, but also the 1ndispen~ble reference on rhe basis of which 1he comn1unicacion operaces and che images become readable as units in a discourse char ic is cheir function, not so much co illustrate, but rather co accualiz.c in a plctorial fushion. Son1e of che images seem decipherable at a glance: Sen1101110 tf1e Birds, for insrance, and co a lesser degree, Saint Francis Rtceiving rhe Stig»111ta. Ochers are more enigmatic and bring into play more complex reading mechanisms. The theme of Tl1e Dear/1 oft!Jt K11igl11 ofCelanocan only be expb.ined (dicl1iara10, as che iconologiscs 'vould say) in the light of the legend in che rirulu.s char accompanies chc image ("The Sainr obwns the salvarion of che soul of a knight of Celano \vho had piously invited him co dine; this man, making his \vay home, follo,ving his confession, ,vhile che ochers \\'ere sirring do,vn co cable, suddenly gave up the ghosc and fell asleep in che Lord"). The picrure is organized parcly as a double composition: on the 0 left, the saint and one of his companions arc seared at table in a smaJI, ~ chamber; on che righr, rhe knighr lies surrounded by a group of weepmg \Yomen. TI1e caesura which is in effect also chc sucure chat links the C\VO momentS in rhe sco~, is marked by a figure clad in red positioned, s~ifi­ 51 cancly, at che junction of the rwo "places." His rnisc:d right hand • gna1s that he ·15 11scen1ng · . co the same . ,vh1lc . his . lcft hand po1nrs · co the moribund . knig ·h I· ' · al 1~0 und in Saint c ying on the ground. The same double schema is so Francis Drea1ning ofa Palace Stacked wit/J \~aponsand in Tht Dream of~pt l11nocn Ill b . . I . ea rcprcsencaoon '' • oth of \vhich J. uxrapose 'vich1n a s1ng c unag . L-of a m I L: • his slum~ ... an s eeping and of chc dream chat comes co ium in .. b" • of Bu c t hc: 1mponanc · ch · d"ate the su JCCl a ching is not so mu co in 1 d docs not past thcsc i 1 rnages (\vhich, given the existence of che egen ' d b • -"~ of a . · of a scorv, col ' m~..... Problern) and to situate chem in the: cha1n

91 dGI" ' attention to ccn a.in characteristic

flgu:.;.

ura. UHi mis ob,·iou ),· requires d«iphcring the tlwt p:odu ·ng an o,·cralJ intcrpretation.2 ' from ......... tbt • · i C)"Cle an be summed up a.s a ~ of tcd O\'tt2 gi,·m , urfacc. But the grammar and the 10 :usoci.itc th~ signili wich a CO'Wltic inl!Uld :no:: be understood in a merely decorative cns.c. The cpdr • m:o tm.ign a iiIOI)' the telling of which invol,·cs pinpoint. .• logi rt'btion~ tlut paint1ng, con~idcred ~ a c.1i1r1J1/ an. .. • pinat* no mearu of denoting~ the rdacion between dreams. 2nd ~· bcr.«n ra dhtin t yet ~imult.ancom moments in the story. and • • Wll K't'. bctv-·cen thl" prc~cnt and the pout, or c'1en the ph11i· al-s-ia nd the mcuphy)it.~.J one. l.ikc dream~. wrucl1 Freud rcgudtd a bid of rtgrmJOO frum the lingui~c1c order 10 the: pc:rccptive, ~l.1.inting ••1 rtd to ckpK1 nun)' conccptu.ll rdit.ioru b)' formal procedures, tht 6-.:n ~• iUch bJ chc cffec1 of consider2bl)· cxrcnding the domain of "n dtpicubk• (/JJnt~/Jbarlteit, to borrow Freud's concept from lin dna..~. 1hc :uulogy 1h~1 it ·~ tempring to otabli~h ~ _.die armng n noc :all rh:at well founded .11 the level of me.inings and lamaac poJuction i) not rt"Solvcd bv a ~ubsriturive ~tisfaaion daim). Art PtCKflt), rather, an .1n.llo;,,. ar the level of " 'Mt Freud wor1t · ri b! am • or rhc work is effected at che n1ttting point cl a aid .d w.ba.r u ntorr,; --• an d l I1e prod Uet) of th&) • nlU)l fulfill ont r-·~·\TIJ• e.b,.J~: they ntlbt render rhr thoughts involved byn.Kntially

mr·dtt

ftQ Q017UQUl

DllAMA ANl> IT) ACTORS

I..• byruum · theme of the p~nt work and consUXr Whktaco cht fllJJn • .~ ...L~ an rht cyck of the life of .tint Francis (d~ribtcl

•..u: ·c· • u tone111ur•) •appmt1ons. ·· · · or . . t.'"'11 Wk lrviw. -, onc-uac

· -- _ .........

m~

· - -POll'mir IOa (.,.,,, ful4JJ of S.i111 mNis) att rcpt· I .Ji IO n:d11C._.., so and aJJ chat requires to be read "beC'\veen rhe lines." on, The face remains chac phoncci~ \Vricing, insofar as ir forms a system, has an external reason: however Aeeang chc speech chac ic immobilizes, char 5 eec.h provides che cex:c chac ir is \vricing's function co fix; and if ic alJo,vs to be deciphered, it is by reference ro che linguistic order, a language (or 3 cypc of language) co \vhich ir may provide access. The history of chis ,vriting. despite being repeatedly marked by progress (in the sense of simplificacion), is also a l1iscory of degradacion: from being an autonomous n1cans of expression, writing has stin k co chc: level of a mere substitute for spccch,s 1 although che phoncric model's superioricy lies only in irs efficiency and a cransparency chat borders on effacemcnc. Pictorial \Yrlting, in conU'3SC, even in che represencarional guise, does not necessarily aim for siinpliciry, lee alone for effacement. And as for efficiency, che effects charir aims for are noc chose of language: ho'v could the)' be, \vhen chis kind of writing, for the same reasons as appl)' co che \vriring of dreams, scriccly speaking has ac ics disposal only viJ1111l means to render concepts and relations chat language is able co express in \Vords, conjugacions, inAecrions, and so on? Even where figures seem co be organized by a cexc, a story, and where t~e subjecc" of the image can be developed and explained by means of discourse, chac image and chose figures are ne1chera duplication nor.an.adommcnc for preexisting speech. A pictorial accounc has la\vs and pnno plcs of ics O\vn; but apart from a possible narrative pcrspecrivc, the g~ar. chac governs the organization of the figurarive elen1ents on a C\Vo-dimcnsionaJ surface borrows nothing from the mechanisms of language by means of wh'ich ru1 interpreter · · · ' ·image and chen co cries co understand rhc pa1nc1ngs describe and analyze ir. Nor, once again, does chere seem co be a~y reason why a systemacic approach co rl1e pictorial phenomenon should unply, ~ ·llS necessary condition or end the produccion of a code. Here, the pas1· 0f h · tion ' ch alys.t· who muse . t e incerprccer is close co thac of a psy oan . hcrv ·. co d~ovcr the grammar of dreams as he proceeds in his or her d~pf ~~~ .wnho uc hope of ever bei ng able co lay bare a syscen1 0 n che basts od w s2 It \VouJd h I h hole of the (CllJ11. be possible co read and trans ace c e '" h nhis· BUt wh t en h " . . ,. h rems from c e no . ere t e analyse kno\vs char a \vr1c1ng c at 5 Id deny the torica} order of the subconscious probablY exiscs. . no one cou

i~lf

04

104

Syntacrica/ Space

Sy11rncrical Space

di\"rnicyor bccaogene.icy of chc synraccical n1echanisms by virruc of ,vhic.b a semanric inccrprccacion mighc be hisrorically associated \Vith a con1pJex of iconic signs. Picrorial \Vricing, unlike che \\'ricing of dreams, does have a ruscory: the problem, for rhcory, is ro resisc submitting ro the ryranny of humanism rhac is disinclined co see in rhe products and periods of anorofany ocher human achievcmenr-anyching aparr from their singularity or individualicy. and char \vould condemn as illegicimace, or even inadmissible, any quesr for hisrorical and/or rranshiscoricaJ consrants on rhe basis of whjch plastic art could be defined in rerms of its general characteristics and its fundamenra.I scrucrure. A cheoretical appreciation ofsuch consrants would seem to be the precondirion for any rigorous, if nor scientific, history· of an. PERSPECTIVES

. Th~ qu~ion ~~the place of a pictorial experiment, or racher the ques· non .of ~1aoria1 \vr1ang as ir rclaces co irs subscrarum, and of the signs ~r ic bnngs inco pla}' as rhcy rclacc co the space that they create through bcm~ arrange~ chere in a certain order and \virh a certain positioningt~. 15 ~ quesaon char is clearly pare of a generalized problem. Pictorial wnang · Iy or negaavely. . . O\vn subsrracum. . 1rselfproduces . • e•·ch · er pos1·uve 1rs . as a med1aung . . or .It either. requires a canvas · • a paneI, or a \Vall co fun caon amrnediacc componcnr 0 f h · . . ., r e image, as ts rhe case tn so-called "surface arts; or else ir denies chem ch · . very marer1alicy. . . by laci . etr subscana'al·1ry, chru ttp . ~g rhc pcrccpnon of a Rae surface by char of a rhree-rumensional illus1onm space· \vhcn rus h hole• · h · t appens, \Ve say char rhe paincing "makes a both in c e ,vaJJ·' or thac a cupoIa ..opens" on co rhe sky and so on. In cases-each · ' · caJJ borh · . of . \vhich lend s ·•cscIf ro var1·anons char may differ ra d.1· iy an pr1noplc and · h · a"al lpacc fulfill 5 ru1 . in c eir crrecrs- the rrearmen r of the piccor1 r Y synlacucal fu · illusionist · 5 A.-: nctions, over and above any decorative or aim • • "6.un rhcre al . . commodarcs I are rwo rernar1ves: cacher rhe substrarum acwhich on a sinag~~r~~ y ~ererogeneous figures and signs, che assembly of Uirace 1S 0rrovcrned . . b . pcntives of a sem· · 'even in its sryliscic modalities, ,, 1m# 1oac narurc· 0 al · d COOSUucted by · ' r, ccrnac1vely, rhe f.tkc space suggesrc or • painccr1y or gco · d .ob.J«U whose posit' . ~ccric means appears co hold beings an laws thar arc rhems:~:;~j ~aca~g, and incerrelarions seem governed by lawa of nature. usionisc bur are conceived in imirarion of the

1

Formulared in these terms, rhe question seems bound co exclude an ... rive research inco rhe disjecrn me1nbra of syscems \vhose cxisren~ ~mp3•• . . theory \vould merely posrulace \Vlthouc ever producing them explicicly. On ihe ocher hand, chere are some systems char are nonfinitc, nor closed, and perhaps nonsysrematic, bur 'vhich neverchel~s appear co obey a number of consr!lnts. Some of chose constants are paracular and guarantee the identiry of a given historical sysccm rhroughour the diversicy of all ics manifescacions, ,vhile others arc general and fundamenral to chc pictorial phenomenon as such, and if these were revealed, chcy \vould make sure rhaca saencific history of painting had the basis chat it lacks. Where chose non6nicc sysccrns are concerned, theory, ar lease ac a preliminary stage, should endeavor lO eliminate rhe particularism of the concept chat conscicuces the main scumbling block for a purely descriptive history of arc conceived on a philological model. Thar particularism can be expressed in many \Ya}'S and cake on a divcrsiry of forms \vhen ic 1s nor obliterated by some misleading generalization of rhe kind char is usually invoked ac chc level of "scyle" (as \vc have already noted in connection ,vith rhc very lax extension of the concepts of "Baroque" and uMannerism" in the discourse of arc history). And, on a more strictly formal level, chc confusion is jusc as greac. Let us rcsrricc ourselves co a single example, albeit admircedly one thac is parcicu· larly rypical at chis poinr. Panofsky was obliged co undertake a greac deal of work (the resulcs of ,vhich, even rhen, \Vere far from conclusive) in order ~o sho,v thac the classical notion of linear perspeccive 'vi ch a single ~ish­ tng poinc does nor suffice co explain rhe predecessors of a symbolic form (SymbolisclJe Fom1, as Cassircr puc ir) char corresponds co a far more gCJlcri] d~linirion· ir is possible co depict (Darz11SUlim) several objects, as 'vcll a pomon of che space in \vhich they are positioned, in such a way ch~r rhc representation ( Vorsrel/1Jr1g) of the material subscrarum co che image is replaced by that of a transparenr surface chrough ,vhich '"'c chink we can sec choses b' . · · ginary space .L • ame o Jects disposed in an apparent sequence in an ima . utac is Ii mi·cless, yec .is delimited by the edges of chc picture. · . s' If chac 1S so. f>Crspeccivc appears as

b .15 r1nked 10 a per· cep 'bl c sym olic forms through \vruch a spiricu:il concenc be II c co . 7,.; ' ] • such a v.•ay as 10 idcn . · ncrete sign [an tines konkrttes 11n11/icl1a £.Cir11o1 in ._ J. and Lt6cd w· h · F pr0,.: ic It. or chac reason, it becomes essenu·at•where differentr. penou> • . with ·•nces of h th hey were rim•1w Ptrs . art arc concerned, co decide not only w c er c . . s4 . P«:tavc, but also wich whac kind of pc:rspeccive they ,vcrc: fam1l111r.

one of th

1o6

Sy11t11ctical Space

~) •11Jt"NC11l Sp11((

uld be no clearer formulation of the relation that links theo There co f .11 . . ry . pl"icacions nor an)r berter \vay o L um1nar1ng the class·,. to it~ concrete ap ' . ~ ) h .. fic3torr function of chis concept (of sy~b~lic .orm : c e defin1non of pcrSJ>C'-ri':e 35 3 svmbolic form leads us co d.lStlllgu1sh beC\veen the periods and pro,iinco of~ chat knC\v nothing of ic and those chac used it in one form or anocher. Furthermore, the basis for such a cliscinccion is not so much theoretical but rather historical, marked as ic is, in the \vay cl1ar ir is stated, b.,· the stamp of cultural prejudice according to 'vhich all pictorial systems, h~ever foreign lhey may be to the ideological space of the Western Renaissance of che fiftcenrh and si.xreenth centuries, are given negative characterization from the outset, based on the absence of any kind of perspeccive order. Meanwhile, syscems \vhere chat link is artesced are assessed according to a progression rh:ic screeches from the firsr arrempcs ar illusionist depth, in the Hellcni~ric period, all the \vay to the geomcc:ric method of consrructing rcprcsenlauve space, as developed by che contemporaries of Brunelleschi and Alberti. The constants char an)f chcory \vould have co recognize \vouJd be of an.essentially hisco.ricaJ nature and linked co the slo'v conquest, birch and reb1nh, after the Middle Ages, of a projecced three-dimensional space tlw was consummately defined by the likes of Paolo Uccello and Jan van Eyck. Such a releologicaJ vie'v should nor be jusrificd by subordinating che dcvd.opmen~ of Western art co the progress made in techniques of plani· mcmc reduction and the ach 1evements · . . of the sixteenth . of rhe perspecav1srs and the seventeenth cencunes · (ach.1cvemencs thacwere often paradoXJcal . .if not aberrant as is sho b h . : . wn Y t c many anamorphoses and other j'curious pcrspcet1ves, co which \ve shall b . ) . . . lied b diaJ . e rerurntng . Rather, 1c should be JUSU· Y ecucal aniculacion fi th · craI prob! . cl rom e starang point of a far more gen· scriptural cm. n~ h!, the problem of the figure and the background. the space w1c in which . . would then be fo d h .signs are arranged. What Hellenistic painang be the way ch .un clo ave in common \vith Renaissance painting would ac it rep aced the . 0 f th ·a1 ttaliry, bya fuke de h . h' vie-.v c pictorial surface, as a m:icen '-·-,;wcs •tand out arept binrwhJch d all re£erenccs to .L me surface from whi"ch thc Byzantine and media ~ is e · Such references are, in contrast, decisive in ..a._ . d eva an (at lease u i1 h . _J ~win ow began co I P unc t e point when the statncu· WU quire licerally rhe supp ~c the 'vall &esco. The stained-glass window 6rst painted .. · d " wu uaigncd .1 __• ·d not co allow h . win ow, bur one that, it muse be sai • ro play wich and make h t e view to open up onco the beyond, but rather t e mosc of the l"gh J t that passed through ir).

107

Syntaxes AN ANCI ENT P ROCED U RE

\'(lhecher or noc chey involved the escabushmenc of a perspective order and a negacion of rhe macerial subscracum of iconic signs, chc various syscems of pictorial writing chat were respected, ac one time or another, in lhe Christian Wesc made room, in various ways and co varying degrees, for figurative units char analysis Labels, proceeding according co the means of articulaccd language, using che word cloud. Of course, the assignacion of a nan1e is not enough co guarantee the idencicy of the uni cs thereby denoted. As has already been pointed ouc, even if chey are identical from the poinc of viC\v of an analysis of the piccorial rext inco irs iconic components. from Lhe point of viC\v of their formal cexrure and the functions char they assume in different concexts and ac differenc levels, the units denoted as clouds consciruce so many distinct objects. Yee, over and above the dclimiracions introduced by a consideration of stylistic periods and over and above the differentiation of levels imposed by analysis, che presence of chose units corresponds, at lease at che level of rhat which is signified, co a common factor: cloitti intervenes in a figuracive text \vhcrever it is a marter of relations nor only bct\veen the earth and the sky bur also becween down here on earth and the beyond, beC\veen a world that obeys its O\VD la,vs and a divine s~ace thar is unknowable co science. We have nored the syncactical funcuons ~filled by cloud in Giottesque pictorial writing, and how the painrcr of Assisi resorred co the use of this sign in order co extract the saint from common s.pa~e and place him in a space of contemplation and mystic r:ipruhre. But sunilar uses of clo11d are anested in a much earlier period. Srudving [c . • fi mosaics in the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome-which dates _rom the reign of Sixtus III (4 32- 4 o)-Andre Grabar noticed the inccrest1ng · thc most su1"ki ng cplS· odes in · h USC .of cloud ·in cerra.i.· n pancls ·11 i ustratmg t e scones of Ahrah in Th Vi . am and Jacob, and in chose of Moses and Joshua. Icw:is th fit ~ron °/Abraham and The Stoni11g ofMoses, Cllkb, and Nun that, for c rst time di . . h ap ' a vine cloud was introduced as an accompantmcnt ro t c th~ce of God, and that cloud was also used to protect a figure from dra si.g t and blows of his adversaries. Grabar remarks that "this way · · · of wing atte · · · ics fi ntion to the providential narurc of che story may be ancient 10 orm, but was only really successful in Christian iconography... But :all

1oS

Syntactical Space

Sr11i.1rticnl Sp11re •

che S3ffiC, he does consider chac che Roman mosaic artists \.Vere "re\vorkin ., • • SS A ki . g the Hellenistic modes of represenc1ng epic. re,~or ng 1c may be, but it ccminly testifies co a recognirion of both the radical disconcinuiry andat the same rime-the possibility of communication beC\vecn che human \\"Orld and the divine order, and of the consequent need for the painter 10 cbbor:ate figurative mechanisms chac serve co represenc the incervenfion of celestial beings into human affairs. Docs cloud appear in Giotresque \vriting merely as an archaic survival?56 ln the case of rhe Assisi Ecstasy and char of the Roman Stoning, what is signified is perfecdy congruent. ln both cases cloud is rhe instru· menr chat caIT1es a figure a\vay from the eanhly scene, and in both ~ it introduces a differcnciafion inco che pictorial field, a sore of fuulc line, a rupture chac is a figuracivc \Vay of manifesting the precarious nature of che human order, constantly exposed co being corn apart by a miracle. But what is signified there does not suffice co account for the funccions of this dcmcnc, \vhich assumes a noticeably different importance in rbe C\VOcon· texts that \YC arc considering. In Sanr:i Maria Maggiore, as in chc upixr church ofAssisi, the images have a \vall as cheir material subscrarum. Bur in Ro?1c, ~e decoration, far from negating the church wall, on rhe con~· cnnch~ It 'vith its brilliance; chc series of illuscrarions is organized over.ill according to ornamencal principles and their sole unicy is conferred upon rbcm b! .the enclosed area \virhin 'vhich chey are positioned. ln conuasc, rbc Assisi story, even in ics trompe l'oeil archirecrural framework invol"-es ~dcJinicion of an autonomous and unified space, in which ic c~n deploy IQ figures. Here, each scent has ics O\Vn unicy. Bur it is a unicy rhac g:iins the ~ohcrencc of che \vhole, \vhich is conveyed ar very firsr sight by . anccnsiry of the colors, the scale of rhc figures, the i1npecus of che nar· nave · and bomoge11eiry of its art1m1 J • .andI more covereIy- bYche rtgor 1ur• pnnc1p cs. .For the: fifth-ccncury Roman mosaic . artists, . the cloud 1·s s1mp · I)· a mark (a Jci nd of parenth csis) . thar denves . 1rs . mean1ng · from thepunauauon .. .. · ~ pnaon char it occu · 10 · 1. the do d pies a •near sequence. With the Ass1s1 pa1nte ' u accedes to the rank 0 f ul . . ·fi of wlUch · link d . a tr Ysymbolical cool, tl1e s1gn1 cance as h ch with the spat'al . \vh1cb . 1c . 1s . used, andbYme;ins 1 strucrures 1n of ...L!...L w1UQ1 r c uman asrw· f h d d 0 Wi11h 1 . r-cts r e rama are at chis point suspende · our caving the t · f ·at field ol ld'crtncc ,·1n . . crra.in Rome (which consrituces a spec• . · at· fated from 141 •- cc It .1s only here rhar t he concjnuicy of Chrisaan arc 15 tc: anuquit · h d cc Y rig t own to the modern period), we cans

:'?

°

d udfunccioning in a 'vidc range of very different condicions. Take the case ; he clouds scactcred here and there in che mosaics char adorn rhc apses 0 ~arches of Roman basilicas daring from before A.O. 1000. In chc church :Csanri Cosma e Damiano (s~th .c~rury; see Pl are 4b), and in rhac of San r 11.SSCdc (ninch ccnrury). Chr1sc IS 1solaced from a blue background by a ~~d ofscreen, a discontinuous grid composed of small blue and red scratocurnulus clouds. clearly delineaced and regularly aligned. Similar clouds arc to be found on che arch of the church of Sanci Ncreo ed AchiJJco (eighth century), \vhcre a rriumphanc Christ is Ranked by nvo groups of the faithful at prayer. In S:inr'Agnese Fuori le Mura (seventh century) and in San Pra.sscdc, clouds surround the hand of the Creator, \\fhich is co be seen at the: cop of rhe vaulced ceiling, ringed by a series of concentric circles, in conformicy \vich a traditional symbolic schema that is found again in che c,,·dfth ccnrury, in the apse of San Clemente and also in Sanra Maria in Tr.iscevcre. Perhaps ir \Vould be fai r co say char the Roman mosaic anises \Vere not concerned co esrabJish thei r figures in an imaginary place but were content co organize the surfaces thar rhey \Vere given co cover by defining qualicacivcly differenciaced zones in which chey could posicion their sacred effigies. (It is as if, by rejecting all illusionism, they set out to affirm rhc spintual value of che image as such - rhac is. the painted or decorated surface-at a time ~vhen an iconoclastic frenzy "vas being unleashed in Byzantium.) Certainly, cbt: organizacion of these icons is governed b! ml.es t~ac arc above all concepruaJ and decorative: cloud is noc used for I ts piccoriaJ value, bur as a marker, a convencional dcccrminarive. Panofsky has pointed ouc char in early Christian arc, and even more . in Byzantine arr (\.vhicl1 never managed co cue icself off altogether from the ancient cradicion), rhe place \.Vhere figures are depicted, far from being re· duccd co an opaque, negar1ve . surface, appears rac heras a 1um inous film char denOtes- buc does noc ·"reproduce,, -a spat1a . I env1ronn · .1enr·s1 The clouds . that separace rhe figure of Chrisr from a uniformly blue background inrrof duce a modulation into the colored dcprh: the figure is placed;,, Jro~ro lhcm•on t h.is side . of a transparent screen bcyond wh'tch color (light) reigns . sa over all· Cloud -or a cloud of light, \vhich . fulfills chc same funetJons th1drn11ifi h .. . . . h 1·t isolates from ~ tS as r e appar1con of a god che d1v1nc icon t at d also rfrocst of the image and from the: "sky" against \vhich ic stands o.uc'. an mth .. " . hose mcd1anon seems · d' e ground upon \vhich are set rhe w1cnesscs \V . S i {aria 1 In IS!)l.>n,.ALl d Al dy lD anOl ~ r~•&.>ten at the origin of the foundation of the basilica. Bue iris only seen as an opposition thanks to the inrroduccion, ac che join of the two levels, ofa hinging dement that ensures that the nvo interact. If one imagines che picrure 'vithour rhe mass of clouds rhac divides che pand into nvo more or I~ equal parts, it loses most of ics deptlJ, in the literal as well as the 6guraare sense of the term. For the clouds, in their regulated Highc, on che one hand compose a kind of "roof" or covering, ,vhich reinforces the pcrspecU\'e effect sought in the lo\ver level, while, on che ocher, it is r~ c~ chem thac the literal message, denoted by the cicle chat accompanies che ~a_ge, ~rvcs co carry a second meaning, of a theoretical nature. The opposicio~ modulated by the cloud signifies sornething quite different from wha~ it ~enoces: it conveys a series of quescio11s about che status of the persp~c~ve code" and the exclusions that it decern1ines, chat is co say theconrradicaoo which -poss1·bly-constJcuces . .its very ma.Jnspr1ng. · ·

H1ttory · and Geornetry TH.E TASK OF THE PAINTER

D0 th h represenration of e rules of perspective lend themselves co t e rd ) Pheno d 0 f the human o er. mena that break through the ordinary boun s his 0 r, to p h . which open up t \\· Ut t at another \vay, do divine incervenrions. l h ·--•-ex· or1d to che beyond and, more generally, mysc•'cal - or even P rsi~

111

Sy11ractica/ Space

~ynrnrrirnl Space

changes bcC\\'Ccn che earth and che sky provide rnarter suirable fo r repre. scoracion dcspice 1he fucr thar dcpiccion seems co be subjecr ro an organize. tionaJ principle for chc pictorial fidd rhar seems co impl)' as ics corollary Lhai chc illusionist space consrrucrcd by geometrical means is governed by rules analogous co rhe Ja,vs char operate in the empirical universe: bodies and objccc.s arc subjccr co gra,ricy, and rhis imposes limitations upon che man. ncr in \vhich chcy move around. and so on? Can such reprcsentarions even have a place in rhis syscen1, unless supernatural manifescacions or n1iracu. lous .evenrs ~I~\\' chemsel~.cs 10 be reduced co the common norms of per· ctpa~n, or v1s.1on? Albcrr1 s Della pitrura, a book rhar-as ics aurhor tcl~ us-1s noc a htsrory of arc bur an arr-a rheory-ofpaincing and chc fi f . k' d 62 • , !'SI o Its in , s~ccs char a painter should attempt co feign only char \vhich can be sc.en: rhtngs. rhar cannot be seen are no part of his remit ("Dellt cosc qual~ n~n ~oss1ru110 :eder, niuno nega nulla aparccnersene al pictorc. So~o studJa ii p1c.tore fing1cre quello si vede [No one \vould deny char the pamcer has norhin~ co do \Yich things char are nor visible. The painter is concerned rcprcsenring \vhac can be seen]") 63 H. . b . " d scrib {d solely . J\v1rh . . .. . IS JO IS ro e· e eJmvere \vnh lines and co cine [tigniereJ with colour on ,vharcver pand. or \vall ·•-- obscrvcu _ ...1 planes of any body so thar a1~ . is given him s·1m11M ccrwn and in a ccrtarn · posiaon · · from the centre, chey appear 1n rdi f disrancc d e an seem to have mass."6-t Ir is imporcanr · ac thc outset that painting rhus under· nl . to cmPhasizc .,"""" ts. o ry meaningful in rcIanon . co che rnoria, . ' main pre· • ,vhich is rhe occupaoon 1or a painter (s J I . composirio f h b d' uinnza opera at prttore). The istoria means the · according · co rhe1r . respect1,·c · sizes and fu n · r e ho 1es thac bcl ong to 1r ncuons: r crcjn lies ch . f b shouJd bed d . c genius o r e paincer.6 s The grearesr C:tie evore co placing each hi . . . ') In an i.sroria wha · . . • r ng in 1rs rightful place (11 s11oi /11ogh1 · • r IS 1mmed1arely · i_: d and variccy of rh fi . srriKJng an pleasing is the abundanc.e diar fill it 61i ButcaJIgures• animal5• 0 b'Jecrs, builrungs, and even landscapes · • r1te same blam 1·5 d age to accomnloda ' c ue ro painters who do not man· mm chem wi' th re 311Yeinpry spaces in their compositions buc inscead somanyfi d' • ri4, rakt-n over by gures, •sposcd in such confusion char rhe isro· ...,_ __ . . rumu 1c, no longer p rh . . . 6i • l q ( as qu1cc b . assesses e rugn1ry of an acaon. 311 impo .L_ rtanr o scrvar10n, f;or 1r · · · implies char che organizauon of U1C piccoriaJ spa • also cc cannot be defi d 111 . h 11 a dramatic quaJ' h nc purdy geometrical cerms: r ere fDma the figures sho ' tyd to t c space, and because of char che scene char u1 norseemrobc sunp . Iya reccpraclc for the ,oouies; _.,.

---..1 .

°

113

. should be created by their composition, rheir disposition their rcr.ll her, 1t . ' . lhci r inreracaon (and by che space thac separares them, ,vhich may buons. ia}' an inrrins1'cally .1ns1gn1 . .6cane parr .1n the1r . arucuJarion . constiS((Ol (0 P . • • • ' . merely neuaave condiuon for che permuranon of the figures in the uunga t>• 1 ~inung. buc \vhich neve~eJess, 1~. che concexc ~f ~ un~fied illusionist reprcsenration, in rrurh acqu1res a pos1c1ve value}. P:unc1ng is a mactcrof cmpcy s aces as ,veil as full ones (and theory oughc co be able co cake both inco ~count and define chem, with their respective sraruscs, on an equal foocing):6' and ic is also a maccer of r.hc \vei~hc of rhi.ngs. Each fi~ure shout~ play 69 itS part in ics proper place (a 11101 l11oglJ1), 'vherc 1c should be in propornon, and the place should sujc the nacure of che parricular figure and char figure's situation. A diversiry of gesrures and accirudes and a variery of body moven1en1s conscituce some of the major attracrions of an istorin. Bue if visible 70 movemcncs- rh.e only ones chat a painrcr should concern himself wich arc defined in rdarion co a place and can be reduced co a change of position (of \vhich several kinds are possible: [a] upward, lb) down,vard, [c] co the right, Id] co the lefr, [e] moving a'vay, [f] coming closer, lg] rurning in a circle), then some transgress the bounds of rcason,71 chat is co say che rule ~ccording ro 'vhich every figure should be sarisfacrory in respect of the balance berwecn its pans and, \vith all acrobatic poscurcs excluded,n should also satisfy imperatives analogous co chose of gravity in the empirical uni\trse. Bur there is one nuance chat, by concrasc, emphasii.cs still further rhe lav.'S by which the sysccm is marked: in every movement, grace and bcaucy should be aimed for. And the mosc agreeable and animated movements of all are movemencs up,va.rd, up inco che air, chat is to say movements chat concradicr \veight and manifest the freedom of bodies...3 The same goes for hair' s·1m·1 1ar co flames (simile a/le .ft111n111e) and g:irn1encs. drawn narurallv' do.wn,vard by rheir \'veighr: ic is good ,vhen che \Vind lifts and moves these 74 things, thac same \vind rhac blo\vs thro11g}1 the clouds (cJ1e soffifra le n"volt).

2

llERSPECTIVE AND REP.ETlTION

· · · assesses a ch In p:unt1ng, the impression of weightlessness someames P . his ~~ of ics own (and here it is Botticelli's \ti-nus and che figures LO l ind) As an Painung 0 f S . ,/T:, • IJ>nng, or Lippi's Salo1ne and so on, char ~P co m · 'JJltt , •t onl . , f h . . and the perctpt'bl .. ~ cxiscs thanks co the illusionist basis o c c paintUl? . h"ch ic . between che body and t he spacc \\•1chin w rno .l c, vtsiblc rd aaon 'ch' tJ

'1tcd by its outline, and all of rhem inrenicting to chc poinr of view adopted for composing figures and scenes·

"°"'was

JJ7

in the same \Va~ as. lert~rs are arran?ed s~ ~ co fo~ words an~ scntcnccs.r The\\'Ork of pamang 1s.a.wor~ of 1nscnpnon, and ttS appr~uccship is not unrdaced l o char of wr1r1ng: I \vould . have chose \vho begin co learn the of painting do whac I see practised by teachers of writing. They first 111 ceich all che signs of the alphabet separately, and then ho\v ro put syllables cher, and then ,vhole \vords. O ur srudentS should follo'v chis method ~: painting. Firsc rhey should learn che outline of surfaces."" POlNT/SJGN/su RFACE

The inrroduction of rhe paradigm of phonecic \vri ting is decisive here: n e.scablishes representation (whac is visible being here assimilated co whac 1s represenrable) as directly dependent upon language, che same language 1hac gives things their names and by which stories are cold; also thelanguage 1ha1 \Vestcrn tradition links in ge11tral ro the voice, to hearing, co sp«di. in rtl.ltion co \vruch wricing has a merely derived funccion- derivedJ in c.hac it tsn:prcscncational.89 And, in fact, the same applies co che pcrspcctivc modd as co the phonetic model: 111odel being the right \vord here, as Jacques Derrida insistS, rather chan stn1cN1re; for "it is a marcer not of a con.suucced system, functioning perfectly, buc rather of an ideal chaccxplicicly~ovems a functioning 'vhich in fact is never phonetic through and through, ~ any more chan ic is ever "perspective" through and through. le '°"~uld .~ mceroung, at chis poinc, co sho\v chat the paradigm of phonetic \Vrt~· ~ from having a purely pedagogic value, in facr governs the entire pictorial cuhure of the Renaissance right do,vn co che symbolic de\relopmcnts chat h logy t e classical age was co classify under the rubrics o11bltnuzttc or icono .. The reference ro a hieroglyphic model-a reference already co be foun~tn AlllCrti's text, \vhere it does not however, imply any break \vich ~e P ~­ ncuc ode) ' d ·cher in race or in 9 1 .L rn • rather the reverse - does noc correspon • ei · d ral lflton.• · · of the fun amen .,, ro a remanipulacion, Ice alone an undc:rmrning, · la· siructur f . cnra level of arocu . cs o representation. le simply illusuates an ub · :Urns uon_ at which the painting operaces when, co borro'v Ripa's form ' lt docs to $tgnify 1le """ No mort · something ocher than \vhac it presozts to " •..,-· - - - •· 1'th cbe IConoJo h· og1.ire "· • bur one conscrucced 1n accordance w1rh a rule of pcrspccwe such chac, ,vhcn seen from an fronc, as is naruraJ and usual for or her pauuings, prcsentS co us nOthl.ng but •a confused and disordered .mixture of. lines and. colouo .1. ch · h m uch application ID Wnl ' WI[ ( ' one may form an unage of sinuous . 29 rivers and roJds, deserted beaches, or c/011ds or 1tra11ge chnnmts. (my emphasis} LEONARDO I

Rivers, \vinding paths (impossible noc co chink of ~fanregna) •.clouds, · c and chimeras, becore \Vhic h che eye beg1· ns to drearn • as a pa1nrcr.nughc . be-. fore stains on a \vall: such are the things to which an anamorphic i~e 15 · by IOOKJng 1.: reduced unless che eye recomposes 1c ar 1·c from che appropnare angle (as \Vith an allegory. if che hidden, implied meaning is.nocgfrraspedch). I1.as as 1f . the decencertng, . the poss1·b·1 1 ·tty of w h'tc h is recognized . . bom de 5 Wt by che "code," could only operace \vichin very narro\~ limirs ey~ . al t hough ic has' in truth, me __Ly wh1.ch the .image \vill seem to d1s1ncegl.lce L_ · possi·bte to.reduce uccn rra11sfonned. In a similar fashion, coday, ·tr 15 II spcccu d chen · d more econom1 to asonorous magma that can be trarlsm1rce . ca Yan vcvs , r'Camposed by electronic means, rescored ro an artl.culaaon char h ·scon JO ccrrn eatting. • Leonardo da V mci who may have ·1nvenced anamorp . 051 • d up aajn} , • ,, ( h cruled It) summe Ysa\v ho,v chis "composed perspective as e. fu . of making all.the problems of perspective, even as tr · subverce • d 1rs ncuon . · order che 10 thingsunderstandable. Perspective . 1s . an 1nstrumc · nc for sccnng f · ges of rhc: tr~~ived reality chac flows coward the eye in the form 0 •.'013c2 "'cc and a uuaics h fi . ch is ac once a -o t ar IJ the air, images for . .vhich e eye h ·useco gc:omelnl 0 ..ncc "l1 B · (rather c an J ·• · y referring pain ring to pcrcepaon . lied by AJbcro s try), Lcon3(do managed co bring ro lighc all char ,vas thm~mages ofobjeas 5Ystcin'.... "nd at t he same time co cr1aaze . . . 1r. . Given rhac rhe If · n:trrs. noch~e all i fi d · f h in eac o 115 ..-· n use tn che air as a \Yhole, all o t c::m . Gr«1rt throu gh ing could b hrough a uny1-be wh· h e seen, according to him, except r Id ""'par.ice out. · IC th e atmosphere passed and che rays 0 f right COU ~

Tl1r Pou1rrs of 1/1r Co11ri111111111 come concentrated, ordc:rcd, and con1posed.31 Nothing could be rnore deceptive, in this respect, than the specular n1etaphor: for no objccr is defined in itself in che mirror: it is defined only by chc eye char sct:S it chcre and that gives ic a configuration.'' Perspective de11101urrates this opcrarion, \Vhich is a procedure char is at once selective and organizational, in geometric ccrms. But whereas simple, "nacural" perspective operates on a plane of incersccrion char is perpendicular ro the a.xis of the visual cone, and lcavc:s rhe spec. tator a reJarive freedom of moven1enc, composed perspective, \vhich is a combination of natural perspective and artificial (or even accidentnl) perspective, operaces on oblique planes, \vhere nacural diminution is combined with geometric foreshortening and forces che observer to look ar che image through a licclc hole: if several people are looking ac a picture consrrucccd in this 'vay1 all at rhe same rime, only one 'vill be in a position ro understand the effect of perspective, \vhile the resr \vill perceive it only confus. cdly..l4 Anamorphosis thus provides a kind of reducrio ad absurdnn of the 11poria into which perspective leads 'vhen ic is reduced to solely ics linear components. Bue this demonstration, in its rum, leads co certain pictorial co~uences.

AU pcrspecti,·e relates to che plane on \vhich it is inscribed. But linear perspective implies an extra reduction, rhe reduction of the visual faculty to a single poinr- from \\lhich the \vhole series of ics elements are c!ngendcred: point/line/surf':lce/, clcmcnu thac, although chcy serve a rational consrruc· tion, nevcnhdcss have no value in reaJicy. In effect, geometrical pcrspecuvc docs away with the very element of vision, che atmosphere, wichin \vhich images and colors arc conveyed. Ir reduces bodies co surfaces defined by the outline by which they are reprcsenced from a prcdeccrmined poinr of viC\\', no account being ra.ken of the facr chac chose "poincs," "lines," and "sur· faces" have no more chan a nominal existence. A surface is a li1nit: ic is not pan of those bodies, merely their common frontier, rhc poinr of contact (tontingenzia) of their exrrcmides.35 When referred co rhe element upon which vision is operating, the surface has a name, bur no substance:

Surf.ace is the name given to the bound.tries of bodies with rhc air or I would rather ay of the air with bodjcs-rhat is whac is enclosed between the body and the air dw surrounds it; and if the air n1akcs concact with the body there is no ~cc to pw another body there; consequently, it may be concluded that surface has no bodyand therefore no need of position.... A surface has existence and not sp.icc:· Consequently, this surface is equal to nothing, and all the nothingness in the world

Tl1e Poruers ofthe Conri11u11111

137

iul !O t he Sm•allcsr part if there can be a parr. \Xlhcrcforc we may S:l)' that suru((j . as bcnveen chcmsel"cs, and each is of itself cq1111 &csch t at he ,vas ch'nki f devocing speciaJ pil»"'b-_,,....ad 1 ng o 1 te•ra thar refer to th· e 'Ya5 P.lanning to write. Bue the attenrion plid ro 1cmcnc in ch d' . ~ ilcd is c . 11,~ C!"""'-P in the 'iict h c c 1nons of che Treatise on Pa111n "· ~r,ediL1e1-ccnr cc:nru b F •CDgttUCT under a spcc'fi . ry Y ranccsco Mdzi, and their cotlccu.00 I C ti( 1C in th c: pan d cvotcd co landscape indjetre t he

f ne'v in ceresrs (and ac che same rime of a new "genre,,) And O e emergenc . . . "°''could one fail co thi n~ o~ the more or less fan rast1caJ landscapes, ,vitb ski 6Jled ,virh "c.hr~cen1ng . clouds, so man)' .examples ~f 'v.hich are co 6 ~found in Lhe paintings of chis cenrury, beg1nn1ng \v1ch Giorgione's migric TtniptJt? But \ VC need ro press on further and dig deeper inco the :j"ch pbce , •Q~e crn d · ot so mu :a lll \\iii h crge · Bue char background, in ics cum, is n . ftn.ible c ~ch h. 6 h .1ndc6nice, u..... \!1c wh . . c •ng nds ics own place, but rat er an f n.roak trc: It IS • • iYrate. ~ :IX v• 0 tmposs1ble for che la,vs of nacure ro r-

The Po1urrs ofthe Co11rin11111t1 has sbo,,'Il, in a classic ccxr, ho'v El Greco's possibly most famous work, The Burutl of1/1r Count ofOrgnz, despite resorting co a traditional Compo. sirional schema, nevcrthele.ss obeys principles thae directly contradict choS( ~~hi~ the pa.Jnters of chc Quaecroceneo had ~ied.s• The paincing is dn1ded 1nro ['\VO parts. Ac the lo,vcr levd, the prunrer has representro c~ miracle char occurred during the funeral ceremony (c.he apparition of Saini Stephen and Saint Augusrine, \vho descended from che sky and themselves proceeded to bury the body of the counr). The upper level depicts che re· ccption of ehe dcceased's soul by Christ and che Virgin, who are set within a semicircle. As Dvorak rightly perceived, the novelty of the \vork lies in ihe interp.rcracion of rhc schema on two separate levels, chc meaning of,vhich is com~lccely transformed by the framingadopcedby the painter, who aJIO\\'S no gl1mpse of che ground upon \vhich the figures ae the lower level stand. Tho~ figures are so closely packed, squeezed one against another, char any allusion.to the scene \vhcrc they are congregated is abolished, co allo'v for ~ openmg onto the "heavens" at che upper levd of che composirion where, m an up,vard ~piral ~e is further emphasized by che round fran1C'\\'Ork. the ~res are 1ncerm1ngled 'vich banks of cloud. Ir is as if rhe painter had been an.cent upon eliminating from che figurative field any reference ro the terrescnaJ base of che reprcsenrarion so as ro make ie seem an inner vision tbac, .as such, was not subjected co the objective conditions of perceptible ccrwncy. ...... t.: 0 g• El Greco•s prunang · · does nor consc1rurc . a new . Hiscorically sr-ouu poa~c of dcp::;rrure. Michelangelo's Last Judgmmr had already presented the. un~e of a space wichout rcalicy, without existence, the upper part of wh1ch 1s filled with h b d. h.ch · A •:•-~ .. uman o 1es w 1 • •• , seen from a d1scance, oat uac trailing clouds ·"ss I n f:ace, many compos1uons ·· · d present . of the pcr10 a quasi-nebulous aspect that is· most srr1'lci ng. Dvorak \Ytth · reason dr.i\VS . attcnnon ~o the similarity bet\vcen El Greco's Burial of t/Je Count of Or,wh~ and Ta~t?retto's Ascension ofChrist, in which che Apostles, rhe cirde of om trad1t1onally con · d h . . ushc surute t e p1voc of rhe composition arc as it 'vcrc !:calf~ away, su.ckcd i~to ~he background, of which only a' few glimpses . r~cd, while Chrisr rises amid a grear mass of clouds. Herc, the As· ttN10n JS not treated as b. · . '5· lical sub· . . . an JCCuve physical phenomenon, bur as am) ro t>c1ccuve vas1on, seen only by Saine John a figure who is relegated dm o~ thcn:m ~orner of t~e composition (jusr ,as he is in Parma, on chc po a of San G1ovan.nj Evangclisca). This seems a fur Cf)' frorn

th

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Tl1e Po1uers ofrhe Co11tinu 11111

143

clearly arranged, systemacically organized scenic space thae the bl ihc sr.i e, ch . al . ~ Qu:itUOCCnto had used as rhe . eaer1c secc1ng ror hum~ action. Bue this · n or even cransformaaon -should not be dcscr1~d sold)· in --, «vC\"OIuuo lisric terms. \Xlhen Max Dvorak chose El.Gr~co .as an exen:_plary figure: for the iod kno,vn- mosr unforrunarely, 1n his v1C\v 56 -as Mannerist," he wis~ co shov.. chat the rejection of the rules of both physical and dramaiic vcrisimilicude and the abandonment of the objeetivc framC'\vorks of rquesene:arion are, as principles, inseparable from the: general rrend of che cuhure of che day and in particular the mysric.'ll crisis char follo,ved the Reformation. Saine Teresa wrote as foflo,vs: "Whar I see is of a whice and ared color chac is co be found no\vhere in naeurc and is of a brilliance and po\ver greater than anything man can sec; rhesc arc images rhar no one has atr painted." 57 Bue chey \Vere images that El Greco did attempt co painr, according co Dvorak, never hesicar1ng co sacrifice all preoccupations of obJ«tivicy and verisimilitude co cl1e expression of inner rapture. TllE SYSTE~f AS A FIELD OF PRODUCTION

But che mosr imporrane ehing here is nor so much the ·documen121)'" significance that may be aeeached co El Greco's 'vork (documencary, 111 the sense char Panofsky. following Karl Mannheim, ga"e c~ the word: namely, the significance held by the 'vork of art in as much as 1c~ffcrs ac~ to the "spirie of che age," "ehe vision of chc 'vorld" rhac che artlSC sh~ed ~1 th other men of his rime and class, or chat of the social group for ,vhich ~v.-as \VOLK.1ng _._. ). Rarher, ic is che fuce chat rhar s1gn1ncance · ·c. can be recon58 'llucted firom cercam · d1screee . d ·ai of chc \vork. features an part1 aspects rapid comparison becwecn rhe procedures adopted by El Greco 3Jld rbar:il\ in their efforcs co represent miraculous visions may enable.us Etol d~\Va · · firom ,vhlch C ,c~ncrasc becween ehe purely coneemplacive mysucism . El . concepe of myscical effusion. d creco s un ages stem and a far more accLve Lhcr~o rends to reduce co che minimum chc space all O\Vt?d for che grounall' t~rrcsrriaJ .b dt space from na1"ral sear of his compositions, or co Ii erare su . . bc1'1.· constraincs. Zurbar.in on the other hand, creates an oppcs1uoln ecn the r . • 1 d hlcectural \'O umc. ~d h errescnal level, which is created as a c ose arc . d d· d I c ccl ·ai 1 . d finite ou 'ui funhc CSci eve(. \vhich is conceived as an open. in c _.J eight'- rrnore L ! 6 rc:scntcu as w qs b ' •us gures in a scace of ecsc~w are never rep ·'l us Ut rcfllai fir -, h fuccors can tC1 ~lllcthi n mly fixed co rhe ground. Cleirly. c esc h che p.Unccr ng aboue chc policies of che religious orders for '" om

ta

Tl1e Potuen ofrhe Co11rinu11111

Tl1e Pou•m ofrhe Co11ti111111111 \\'OrkJng: che Church, under divine inspiration, has \vork co do in the \\'Orld. and conccmplarion is nor all chat there is ro religiow practice. Bur the rolurion adopted by Zurbacin has a further significance. Insofar as ic associaccs ''ichin a single composition t\VO levels thac correspond ro diffcrcnr styl~r!c principles, one r.r~ced in che linear mode, rhe orhcr one "vaporous, ic makes che oppos1c1on, ar once physical and metaphysical, bcC\vccn heaven and earth doublyeffeccive and confers upon the opposition becwccn ~e "linear" and chc "pictorial" a resonance chat is more than solely scyl~ ac: It sets t\VO s~listic configurations chat seem ro be concradicrory ,vichin a single field, \vh1ch, ho,vevCI, at che same time reveals char both belong co a ~or~ gcneraJ srrucrurc 'vich regard co \vhich che opposicion icseJ f becomes sagni6canc. \\':lS

Thi~ struccure cannor be seized upon or even decected ar firsr glance; ~or docs 1c ~ecome accessible through a descriprion composed along chc lines of a ~1Story of scyle.s. Such a history recognizes only rhe successive

~n6gurac1ons of :Ut, and.sc~s our co de.scribe chem in a philological \vay, 10

terms of evolunon, affihaaons, reversions, and remainders. Bur chc aims of ~c sysce~ chat underpins chem call for a diffcrcnc approach co the his· toncal ~~en~ and a differenc focus upon the picrorial realiry. Jn place of thebs~nodizaa.on char corresponds to the level of manjfesc, visible figures. ic su r1rucesad1fferenc --'-· d d"1scontmuJaes: . .. . d . . ·1rvruoofb rr~ an 6gures rhacap~ to be 1rre uc1blc•1ncongruenc, are 1oun r d co commurucace · ar a deeper levc') thar of strucruraJ conscraints d · ·plcs theorcacal · art1cu · Ia· • an rcgu Iacory pr1na :a~ ~d rracticaJ options, and formal models and atlrural and ideological J~csdo the mosr general kind. The nenvork and more or less stable and organize · . _ h boconsccllac:ions of thcse 1ncerconnccoons define \Vhar rhe present rct as a ve caJlcd che · rJ. • f . ..L__ d . . . llJJ 'Jttu o a period of arr, char is co say rlle syscem uw: un crp1ns 1cs h1Storicicy TI h . . . _._ . d . · lus t c p1cconal sysrem of the Renaissance: uctcrm1nc a po1s1bk field of d . b d ..umb f . .. pro ucc1on ut ac the same rime impose 3 .. er o proh1b1aons · · . duci 1h . ' rejections, esscnaal scrucrural limiracions. By re· e fquesuon of the space of the representation to thac of che rcprc· ..uon o space che cheo · 0 f h Q miaivcd . . ' riscs t c uanrocenco gave the syscem a re· 6 c n1r1on, which was ho .£...._, ·ch de: aru1bolic r~ . . • Wever, pc1u::(;aycohcrenr and \Vhi ma --:1 -.-rcscncaaon d.ircctl d d . "The·Y cpcn enc upon thearrical rcprcscnttlnon. ~ 01 1/N t ICVJ.S1on 1n che car h' t . ' . ascrop tc se1ise of che expression. Indeed, iris alniosi nsc cmpung to see this rfns · · ro anorh A s~iring interpretation of Revelations as a resp 1 A 'Ill- :: b :c~rypsr, \Vh1ch, for its pare, cercainly did deserve its ricle: chc y o.urcr, published in the form of a book-the first co be pub· 'Yan an1st at hi5 O\vn . . h"ch in Flormcc, theadventurcofS expense-in 1498, the vt>rv year 1n ,.., 1 ' ( l -, h o Din irae and th d f ~vonaro a came to an end when the prop et ( ttme was bumc ac the stake. The signi6ClJ1Ct' 0 e en

li:tir me

°

147

, dercaking . . was only coo dear with . respecc co the crisis char was . "dn Chrisuan1cy and che struggle agatnsc Rome led by Luthcr,60 and dj\i I g .ron1c ' al pamphier O\VCd 1•cs essenn'aJ l'rorce and po\vu of · of an 1 tlus \'C rs 100 • uasion co a formal paradox char Durer managed co cxplotc systemari~. Ahhough Revelations \V3S nor recognized as a canonical cexc until the {~ccnih cencucy, ic had long been providing macerial for commcncarics wd illustracions.61 Bue ir was nor u.ncil Dilrcr's work that, for che first rime t11 the hisiory of Christian art, che renr in che cosmic order chat che cext of RC\t!aiions implies '"as nor just rhe objecr of a sy111bolic and/or figurative rrprtStnrarion and rhac che eruption of heaven on earch was conveyed, ac che ltvcl of the syscem, by a rent in che very order of depiction, or reprcscnta· 1ion. Max Dvorak commencs that, in Otirer, che images of che Apocalypse appear as fantasies, che fantasies of a people without images (den i"tale11 PIJJntasieTI 1111d Meditatione11 ei11es bildlosen Volkes);62 OUrer had selected from among all che "undepicrable" momencs in che rexc (irn Horhsrro unbildlir/J) chose char were "represenrable" (Mo1nente, die sinnlich dameUbar i..zrrn) \vich such skill rhac chis deserves co be described as a "resolution" of mental funcasies by means of perceptible cxpression-e11u·r AujlOsung "'ttdanklirhm PJ1n11rasie in bildliche Ausdriickm1tul Ztl sprerhm. The great lllCttt of Dvorak's formulas is that they pose the problem in terms (the very ones used by Freud) of depictabiliry (Dancel/baTktit): how can on~ rcprc· !Ctll thac 'vhich cannot be represented, since after all, in Rcvclauons, all ltJ>~niarioll ncccssartly comes co an end? .. , Pursuing the analyses of Dvorak, Panofsky has shown that Durer 5 ::~lypst derived some of its effects from che contrast bet\':C~ the naru· Ut1c rendering of the figures and che resolucely ancinnturaltsac mode of Ptcscntation. Tuis is confirmed by che ambiguity of chc funetions imparted to· the figurauve · elements: the clouds, for exan1ple, \V h'1ch are 0 ften men· 110 n . . . DUrcr•s 11.· f rht Sfrien Caned in the t:.vangehst's text and which, 1n v ISIOI/ 0'1 • lldltstirk . di 'clcs arranged 1n n• s, provide a solid resting place for the can esu . htl l"'•spccuve hil d form wctg css \tr· 1 ' w e at the same rime being deployc so as co . tica colu I 0 f ometnc con· '"" rnns of smoke liberated from all the aws gc: "uct1on Th ' tcd .6J but 1t. ·IS Ultporca~ e depth of che space is ac once affirmed an~ ne_ga bl , linked. llgurttiv \to sec that here affirmation and negation arc indLSSOI~ of ~ e Yspeaking, Dilrer's Ahnca/vp1t is at once the first an.J. c L~ de· YPses· ch c._ T..,, _,.,... lvruc !caw tot~ '1on f. e ucst because, with Otirer, che Ayv--1 r -~ h c.- cirne o an ord er char, ar the level of the system. . is ror c c DP' l)urtr sun

i we

The Potutrs ofthe Continuum

Tl1e Powrrs ofrhr Co11ri111111111 embodied by the pcrspect ive code; and rhc last (nor excluding atrcmpts such as thar of Odilon Rt!don) because the order thus given marerial form at the very Level of rhc signifier could noc give rise co Revelations ,virhoui disintegracing. The VCI)' same illusion1sc means thar serve to consrruct a threc-.d.imcnsional spac~ arc used co brea~ ics closure and in1pose the image of a v1S1on that concrad1clS che vel)' noaon of represencacion. In shon, to borro\V the cemts used by Panofsky, all the progress made in verisimilitude and anin1ation strengthens rather rhan \Vc:akens rhe hallucinatory effect The vision only appcJrs as a vision thanks to the VCI)' order char ic contra· ~ets bur thac ncvcnheless opens up to receive ic, ac the cost of a seemingly urcp~blc fraaure. It is a fraccure in relation co \vhich Correggio's Vision ofSain~ J~h11 takes on an cnigmadcal significance: \Vhat if Correggio, fir from ai~1.ng co open up the Christian C!diftce to rhe 13cyond, had instead bee~ .scr~v1ng ro plug the breach, soften its angles, and rescorc che system's equilibrium by fortuitous means?

SnnifJ/ogy and Sor:iology PROOUCTIVITY/CRRATIVlTY The examples of El Grcco's Burial ofCo1111t Orgaz and Dilrer's ApoOS' h most ., OCcup>• h d 10 e rcmost. as t c c ere. These are spacial figures first in

1

°

ISO

TJ1e Potue11 ofthe Continuiun

Thr Po1urrs ofthe Co11nn1111111

visible function of painting-or at least of represencacional painting-is to confer chc force of an insnrurion upon the particular notion of space and rclations-gcomerric. dramatic, and so on-chat define chat image. Thsc figures-and ochers too, quantitarivc or qualitative, graphic or colored, de. scriptive or metaphorical, figurarive or 11011ftgurarivr68 -,vhich provide a theomual support for the pictorial process, arc me producr of a signi~·· ing practice the acri,•ity of ''•hich is marked and pinpoinced by chc \\'OOO in question. They proceed from crcaavicy consriruced as a "net\vork," ,v11h intersecting ccndencics, for the 'vorks that ic produces do nor succeed one another in a linear fashion, as the pearls of a necklace do. buc rnrher sec out in the field co 'vhich they belong configurations char are variable, complc· mcntary, or even opposed, and chat derive their meaning from chcir differ· enccs as much as from cheir com1non factors. In their respective finiteness, thesc':"orks arc indicators of a general produccivicy the deepest main~prings of which can only be glimpsed \vherc individuaJ produces come into con· ~ wi~ o~e .another, as they intcracr and function in a reciprocal fuh· a?n. It LS w1ch1n. chat field, far more than on irs periphery, chat the qu~· aon of the relanons becween the signifying practice: kno,vn in our society as "an" _or "p~inc~ng,'' and ocher practices, or even the gencraJ hislorical context •.n which 1c operates, has a chance of being rrcaccd rigorously and systemaucally. MEDIEVAL FICURl!S

!he fig~rative interaction between "heaven" and "earth'' provides

2

good illwtrauon of the relation between the incemaJ destinies of the "sys·

tern: in the sense in which the present ccxc understands che cerm, and chc

~ormario~s chat ~omc co light, historically speaking. in pictorial produ~o.n. Considered tn their details, those transformations are uaccable to

objective dercrmining fuccors of a sociaJ or culruraJ narure. Bue chat docs not ~can thac the system evolves through an accumulation of conringeni variauons and dcccrman1ng · · rractors. Adaprations (of which \VC: have noted 11 ~examples), borrowings (those chat painting-among other rhings- de· riwd from theatrical spectacles), and even transgressions (or whar arc pre· ::~such) only have the impact allowed co them by che system chat au· •-~ . th;m, ~ncouragcs them, or gives rise to them. And chis is ,vhcre an)' RUUCXIVC sooology f . 'fyi -·1• .I~ o s1gn1 ng producrions meets a srumbling b1lu display nothing of che kind; in chem there is no sign of any of tho~ jndjscrccr hands emerging from the clouds, \vhich seem ro pierce through the Byzantine or medjevaJ walls. Wharcver ,vouJd happen ifson1eone stuck a hand righr chrough rhe sky? 'vas chc question asked in one old argument 2 against che possibility of the \Vorld being infinice (an argumenc prob bly akcn over from Lucrecius, and one char Giordano Bruno \v:lS also l O appro· priarc). From rhe poinc of view of che Ariscorelian cradirion, the quc:srion {JD'kes no sense ar all: beyond the surface of the heavens, there is no pl.ic~ 0 ~ therefore no possibility of rhe eio1uers of1/Je Continuuni mirced a Rood of lighc, rhis painter, also a narive of Parma d • 0 pene up a gap. ch_ac secm~d co dra\v borh the figur:S and. rhe clouds ouc, rather likta drain 1n a basin. And 1n che very years 1n \vhich Galileo 'v:ts conde Urban VIII commissioned from Pierro di Corrona a ce1Jing for onem;~· new saJons 1n che Barberini palace, co commemorate his reign (Th~ ' IS \\'aS the ~c Ur?an VIII \vho, \vhile srilJ a cardinal, had consrandy• suppontd Galileo, albeit counseling prudence, up unriJ the day \vhen, no\v pope, and ovcnaken by evcncs, he had him broughr ro rrial.) The ceiling in che Bu. bcrini palace sho,vs c~e Virgin. ensconced on a pyramid of clouds, fucinga gr?up of an~e~ carrying cmblen1s of che papacy. Bue chc mosr interesting ~g abo~c ar as .char rhe con1po~irion is organized according to a trom~ lOcll arch1reccon1c comparrmentalizacion onco \vhich che clouds overflow and the lines of \vl1ich are governed by celestial perspective.

' P.ERSP£CTIVAE

PI CTORU>.1 ATQU E

ARCHITECTORU~f 1

The Church had tolerated che nC\v cheories as long as they incerc.\crd Only mathematicians (111arl1n11arica n1arl1emntic1S scrib11nh1r: machem:uics k written for machemacic1ans}. Bue ic found icself forced co censure chem once the full exrenc of their mccaphysical, or even rheological, implicacions became apparent. Galileo was condemned for having moved on from 2 ~ypothcticaJ" position and for having claimed co base chc mobility of lhc ~ and the scabiliry of che sun upon arguments char \vcre demoruin· 168 and ntces.sary. In this debace, arr may have played an anecdoc~ role ~moon of Galileo in Cigoli 's painting); bur in che field of plasuc ans m that of science, the implications of che system were noc clearly pct· .. .'''Indeed, how could it have been otherwise if ir was cruc, as Bruno • cd, that "he who demandech co obtain chis kno,vledgc [of che in~· le) through the sense. is like unto one who would desire t0 see with h;• both substance and essence." 17° The inftnire en1mo1 be 011 object of1~ •but the senses can serve co "stimuJace reason." The descruccion oft • cosmos imp · 1·aed a break from che perceptive order chac makes a cdcs·. ""'W . · L1_ Buc even if painting cannot show che 1ru1rure, . _c. . ·c can. sugf ... t VlSto~. 1 it, foster a prescncimcnc of it create a desire for ic. And in the skies 0 • . ly [0 ~las that is, objectively, exactly what Correggio cried prevencJVC all . a grcar gathering of clouds concea.J the opcnin · gonco d r, b"I hav1ng • c pcrspcct1vc. · As rhc great pictures of Vcruce . show, SIXCC · enth· an •~ teeDth-ccnrury painting accommodated the most discant ' pcrs~fl\ r-~

179

rfcccly ,veil, jusr so long as rhcy remained l1orimn1al. Thar ,,.35 noc to be

f'the case ' vt' Lh perspectives dttl sotro in. s11, Jiberared from theconstraJ· . . ncs of a n ,vhere clouds \vould make ac possible to dro,vn ouclines bysubsrihonio ' . " . . J" L . d f . for a linear conscruct1on a p1ctor1a. KJn o. designation of space· roong But ihar ,vas jusc a cemporary, compromise soluaon, as \V3.S char of rhe ,dro riportato, che fixing of an easel paincing co rhc ceiling. In 161 , Guido 3 painced on the ceilin? of the Casino .in Rome, an Aurora wt1h a horizonral pt:rspecc1ve. Ten years lacer, Guerc1n1 complered a paincing. on che ceiling of the Casi~~ Lud~visi, of an~thcr ~~1rora, in which the foreshortened charior was positioned an an opening g1v1ng on co a rrompe l'ocil archireccural composicion seen in a dal sotto in su perspeccive: a linear perspective, bur one in which che vanishing lines were no longer governed b)· a horizon and in which che conrradiccion chac \Vas rhe basis (and che mainspring) of che system seemed co dissolve into che colored depths. The hiscory of che sevenceench~ccncury ceiling paincing in Ro~e profidcs a good illustration for chis debare. 171The archirectonic solunon, ac_c • with c.ording co Burckhardc chc only one rhar arouses feelings in co~o~1~ ahc digniry of che subject and thac does noc bring abour a d1mm~11 ng ?f '(>ate (see the beginning of Chapter 1) \Y3S only co become established m Christian churches ac the end of chc cencury, 'vhen Father And~ Po~o . 0 f Sane lgnauo ~need Tl1e Tri1171ph of rl1e fen11tJ on the vaulred ce iling 11 691-94). In che Gesu, Tl1e Tri11mpl1 of rl1e Na111e ofJesus (1612-83) ~~ b _ • • (G' . GauJ11} . sra.LI rreatures a sui'ccJy nebulous destg ~caccia 1ovann1. Baccasca th ,.,,: wt'th one .Lnnovaaon . which . .as rhac srucco cI0 uds spill over from de ·-uon, r.... of che fresco and a movement ' · from the cop downward, corr~pon d 'liJllc 10 •ng the qualicacive direction of a fall, counrerbaJances th.e upwar move· limrncn10f h · h pen1ng thac was t e elect: it is as if faich could cope wit an cl d funcrioning •botcd, conrrolled, and above aJJ q11nlitatively defined, with ~uB · his Triih as an operator of ascent and as an agent 0 f desccnc..•7 ur) mthe same 1h 0 "mph or b_ • 'J e rder ol'Sai11t Frn11cis (Rome, Sanca· Apostoh,h 1707 . •raJ a,xis.'7' •1~· 1 . fu ofaonron '-d . •a renounced perspcccive dttl sotto in su an ~or th Church seems l\ll 1r "'>as I . r S • I azao rhar c c. .•11 °nywtchPozzo'sfrescoror ant gn . f. ri.llspaceand llllcuy to h . r1on o pacro . die ave come co cerms \Vi th the gcomecraza che operung . . \Vh.1ch confers upan up adopti f on of a hor1~onlcss pcrspecc1ve, compass. Here. o space . l . uld ever en . cloud a vao ence char no construction co . rial accessort· tht trno longer serves as anyching but a symbolic or p•:l'oeil archlcecc,,ctt of spanal · . I n the uomrdcpch depends en rare Y upa

~ni

Rospiglio~i,

1

°

18o

T/1e Pou.1ers of1/1e C0111111 uuiu

The Po11 rn of1/1e Conri111111t11

181

1

tura1 pcrspecti,•e. As Pozzo himself scressed, '·the strucrure \vhich gath

within ic so many varied figures is a false architecture in perspective, ,vhi~ raves as che 6eld of che entire \vork." 17" . This same Andrea Pozzo was rhe auchor of a rreacise \virh 3 tcllin tide:. the Prrsprc11v11t p1aoro111 11t1111e . ., arrl1irecton1n1• \vhich ,..,..c ..... co cxen ag c:onsaderable 1nAuence on anises of che eighreench cenrun•. Jr rcvcaIs t'I( • mcot co 'vhich che• rasce for scenes and • . movemenc-filled • • c.clesu"aJ pcrs~-' . pvcs was 1inked \V1th a science of linear conscruccion taken co h 1· Tbe ul f S • I . r e imu. ~ r o ant gnaz10 opens onto che infiniry of the heaven!\ thanks a highly daborate perspective arrangement. The painccr has su nmilJllX>CJ•~~d upon the ,vaJls of che real building a fake portico wirh pilrars io ~:rlan.?soffig~.rcs and clouds are arcached. Bur rhese, far from being to s!:n~o ~u~~ un~eccle rhe conscruction, on che contrary ~f\'C , Drr\ot'!lmm enhic, c ~rauvel)' and aHegorically. Even che iconographk :r·-e-~&a..e t at underpins Thr Glo .rs, · 1 • • ino as to ch · . ry O; · ntnt 'f!1n11u.s is c:xcremely rcvc:il· of Father poz:zo. "Ignem ven .t m1.rcere 1n . remm, ...,,ouid vol e inrennons ·· ~ o n1s1 ut accendarur>[I will I ·r · L. _al . · am come co send fire on rhe earth: .ind 1 n uc: ready kind.I d>]" Th' .49) summarizes h" e · : 15 quocacion from the Bible (Lu.kt · •s v1s1on, .. . appCID dae sky C2nvin h.ts argument· In Sain t Ignaaus Christ -.L_ • - -,~·g is cross;ara)•ofr h •• 1.11C saint while h •g r passes c.trom him into che hcan • • anor er ray srre2m.ing fr h' 'd . . . with a monog f om ts s1 e, scnkcs a coin 1n1), held by an an ram l· c 0 risr (which is also chat of che Company of · our from chis coin strike four , who symbol'ge • 1our h c rays char shine e rour pans 0 f h h r e worId and arc surrounded b\ attributes alltzcf c h" • oal\V ic are enumeraced by Ripa. 175 This luminous plays a role ·· an ogous to che trtang · ulanon · of gJances in G1onos . · tuons: ic confe wional cohe rs upon space thac is empcy and unddined a cruly rence mean· d Pozzo's fresco c ' ing, an volume. orresponds to a dccis1ve . . turning poinr in matters or lscaJ was Pa 500 n co remark th any reason to be bo-L d b ac nobody buc an arheisc freethinker • • mere r rh 51., to censure th . e ence of infinite space. Far frorn --~ e contributions 0 f ch e new sciences, fai th \\'OuJJ ........u seek to resp d • own ends. Theon ro rhem an d co plumb che infinice, ma.lung · au . was also momenr when the 1"nfi nace . began co be u1rtt1t1I . tics h :teru11 of faith.1'' t e moment when ic began co ~ spoken about

:r

Ch .

erc:forc concemplaLe che 'vhole of N:irure in her complete and foh-.· rnai· lt1nll"' h . .,, · hinl :ivcrc his eyes from the common objects chat surround h1m. Let him ~- 1et n that dazz.ILng light, hung aloft like 3n eternal lamp to give light to the bl" up Lcr rhe earth appear ro h'tm as a mere dor, compared \vich che vase orbn i;.'\l\crst! th our planet describes. and lee him scand amazed as he considers chat due :pirycircuir i!> itself bur a tiny poinr \vhen comp.ired ,yjch char traeed by rome ofrhcorher St:lrs as they revolve in chc firmamenc. Bur 1rour vision halts chcre, lee the imaginacion pass beyond. le \viii be more t:krh· 10 weary of forming ideas than will Nature of supplying the maccrU.I for dxm. The \vhole of our visible \VOrld is no more ehan :ln imperccpciblc speck on lbc .unple bo)om of Nacure. No idea rhac we can form \viii come an)"vherc near 'L ln\-ain we seek co extend our rhoughc beyond imaginable space: in comp3!1SOn ll1th the realicy, che human mind gives birth co mere acorns. Nature is an infinice ip.".ctt. whereof the center is CVC!}"vhere, chc circumference nowherc. 177 The great°' ~cep1ible characecriscic of the omnipotence of God LS rhac our imaginarion 1' with all their faults - rocks that he analyses so thoroughly in terms of his coloring sensations that he makes them look like clusters of cloud, thereby reversing Lucretius's observation on clouds ("Often we seem to see high mountains advancing, trailing loosened rocks attached to their sides ..."). But this reversal, unlike that implied by the "service of clouds," carries a truly dialectical impact in so far as Cezanne's deconstruction, far from following in the wake of a more or less fantastical "cloudiness," on the contrary produces, as a material component of the pictorial process, the very element that Romantic landscape painting was still endeavoring to obliterate, namely the surface, as the substratum for any inscription and any construction, the substratum as surface, the raw material that it is the job of painting to articulate. The production of that surface, that substratum,

\

230

Our Sheet's White Care

confers meaning upon the interminable theory of/cloud/ in Western painting, and at the same time makes manifest the way that it has been used as a screen to mask a suppression: the suppression of the signifier, the suppression of painting as a specific practice, a materialist process of production. It was up to theory, understood not as a procession of works or texts but as a production of concepts, to show how a certain "cloudiness" was used to mask the return of something suppressed that was indicated in the very contradictions of Ruskin's text, and to pinpoint the moment when, in the work of Cezanne, that censorship was lifted. However, as the present text draws to a close, it is important to dispel or prevent any confusion. The substratum, the "canvas" as revealed by Cezanne and set up as a signifier, is by no means a gi.ven fact, as positivist ideology would have it. (So much is perfectly clear when you reflect, as Meyer Schapiro does, that the prepared, delimited, pictorial flat surface, let alone the free-standing panel, is a relatively recent acquisition in the history of the human race, and that for many thousands of years painting used as its substratum the extremely irregular surfaces of cave walls, sometimes going so far as to exploit certain accidental bumps in the rock, as for instance in Altamira.)1 93 The canvas is the product of a history, the history of Western painting, a history that has yet to be written from a materialist point of view. In particular, the emptiness that Cezanne resuscitates in his watercolors should not be confused with the emptiness exploited in Chinese painting, which, for its part, is the product of a different history, also one that has yet to be written. It is today possible to put forward the idea of such a history and also that of a general theory that would interweave particular histories within a dialectical perspective; and the reason why this is possible is that contemporary painting has developed in such a way that it demands that the task be undertaken. Hence the paradox in which contemporary painting finds its point of departure, a paradox that El Lissitzky expressed in his own way in his lecture "New Russian Art" (1922), when he declared at one and the same time that, since art never evolved, the new pictorial order owed nothing to the past, and also that the flat surface of the suprematist canvas appeared as the ultimate expression of space, the last link in the long sequence of "impressions of space" that constituted that evolution. 194 The infinite white plane of Malevitch, the finite, square, or rectangular panels of Mondrian (although now the notions of both the finite and the infinite no longer mean what they did in the context of the Renaissance), appear at once as the direct product of the break made by Cezanne and as the point

Our Sheet's W'lhite Care

231

of departure for modern painting: painting at last liberated from the clouds that used to burden it. But of course we should also note the returns that cloud made in the Cubist period, as an element used both constructively and as a gap filler in Delaunay's Windows and Towers and in Leger's Wedding (see Plate 8), its recurrence, again in Leger, as a "demystified" object, surrounded by the same outline as a leaf or the handlebars of a bike, a tricky element, to be fixed, as the painter put it, by the metallic structures of his Builders; and later, in Liechtenstein, where it appears in the guise of a rent in the continuity of a regular fabric. Nor should we forget the role that it assumed, as a reflection repeated ad infinitum in Monet's series of waterlilies (contemporary with the first compositions of Mondrian), the format of which prepared for the work of Pollock, extended to the dimensions of whatever canvas was able to sustain its impact. But those returns and detours only take on their dialectical meaning in relation to another history, improbable as yet, that of modern art, from which the present study both proceeds and at the same time claims to do no more than mark its threshold. In such a history, painting, to borrow Marx's language at last, would cease to pretend that the sublime reality that the garment confers upon the fabric/canvas can be separated from the latter's more or less stiffly woven body. This history would endeavor to express its thinking in a language other than that of merchandise, the language that made Pontormo consider a painting as a kind of woven fabric indistinguishable, apart from the relative value attached to it, from the woven fabric of the canvas itself. This would be in conformity with the principle set out by Marx, according to which all work, in as much as it produces value, can be reduced to one and the same abstract measurement that makes the garment the equivalent of the fabric and the mirror of its value, (In the classical system, the fabric/canvas has a value, a derisory value, only because it is irelated to the picture painted upon it, a reference that abolishes its materiality, for only the superficial crust that covers it, the clothing that conceals it, is worth something.) The history that I have in mind, because it would be materialist, but qualitative rather than quantitative, and dialectical rather than quantifiable, far from treating pictorial work as merchandise solely from the point of view of the value that it produces, would conceive of it as materially determined, as a specific practice the productivity of which would be measured by the extent of the effects to which it could lay claim in· the symbolic order.

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REFERENCE REFERENCE MATTER MATTER

Notes

CHAPTER

1

Sign and Symbol

"The most beautiful of all the cupolas that have been painted before or aftet rum." Anton Raphael Mengs, Memoirs Concerning the Lift and Works of Anthony Alkgri, Denominated Correggio, in Works (London, '796), vol. 2, P' 23. 2. See Augusta Ghidiglia Quintavalle, Gli affreschi del Correggio in San Giovanni Evangelista a Parma (Milan, 1962), figs. 8-II. 3. Burckhardt is here alluding to the tradition according to which, on the occasion of the consecration of Correggio's cupola, one canon compared it to "frog soup." See Corrado Ricci, Correge, French trans. (Paris, 1930), p. 103. 4. Jacob Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, arh ed. (Leipzig, 1879),vol. 2, pp. 698-700; English trans.: The Cicerone: An Art Guide to Painting in Italy (London, n.d.), pp. 181-82. 5. Heinrich WolfHin, Renaissance et Baroque, French trans. (Paris, 1967); English trans.: Renaissance and Baroque. trans. Karhrin Simon (London, 1964), P' 64. 6. WolfHin, Renaissance and Baroque, trans. Simon, pp. 64-65. 7. See Giovanni Bottari. Racco/ta di lettere sulla pittura, sculrura, ed architettura (Rome, 1767), vol. I, p. 86. 8. Probably the cathedral cupola. But this sarne Annibale was no doubt also 1.

able to

study

the whole of the interior decoration (then intact) of San Giovanni

Evangelista. In 1586, having settled in Parma "co devote himself entirely to the study of Correggio," he even set to work, with his brother Agostino, to copy the fresco in the apse, which was about to be destroyed in order to make it possible to extend the choir. The fresco is now known only through the fragments that were collected and preserved in the National Callery of Parma and the National Gallery of London, and through the copy by Cesare Aretusi, which took the place of the original in the reconstructed apse. See Giovanni Bellori, Le uite dei pinori, scultori, et architetti moderni (Rome, 1672), pp. 22-23.

252

Notes to Pages

o-u

9. Anton Raphael Mengs, Reflections on Beauty and Taste, in Works, vol.

2,

P: 4j.

In the above-mentioned sense of the term. For there is a great difference, according to Mengs, between taste, which stems from the choice of parts and which (according to the doctrine of the academicians) aims (O "improve" nature, and what is generally called "manner," a kind of fiction or imposture that consists in omitting some elements or inventing some that def); the limits of nature (ibid., 10.

p.

jO).

II. See Marie-Christine Gloron, Trompe-l'oeil et decor plafonnane dans les iglises romaines de I'age baroque (Rome, I96j). 12. W6lffiin, Renaissance and Baroque, trans. Simon, P: 64. 13. See Anton Raphael Mengs, Reflections upon Raphael, Correggio, and Titian, and upon the Works of the Ancients, in Works, vol. I, p. 13I. 14· Gloron, Trompe-l'oeil, P: 99. 15. "Accrescevasi in lui sempre piu 10 spirito, e l'habilita alia pirtura: perche invaghirosi de' modi del Correggio, disegnava, e coloriva Ie sue opere, e s'invoglio tanto della cupola del duomo di Parma che ne forma di coloretti un picciolo rnodella, praricando I'unione, e 10 stile delle figure vedure dal sotto in su in scorto [His spirit and his skill at painting were growing all the time. He was so fascinated by Correggio's modes of painting that he sketched and colored his works, and was so

impressed

by the cupola of the cathedral

of Pasma that he made a tiny, colored

model of it, trying to reproduce its unity and the style of the figures seen foreshortened from below]."; Bellori, Levite, P: 99- (Translator's note: Unless otherwise stated, all translations into English are rnine.) 16. Cf. Gloton, Trompe-l'oeil. 17. "AIs der modernste aller jener Renaissance-Iraliener." Aldis Riegl, Die Entstehung der Barockkunst in Rom (Vienna, 1908), p. 47. 18. Stendhal, Rome, Naples, et Florence (Paris, 1919). 19. Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, vel. 2, P: 701; "Correggio was the model for Rococo painting [das Muster der Rococomalerei]." See Riegl, Die Entstehung der Barockkunst, P: 54: "The whole development came from there [Die ganze Entwicklung geht von bier aus]"; from, that is to say, the cupola of the cathedral at Parma. 20. See Riegl, Die Entstehungder Barockkunst, pp. 51-53; and, fora more genetal position of the problem, Die Spiitromische Kunstindustrie (Vienna, 1901), chap. I. 21. See Erwin Panofsky, "Der Begriff des Kunstwollens,' in Panofsky, Aufiiitze zu Grundfragen der Kunstwissenschaft (Berlin, 1964), pp. 33-47. 22. Mengs, Reflections on the Talent of Correggio, in Works, vol. 2, p. 4j. 23. Ibid. 24. Mengs, Reflections on Beauty, P: 43. 25. Ibid.

26. See Burckhardt, "Correggio's durchhaus subjektive Kunst," in Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, vol. 2, P' 700. 27. It is important to underline the theoretical nature of the functions assigned

Notes to Pages

II-I7

253

by Riegl, and also to a Iesser degree by Wiilfllin, to an opposition that classical doctrine had already used (as Menge's texts show), but in an empirical fashion, without claiming to confer any particular status or "scientific significance" upon it. 28. Mengs, Reflections on Raphael, in Works, vol. I, P: 131. 29. Mengs, Reflections on Beauty. P' 44. 30. Ibid. 31. "Higher" is here placed in quotation marks to indicate that the idea only makes sense in relation to the procedure of analysis. As we shall see, we are dealing with a process that in fact implies a subversion of all hierarchies and a blurring of

all distinctions between levels. 32. See Roland Barrhes, "Le Message photographique," in Communications (Paris, 1961), vol. I, pp. 127-38; reprinted in Barthes, L'Obvie et iobtus: Essais critiques (Paris, 1982), vol. 3, pp. 9-24. 33. Heinrich Wiilfllin, Principe findamentaux de tart (Paris, 1952), P' 13; English trans.: The Principles of Art History, trans. M. D. Hollonger (New York, 1950). 34. That denorarion here owes less to the iconic relation or the relation of resemblance between the "sign" and the thing (or "reality") and more to the propositional order in which a pictorial graph is associated with the concept "cloud." The relation between a fcloudf in a painting and a real "cloud" is initially simply one of homonymy, in the sense that Aristotle gave the word in his Categories: Things are equivocally named [homonyms] when they have the name only in common, the definition (or statement of essence) corresponding with the name being different. For ins ranee, while a man and a portrait can properly both be called "animals," these are equivocally named. For they have the name only in common, the definitions (or statements of essence) being different. Aristotle, Categories I, trans. Hugh Tredennick, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge. Mass., and London, 1983); French trans. cited in Bernard Pautrar, V'ersions du soleil,figures et systeme de Nietzsche (Paris, 1971), pp. 13-14, n. 1. In other words, as will continue to be emphasized, occurrences of the jcloudj theme should be considered primarily in semiological terms, rather than as any reference to the painted reality, which is a physical phenomenon or material object. 35. Mengs, Reflections on Raphael, p. 129. 36. Ibid., P- 132. 37. See Louis Hjelmslev, Prollgommes a une theorie du language, French trans. (Paris, 1968), P: 83; English trans.: Prolegomena to a Theory of Langage, trans. Francis J. Whitfield (Madison, Wise., 1961). 38. See Jean-Paul Sarrre, L'Imaginaire, psychologie phenomenologique de /'imagination (Paris, 1948); English trans.: The Psychowgy of the Imagination, trans. Mary Warnock (London, 1972). 39. Hjelmslev, Proligomenes, pp. 63-70.

254

Notes to Pages I8-22

40. Ricci, Correge, P' 126. 41. Gaston Bachelard, L'Air et les songes: Essai sur !'imagination du mouvement (Paris, r942), P: ,0. 42. Ibid., pp. 212-r4. 4" Ibid., p. ns, 44. See Jean-Pierre Richard, LUniiers imaginaire de Mal/arme (Paris, r96r), pp. I7/f· 45. See Erwin Panofsky, The Iconography of Correggio; Camera di San Paolo (London, I96r). 46. See Egon Verheyen, "Correggio's Amori di Giove," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 29 (1966): 160-92. 47. According to the reconstruction

proposed

by Verheyen,

the decor planned

by Giulio Romano for the Hall of Ovid was to have consisted of Correggio's eight panels illustrating the loves of Jupiter. It is known that after the painter's death the duke of Mantua tried in vain to gain possession of the canvases that he had commissioned, and of other works related to them (see Piero Bianconi, Tuna fa pittura del Correggio, and ed. [Milan, '960], p. ,2). Whatever hypothesis one adopts regarding the other planned episodes. on the basis of particular sketches that exist (seeArthur H. Popham, Correggio;Drawings [London, 1957],caral. no. 80, pI. Cal, it is significant that

all

the panels that were actually executed are governed

by

a

single theme, in which the aerial connotation is strongly marked. 48. See Landino's Commentaire sur Dante. cited by Panofsky. Studies in Iconology (New YOlk,1972), p. 215:"Ganymede, then, would signify the mens humana, beloved by Jupiter, that is: the Supreme Being ... ; being temoved from the body ... , and forgetting corporeal things, it concentrates entirely on contemplating the secrets of Heaven." This reading was adopted by the humanists, in particular the authors of collections of emblems, led by the initiator of the genre, Andrea A1ciato (Emb!emata, 1530).In his Ovide moralist. Ganymede had already been interpreted as a prefiguration of Saint John the Evangelist (with the eagle representing Christ). As Panofsky realized. it is an interpretation that illuminates a curious passage in a letter dated July 7, '533, from Sebastiano del Piombo to Michelangelo. It may be considered to be a joke, bur that does not prevent it from shedding interesting light upon the problem of the celestial cupolas, and likewise upon certain slightly earlier works by Correggio. in particular the relation between Ganymede and the cupola of San Giovanni Evangelista: ''& to the painting in the vault of the lantern [of the Medici Chapel], Our Lord [Pope Clement VII] leaves it to you to do what you like. I think the Ganymede would look nice there. You could give him a halo, so that he would appear as Saint John of the Apocalypse being carried up to heaven." Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, p. 213:my emphasis. 49. Verheyen, "Correggio's Amori di Giove," P' 189_ The importance of the cloud is clearly demonstrated in a drawing on the same theme preserved in Wind p

Notes to Pages 22-28

255

sor and attribured to Correggio by Venruri and Corrado Ricci (Correge, pl. 292), bur nor menrioned by Popham (Correggio; Drawingr, p. 196, catal. no. A-t32). 50. Verheyen, "Correggio's Amori di Gioue, pp. 189-90. 51. See Giordana Canova, Paris Bordon (Venice, 1964), fig. 135. 52. Verheyen, "Correggio's Amori di Giove. pp. t85-86. 53. The significance of a cloud as a fantasy is confirmed, at the level of mythology, by the tale of Ixion, which forms a pair with that of 10: this king of Thessaly had tried to violate Hera, who had told Zeus about it. To ascertain that she was telling the truth. Zeus gave her appearance to a cloud that he then laid alongside Ixion. When the latter's reaction left Zeus in no doubt as to Ixion's desires, to punish him he attached him to a (flaming?) wheel, which whirled him away through the skies. Ixion's union with that cloud

brought

forth the centaurs (see Georges

Dumezil, Le Probleme des centaures: Etude de mythologie comparee indo-europeenne [Paris, 1929], pp. 191-92). The Ouranian dimension to the myth of 10 is further confirmed by the girl's ultimate transformation into a constellation. 5+ A letter from Aretino to the duke of Mantua, dated August 6, '527, and cited by Verheyen, testifies to Federigo II's partiality to "suggestive representations": "Credo che Mess. jacopo Sansovina rarissimo vi ornera la camera di una Venere si vera e si viva che empie di libidine it pensiero di ciascuno che la mira [I think that the most rare Sir Jacopo Sansovino will decorate your room with a

Venus so true and lifelike that the thoughts of anyone who looks at her will be filled with lust]." See Bottari, Raeeolta di iettere (Milan, 1822),vol. I, P: 532. 55. Verheyen, "Correggio's Amon di Giove," P' 186. 56. Bachelard, L'Air et les songes, p. 297. 57. See Rensselaer W. Lee, "Ut Picrura Poais: The Humanistic Theory of Painting," Art Bulletin 22 (1940): 197-269. 58. See Roman jakobson, Essais de linguistique generale, French trans. (Paris, 1963), pp. 30-31 and 218; English trans.: Fundamentals of Language (The Hague, 1980). 59. Boris Eikhenbaurn, "La Theone de la methode formelle," in Theone de fa litterature (the texts of the Russian Formalists), trans. Tzvetan Todorov (Paris, 1965), pp. 40-42. 60. "Those who have influenced me the most are artists, not scholars: Picasso,

Braque, Khlebnikov, Joyce, Stravinsky. In 1913and '9'4 I lived among painters and was friendly with Malevitch. He wanted me to go to Paris with him" (Jakobson, cited by Jean-Pierre Faye, Le Red, hunique [Paris, 1967], p. 281). 61. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur rangine des langues, chap. 13, cited by Jacques Derrida, OfGrammatolbgy, trans. G. C. Spivak (Baltimore, 1976), P: 206. 62. "Ma se una medesima superficie cominciando ombroso, a poco a poco venendo in chiaro continua, allora quello che fra loro sia il mezzo si ncri con una sottillissima linea adcio che ivi la ragione del colore men dubbia [If the surface seen

256

Notes to Pages 28-31

proceeds from a dark colour gradually lightening to bright, then you should mark with a line the mid-point between the two parts, so that the way in which you

colour the whole area is made less uncertain]." Leon Battista Alberti, Della pittura (Florence, 1436), bk. 2, p. 85; English trans.: On Painting, trans, Cecil Grayson (Harmondsworrh, Eng., 1991), p. 67. 63. In his Libro dell'arte (Florence,

1859), chap. 29,

P:

18, Cennino

Cennini

wrote that a painter should lead a life that is honest and temperate, avoiding anything that might make his hand tremble (throwing stones, being too frequently in the company of women, and so on). (The sexual connotation of the prohibition is clearly detectable here.) 64. "In ogni nostro favellace molto priegho si consideri me non come mathematico rna come pictore scrivere di queste cose. Quelli con solo ingegnio, separata ogni materia, misurano Ie forme delle cose. Noi perche vogliamo Ie cose essere

posta da vedere, per questa useremo quanta dicono piu grassa Minerva [In everything we say I earnestly wish it to be borne in mind that I speak in these matters not as a mathematician but as a painter. Mathematicians measure the shapes and forms of things in the mind alone and divorced entirely from matter. We, on the other hand. who wish to talk of things that are visible, will express ourselves in cruder terms (weremo ... una piu grassa Minerva; literally: 'we will use a fatter Minerva'I]." Alberti, Della pittura, bk. 1, p. 55; On Painting, P' 37. 65. "Pero che la circonscriptione e non altro che disegniamento del orlo quale, ove sia fatto con linea troppo apparente, non dimosrrera ivi essere margine di superficie rna fessura e io desidererei nulla proseguirsi circonscrivendo che solo l'andare del orlo [Circumscription is simply the recording of the outlines. and if it is done with a very visible line, they will look in the painting, nor like the margins of surfaces, but like cracks. I want only the external outlines to be set down in circumscription]." Della pittura, P' 82; On Painting, P: 65. 66. See Lev Yakoubinski, "Sur les sons de la langue poerique,' cited by Eikhenbaum, "La Theorie de la methode forrnelle,' P' 39. 67. Henri Focillon, Vie des formes (Paris, 1947), p. 10. 68. See Julia Kristeva, "Pour une semiologie des paragrarnmes," Tel Quel 29 (Spring 1967): P: 55; reprinted in Recherches pourunesimanalyse (Paris, 1969), p.1n 69. Nazi cultural policy judged the waywardness

that was the principle of mod-

ern art to be pathological and it was upon this that it claimed to found its theory of "sick" or "degenerate" art. But the point is-and this is what provokes such resistance- modern art defines itself, in all that is most radical about it, as refusing to accept that it is wayward, deviant, an anomaly, and sets itself up as, to borrow Krisreva's expression, an analytical zone, within which a specific knowledge is elaborated.

70. Rene Leriche, "Introduction generale," in vol. 6 of the Encycloptdie franiaise, cited by Georges Canguilhem, Le Normal et Ie pathologique (Paris, 1966), p·52.

Notes to Pages jI-33

257

71. Translator's note: "Tongue" in the sense of language and "tongue" in the

sense of the physical organ are both rendered as langue in French. 72. Maurice Merleau-Ponry, L'Oeil et l'esprit (Paris, 1964), p. IJ. 73. "Fermavasi talora a considerare un muro dove lungamente fusse state sputaro da persone malate. e ne cavava Ie battaglie de'cavagli e Ie pili fantastiche citta e piu gran paesi che si vedesse mai: simi! faceva de' nuvoli dell'aria [He would sometimes stop to gaze at a wall against which sick people had been for a long time discharging their spittle, and from this he would picture ro himself bartles of horsemen and the most fantastic cities and widest landscapes that were ever seen; and he did rhe sarne with the clouds in the sky]." Giorgio Vasari, "Vita di Piero di Cosima," in Le vite de' piu eccdlenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (Florence, 1550),vol. 4, p. 134;English trans.: "Life of Piero di Cosimo,' in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (London, 1912-14), vol. 4, p.I27· 74. See Meyer Schapiro, "Style,' in Anthropology Totlay, ed. A. Kroeber (Chicago, 195J), P: 29; reprinted in Kroeber, ed., Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society: Selected Papers (New York, 1994), pp. 5'-101. As anorherexarnple of a symptom, it is worth citing the little pictures painted by Antonio Tempesta (Rome, Borghese Gallery) on stones bearing images or landscapes. By adding a few painred figures to the forms of clouds, plants, or buildings revealed by sawing through a block of marble, he obtained a Temptation of Saint Anthony (in which the image of the tempter appeared in a cloud drawn by "nature"), a Crossing Through the Red Sea, and so on (on the collaboration between art and "nature," see the next section). 75. Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato, cod. urb. lat. 1270, 35V, Modo d'aumentare e destare l'ingegnio a oarie intentioni (How to expand the mind and conduct various inventions). See Philippe MacMahon, trans., Treatise on Painting (Princeton, N.J., '956), vol. I, pp. 50-51, and vol. 2, passim. Raphael Perrucci (La Pbilosopbie de la nature dans lart d'Extreme-Orient [Paris, '910], pp. "7-I8) was the firsr to compare this passage from the Treatise on Painting to a text by Song Di, a Chinese painter of rhe eleventh century, published by H. Giles (An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art [Shanghai, 19°5], P: 100): Choose an old, ruined wall, spread over it a piece of white silk. Then, every morning and evening, look at it until at last you can see the ruin through rhe silk, its bumps, levels, zig-zags, and cracks, fixing them in your mind and your eyes. Make the bumps into your mountains, the deepest parts your rivers, the hollows your ravines, the cracks your streams, the lightest parts your closest points, the darkest parts your most distant points. Fix all that deeply within you and soon you will see men, birds, plants. and trees, and figures flying or moving between them. Then you can use your brush as you will. And the result will be a heavenly, nor a man-made thing.

258

Notes to Pages 33-35

76. For Pliny, the sky (caelum, from caelatum, "chiseled," according to the etymology proposed in his Natural History, which again srresses the double meaning of mundus, in Greek kosmos, both "world" and "ornament") is not smooth, polished like an egg, but is engraved with countless figures of all the animals and things ("esse innumeras ei effigies animalium rerumque cunctarum impressa, [stamped upon it ase countless figures of animals and objects of all kinds]"; Historia naturalis 2.3, rrans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Librasy [Cambridge, Mass., and London, r967]), the seeds of which fall upon the earth or into the sea and give birth to beings: the eye can make out here the image of a bear, there one of a bull, elsewhere one of a letter.

77. See jurgis Baltrusaitis, Aberrations: Quatre essais sur fa legmde des formes (Pasis, 1957), pp. 47-72. 78. "Vanerares colorum figurarum in nubilus cerni, prouc admixrus ignis superer aut vincatur [Variations of colour and shape are seen in the clouds in pro-

portion as the fire mingled with them gains the upper hand or is defeated]." Pliny,

Historia naturalis

2.61.

79. See H. W. Janson, "The 'Image made by Chance' in Renaissance Thought," in De Artibus Opuscula XL: Essays in Honour of Erwin Panofiry, ed. Millasd Meiss (New York, 1961),pp. 254-66. 80. Pliny, Historia natura/is, 35.36.102-3. 81. "He is not versatile who does not love equally all things that are contained in painting [Quello non sia universale che non ama equalmente tutte le cose che si contengono nella pittura]. For example, if one does not like landscape, he esteems it a matter of brief and simple investigation, as when our BotticeUi said that such study was vain, because by merely throwing a sponge full of diverse colors at a wall [col sol gittare d'une spanga pima di dioersi colon in un muro] it left a stain on that wall, where a fine landscape was seen. It is really true that various inventions are seen in such a stain. I say that a man should look into it, and find heads of men, diverse animals, battles, rocks, seas, clouds, woods, and similar things, and note how like it is to the sound of bells, in which you can hear what you like." Da Vinci,

Trattato, 33V; MacMahon, trans., Treatise on Painting, vol. I, p. 59. Clearly, here a study of stains can serve in the invention of clouds in a painting, just as cloud, in its turn, in another context, may also playa productive role. 82. Philostratus, The Lift of Apollonius of Tyana. bk. 2, chap. 22; trans. F. C. Conybease (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1948-50), vol. 1, pp. '74-75. 83. Mimitikin men en physeos tots arubropois hikein, tin graphikin de ek tekbnis. ibid. 84. "The heritage of Antiquity, like nature itself, is a vast space requiring interpretation; in both cases there are signs to be discovered and then, little by little,

made to speak." Michel Foucault, Les Mots et ies choses (Pasis, 1966), p. 48; English trans.: The Order of Things (London, 1970), pp. 33-34. 85. "Often giants' countenances

appear to fly over and to draw their shadow

Notes to Pages 35-37 afar, sometimes

great mountains and rocks torn from the mountains

259

to go be-

fore and to pass by the sun, after them some monster pulling and dragging orher clouds." Lucretius, De natura rerum 4.136-4°, trans. W. H. D. Rouse. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1953). 86. It is worth noting that, for Lucretius, the images to be seen in clouds are simulacra of a kind, which do not emanate from bodies, bur are produced spontaneously in the atmosphere. This was a possibility already considered by Epicurus: "formed in many ways, they are carried aloft and melting incessantly change their shapes and turn themselves into the outlines of all manner of figures: as often we see clouds quickly massing together on high and marring the serene face of the firmament while they caress the air with their motion." De natura rerum 4.129-35. 87. From Pliny down to Alberti and Rousseau, Western tradition regarded the delineation of the shadow of a human being projected onto a wall as the first painting act, the founding act (in the phenomenological sense of the term) that foreshadowed the kind of historicity associated with the practice of Western painting (see Chapter 3, pp. 116 ff.). 88. Aristotle, Meteorologica 1.5.342a, trans. H. D. P. Lee, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1962). 89· Ibid., 3.6. 90. Ibid., P.72a-372b. 91. Ibid., 3.3.373a. I shall return to this point in a work devoted to a painting by Paul Kiee; see Hubert Damisch, "Egale Infini," Critique, nos. 315-16 (AugustSeptember 1973); reprinted in Damisch, Penitre jaune cadmium ou les dessous de fa peinture (Paris, 1984); trans. S. Bann, "Equals Infinity," in Twentieth-Century

Studies, nos. 15-16 (December 1976): 56-81. 92. Ei gar me touto prattoi geloia doxei khromata poiousa euithiis, Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tjana, bk. 2, chap. 22. 93. "Troppo ardito e volonreroso di imitare tutte le cose che ha fatto la natura, co' colori, perche Ie paiano esse [e ancora migliorarle) perf are i suoi lavori ricchi e pieni di cose varie, faccendo dove accede, come dire. splendori, notre con fuochi e altri lumi simili, aria, nugoli, paesi lontani e dapresso, casamenti con tante varie osservanze di prospettiva, animali eli tanre sorri, di vari colori e tanre altre cose [Being so bold and desirous of imitating all the things that nature has made with colours, because they seem (even better) to make (the painter's) works rich and full of a variety of things, making here and there, how shall I say, splendid things, nights with raging fires and other similar lights, air, clouds, landscapes far away and close [0. windows with many different views and prospects, animals of many kinds, of various colours, and many many other things]"; Ponrormo, letter to Benedetto Varchi, 18 February 1548. For a good edition of this text, which is often cited, see Luciano Berti, Pontormo (Florence, 1964), pp. 91-92. 94- "E la pittura panno acotonato dello inferno, che dura poco et di manco spesa, perche levaro ce gl'ha quello riciolino, non se tiene pili conro [Painting is

e

260

Notes to Pages 39-45

a hellishly woven material. ephemeral and of little worth, because

if

the superfi-

cial coating is removed, nobody any longer pays attention to it]"; ibid. Panno deilo inftrno refers to the material of an inferior quality used for painting, in contrast the more it costs the longer it lasts: "Pensomi

to the material used for clothing:

dunquc, che sia come del vestire, che questa sia panno fine. perche dura piu che e di pili spesa [I think then that it is as with clothing: the finer the material the longer it lasts and the more it costs] .... Ma dovendo ogni cosa aver fine, non sana ererne a un modo [But as all things come to an end, in no way can they be eternal]"; ibid. (a prophetic remark. considering the now irredeemably degraded condition of Ponrormo's CHAPTER 2

own frescoes).

Sign and Representation

I. "The wonder is that an assembly of so many forms could, in fact, be made to produce a unified impression, and it would have been impossible without the

strongly accentuated framework." Heinrich WolfRin, L'Art classique (Paris, I9II), p. 71; English trans.: Classic Art, trans. Linda Murray and Peter Murray (London,

1994), p. 53;my emphasis. 2. See Marlin S. SOIia, The Paintings of Zurbaran (London, 1953),p. 6. 3· Roman jakobson, Essais de linguistique generale, French trans. (Paris, 1963), p. 37; English trans.: Fundamentals of Language (The Hague, 1980). 4- Soria, Paintings ofZurbaran, P' 139 (catal. no. 24, pI. 9 and fig. 16). 5. Saint Teresa of Jesus, Oeuvres completes, French trans. (Paris, 1949), pp. 19496. 6. It was, on the other hand, perfectly acceptable to reduce the space taken up by the supernatural. divine level, rather than that of the terrestrial world: in

the Premonition of Peter ofSaktmanca, from the Guadalupe cycle (Seville museum, Soria. caral. no. 151, fig. 104). the composition is confined to the terrestrial level, and only the underside of the prodigy is shown, in the form of premonitory clouds. 7. "The curtains of her alcove billowed gently around her. like clouds." 8. Teresa of Jesus, Oeuvres completes, p. 193: "We could well believe that the very cloud of infinite Majesty is with us in this exile."

9. On the symbolism of the sky and "the world above," see Mircea Eliade,

Traite dhistoire des religions (Paris, 1953); English trans.: Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. R. Sheed (London, 1971),chap. 2; also see Gerardus Van der Leeuw, La Religion dans son essence et dans ses maniftstations, French trans. (Paris, 1948), pp. 54-65. 10. Mircea Eliade, Traite dbistoire des religions, pp. 103-4. II. On the notion of the "figurative object," see Pierre Prancasrel, La Figure et le lieu (Paris, 1967), chap. 2; and La Realite figurative (Paris, 1965), pt. 3. 12. See Mircea Eliade, Images et symboles (Paris, 1952),pp. 33-72; English trans.: Images and Symbols (London, 1961).

Notes to Pages 45-47

261

13. Seville museum, Soria. caral. no. 70, pI. 46. 14. One of the most famous ecstatic experiences of Saint Teresa, in which she was joined by the vicar of Saint John of the Cross, who had come to the Convent of the Incarnation to visit her, is noteworthy for the impact that it had on the domain of images. A painting was immediately commissioned [0 commemorate the scene, and was placed in the parlor of the convent along with an inscription recalling the event: "Siendo priora deste convento de la Encarnacion nuestra Santa Madre, y vicario de dicho convenro San Juan de la Cruz, esrando en este locurorio hablanclo en el misterio de la Santissima Trinidad, se arrobaron entrambos, y el santo subio elevando tras si la silla, como se vede en la pintura ["When the prioress of the convent of the Incarnation, our Holy Mother, and the vicar of the convent

of Saint John of the Cross were in this parlor speaking of the mystety of the most Holy Trinity, they were both entranced and the saint rose up levitating, as can be seen in thepainting]." Cited by Olivier Leroy, La Levitation: Contribution historique et critique a l'itude du merueilleux (Paris, 1928), P' 100; my emphasis. 15. Teresa of Jesus, Oeuvres completes, p. 194· 16. See, in Saint John of the Cross, the theme of night used as a necessary plastic expression of the absorption of apparent being into real being: "Through a prodigy of mystical imagination, night is both the most intimate translation of the experience and also the experience itself." Jean Baruzi, Saint Jean de fa Croix et

Ieprobleme de l'experience mystique (Paris, 1924), P: ))0. 17. For other examples of the influence of pictorial representation on mysti-

cal visions, see Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting (Cambridge, Mass., 1958),vol. 1, pp. 469-70, n. 277/3. 18. Teresa of Jesus, Oeuvres completes, p. 764. '9. Ibid., P: 7'5. 20. Saint John of the Cross, Oeuvres spinruelles, French trans. (Paris, 1964), p·44)· 21. See Le Decret sur l'intercession des saints, Finoocation, fa veneration des reliques, et l'emploi legitime des images, promulgated by the Council during its last

session, in 1563. As Pierre Prencasrel has shown, it was designed not so much to bring Christian art back within the limits of decency or orthodoxy, but rather to reject the accusation of idolatry brought by the Protestants (see Pierre Prancastel, "La Contre-Reforrne er les arts en Iralie la fin du XVIe siecle,' in Prancastel, La

a

Realitt figurative, pp. 339-89). 22. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Exercices spiriruels (Paris, 1960), P: 44. 2). Ibid., p. 76, n. 1. "Where hell is concerned, the gaze of the imagination will see its immense fires, the ear will hear the shrieks, cries, and blasphemies, the sense

of smell will take in the smoke, the sulphur, the stench, and the putrefaction, the sense of taste

will

absorb the bitterness, tears, and sorrow, and touch will feel the

fire that is burning those souls." Ibid., pp. 53-54. 24. So called by the German Jesuit Jacob Masen in his Ars nova argutiarum

262

Notes to Pages 48-50

(Cologne. 1649). and the Speculum imaginum teritatis occultae, exhibens symboln, emblemata, hieroglyphiea, oenigmata (Cologne. 1650), cited by Mario Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. and ed. (Rome. 1964), pp. '73-74. 25. The epithets and citation are from Father Richeome, Tableaux sacres des figures mystiques du tres auguste sacrement de I'Iiucharistie (Paris, r601), cited by Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. p. 21. 26. Sec:Francois Courel, introduction to Saint Ignatius, Exercices spirinals, p. 8. 27. Apoc. I :7. Bible quotations in English are taken from the King James Vetsion. 28. "The chief figure, Christ, is foreshortened in a truly frog-like manner." Burckhardt, The Cicerone: An Art Guide to Painting in Italy (London. n.d.), pp. 181-82. 29. Luke 24:51: "While he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up to heaven." Aod from Acts "9: Aod when he had spoken these things. while they beheld, he was taken up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. Aod while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood

by

them in

white apparel. which also said. "Ye men of Galilee. why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 30. Matt. 26:64: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." Matt. 24:30: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and

they

shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven

with power and great glory." 31. The Toldos ]esehu. a Jewish work probably composed in the second century and published in 1681by]. Wagenseil in his Tela ignea satanae, attributed to Christ a levitation of a magical nature. In this account, Jesus appears as a magician who owes his power to the possession of the secret name of Yahweh, which is hidden in the Temple. Thanks to this charm. he performs a number of miracles and, in particular. rises into the clouds in the presence of the queen and the wise men of Jerusalem. But one of the wise men, whose name is Judas and who also holds the key to the tetragrammaton.

also rises up to the clouds with Jesus. and hurls him

back down to earth. See Gustave Brunet. Les Evangiles apoeryphes (Paris. 1863),pp. 390-91. 32. I Thess. 4,,6-17: "Per the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 33. Meyer Schapiro has shown that there was a similar contlicr in the literature and an of the Middle Ages. and even among the Church Fathers. A:; early as the

Notes to Pages 50-SI

263

sixth century, Gregory the Great distinguished between the Ascension of Christ and earlier ascents: whereas Enoch (ante legem) had needed the help of angels, and Elijah (sub legem) needed a chariot, Christ, who has all things at his disposal, rose of his own accord (nimirum SUP" omnia sua virtute ftrebatur). Homiliae in Evangelia, bk. 2, hom. 29, Migne, Pat. lat., chap. 76, cols. t216-17. See Meyer Schapiro, "The Image of the Disappearing Christ: The Ascension in English Art Around the Year 1000," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 23 (1943): 135-52, reprinted in Schapiro, Late Antique, Early Christian, and Mediaeval Art: Selected Papers, vol. 3, pp. 266-87. 34- Giovanni Battista Passeri, Vite de'pitton, scultori, et architetti (Rome, 1772), cited by Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations Between Italian Art and Society in the Age of Baroque (New York, 1963), P: Il2. 35. Apoc. 10:1: "And I saw another mighry angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." 36. When Moses begged Yahweh, "Show me thy Glory," he received the following reply: I will make all my gteatness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the lord before thee ....

Thou canst nor see

my face;

... Behold there is

a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. And it shall corne to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock and will covet thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen. (Exod. 33=18-21) 37. "And Moses wenr up into the mount and a cloud covered the mount. And

the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai and the cloud coveted it six days, and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Exod. 24:15-18). Cf. Exod. 16:10: "And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud." Hebrew legend stresses the role imparted to cloud in the Revelation. But it also accommodates the cloud that kept itself constantly at Moses's disposal, to carry him up to God and then bting him down again among men. When Yahweh asked Moses to join him on Mount Sinai, a cloud appeared and lay at Moses's feet. But Moses did not know whether he should climb on to it or simply hang on to it. Then the mouth of the cloud opened and Moses entered it and traveled through the sky as easily as a man walks upon the earth. But when he saw the guardian of the divine throne, the angel Sandalfon, he was so terrified that he almost tumbled off his vehicle. See Louis Cinzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 3td ed. (Philadelphia, 1947), vol. 3, pp. 85, 109, III. The gift of the Tablets has been the subject of many representations, right from

264

Notes to Pages 51-54

the start of Christian

art. The Gebhardt

Bible (or Admont

Bible, Salzburg, twelfth

century) produced a particularly interesting version, on two panels. In the left panel (fol. 68v), Moses has his feet on the mountain

and his knees enveloped

by a cloud

from which the upper par' of his body emerges, while he holds the Tablets upon which God is writing. In the right panel (fol. 69r), Moses is preparing ro redescend

co join his companions

and is receiving God's blessing. The cloud has disappeared,

but the quarter of a circle in which the figure of God is depicted

is bedecked with

a lacy kind of collar into which the cloud seems to have been transformed. Vienna, National Library, Ser. Nov. 2701; see Andre Grabar and Karl Nordenfalk, La Peinture romane (Geneva, 1958), p. 167. 38, Similarly. but in a Christian context, it is worth noting the treatment reserved for subjects such as the Triumph of the Name of Jesus (see Baciccia's fresco in the Gesc church) and the Glory of the Name of God (see Goya's fresco in the cathedral of Saragossa), on great painted ceilings, amid dazzling light and clouds. 39. 1 Cor. 10:1-6. 40. See Ludwig Volkmann,

Bilderschriften der Renaissance, Hieroglyphik und Emblematik in thren Beziehungen und Fortwirkungen (Leipzig, 1923). 41. Jean Baudoin, Iconologie; au, Explication nouvelle de plusieurs images, emblemes, et autres figures hiiroglyphiques ... , tiree des recherches et desfigures de Cesare Ripa (Paris, 1644). 42. Cesare Ripe, leonologia; otero, Descrinione dell'imagini universali cauate dall'antichitit et da aim luoghi ... , opera non meno utile che necessaria a poeti, pittori, et scultori per rappresentare le vitti, virtu, offetti, et passioni humane (Rome, ]593), proem. 43. "Dire

solo di quella, che apparriene

a' Dipineori,

overc a quelli che per

mezzo di colori or d'altra cosa visibile possono rappresentare qualche cosa differente da essa, ed ha conformira con l'altra [I will only speak of (images) that belong to painters or to those who by means of colors or other visible means can represent something different from it and yet that resembles it]"; ibid. 44. Paolo Giovo, Dialogo dell'imprese militari et amorose (Rome, 1555). 45. "Can questo poi si forma l'arte dell'alrre Imagini, Ie quali appartengono al nostro discorso, per la confomita che hanno con le definirioni": ibid. 46. For an analysis of the philosophical background to emblematic literature (which, however, strangely enough does not mention Ripa's text), see Robert Klein, "La Theorie de l'expression figuree dans les traites italiens sur Ies Imprese, 15551612," in La Forme et l'intelligible (Paris, 1969), pp. 125-49. 47. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. 48. See, for example, Charles-Etienne Gaucher, preface to Hubert-Francois Gravelot and Charles-Antoine Cochin, LTconologie par figures (Paris, 1791). 49. "Nel numero dell'altre cose da anvertire sana tutte le parti essentiali della cosa isressa: e di queste sera. necessaria guardar minutamente Ie dispositioni e [e qualira [In the number of other things to be converted are all the essential parts of

Notes to Pages 55-64

265

the thing itself, and it will be necessary to examine closely the way that they are disposed and their quality]"; Ripa, Iconologia, ptoem. 50. Baudoin, Iconologie, P' 29. 51. Ripa, Iconologia, pp. 4t-42. 52. Plato, Phaedrus 265e. 53. Cited by Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (London, t970), pp. 63-64. 54. Ibid., p. 65· 55. Ibid., p. t20. 56. Ibid., P' 66. 57· Ibid., pp. t7-45· 58. Ibid., p. 51. 59. Extra proof of this is provided by the fact that. in it, the "images" are presented in the alphabetical order of concepts, whereas, according to Michel Foucault. "the use of the alphabet as an arbitrary but efficacious encyclopaedic order does not appear until the second half of the seventeenth century": ibid., P: 38. 60. Galileo Galilei, Opere (Florence, 1890-1909), vol. 9, P' 63. 61. See Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses ou perspectives eurieuses (Paris. I955). 62. See Erwin Panofsky, Galileo as Critic of the Arts (The Hague, 1954)· 63. Foucault, The Order of Things, P: 32. 64. "The object of representation can be nothing but a representation of which the first representation is the interpretant, But an endless series of representations, each representing the one behind it, may be conceived to have an absolute object at its limit. The meaning of a representation can be nothing but a representation. In fact, it is nothing but the representation itself conceived as stripped of irrelevant clothing. But this clothing can never be completely stripped off; it is only changed for something more diaphanous. So there is an infinite regression here. Finally, the interpretant is nothing but another representation to which the torch of truth is handed along; and as a representation, it has its interpretant again. Lo, another infinite series." Charles Sanders Peirce, Principles of Philosophy, in Peirce, Collected Papers (Cambridge, Mass., 1965),vol. 1, P: '7[. 65. Heinrich Wolfllin, Renaissance et baroque (Paris, 1967), pp. 74-75; English trans.: Renaissance and Baroque, trans. Karhrin Simon (London, 1964). 66. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, pp. r69-76. 67. D'Alembert, Eioge de Despreaux, n. 12, cited by Littre in "Representation." 68. Such a ploy was not solely literary: the Elizabethan stage-and likewise the unified Italian stage-was organized in such a way as to permit a duplication of places and make it possible for one theatrical space to be contained within another (for example, for the representation of indoor scenes). 69. See Pierre Francastel, La Figure et le lieu (Paris, 1967), chap. 2, "Les Elements figuratifs et la realite." 70. George R. Kernodle, From Art to Theatre: Form and Convention in the Renaissance (Chicago, 1944).

266

Notes to Pages 65-72

71. Walter Benjamin, "L'Oeuvre d'art au temps de ses techniques de reproduction," French trans., in Benjamin, Oeuvres choisies (Paris. 1959), P: 206. 72. Giorgio Vasari, "Vita di Raffaello,' in Vasari, Le oite de'piu eccelienti arcbitetti, pinori, et scultori italiani (Florence, 1550; and ed., 1568), vol. 4, p. 365; English trans.: "Life of Raphael," in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gascon du C. de Vere (London, 1912-14), vol. 4, pp. 209-49. 73. Karl-Friedrich Ruhmor, Italienische Forschungen (Berlin, 1827-31).

74. Herman Grimm, "Das Ratsel dec Sixtinischen Madonna," in Zeitschrift fur biUende Kunst (1922), 41-49. 75· Eugene Muntz, Raphael (Paris, 1901), p. 303. 76. Wo!ffiin, TArt classique, pp. 158-60. 77. When referred to the comb of Julius II, whose wish had been co be buried in the Sistine Chapel of Saint Peter's, Raphael's painting appears to constitute a temporary substitute for a monument that the pope's heirs were eventually to commission from Michelangelo. As Grimm notes, this provides an interesting example of rhe rivalry (Wettstreit) between the two artists, The theme of the Virgin and Child figuted in Michelangelo's "The

Firsr

Two

Projects

first plans for rhe monument.

of Michangelo's

Tomb of Julius

See Erwin Panofsky,

II," Art Bulletin (1937):

56'-79. 78. Muntz, Raphael. As for whether it was possible for a painter of the early sixteenth century "to provide a glimpse of the infinite," see Chapter 4, pp. 163 ff. 79. On the development of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century theatrical machinery and mechanisms, often of an extremely complex nature (e.g., the sets by Sabbatini, in Parma), designed to move clouds around by means of mobile frameworks and equipped with seats for the actors, see the proceedings of rhe Centre National de Recherches Sciemifiques colloquium, Le Lieu tMatral a La Renaissance (Paris, 1964). 80. Prancasrel, La Figure et le lieu, P: 72. 81. Kernodle, From Art to Theatre, pp. 70-72. 82. Renato Cipriani, Tutta La pittura del Mantegua (Milan, 1956), pI. 165. It is interesting to compare this to a painting by Mantegna on the same theme, now in the Prado. The upper part has been cut off. but the natural complement to the lower part is the Christ positioned in a mandorla that Roberto Longhi discovered in a privare collection

in Ferrara (ibid., pl. 77-79).

83· Seville museum, Soria. caral. no. 41. P' 27. 84.

A

detailed

description

may be found in Kernodle,

From Art to Theatre,

p. I02. 85. Prancasrel, La Figure et le lieu, P' 82. 86. Pierre Francastel, "Imagination plasrique, vision thearrale, et signification humaine," in Francastel, La Realite figurative, pp. 2II-38. 87. Vasari, "Vita di Cecca," in Vite. vol. 3. pp. 199-20I; "Life ofCecca," in Lives, vol. 3, p. '95·

Notes to Pages 73-77

267

88. Recitare means to perform a play. But, exploiting a no doubt calculated ambiguity, Vasari here uses the word to signify the narration that accompanied the representation, a recital that was repeated year after year at a fixed date. 89. Vasari, "Vita di Cecca," P: 198; "Life of Cecca," p. 194. 90. Vasari, "Vita di Brunelleschi," in Vite, vol. 2, pp. 375-78: "Life of Brunelleschi,' in Lives, vol. 3, pp. r93-236. 91. See rhe Livre de conduite du regisseur et le compte des d/penses pour le mystere de fa Passion jout a Mom en I50I, published by Gustave Cohen (Strasbourg, r925), P' 473: "Another piece of canvas, also clouds." 92. Gustave Cohen, Histoire de la mise en scene dans au Moyen Age, and ed. (Paris, '926).

le theatre religieux franrais

93. Ibid., p. 153: "ley clair descendre une nuee ronde en forme de couronne OU doivent estres plusieurs anges fainers tenant espees nues [Here a round cloud in the shape of a crown must descend, bearing several holy actor-angels carrying drawn swords]." 94. Bibliorheque Narionale de France, MS ft. 972, cired in ibid., pp. '53-54: attributed to a certain Jean Michel. this was no doubt a book on stage sets that belonged to some brotherhood. 95. Francisco Javier Sanche> Canton, Las ndquisicioner del museo del Prado en 10, aiios I952 y I953 (Madrid, r954), p. 2. Bur rhis kind of representarion was nor a prerogative of northern countries (see Fra Angelico's Pala di San Marco, etc.). 96. See Emile Mile, DArt religieux de fa fin du Moyen Age en France: Etude sur I'iconographie du Moyen Age (Paris, 1908), p. 53. 97. Schapiro, "The Image of rhe Disappearing Christ," pp. '35-52. 98. "On rhe whole Mount of Olives rhe highesr point is rhe one from which

our Lord is said to have ascended to heaven; here stands a great round church with thee concentric porticos all roofed over. The inner chamber of the round church, having no roof, is exposed to the sky, but in its eastern part there is an altar, protected by a narrow roof. The inner space has no roof above it, so that from the spot where the Lord len his holy footprints when he was carried up to heaven in a cloud, rhe way is always open, and rhose who pray rhere may look up and see rhe sky di-

rectly." Adamnanus, De iocis sanctis, bk. Schapiro

I.

For the original text, here translated by

("The Image of rhe Disappearing

hierosolymitana, saeculi IIlI-XIII,

Christ,"

p. 273), see P. Geyer,

Itinere

Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum larinorum,

vol. 38 (Vienna, 1898), pp. 246-5'.

99. "The cloud did not make its appearance there. because our Lord had no need of rhe cloud's aid ar rhe Ascension:

nor did rhe cloud raise him up, bur he

rook the cloud before him, since he hath all creatures in his hand, and by his divine

his will, he orders and disposes

power and by his eternal wisdom, according

to

all things. And he, in the cloud, disappeared

from rheir sighr and ascended

into

heaven, as a sign that from thence in like manner he will on Doomsday again come ro earth in a cloud, wirh hosts of angels" (trans, Schapiro,

"The Image of rhe Dis-

268

Notes to Pages 77-80

appearing Christ," P: 270; see R. Morris, ed., The Blickling Homilies of the Tench Century (London, 1880), pp. 120-21. 100. During the Renaissance, the British solution underwent a transformation similar to that of the traditional mandorla. While in Manregna's

work the latter

took on the appearance of a theatrical machine. in the solution arbitrarily dubbed "Gothic" the entire stage rook on a unitary dramatic structure in which the body of Christ was partly concealed by a cloud. Meyer Schapiro astutely observes that the way in which the figure of Christ escapes from the common space (the horizon of which is defined by the gaze of the Apostles) is by passing beyond the pictorial field and being cur off by rhe frame of rhe image ("The Image of rhe Disappearing Christ," p. 284). 101. Prancastel, La Figure et le lieu, p. 99. 102. Toilespeintes et tapisseries de fa ville de Reims: ou, La Mise en scene du theatre des Confreres de fa Passion, a study and historical explanation by Louis Paris (Paris, 1849). In the opinion of this scholar, these images were just stage sets for the dramas rhar rhe acrors employed by Charles VI had included in their reperrory and rhar had been scaged in Rheims becween 450 and 1496 (ibid., pp. lxi-Ixvi). 103. Karl Adolf Knappe, Durer, gravures: Oeuvre complete (Paris, 1964), p. xxxiii. As for the age of this schema of representation and its theatrical and figurative origins, apart from the information provided by Meyer Schapiro. it is worth noting that the Ascension is represented in more or less the same fashion (except that the hill is missing) in a work stemming from the same area of cultural diffusion and dated lI8I. namely the famous altarpiece by Nicholas of Verdun, preserved in the Abbey of Klosterneuburg. But the panel bearing the Ascension seems to have been repainted or restored at some later date. See Louis Reau, "L'Iconographie du rerable rypologique de Nicolas de Verdun a Klostemeuburg," in L'Art mosan, ed. Pierre Francastel (Paris, 1953), P' 812. 104. Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguisrique genirale (Paris, 1949), P' 43; English trans.: Course in General Linguistics. trans. Peter Owen (London, 1974), P·23· 105. See Raymond

Lebegue, "Quelques survivances de la mise en scene medievale,' in Lebegue, Melanges d'histoire du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance offerts a Gustave Cohen (Paris, 1950), pp. 219-28. 106. It is thus that the Baroque Theatrum sacrum of Austria, which may appear to prolong the traditions of paralirurgical representations. in fact borrowed some of its procedures from the repertory of contemporary profane theater. See in Alpheus Hyarr Mayor, Tempi e aspecti della scenograjia (Turin, 1954), P' 52, rhe descriprion of a Theatrum sacrum presented in Vienna in 1670, probably by the Italian Ludovico Burnacini: "The Holy Sepulcher had been imagined by nighr, wirh rhe cwo guards sleeping near by.... Then a lighr shone in rhe sky and one beheld rhe dazzling apparition of the actor playing the eternal Father. A cloud opened. whence emerged

Notes to Pages 83-88

269

the Cross, held by two actors representing angels. The eternal Father disappeared in his Glory and the cloud that had held the CtOSSclosed again." CHAPTER

3 Syntactical Space

t. Reproduced in Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish

Painting, vol. 2, pp. t97-

99· 2. Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology (New York, '972), P' 10. 3. See ibid., fig. 2, for the interpretation of an Orronian miniature representing The Resurrection of the }Dung Man of Nairn. In this miniature, the miracle takes place on the "ground" where the figures are placed, and involves no communi-

cation between heaven and earth. Bur Panofsky claims to have produced his interpretation solely on the basis of his strictly iconological understanding, without resorting at all to an analysis of figurative functions. 4. See Panofsky, "Die Perspekrive als 'Symbolische Perm,' " in Panofsky, Auf sdtze zu Grundfragen der Kumtwissenschafr (Berlin, 1964), P' 127,n. 3. 5. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. I, pp. 140-4t. 6. See ibid., pp. 276-78, for an interpretation of Rogier van der Weyden's triptych in which Panofsky detects a term-far-term illustration of a passage from the Golden Legend. 7. See Jean-Louis Schefer, "Lecture et systeme du tableau," in Schefer, Scenographie d'un tableau classique (Paris, 1969). 8. See Noam Chomsky, "De quelques consrantes de la theorie linguiscique," Diogine 51 (July-Septembet 1965): '4; and Chomsky, Cartesian Linguistics (New Yotk,1966). 9. Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours delinguistiquegenerate (Paris, '949), pp. 107-8; English ttans.: Course in General Linguistics, ttans. Wade Baskin (London, 1974). 10. Jacques Gerner, "La Chine: Aspects et fonctions psychologiques de I'ecrirure,' in Gerner, LEcriture et Ia Psychologie des peuples (Paris, 1963), P' 29. II. Roman jakobson, Essais de linguistique generate, French trans. (Paris, 1963), P: 33; English trans.: Fundamentals of Language (The Hague, 1980). 12. See introduction to Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting. 13. Translator's note: «Cradles" is assises in French; the pun is unavoidable in French, perhaps, but untranslatable into English. '4. Leonerto Tinrori and Millard Meiss, The Painting of the Life of St. Francis of Assisi, with notes on the Arena Chapel (New York, 1962). In an earlier work, Meiss concluded that the Assisi cycle's traditional attribution to Giotto should be rejected (Meiss, Giotto in Assisi [New York, 1960]). On the problem of Giorro's "name," see my article "Giotto," in Encyclopaedia universalis, vol. 7 (Paris. 1968). pp·742-44· '5. See the «masks of Tintori and Meiss (Painting of the Life of Sr. Francis, pp. 43-58), and in particular the diagram (p. 195)of the distribution of light: it comes

270

Notes to Pages 88-94

from the right in scenes painted in the first three bays of the nave, and from the left in the bay closest to the choir, 16. "The impetus of the narrative," as Meiss puts it (Giotto in Assisi, P: 43). 17. "Il quale Giorto rimuro l'arte del dipingere di greeo in latino, e ridusse

at

If libro del arte (Florence, 1437: reprint, 1859), p. 4. 18. "The cycle as a whole." Tintori and Meiss, Painting of the Lift of St. Francis,

moderno." Cennino Cennini,

p.2. 19. See Roman Jakobson, (July-September

''A la recherche de l'essence du langage," Diogme 51

1965): 37.

P. Bonaventura has suggested that these should be replaced in their original positions. See L'opera completa di Giotto (Milan, 1966), pp. 911f. 21. Where dreams were concerned. Freud set up an opposition between an analysis en masse and an analysis en ditail (in French in the text), designed to study a dream as a compound or conglomerate. Sigmund Freud, L'Imerpretasion des rioes, 20.

French trans. (Paris, 1967), p. 67. 22. Ibid., p. 432. 23. See John Whire,

The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, and ed. (London,

1967), p. 33· 24. In the church of San Fortunato in Montefalco, Benozzo Gozzoli painted a representation

(1453-59) directly inspired

by Giotto's.

but in which the real space

and the space of the dream are integrated within the unity of a single scene by geometrical means. 25· White, Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, P: 37. 26. Emilio Cecchi (Giotto, French ttans. [Paris, 1937], pp. I031f.) has shown how Giottesque space is primarily an architecture of gestures and glances. Psychological «triangulation" clearly preceded the geometrical construction of space 27. See Chapter

4, pp. 148 If.

28. "Lodasi la nave dipinta ad Roma in quale it nostro toscano dipintore Giotro pose undici discepoli, tutti commossi da paura vedendo uno de' suoi campagni passeggiare sopra l'acqua, che ivi espresse ciascuno con suoviso er gesto porgere suo cerro inditio d'anima turbaro, tale che in ciascuno erma suoi diversi movimenti er stati [They praise the ship painted in Rome by our Tuscan painter Giotto. Eleven disciples (are portrayed)

all moved

by fear at seeing one of their companions

pass-

ing over the water. Each one expresses with his face and gesture a dear indication of a disturbed soul in such a way that there are different movements and positions in each one]." Leon Battista Alberti, Della pittura (Florence, 1436), bk. 2, p. 95: English trans.: On Painting, trans. Cecil Grayson (Harrnondsworth, Eng., 1991), bk.

2, p. 78. 29. Pierre Prancasrel, La Figure et

le lieu, p. 17.

30. Hans janrzen, "Giotto und der gotische Stil," in jantzen,

Die Aufiiitu

(Ber-

lin, 1951), pp. 35-40. }I.

It is worth repeating that the notion of "Giorresque

art" is here given a

Notes to Pages 95-99

271

deliberately loose meaning. The frescoes in which the delineation of figures emphasizes their solid positioning are also those in which critics for the most part refuse ro see rhe hand of Clone 32. See below, pp.

himself.

III If.

33. Freud, L1nterpritation des reues, pp. 269-7°. 34. According to the text of the legend of Saint Bonaventure,

the Apparition

(chaps. 4, to) ought to have been posirioned between the Virion of the Burning Chariot and that of the Thrones (White, Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, P: 55,

n. 42). This shift and the juxtaposition, significant in itself, that it makes possible for scenes obeying an identical organizational principle (the division into two levels in the case of the Visions; all the figures placed in a strictly unified and delimited space in the case of The Sermon and The Apparition) seem to have been prompted by a figurative syntax, a few of whose rules I am attempting to identify 35. See the excellent pages by Andre Chastel on Giono, in his Art italien (Paris, t956), vol. 1, pp. '45-50. 36. Cesare Gnudi, Giotto (Milan, 1958), P' 66. 37. Emile Benveniste, "Rcmarques sur la fonction du langage dans la decouverte freudierme," in Benveniste, Problema de linguistique generate (Paris. 1966), pp. 75-87: English trans.: Problems in GeneralLinguirtics, Gables, Fla., 197r).

trans. M. E. Meek (Coral

La Figure et le lieu, P: 189.

38. Prancastel,

39. Eugenio Battisti, Giotto (Geneva, 1960), p. '4. 40. Julia Krisreva, "Le Gesre, pratique ou communication?" 1968): 52-53. 41. Antonin

Artaud,

Le Theatre et son double, in Anaud,

Langages

10 (June

Oeuvres computes

(Paris, 1964), vol. 4, P' 139: English trans.: The Theatre and Irs Double, in Collected Works, trans. Victor Corti (London, 1974), vol. 4, pp. r-6. 42. Antonin Artaud, unpublished IeXI cited by Jacques Derrida, "Le Theatre de la cruaute

et la cloture de la representation," in Derrida,

ftrence (Paris, 1967), P: 342: English trans.: WritingandDiffrrence, (London,

L'Ecriture et fa dif trans. Alan Bass

1978).

43. Yvan Gobry, Saint Francois et i'esprit francircain (Paris, 1967), P' 59. 44. See the analysis that Francastel gives of the Crib ofGrecchio, where, he says, Giotto painted "a situation that corresponds neither to the primitive scene, nor exactly

to

the annual scene in which the miracle is commemorated"

(La Figure et

le lieu, pp. 189-9°:

my emphasis). 45. Derrida, "Le Theatre de la cruaute," P' 346. 46. See below the tirulus of The Ecstasy of Saint Francis.

47. Emilio Cecchi deliberately chose not to reproduce it in his Giono, on the grounds of not only its poor state of preservation bur also the "impoverished imagi~ nation" to which, he says, it testifies. 48. "Come if bearo Francesco, pregando un giorno fervidamente,

fu

SCOtto

dai

272

Notes to Pages

fcati levarsi

da

IOO-I08

terra con tutto

it corpo,

con le mani protese; una fulgidissima nuvo-

lena risplendette intorno a lui." 49. According to Monsignor A. Fargues (Les Phenomenes mystiques distingues de leurs contrejacons humaines etdiaboliques [Paris, 1923],vol. 2, p. 272), Saint Francis was the first mystic whose levitation was officially recognized. However, it is not mentioned in either the first or the second Life by Tommaso di Celano, who was in a position to question the saint's companions and who pays particular attention to his mystical trances. Only in Saint Bonaventure's Life, composed after the first of Celano's Lifts and before the second, is the nocturnal levitation mentioned (Life, 143; see Olivier Leroy. La Lhntasion: Contribution historique et critique a l'erude du merveilleux [Paris, 1928], pp. 7 and 224). 50. A separation that is by no means the rule in phonetic writing. The Greek scribes did not use it, and their practice defined a scriptural space very different from that of Latin. See James Fevrier, Histoire de i'ecrirure (Paris, 1959), p. 3I. 5'. Ibid .. p. II. 52. See Jacques Derrida, "Freud et la scene de l'ecriture," in LEcriture et fa dif firence, pp. 293-)40. 53. Erwin Panofsky, Die Perspektive als "symbolischeForm": Aujiutze zu Grundfragen der Kunstwissenschaji (Berlin, 1964), p. 127, n. 5; English trans.: Perspective as Symbolic Form, trans, C. Wood (New York, 1991). Using remarkably rigorous terminology, Panofsky's text indicates that the perspective regime implies a repres-

sion, in the analytical sense of the term, of the substratum. He, like Freud, plays upon the conceptual distinction that the German language makes possible between Darstellung (presentation, representation in the sense of a depiction, either visual or dramatic: that is, in the present context, the representation of objects and

of the porrion of space char rhey occupy) and Vorstellun, (rejpresenrarion in the mode of a symbolic process, that is-in Freudian terms-the fantastical reproduction of the initial perception that is repressed: a lost sign that analysis strives to reestablish in its position as signifier in a literal chain (Lacan). It is thanks to the "absence in its place" of this "sign" that a perspective order is constituted, governed

by a perspective "code." I shall return elsewhere to this point. which is of crucial importance for any theory of representation. This fundamental text by Panofsky was published for the first rime in rhe Vortrage der Bibliotek Warburg (1924-25). 54. Ibid., p. 108. 55. Andre Grabar, Le Haut Moyen Age (Geneva, 1957), p. 35. The mosaics in quesrion are reproduced on pp. )4, 37, and 38. See Carlo Cecchelli, J mosaici della basilica di S. Maria Maggiore (Turin, 1956). 56. The decor of the upper level of the Assisi basilica, whose attribution

to

Giotto is challenged, includes on the interior wall of the facade an Ascension in which Christ is carried aloft on a cloud toward a "paradise" represented by a series of concentric circles, and also a Pentecost in which a dove is descending crown of clouds.

amid a

Notes to Pages 57. Panofsky, introduction

to

Early Netherlandish

109-12

273

Painting, vol. 1, p. 12.

58. The "cloud of light," as Andre Grabar puts it, going on to stress the temporal as well as the spatial significance of the cloud: the apparition is presented as being exceptional and momentary (Andre Graber, Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins (Princeton. N.].. 1968), P' n6).1t is worth noting that representations of Christ moving upward on a carpet of clouds only date from the sixth century.

In the apse of Santa Pudenzia (fourth century, restored in the sixteenth century), Christ is enthroned

on earth among his Apostles, while the Cross and the symbols

of the Evangelists are set in a sky filled with small clouds.

59. On the absence of any differential characterization for the first two figures in the Trinity, in the paleo-Christian period, see ibid., pp. 118 if. 60. Doura-Europus synagogue, the upper panel of the Torah screen (M. de Damas); cf. ibid., P: 20. Ravenna, San Vitale (mosaics in the choir), The Sacrifice

of Abel and Melchizedek,

The Sacrifice of Abraham, Moses Receiving the Tablets of the

Law. 61. The separation

between

the two locations

of the clouds is emphasized

by

the gap between the little clouds strung out toward the horizon and the solid bank of cloud upon which the medallion rests. 62. "Poi che noi non come Plinio recitiamo storie rna di nuovo fabrichiamo una arte di pirrura della questa in questa hera. quale io veggo, nulla si truova scritto [Bur we are not eelling stories like Pliny. We are, however. building anew an art of about which nothing, as I see it, has been written in this age]." Alberti, Della pittura, bk. 2, p. 78; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 65. 6J. Della pittura, bk. I, P' 55; On Painting, bk. I, P: 4J. 64. "Dico l'officio del pittore esse! cosi: descrivere con linea et tigniere con colori, in qual sia daroli tavola 0 pareee, simileveduce superficie di qualunque carpo painting

che quelle, ad una certa distanzia et ad una certa positione di centro, paiano rilevata er molro simili avere i corpi." Della pittura, bk. 3, p. !OJ; On Painting, bk. J, P' 89. It is a definition that agrees with that of Piero: "La pictura non e se non dimostrarioni de superficie e de corpi degradati 0 accresciuti nel termine [Painting is nothing but demonstrations of surfaces and bodies that are either made smaller or larger within the frame]." Pieco della Francesca, De prospectiva pingendi (c. 1480; reprint, Florence, 1942), bk. J, P' 128. 65. "Scguira la compositione de corpi nella quale ogni lode et ingegnio del pittore consiste .... Conviensi che i carpi insieme si confacciano in istoria con grandezza e con adoperarsi .... Adunque tutti i corpi per grandezza et suo officio s'aconfaranno a quello che ivi nella storia si facci [Now follows the composition of bodies, in which all rhe skill and merit of the painter lies .... All the bodies in the 'historia' must conform in function and size .... All bodies should conform in size and function bk.

to the subject of the action]."

P: 74. 66. "Quello

Della pittura, bk.

2,

P: 91; On Painting,

2,

che prima da volupra nelle storie viene della copia et varieca delle

274

Notesto PagesII2-IJ

case (The first thing that gives pleasure in a 'hisroria' is a plentiful variety]." Della pittura, bk. 2, P' 92; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 75. 67. "Biasimo io quelli pinon quali, dove vogliono pareee copiosi nullo lassando vacuo, ivi non compositione rna dissoluta confusione disseminano; pertanto non pare la scoria facci qualche cosa degnia rna sia un rumulto

aviluppara

[I disapprove

of those painters who, in their desire to appear rich or to leave no space empty, follow no system of composition, hut scatter everything about in random confusion with the result that their 'hisroria' does not appear to be doing anything but merely ro be in rurmoil]." Della pittura, bk. 2, P' 92; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 75· 68. As Braque famously said, "I paint nor things but the spaces between things." 69. Alberti remarks that it is a mistake to set a character in a building so small that there is hardly room for him to sit there: "Et sarebbe vitio se ... , quello che spesso veggo, ivi fusse huomo alcuno nello hedificio quasi come in un scrignio inchiuso, dove apena sedendo vi si assetti [Another thing I often see deserves to be censured, and that is men painted in a building as if they were shut up in a box in which they can hardly fit sitting down]." Alberti, Della pittura, bk. 2, P' 91; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 75. 70. In conformity with the principle laid down at the outset, the painter can only express the affections of the soul through what is revealed by the movements of the body, which amount to a movement in space: "Ma noi dipintori i quali vogliamo coi movimenti della membra mostrare i movimenri dell'animo, solo riferiamo di que! movimento si fa mutando elluogo [We painters, however, who wish to represent emotions through the movements of limbs ... may speak only of the movement that occurs when there is a change of position]." Della pittura, bk. 2, P' 95; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 78. 71. "Ma perche ralora in questi movimenti si truova chi passa ogni ragione, rni piace qui de posari et de movimenti raccontare alcune cose quali ho raccolte della natura onde bene intenderemo con che moderatione si debbano usare [Since, however, the bounds of reason are often exceeded in representing these movements, it will be of help here to say some things about the attitude and movements of limbs which 1 have gathered from Nature, and from which it will be clear what moderation should be used concerning them]." Della pittura, bk. 2, pp. 95-96; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 79. 72. If a painter wishes to represent a figure standing balanced on one foot, that foot must be in line with the head "quasi come base d'una colonna [like the base of a column]." Della pittura, bk. 2, p. 96; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 79. 73. ''Adunque i1 pittore volendo exprimere nelle case vita fad ogni sua parte in mati. Ma in ciascuno modo terra venusta et gratia; sono gratissimi i movimenti et ben vivaci quelli e quali si muovano in alto verso l'aere [So the painter who wishes his representations of bodies to appear alive should see to it that all their members

Notes to Pages Il3-I5

275

perform their appropriate movements. But in every movement beauty and grace should be sought after. Those movements directed upwards into the aid."

are especially lively and pleasing that are

Della pittura,

bk. 2, P: 90;

On Painting,

bk. 2, pp.

73-74· 74. "Ma dove cosi vogliamo ad i panni suoi movimenti, sendo ipanni di natura gravi et continuo cadendo a terra per questo sara.bene in Ia pittura porvi la faccia del vento zeffiro 0 austro che soffi fra le nuvole onde i panni venroleggiono [Since by nature clothes are heavy and do not make curves at straight down to the ground,

all, as they

tend always to fall

it will be a good idea, when we wish clothing to have

movement, to have in the corner of the picture the face of the West or South wind blowing between the clouds and moving bk. 2, p. 98;

On Painting,

all the

clothing before it]."

Della pittura,

bk. 2, P' 81. On the fact that the wind, itself invisible, can

only be represented by the things that it blows along, see Chapter 4 of the present book, pp. 138-41 ff. Curiously enough, on this point Alberti adopts an altogether allegorical and literary position

(see above). On loosened hair, blowing in the wind,

which became as it were the distinctive trademark of the maniera antica in the Quanroceneo, see Erwin Panofsky, "Albrecht Durer and Classical Antiquity," in Panofsky, Meaning in the VzsU41 Arts (Garden City, N.J., 1955), pp. 243-44, n. 23. 75. See Robert Klein, "Pomponius Gauricus on Perspective," Art Bulletin 43 (1961): 2II-30.

76. "Constat enim rora hec in universum perspectiva disposirione, ur inrelligamus .... Quot necessariae sint ad illam rem significandum personae ne aut numero confundacur, aut rarite deficiac intellectio [All of this generally depends upon the perspective disposition, as we may understand .... However many figures as may be necessary for signifYing that thing, the intellect should not confuse them

in number, nor underestimate them because of their rarity]." Pomponius Gauricus, De scu/ptura (reprint, Leipzig, 1889), cited by Klein, "Pomponius Gauricus on Perspective,"

p. 244; trans. David Money (Darwin

College,

Cambridge,

Eng.,

1999)· 77. "Questo ragione di dividere il pavimento s'appartiene ad quella parte quale al suo luogo chiameremo compositione [This method of dividing up the pavement pertains especially to that pan of the painting which, when we come to it, we shall call composition]."

Alberti,

Della pitsura,

bk. I, p. 244;

On Painting,

bk. I,

P:

58.

78. "Principio dove ic debbo dipigniere, scrivo uno quadrangolo di retti angoli quanto grande io voglio, el quale repuw essere una finestra aperta per dcnde io miro quello che quivi sara dipinto

[First of all, on the surface on which I am going

to paint, I draw a rectangle of whatever size I want, which I regard as an open window through

which the subject to be painted

On Painting,

bk.

I,

is seen]."

Della pittura,

bk. I, p. 70;

P' 54.

79. ''Adunque chi mira una picrura vede cerra intersegatione d'una pirrarnide. Sara adunque pictura non alrro che inrersegationc della pirramide visiva seccndo

276

Notes to Pages II5-I?

data distantia, posto it centro e constiruti i lumi in una cerra superficie con linee ec eolori artificiose rappresemata [The viewers of a painted surface appear to be looking at a particular intersection of the pyramid. Therefore a painting will be the intersection of a visual pyramid at a given distance, with a fixed centre and certain position of lights. represented by art with lines and colours on a given surface]." Della pittura, bk. I, P: 65; On Painting, bk. I, P: 48. 80. According to Panofsky, Diller's journey to Bologna in 1506 to become initiated into the secret art of perspective (Kunst in heim/iehcr Perspectiva) testifies to this painter's desire to understand the theoretical basis of procedures that he had already mastered perfectly on a technical level. See Erwin Panofsky, The Lift and Works of Albrecht Durer, 3rd ed. (Princeton, N.]., t948), vol. 1, P' 248. 81. See Alexandre Koyre, Etudes galilimnes (Paris, 1966), p. 13;English trans.: Galileo Studies, trans. John Mepham (Hassocks, Eng., 1978). 82. See Alessandro Parronchi, "Le due ravole del Brunelleschi," Paragone 107 (November 1958):3-32, and Paragone 109 (January 1959): 3-31; reprinted in Studi su la "doice"prospettiva (Milan, 1964), pp. 226-95. 83· "Et saratti ad conoscere buono giudice 10 specchio ne se come Ie cose ben dipinte molro abbino nella specchio gratia; cosa maravigliosa come ogni vitio della pittura si manifesti diforme nello specchio [A mirror will be an excellent guide to knowing this. I do not know how it is that paintings that are without fault look beautiful in a mirror; and it is remarkable how every defect in a picture appears more unsightly in a mirror]." Alberti, Della pittura. bk. 2, P: 100; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 83. 8+ From a structural point of view, the job of a painter, as conceived by Alberti, is not unlike that attributed by Georges Dumeail firstly to the priests of the Vedic hymns, whose function was to show the king the perspectives (my emphasis) of assured sovereignty; and secondly to the Roman fttiaks, who were supposed) by means of their ritual operations, to open up the space into which the army would then advance, under the protection of the gods. Both cases involve a repetitio rerum that a priori defines the field of whatever is happening and that underpinsas the hymns felicitously put it-the scene (see Georges Dumezil, "Ius fetiale," in Dumezil, !tites romaines [Paris, 1969], pp. 63-78). 85. "La circunscrittione, cioe il modo del disegnare [Circumscription is simply the recording of the outlines]." Alberti, Della pistura, bk. 2, P: 87; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 65. 86. "Principia, vedendo qual cosa, diciamo questa essere cosa quale occupa un luogo [In the first place, when we look at a thing, we see it as an object which occupies a space]." Della pittura, bk. 2, p. 81; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 64. 87. As late as the seventeenth century. the disagreement between Andre Bosse (inspired by the mathematician Desargues) and the Academic Prancaise hinged on Bosse's claim that the goal of perspective was to represent things, "not as the eye sees them or thinks it sees them. but as the laws of perspective impose them

Notes to Pages II7-I8

277

upon our reason." See La Methode uniuerselie de mettre enperspective lesobjets donnes rlellement ou en devis (Paris, 1636).

88. "Voglio che i giovanni quali ora nuovi si danno a dipigniere, cosi facciano quanta veggo di chi inpara a scrivere. Questi in prima sepato insegniano tutte le forme delle lerrere, quali li antiqui chiamano helementi, poi insegniano Ie silabe, poi appresso insegniano componere tutte le dizzioni. Con questa ragione ancora seguitino inostri a dipigniere. Inprima inparino ben disegniare li orli delle superfide et qui si exercitino quasi come ne' primi helementi della pinura." Alberti, Della pittura, bk. 2, P' 46; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 92. 89- "Language

and writing are two distinct systems of signs; the second exists

for rhe sole purpose of representing rhe first." Jacques Derrida, OfGrammatology, trans. G. C. Spivak (Balrimore, t976), P: 30. 90. Ibid. 91. See for example rhe De archrecturalibri decem, bk. 8, chap. 4: "The Egyptians employed symbols in rhe following manner: they engraved an Eye, by which they understood God; a Vulture for Nature; a Bee for a King; a Circle for Time; an Ox for Peace; and so on. And the reason why they expressed the meaning by such symbols was that, since words are only understood by the peoples who speak the language in question, inscriptions using ordinary characters would soon be lost, as has indeed happened in the case of our Etruscan characters." Based on the translarion by Giacomo Leoni (London, r955), p. r69. 92. "Segnio qui appello qualunque cosa sria alia superficie per modo che l'occhio possa vederla.' A1berri, Della pittura, bk. r, pp. 55-56; On Painting, bk. r, p·37· 93. "II puma essere segnio quale non si possa dividere in parte .... [ punti, se innordine costati I'uno al alrro crescono una linea et apresso di noi sara linea segnio la cui longitudine si puo dividere rna di larghezza tanto sara sortile che non si porra fendere [The first thing to know is that a point is a sign which one might say is not divisible into parts .... Points joined together continuously in a row constitute a line. So for us a line will be a sign whose length can be divided into parts, but it will so slender in widrh thar ir cannor be splir]." Della pittura, bk. r, Pl" 55-56; On Painting, bk. r, p. 37. 94. "Pili Iinee, quasi come nella tela pili fiji accostati, fanno superficie er e superficie certa parte estrema del corpo quale si conosce non per sua alcuna profondira rna solo per sua longitudina e per sue ancora qualira." Della pittura. bk. I, p. 56; On Painting, bk. r, P: 38. 95. As Giulio-Carlo Argan seems to think, in "The Architecture of Brunelleschi and the Origins of Perspective Theory in rhe XVrh Century," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 9 (t946): roz, 96. "Quello ulrimo oelo quale chiude la superlicie [The ourermosr boundary which encloses rhe surface]." A1berri, Della pittura; bk. r, P: 56; On Painting, bk. r, p·44·

278

Notes to Pages II8-I9

97. "Er dove la circonscriptione non aitro sia che cerra ragione di segniare l'orio delle superficie [Circumscription is the process of delineating the external outlines on the painting]." Della pittura, bk. 2, P: 85; On Painting, bk. 2, P: 65· 98. "Adunque l'orlo e dorso danno suoi nomi aile superficie [The properties inherent in the periphery and conformation of bodies have determined the names given 10 surfaces].' Della pittura, bk. I, P' 57; On Painting, bk. I, p. 39· 99. "Non credo io cia! pirtore si richiegga infinita faticha rna bene s'aspeni pittufa quale modo paie rive1ata et sirnigliata a chi si ricrac: qual cosa non intendo senza aiuto del velo alcuno mai possa [If I am not mistaken. we do not ask for infinite labour from the painter, bur we do expect a painting that appears markedly in relief and similar [0 the objects presented. I do not understand how anyone could ever even moderately achieve this without the help of the veil]." Della pistura, bk. 2, P' 84; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 67. 100. Giorgio Vasari, "Vita di Paolo Ucceho," in Le oite de'pitt eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (Florence, 1550), vol. 2, pp. 203-17; English trans.: "Life of Paolo Uccello," in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (London, t912-14), vol. 2, pp. 131-40. IOI. "Onde Donarello scultore, suo amicissimo, gli disse molte volte, mostrandoli Paolo rnazzochi a punte a quadri tirati in prospettiva per diverse vedute, e palle a sertenradue facee a pume di diamami, e in ogni faccia bruciloli avvolti sur per e basroni, e altre bizzarrie, in che spendeva e consumava it tempo: Eh! Paolo, questa tua prospemva ti fa lasciare it certo per l'incerto: queste sono cose che non servono se non a quesri che fanno le tarsie [The sculptor Donatello, who was very much his friend, said to him very often - when Paolo showed him mazzocchi (ducal caps) with pointed ornaments and squares drawn in perspective from diverse aspects, spheres with seventy-two diamond-shaped facets, with woodshavings wound round sticks on each facet. and other fantastic devices on which he spent and wasted his cime-c- Ah, Paolo, this perspective of thine makes thee abandon the subject for the shadow; these are things that are only useful to men who work at the inlaying of wood']." Vasari, "Vita eli Uccello,' pp. 205-6; "Life of Ucalio," pp. 132-33. We need not discuss the interpretation cf Uccello's art implied by Vasari's text (on this point, see my preface to the volume devoted to chis painter in the "Classiques de l'arr" series [Paris, 1972]), bur should note the comparison that he draws berween the research of the painter and the practice of marquetry. By an irony of fate (and/or as an invention of Vasari), an unkind remark on the part of Donatello prompted Uccello to retire and return to the studies on perspective that then occupied him right up 10 his death. Vasari, "Life of Uccello,' p. 140. lO2. See Adolfo Venturi, "Intarsi marmorei di Leon Battista Alberti," L'Arte 72 (1990): 34-36. 103. On the vogue for marquetry in Florence from the first half of the fifteenth century on, and the initiatory role played in this respect by Brunelieschi,

Notes to Pages see

Andre

Chastel,

"Marqueterie

et perspective

au quinzieme

279

II9-22

siede,'

La Revue des

arts (September 1953): 141-54. As for Piero, from whom several generations of marquetry experts drew their inspiration, his influence countered "Donarellism" and its tendency toward expressionism. See. Chaste], Le Grand atelier d'Itaiie, 1460-15°0 (Paris, 1965), P: 91. 104· "The basis for a system of signs is not the relation between a signifier and the signified (that relation may be the basis of a symbol, but not necessarily of a sign); it is the relations between signifiers among themselves. The depth of a sign adds nothing to its definition; it is its extension that matters, the role that it plays in relation to other signs, the way in which it resembles them or differs from them: the being of every sign depends on what surrounds it, not on its roots." Roland Barthes, The Fashion System (New York, 1983). 105· "Principia, vedendo qual cosa, diciamo questo essere cosa quale occupa uno luogo. Qui il picrore, descrivendo questo spatia, dira questa, suo guidare uno arlo can linea essere circonsciptione [In the first place, when we look at a thing, we see it as an object which occupies a space. The painter will draw around space, and he will call this process of setting down the outline, appropriately, cumscription]." Alberti, Della pittura. bk. 2, p. 81; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 64.

this cir-

106. See Julia Kristeva, "Le Sens et la mode," pp. 66-67.

107· "Il lume er l'ombra fanno parere Ie cose rilevare [The incidence of light and shade makes it apparent where surfaces become convex or concave]." Alberti, 2, p. 99; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 82.

Della pittura, bk.

108. "Che gia, ove sia Ia pictura flare d'ogni arte, ivi tutta la storia di Narcisso viene a proposito. Che dirai tu essere dipigniere, altra cosa che simile abracciare con arre quella ivi superficie del fonte? [For as painting

is the flower of all the arts,

so the tale of Narcissus fits our purpose perfectly. What is painting but the act of embracing by means of art the surface of the pool?]." Della pitrura, bk. 2, pp. 78-79; On Painting, bk. 2, p. 61. 109. "Diceva Quintiliano

che pittori antichi soleano circonscrivere

l'ombra

at

sale et cosi indi poi si rruovo quesc'arre cresciuta [Quinrilian said that the ancient painters used to circumscribe shadows cast by the sun, and from this our art has grown)." Della pittura, bk.

2, pp. 78-79; On Painting, bk. 2, P' 6+ See Quintilian, Institutio aratoria 10.2, rrans. H. E. Buder (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), vol. 4, pp. 76-79, in which delineation is explicitly assimilated to imitation; see also Pliny, Hutoria natura/is 35.15. lIO. Vasari, "Vita di Filippo Brunelleschi,' in Vite, vol. 2, p. 332; "Life of Filippo Brunelleschi," in Lives, vol. 2, p. 198.

111. "Ne resto ancora

di

mostrare

a quelli che lavorano Ie rarsie, che

e un

arte

di comrnettere legni di colori; e tanto gli stimclo, che fu cagione di buono usa e molre case utili che si fece di quel magisterio, ed allora e poi di molte cose ecceleoti che hanna recarc e forma utile a Firenza per molti anni [Nor did he refrain from teaching it, even to those who worked in tarsia (marquetry), which is the art

280

Notes to Pages

123-24

of inlaying coloured woods; and he stimulated them so gready that he was the source of a good style and of many useful changes that were made in that craft, and of many excellent works wroughr borh then and afterwards, which have broughr fame and profir ro Florence for many years]." "Vita di Brunelleschi,"

p. 333; "Life

of Brunelleschi,' P' r98. II2. Chastel, Le Grand atelier d1talie, p. r42. Confirmarion of the antiquity of marquetry perspectives and of the role played by Brunelleschi and Uccello is provided by the "Life of Benedetto da Maiano,' in which Vasari recounts that this

sculptor had started out by working with wood and excelled "as a craftsman in that form of work, which ... Paolo Decello-namely,

was introduced

at the time of Filippo Brunelleschi

and

the inlaying of pieces of wood tinted with various colours,

in order to make views in perspective, foliage, and many other diverse things of fancy" (Lives, vol. 3, P: 257). 113. Chastel, Le Grand atelier d'Italie, P' 145 (translator's note: but is not the emphasis placed on "amusing" in danger of obscuring the theoretical significance of such a paradox?). It is interesting to note that critics are divided over the identity of the person who answered to the name Manetti and who figures alongside Giotto, Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Uccello, among the "inventors" of the Renaissance on a little panel preserved in the Louvre and often attributed to Uccello himself. In the opinion of Vasari and that of his publisher, Milanesi, the man concerned was Antonio di Tuccio Manetti (born in 1423), a mathematician and the biographer of Brunelleschi. and also a friend ofUccello, with whom, according to Vasari, he used to like to discuss Euclid ("suo amico con quale conferiva assai e ragionava delle cose di

Euclide":

Vasari, "Vita di

Uccello,'

p. 214, "Life

of

Uccello,"

P: 139).

In the opinion of Boeck, it was, on the contrary, Antonio di Ciaccheri, known as Manetti (born in 1405), a specialist in intarsia and cited among the "masters of perspective" in the Memorie storicbe di Benedetto Dei, published by Semper in the Quellenschriften fUr Kunsrgeschichte 9 (r875): 263. In any event, the very idea that a specialist of marquetry might be substituted for a mathematician among the "inventors of the Renaissance" is significant in itself. See John Pope-Hennessy, The

Complete Work of Paolo Uccello (London,

r950), p. 155.

II4. "Er per quanto s'aveva a dimostrare di cielo, cioe Ie muraglie del dipinro stampassono nell'aria, messo d'argenro brunito, accio che l'aria e cieli naturali vi si specchiassono dentro: e cosi e nugoli, che si veggono in quello argenta esser menati dal vente, quand'e'rrae [As he had to show the sky on which the walls shown in perspective were stamped, he put darkened silver so that the natural air and sky would be mirrored there, and also rhe clouds to be seen in the air, pushed along by wind when it blew]." Cited by Parronchi in "Le due ravole de! Brunelleschi,' See Antonio

Manetti, Vira di Filippo Brunellescbi,

ed. Domenico

de Roberris

(Milan,

1976). II5. "The visible bodies are of rwo kinds only, of which the first is without shape

or any distinct or definite extremities, and these though present are imperceptible

Notes to Pages I24-26

281

and consequently their colour is difficult to determine. The second kind of visible bodies is that of which the surface defines and distinguishes the shape. "The first kind. which is without surface, is that of the bodies which are thin or rather liquid, and which readily melt into and mingle with other thin bodies, as mud with water, mist or smoke with air, or the element of air with fire, and other similar things, the extremities of which are mingled with the bodies near to them, whence by this intermingling their boundaries become confused and imperceptible, for which reason they find themselves without a surface, because they enter into each other's bodies, and consequently such bodies are said to be without surface." Leonardo da Vinci, C.A., 132rb; The Notebooks of Leonardo do Vinci, ed. Edward MacCurdy (London, 1938),vol. 2, pp. 363-64. n6. It is worth remembering that Aristotelian tradition regularly assimilated a cloud to a mirror. On the basis of that assimilation, medieval optics produced an explanation for the formation of rainbows. The Quaestiones perspectiuae, attributed to Biaggio Pelicani, explains the "miraculous" apparition of angels carrying swords and trumpets in the sky above Milan by a reflection in the clouds of the golden angel that topped the belltower of the church of San Gottardo. Alessandro Parronchi ("Le fonti di Paolo Uccello," pp. 491-93) uses this argument to suggest that the reversed figure that appears in a cloud above the sacrificer, in Uccello's The Sacrifice of Noah, is not supposed to be God, as Vasari insisted, but was a reflection in the cloud of Noah himself. CHAPTER

4

The Powers of the Continuum

I. The complete theory, as will be shown elsewhere. See Hubert Damisch, L'Origine de fa perspective (Paris, 1987); English trans.: The Origin of Perspective, trans. John Goodman (Cambridge, Mass., 1994). 2. Emile Benveniste, Problema de linguistique generale (Paris, 1966), P: 13I. 3. A famous passage from Vitruvius, skillfully analyzed by Panofsky (Die Perspektive als "symbolischeForm":Aufiiitze zu Grundfragen der Kumtwissemchaft [Berlin, 1964], pp. 137-39, n. 18), shows that antiquiry was familiar with a form of perspective. But the theoretical question concerns (a) the respective principles and methods of ancient perspective and Renaissance perspective, and (b) the status of the perspective code, its position, and its function in the organization of representation. 4. Erwin Panofsky, "Nebulae in pariete: Notes on Erasmus' Eulogy on Durer," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 14 (1951):34-41. 5. "Er unquam vidisti nebulam pictam in pariete? Vidisti utique er memnisti [And have you ever seen a cloud painted on a wall? You have certainly seen one and remembered it]." Decimi magni a ausonii burdigalmsis opuscula, ed. Peiper (Leipzig, 1886), cited by ibid., P' 222. In a letrer to Aurelius Syrnmachus, the same Ausonius writes of golden leaves and painted clouds that give pleasure only for as long

Notes to Pages 126-29

282

as one is looking at them ("Hoc velut aerius bratteae fucus aut picta non longius, quandam videtur, oblecrat": ibid.). 6. Alois Riegl, "Zur Kunsrhisrorischen

Srellung der Becher von Vafio,' in Riegl,

Gesammelre Aufiiitze (Vienna, r929), pp. 77-79; see Friedrich Matz, La Crete et fa Grece primitive (Paris, 1962), pp. 121-25. 7· John Ruskin, Modern Painters (London, 1855), vol. ), pt. 4, chap. 16, "On Modern

Landscape."

8. See the two versions of venus Arming Aeneas, by Poussin (the museums of Toronto and Rouen); Catalogue de l'exposition Nicolas Poussin (Paris, 1960), nos. 44 and 59. 9· Jacques Derrida, OfGrammatology, trans. G. C. Spivak (Balrimore, 1976). 10. Giulio-Carlo Argan ("The Architecture of Brunelleschi and rhe Origins of Perspecrive Theory in the XVth Century," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 9 [1946]: 105) detects a sarirical allusion to the gold backgrounds of medieval painting. II. See Pierre Francascel, Peinture et socihe (Lyons. 1951), pt. I. "Onde mi sana meravigliaro assai che un tanto accurato e diligente facesse

12.

un errore cosi notabile [I marvel greatly that a man so accurate and diligent could make an error so notable]." Giorgio Vasari, "Vita di Paolo Uccello," in Le vite de'piu eccelienti architetti, piuori, et scultori italiani (Florence. 1550), vol. 2, P' 210; English trans.: "Life of Paolo Uccello," in Lives of the Painters. Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (London, 1912-14), vol. 2, P' 136. I).

Bibliotheque

Nationale

de France MS 20)8, 1)2C.See Jean-Paul Richter, ed.,

The Literary Works of Leonardo do Vinci, znd ed. (London,

19)9), vol. I, P' t27. For Leonardo, as for Alberti before starting to compose his story, a painter needed to have thoroughly learned about perspective. It should be noted that Cennino Cennini already considered the study of nature to be both the rudder and the triumphal arch ttimone e porra trion file) of a disegno (Leonardo, Treatise on Painting, trans. Philippe MacMahon

[Princeton,

N.]., 1956], chap. 28), which he regarded

as being dependent upon a power-defined as the power of sight-which, in its turn, took as its rudder and its light (a) the light of the sun, (b) the light of the painter's eye, and (c) the painter's hand: according to him, without an interchange between pictorial practice and the basic facts of optical theory. nothing could be done in a reasonable manner ("E'l timone e la guida di questa potere veder, si Ia

e

luce del sole, la luce dell'occhio

tuo, e la man tua: che senza queste tre case nulla

non si puo fare can ragione"). Treatise. chap. 8. p. 6. 14. "Durerus quanquam er alias admirandus, in monochromatis,

hoc est, nigris

lineis, quid non exprimir! Umbras. lumen. splendarem, eminentias, depressiones: ad haec, ex situ rrei unius, non unam speciem sese oculis intuitium offerenrem. Observar exacte symrnetrias er harmonias. Quin iIIe pinget et quae pingere non possum, ignem, radios, tonitrua, fulgetra, fugura, vel nebulas, ur aiunr, in pariere, sensus, affectus omnes denique tatum hominis animum in habitu corporis relu-

Notes to Pages IJO-P

283

centem, ac pene vocem ipsam. Haec felicissimus lineis iisque nigris sic ponir ob oculos, lit si colorern illinas, iniuriam facias operi. An non hoc mirabilius, absque colorum lenocinio praesrare, quod ApeHes praestitit

cclorum

praesidia?"

Erasmus,

Dialogus de recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione, cited by Panofksy from the Leiden edition (]643), in "Nebulae in pariete," pp. 35-36; trans. David Money (Darwin College, Cambridge, Eng., ]999). ]5. Goethe, Conversations avec Eckermann (Paris, ]949), P' 75· 16. "Ur autem qui musici periti sunr, rectius pronuntiant edam non cantantes: ita qui ducendis in omnem formam lineis digitos habet exerciratos mollius ac felicius pinger lireras [Just as those who are skilled in music pronounce

better, even

when not singing, so those who have fingers skilled at drawing lines in all shapes make letters mote smoothly and happily]." Erasmus, Dialogus, cited in Panofsky, "Nebulae in pariete," P' 35; trans. David Money. 17. The expression is borrowed from Pliny: ''Ambire enim se ipsam debet 0:rremitas et sic desinere, ut promittat alia et post se, ostendarique etiam quae occultat." Pliny, Histotia naturalis 35-36. 18. Referring, in his Adagia, to the poem by Ausonius cited above, Erasmus concludes, contrary to the Latin poet, mat it is not possible to paint a cloud: "Nam nebula res inanis quam ur coloribus exprimi queat [For a cloud is too empty a thing to be expressed in colors]." Erasmus, Dialogus, cited in Panofsky, "Nebulae in pariete," p. 39, n. 4; rrans. David Money. ]9. W611Rin,Principes. p. ]3. It should be noted that W61lRin's text deals with precisely the domain of culture that the present study seeks to investigate, a field in which the names of Pliny, Erasmus, and Leonardo arise time and again: The art of the Renaissance ... was capable of representing all that it wished to, and one gets a fair idea of its power when one remembers that in the last analysis it managed to find a linear expression for even the least plastic of objects, bushes, hair, water and clouds, smoke, and flames. Is it certain that it is rrue to say that such things are more difficult to apprehend using lines than bodies with determinate shapes? Just as one may detect in the sound of bells all possible words, one can render what one sees in various different ways, and nobody is justified in saying that one expression is rruer than another. (ibid., p. 33) 20. If painting were a language in the strict sense, it ought to be possible to translate any text, in any language. into its terms, and vice versa. See Louis Hjelmslev, "La Structure fondamentale du langage," in Prolegomous it une theorie du langage, French trans. (Paris, ]968), p. ]79. 21. Ponrormo, Lettre it Benedetto varchi (see above, Chaptet I, pp. 32ff.). 22. See above, Chapter], pp. 30ff. 23. The expression is taken from Giuseppe Fiocco, Mantegna (Paris, 1938), p. 121.

284

Notes to Pages I33-35

24. In truth, Mantegna and the frescoes of Padua and Mantua were not the first to produce to contradict

perspective

models that lent themselves

the literal doctrine expounded

to variations

by Alberti in

that appear

Della pirtura,

which left

the central poinr, provided it was within the composition. Alessandro Parronchi has shown how

the painter entirely free to establish

limits that he had assigned to his

two works only slightly later rhan Brunelleschi's experiments had already been constructed according to a perspective dal sotto in su that was perfectly justifiable in rerms of the theory. They were the tondo bearing The Ascension Donarello, in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo, and Massaccio's Maria Novella (see Chapter

4, pp. t56 ff.; also Parronchi,

of Saint John, by Trinity, in Santa

"Le due ravole del Brunel-

leschi," in Studi su fa ''dolce''prospettiva (Milan, t964), pp. 226-95). One reservation needs to be made where the Trinity is concerned, however, for it constituted but one part of a vaster composition. treated in trompe l'oeil, in which the perspective effect was designed to reinforce an illusion (see U. Schlegel, "Observations on Massaccio's Trinity Fresco in Santa Maria Novella," Art Bulletin 55 (1963): t9-33). 25. Maurice Merleau-Ponry,

Signes (Paris,

1960), P: 63.

26. jurgis Balrrusaius, Anamorphoses a perspectives curieuses (Paris. 1955). 27. Baltrusairis interprets the letter cited in Chapter 3 from Durer to Pirkheimer as expressing

a desire to be initiated

into what were then considered

to

be secret practices. fu; we have seen, Panofsky regarded the letter merely as proof of Durer's interest in the theoretical bases of perspective. However. the two interpretations

are not mutually

exclusive. given that initiation

into the mysteries of

anamorphosis implied being shown an example of specular coincidence between the viewing point and the vanishing point, something that is not mentioned in Alberti's treatise but that is nevertheless a basic principle of Renaissance tive, as is proved by Brunelleschi's experiment. 28. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses et perspectives curieuses, P: 5.

perspec-

29. "Una di quelle pitture, Ie quali, perche (benche) riguardate in scorcio da un Iuogo determinate, mosrrino una figura umana, sono con tal regola di prospettiva delineate che, vedure in faccie e come naruralmenre e communemente Ie alrre pitture, altro non rappresenrano che una confusa e inordinara

si guardano mescolenza

di linee e di cclori, dalle quali anco si potriano malamente raccapezzare di fiumi 0 sentier tortuosi, ignude spaggie, nugoli, 0 stranissime chimere

imagini [One of

those paintings which, when (although) seen obliquely from a predetermined spot, show a human figure. are delineated according to such a rule of perspective that, seen from in front and naturally in the usual fashion as other paintings are, represent nothing but a confused and disorganized jumble of lines and colours in which one may with difficulty make out images of rivers or winding paths, empty beaches, clouds, or the strangest of chimeras]." Galileo Galilei, Considerazioni ttl Tasso, in

Opere, vol. 9, P' t29, cited by Panofsky, Galileo as Critic, pp. '3-'4, 30. As is suggested by Lomazzo in bk. 6, chap. t9 ("Maniere de

n. 4. faire la perspec-

Notes to Pages 135-37

285

rive inverse qui paraisse vraie etant vue par un seul rrou") in his Trait! de fa peinture (Milan, 1584); see Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses et perspectives curieuses, pp. 18-21. 31. "Subiro che l'aria fia alluminara s'empirera d'infinite sperie, Ie quali son causate cia vari carpi e colori, che infra essa sono collocati, delle quali spetie l'occhio si fa bersaglio e calamita [The instant the atmosphere is illuminated it will be filled with an infinite number of images which are produced by the various bodies and colours assembled in it. And the eye becomes the target and the loadstone of these images].' CA., 27r; see Richter, ed., Literary w"rks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. I, p. '35· 32. "The air is full of an infinite number of images of the things which are distributed through it, and all of these are represented in all, all in one and all in each" (CA., 138rb; The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. Edward MacCurdy [London, '938), vol. 2, P' 364). "Show how nothing can be seen except through a tiny fissure through which the atmosphere passes full of the images of objects that cross over one another, in berween the thick and opaque sides of those fissures" (C. A., 345r).

33. Notebooks, vol. I, P: 300. 34- Richter, ed., Literary w"rks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. I, pp. 159-60. 35. CA., 18u. 36. CA., 68r; Notebooks, vol. I, p. 393; Richter, ed., Literary w"rks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. I, P: 126. "La superficie e termine del corpo. E'I termine d'un corpo non e parte d'esso corpo, e'I termine d'un corpo e principia d'un altro quell e niente che non e parte d'alcuna cosa. Quel1a e niente che niente occupa [The surface is a limitation of the body and the limitation of the body is no part of that body, and the limitation of one body is that which begins another. That which is no part of any body is a thing of naught. A thing of naught is that which fills no space]," 37. On the three kinds of perspective used in painting, see Notebooks, vol. 2, pp. 263, 372, 374- It should be noted that Alberti himself declared that he thought nothing of a painter who did not understand the power that shade and light exerted upon surfaces, or whose figures had no qualities apart from outline (Leon Battista Alberti, Della pittura [Florence, '436], bk. 2, P' 99; English trans.: On Painting, trans. Cecil Grayson [Harmondsworth, Eng., '99'], bk. 2, p. 82). His Della pittura does make room for atmospheric perspective. which it describes in purely pictorial terms; charged with light and color, rays pass through the damp, thick air (tam quale humido di certa grassezza) and grow weaker (indeboliscono) the more distant they are. Hence the rule: "Quante maggiore sara la disrantia tanto la vedura superficie parra piu Fusca [As the distance becomes greater, so the surface seen appears more hazy]," Della pittura, bk. I, pp. 60-61; On Painting, bk. I, P: 48. 38. "The true knowledge of the form of an object becomes gradually lost in proportion as distance decreases its size." Notebooks. vol. 2, p. 365. 39. "Painting is concerned wirh all the ten attributes [ofiti] of sight, which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity, Colour, Form and Position, Motion and Rest. This little work of mine will be a tissue [of the studies] of these attributes, reminding the

286

Notes to Pages I37-39

painter of the rules and methods

by which he should use his art to imitate all these

things, the works of Nature which adorn the world." Bibliorbeque Nationale de France MS 2038, zzb, Richter, ed., Literary Works of Leonardo da Vtnci, vol. 2, p.12o. 40. "Ogni forma corporea, in quanta allo ofirio dell'occhio, si divide in rre parti doe corpo, figura e colore; la similitudine carpotea s'asrende pili lantana dalla sua origine che non fa il colore 0 la figura, di poi il colore s'asrende pili che la figura [Every visible body, in so far as it affects the eye. includes three attributes; that is to say: mass, form, and colour; and the mass is recognizable at a greater distance from the place of its actual existence than either colour or form. Again, colour is discernible

at a greater distance than form]." Bibliotheque

Nationale

de France MS

Richter, ed., Literary WOrks of Leonardo da lIinci, vol. I, pp. 2IO-II. 41. "If you see a man near at hand you will be able to recognize the character

2038, I2V;

of the substance, of the shape and even of the colour, but if he goes some distance away from you you will no longer be able to recognize who he is because his shape will lack character, and if he goes still further away from you, you will not be able to distinguish his colour but he will merely seem a dark body, and further away still he will seem a very small round, dark body." Bibliotheque Narionale de France MS 2038, rzv; Notebooks, vol. 2, p. 238.

42. See the proceedings of the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques

Leonard de Vinci et l'experience scientifique au XVIe siixle

colloquium,

43. Notebooks, pp. 248 and 262. 44. Paris, Insritut de France MS G, 37a; Richter, ed., Vinci, vol. I, p. 129.

da

(Paris, 1953).

Literary Works ofLeonartkJ

45. "That dimness [it mezzo conjitso] which occurs by reason of distance, or at night. or when mist comes between the eye and the object. causes the boundaries of this object to become almost indistinguishable from the atmosphere." C.A. 3I6v;

Notebooks,

vol. 2, p. 368.

46. "How to Paint the Wind,"

da Vtnci, vol.

E,

P' 298. 47. "On a Deluge and Its Depiction

ed.,

Literary Works of Leonardo

in Painting"; Windsor MS u665v; Richter,

Lirerary Works of Leonardo da Vtnci, 48. "On a Deluge and Its Depiction

ed.,

6v; Richter, ed.,

I,

vol. I, P: 608. in Painting"; Windsor

Literary Works of Leonardo da Vtnci, vol. 49. "How to Represent

P' 606. a Storm"; Bibliotheque Nationale

MS r2665r; Richter,

I,

de France MS 2038,

21f; Richter, ed., Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. I, P: 35e. 50. "E ti parra forse potermi riprendere dell'averc io figurato le vie fatte per I'aria cia! mote del vento, che'l vente per se non si vede infra l'aria, A questa parte

si risponde che non it moto del vento, rna il moto delle cose da lui portate quel che per l'aria si vede." "On a Deluge and Its Depiction MS u665;

Richter, ed.,

in Painting";

Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci,

vol.

I,

e sol

Windsor

p. 345·

Notes to Pages I39-47

287

51. See Chapter 2, pp. 51If. 52. For Peirce, a sign or reprtsentamm is a term established in relation to another (its object) in a relationship that is such that it makes a third (its interpretant} assume in relation to the second a similar triadic relationship, and so on ad infinitum. Even if a representamen does not function as such until the moment when it actually determines

an interpretant;

nevertheless

its representational

quality does

not depend upon the effective determinacion of an interpretant nor even upon the fact that it in effect has an ohject. See Charles Sanders Peirce, Elements of Logic, vol. 2, chap. 3; Collected Papers (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), vol. 2, pp. '56-57. 53. It is in this triple sense that it also has a part to play in the progtam designed for "the way of representing a battle." ''And if you introduce horses galloping outside the crowd, make the little clouds of dust distant from each other in proportion to the strides made by the horses; and me douds which are furthest removed from the horses should be the least visible; make them high and spreading and thin, and the nearer ones will be more conspicuous and smaller and denser." Richter) ed.,

Literary W0rks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol.

I,

P: 348.

in Dvorak, Kunstgeschichte als Gcistesgeschichte (Vienna, 1928), pp. 261-76. 55. Walter Friedlander, Mannerism and Anti-Mannerism in Italian Painting (New York, 1965), P' '7. 56. Dvorak, "Uber Greco und den Manierismus,' P' 270. 54. Max Dvorak,

"Uher

Greco und den Manierisrnus,"

57. Cited in ibid., p. 273· 58. See Karl Mannheim, "Beirrage zur Theorie der We1tanschauungs-Inrerpretation," Jahrbuch

fur Kunstgeschichte

I, no. 15 (1921-22); an English translation

may

be found in Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, '952), pp. 33-83. 59. "Et piacemi sia nella sroria chi admonisca et insegni ad noi quello che ivi si facci: 0 chiami con la mano a vedere 0, con viso cruccioso e con Ii occhi turbati, minacci che niuno verso loco vada; 0 dimostri qualche pericolo 0 cosa ivi maravigliosa 0 te inviti ad piagniere con loco insieme 0 a ridere [I like there to be someone in the 'hisroria' who tells the spectators what is going on, and either beckons them with his hand to look, or with a ferocious expression and forbidding glance challenges them not to come near ... or points to some danger or remarkable thing in the picture,

or by his gestures, invites you to laugh or weep with them)." Alberti,

Delta pittura, bk.

2,

P: 94; On Painting, bk.

Pl" 77-78. in Kunstgeschichte als GeistesgeAs WolfHin perceived (Die Kunst Albrecht Darers, 6th ed.

60. See Max Dvorak,

schichte, pp. '93-202. [Munich,

"Dtlrers

2,

Apokalypse,"

1943]), an echo of this crisis is detectable

even in Durer's

work, di-

vided between the two tendencies of the Apocalypse, in which the measurements of human space are undermined, and the Lift of the Virgin, which abides by the dimensions of daily experience. 61. See M. R. James, The Apocalypse in Arc (London,

1931).

288

Notes to Pages I47-55

62. Dvorak, "Uber Greco und den Manierismus," P' 195. 6J. Panofsky, The Life and WOrks of Albrecht Durer, jrd ed. (Princeton, N.]., 1948), pp. 56-58. 64. See Karl Mannheim, "Towards the Sociology of the Mind," in Mannheim,

Essays on the Sociology of Culture (London,

1956),

P: JJ.

65. See Chapter J, p. 84. 66. Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique ginerale (Paris, 1949), P' III. 67· Juri Tynianov and Roman jakobson, "Les Problemes des etudes lirteraires er linguistiques," Novyj Lef, no. 12 (1928); French trans. in Thioriede fa littirature (the texts of the Russian Formalists), trans. Tzvetan Todorov (Paris, 1965), pp. IJ8-40. 68. Representational painting, which sets out to institutionalize a trompe l'oeil space, in this "perspective" subordinates color to drawing. Nonfigurative an, on the contrary, strives to liberate color, to produce it as a nonjigure. 69. See E. T. De Wald, The Illustrations of the Utrecht Psalter (Princeton, N.]., 1933), pl. 2, 5, 7. 10, II, 18, 22, 29, and others. 70. See Jean Porcher, Le Sacramentaire de Saint-Etienne de Limoges (Paris. [195J]), pl. II. 71. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, lat. 10525; see Abbe Leroquais, Les Psautiers manuscrits des bibliotheques publiques de France (Paris, 1940-41), vol. 2,

v.

pp. lxxxiii-Ixxxv, 72. See Meyer Schapiro. "From Mozarabic to Romanesque in Silos," Art Bulletin 22 (19J9): JIJ-74; reprinted in Schapiro, Romanesque Art: Selected Papers (New York, 1977), vol. I, pp. 28-1ot. 7J. Carlo Cecchelli, San Clemente (Rome, n.d.), p. 146 and pI. 25. 74- Bayer Staarsbibliothek, Munich, Livre despiricopes d'Henri II, CLM 4452, fol. Ij2V. See Andre Grabar and Karl Nordenfalk, La Peinture du haut Moyen Age (Geneva, 1957), reprod. P: 204. 75. Biblioeheque de I'Arsenal, MS tt86, fol. IV; see Bibliorheque Nationale de France, Catalogue de I'exposition des manuscrits a peinture en France du XlIle au XV7e siecle (Paris, 1955), pl. 1. 76. When at the turn of the seventeenth century, painting, especially so-called decorative painting, tried to widen the perspective order and tip it over in order to open onto the sky. it was no longer flights up into the sky and overflowing clouds that seemed unsuitable, but rather the obstinacy of a painter such as Caravaggio who persisted in keeping his figures riveted to the ground, where they dirtied their feet with dust that was in no sense metaphysical or-as Poussin was to remarknot at all "ancient." 77. Tynianov and [akobson, "Les Problemes des etudes line-aires et linguistiques," p. IJ9. 78. Giulio-Carlo Argan, L'Europe des capitales (Geneva, 1964), P: 28. 79. See George R. Kernodle, From Art to Theatre: Form and Convention in the Renaissance (Chicago, 1944).

Notes to Pages I56-58

289

80. Similarly, within a single series: it makes no sense to speak of "survivals" in connection with the machines of Baroque theater. The elements "borrowed" from medieval theater are integrated

with new, original structures.

They

were treated

in a "realistic" way by the medieval theater directors, and conrinued to be used thus by Mahelot at the Hotel de Bourgogne, but were used for the stage scenery of Spanish theater in purely symbolic and conventional

ways.

81. See the famous Tragicand Comic Scenesby the school of Piero della Francesea, preserved in Urbina, Baltimore, Berlin, and elsewhere. 82. See The Dispute of Saint Catherine, by Masolino, in the church of San Clemente in Rome, where the side walls, the end wall, and rhe ceiling of the hall containing the picture are decorated by a regular checkerboard pattern, while the floor remains uniformly neutral. 83. John Whire, The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Spate, znd ed. (London, r967), p. 139, pl. 30b. Masaccio's desigo is all rhe more remarkable in that it amounts to installing a geometrically constructed, blind, coffered vault, in place of the luminous cloud that the texts regularly associated with the presence of the Trinity's Holy Spirit, borh on the occasion of the Baptism and on rhat of the Transfiguration. "Spiritus fuit nubes lucida in die transfigurationis": Saint Augustine, letter ro Evodius, epistle r69, Patrologialatina, vol. 33, col. 745. See Saine Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiaeq. 43, a. 7, ad. 6, and the Roman Breviary (6 August, resp. 2): "In splendenre nube Spiritus Sancrus visus est." 84. "And when the cloud is created it also generates wind, since every movement is created from excess or scarcity; therefore in the creation of the cloud it attracts to itself the surrounding air and so becomes condensed, because the damp air was drawn from the warm into the cold region which lies above the clouds; consequently as it has to make water from air which was at first swollen by it, it is necessary for a great quantity of air to rush together in order to create the cloud; and since it cannot make a vacuum, the air rushes in to fill up with itself the space that has been left by the [former] air, which was first condensed and then ttansformed into a dense cloud. In this circumstance the wind rushes through the air, and does not touch the earth, except on the summits of the high mountains; it cannot draw air from the earth, because there would then be a vacuum between the earth and the cloud; and it draws but little air through the traverse and draws it more abundantly through every line." Leonardo da Vinci, Leic., 18r; Notebooks, vol. 2, pp. 122-23. 85. "When the air is still and a full company of clouds have risen to a height, and there above as has been said press themselves together, they squeeze out so much air from themselves, which through the violence exerted creates such movement in the air, that as you may see it communicates its movement to the other lesser clouds. And as they also drive the air forwards in the same way they even furnish themselves with a reason for greater flight; for when a cloud either finds itself in the midst of others or apart from them, if it produces the wind behind

Notes to Pages s58-59

290

itself that air which is between it and its neighbour

following comes to multiply,

and by multiplying acts in the same way as the powder does in the mortar, for this expels from the position near to it the less heavy body and the lighter weight. And this being the case it follows that the cloud in driving the wind towards the others which offer resistance sending this vanguard

C.A.,

2I2Vaj

86.

is the cause of purring these themselves co flight, And by of the winds before itself it also adds volume to the rest."

Notebooks,

Notebooks, vol.

vol. I,

2,

P'

pp.

400-401.

tI2.

87. "The elements are changed one into another. and when the air is changed into water by the contact that it has with its cold region this then attracts to itself with fury all rhe surrounding air which moves furiously ro fill up rhe place vacated by the air that has escaped; and so one mass moves in succession behind another, until they have in parr equalized the space from which the air h as been divided, and this is the wind" (CA., 169m; Notebooks, vol. I, p. 397). "The elements, that is to say water, air and fire, for the clouds are composed of warmth and humidity and (in summer) dry vapours'' (CA., 212 va; Notebooks, vol. I, P: 4or). "Bur dust, which is of a terrestrial nature, may be dispersed in the air and affect the shape of a cloud" (CA., 79r). 88. On the cloud in the form of a high mountain in flames that Leonardo saw

over Lake Maggiore, see Notebooks, vol. 2. p. 123. 89. Richter, ed., Lirerary Works of Leonardo do Vinci, vol.

I,

P: 38.

90. Ibid., p. 3r. 91. "Nissuna humana invesrigarione si po dimandare vera scienria, se essa non passa per Ie matematiche dimosrrarioni [No human investigation can be called true science without

passing through

mathematical

tests]."

Trattato. entry I; Richter,

ed., Literary w"rks of Leonardo do Vinci, vol. r, pp. 3'-32.

e

e

92. "11 principia della scientia della pittura il punto; it secondo la linea; it terzo la superficie [The science of painting begins with the point, then comes the line, the plane comes third]. Trartato, enrry 3; Richter, ed., Literary w"rks of

e

Leonardo do Vinci, vol.

I,

P:

32.

e

93. "11 pittore quello, che per necessita della sua arte ha partorito essa prospeniva." Trattato, entry 17; Richter, ed., Literary WOrks of Leonardo da Vinci, vol, I, p·37· 94. Ibid. 95. "E se'l geometra riduce ogni superficie circondara da linee alia figura del quadrate et ogni corpo alia figura del cubo, e l'Aritmeticha fa it simile con Ie sue radici, cube e quadrate, queste due scientie non s'estendono, se non alia nctitia della quantita continua e discontinua, rna della qualira non si travaglia, la quale

e

bellezza delle opere di natura e ornamento del mondo [And as the geometrician reduces every area circumscribed by lines to the square and every body to the cube; and arithmetic does likewise with its cubic and square roots, these two sciences do not extend beyond the study of continuous

and discontinuous

quantities;

but they

Notes to Pages I59-64

291

do not deal with the quality of things which constitutes the beauty of the works of nature and rhe ornament of the world]"; ibid. 96. "E veramenre non senza caggione non l'hanno nobilitata, perche per se medesima si nobilita, senza l'aiuto de j'altrui Hogue, non altrimente, che si facciano l'eccellenti opere di natura. E se Ii pittori non hanno di lei descrirto e ridona in scienria, non e colpa della pittura [And truly it was not without reason that they did not confer honours upon her, since she proclaims her own glory without the help of tongues in the same way as do the excellent works of nature. And it is not the fault of painting if painters have not described their art and reduced it to a science]." Trattato, entry 17; Richter, ed., Literary WOrksof Leonardo do Vinci, vol. I, PP·37-38. 97. Richter, ed., Literary WOrksof Leonardo do Vinci, vol. I, p. 32. 98. D, lOY; Notebooks. vol. I, p. 212. 99. Alexandre Koyre. Etutks ga/i/lennes (Paris, '96), p. 23, n. 3; English trans.: Gali/eo Studies, trans. John Mepham (Hassocks, Eng., '966). lOO. Alexandre Koyre, "Leonard de Vinci 500 ans apres,' in Koyre, Etutks d'histoire de fa pensee scientiftque (Paris, '966), pp. 85-lO0. WI. Ibid .. pp. 95-97. 102. See Michel Fichant, "L'Id& d'une hisroire des sciences," in Michel Fichant and Michel Pecheux, Sur lhistoire des sciences (Paris, 1969), pp. 72-73. 103. Pierre Duhem, Etutks sur Leonard de Vinci, ceux qu'il a Ius, ceux qui l'ont lu, znd ed. (Paris, 1955),vol. 2, P: '7. 104. See Chapter 3, pp. n6 If. 105. B.M., 160r and '90V; Notebooks, vol. I, P: 645. 106. See Alexandre Koyre, "Sens er portee de la synrhese newronienne,' in Koyre, Etutks newtoniennes (Paris, '968), pp. 3'-32; English trans.: Newtonian Studies (London, 1965). lO7. Ibid. lO8. B.M., '73V and '90V; Notebooks, vol. I, p. 82; Richter, ed., Literary WOrks of Leonardo do Vinci, vol. 2, pp. '37-38. 109. "Scrivi la qualita del tempo, separara dalla geomerrica [Describe the nature of time as distinguished from rhe geometrical definirions]." B.M., 176r; Richter, ed., Literary WOrksof Leonardo do Vinci, vol. 2, p. 138;Notebooks, vol. I, p. 82. 110. Koyre, "Leonard de Vinci 500 ans apres," pp. 98-100. III. Ibid. lI2. Ibid., p. 94. 113. Trattato, entry I: "Geometry is infinite because every continuous quantity is divisible to infinity in one direction or the other. But the discontinuous quantity commences in unity and increases to infinity and. as it has been said, the continuous quantity increases to infinity and decreases to infinity. And if you allow yourself ro say that you give me a line of twenty braccia [armlengths], I will tell you how to make one of twenty-one." B.M., I8c; Notebooks, vol. I, p. 641.

292

Notes to Page 164

114. See Pierre Duhem, "Leonardo cia Vinci et les deux infinis,' in Etudes sur Leonardo do Vinci, vol. 2, pp. 4-53. 115. "Qual e quella cosa che non si cia, e s'ella si dessi non sarebbe? Egli e l'infinito, il quale se si potesse dare, e'sarebbe terminato e finite, perche cio che si puo dare. a termine colla cosa che la circuisce ne'suoi srrerni, er cia che non si puo dare a quella cosa che non ha termini [Which is the proposition which cannot be granted? and, if granted, would have no sense? It is the infinite, which thereby would become circumscribed and limited. For what the proposition assumes is of necessity bounded by something that surrounds it. and that which cannot be granted is that which has no limits]." C.A., 13Ir; Richter, ed., Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. r, P' 257. u6. Not only Leonardo, but already the contemporaries and even immediate predecessors of Alberti, in particular Biagio Pelicani, who srudied under Buridan in Paris and then taught at Pavia, Bologna, Florence (where he was living in 1389), and Padua (where he died in 1416). Accotding to Robert Klein ("Pomponius Gauricus on Perspective," Art Bulletin 43 [1961]: 238), he was the author of the anonymous Perspectiva given to Alberti by Bonnucci (op. volg., vol. 4). In his Quaestiones perspeetivae of 1390, a copy of which Paolo Toscanelli brought with him when he returned to Florence in 1424, Pelicani set Out the rule governing all perspective constructions, in the optical sense of the expression-the rule according to which a limit must be assigned to infinitely vanishing lines by the apparent introduction of parallels: "Cum lineae equidisranres et oculus fuerinc in eadem superficie, extimatur lineas illas debere concurrere et nullomodo esse equidistantes [When equidistant lines and the eye are on the same surface it is thought that these lines must converge and cannot in any way be equidistant]." Quaestiones perspectioae 1.1, quaest. 7. art. I, corol. 2; cited in Parronchi, ULedue tavole del Brunelleschi," p. 241. Leonardo's formula reiterates Vitellion's assertion (Perspectiva 1.4, tho 21), according to which "lineae ... videbuntur quasi concurrere, non tamen videbuntur unquam concurrentes, quia semper sub angulo quodam videbuntur [lines will seem as it were to converge, but they will never be seen to converge because they are always seen under a particular angle]." Panofsky (Die Perspektive als 'symbolische Form, "pp. 140-41, n. 22) has shown that, at the time when it was stated (thirteenth century), Virellion's theorem could not have consituted a critique of the theory of the vanishing point, which, mathematically speaking, is linked to the "finicisc''concept of a limit, that is to say to the possibility of imagining that, given that parallels extend ad infinitum, their relative distance and hence the angle at which their most distant points are seen become equal to zero. It was Desargues who produced the first really pertinent definition of the concept of the vanishing point. Nevertheless, the Brunelleschian model did lead to the posing, in pictorial terms, of the question of the infinite, which had already been described metaphorically as a point (quasi persino in inftnito, as Alberti was to put it). But far from being founded upon an explicit infinitizarion of space, the perspective construction, through the limit that

Notes to Page I64

293

it assigns itself, on the contrary implies a closure of the representational scene. In truth, as we shall see, the question of the infinite was far from being a solely mathematical question, and it did not cease, in various forms, some of them pictorial, to

be at work within the entire culture of the Renaissance. So it is not possible to

follow Panofsky when he declares categorically that the concept of space conveyed by the perspective construction with a central vanishing point is the very same that

was later to be rationalized by Descartes and formalized by Kantian theory (Die Perspektive als "symbolische Form," pp. 121-22). The ideological censure directed at the progress of mathematics, and the remarkable advances made by art and philosophy (to which we shall be returning),

manifestthe

complexity

of cultural work

that cannot be classified under the traditional rubrics of the history of art, science, or ideas, and also the need for a critical redistribution of the domains and roles that are assigned. in an overall cultural structure. [0 "art," "science:' and "ideology." '17. Notebooks, vol. 2, P' 363. 1I8. Prancastel iPeinrure et societe, pp. 36-37 and 68) believes he can trace [0 Masolino the origin of speculation on open space and of an attempt [0 organize unitary. cubic space without resorting to a back cloth. Similarly, the most important invention that he attributes to Uccello was his creation of an imaginary opening in rhe background of the painting in his Story of Noah. This work (which Manregna was [0 carry on in different ways) stood in contrast [0 the elaboration of a closed scenographic cube, of which Andrea del Castagno's Last Supper provides a good example (Florence,

Cenacolo

di Sant'Apollonia),

and which Poussin

was again [0 construct materially, two centuries later, in the course of his experiments on the lighting of figutes. We should recognize. however, along with Francasrel, that in this case representation still required simultaneous notation of both the container and what was contained, the container (the perspective cube open on one side) being itself contained in an abstract space. Francastelrightly regards this paradox as an "aesthetic" version of the problem of the continuum. This is a problem that Maurice Blanchot (LEntretient inftni [Paris, 1969], P: II, n. I) has accurately described: When one assumes (usually implicitly) that "reality" is continuous and that only our awareness or expression of it introduces discontinuity, we forget in the first place that "the continuum" is only a model, a theoretical form which, in forgetting, we take to be pure experience, a pure empirical affirmation. However, "the continuum" is merely an ideology that is ashamed of itself, just as empiricism is merely knowledge that repudiates itself Allow me to recall what set theory has made it possible [0 posit: contrary to what has long been maintained, there is a power of the infinite that raises the infinite above the continuwn or, as J. Vuillemin puts it: "the infinite is a genus of which the continuum is a species." (La Philosophic de lalgebre)

294

Notes to Pages I65-69

119. "Quali segniate linee amme dimostrino in che modo, quasi per sino in infinite, ciascuna traversa quantita sequa alterandosi [This inscribed line indicates to me in what way, as if looking into infinity, each transverse quantity is altered visually]." Alberti, Della piaura. bk. I, p. 71: On Painting, bk. I, P: 56. 120. Alexandre Koyre, "Les Erapes de la cosmologie scientifique," in Koyre, Etudes d'histoire de Iapensee scientifique, p. 8,. 121. Alexandre Koyre, "Galileo and Plato," Journal ofrhe Hisroryof Ideas 4, no. 4 (October 194,). 122. Koyre, "LApport scientifique de Ia Renaissance." Journal of the History of Ideas 4, no. 4 (October 194'): 45. r2'. See Alexandre Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore, r957), pp. 42-57. 124. Ibid., pp. 6-24. 125. Marcellus Stellatus Palingenius, Le Zodiaque de Ia vie (The Hague. '7>2), cited in Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, pp. 25-27. 126. "Therefore the reigne and position of the world consists in three, I Celestiall. Subcelestiall,whicb with limits compast be:/The Rest no boundes may comprehend which bright above the Skye/Doth shine with light most wondetful." Cited in Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. pp. 26-27. 127. Ibid., fig. I; as we shall see, the schema corresponds, on all points, to that used by Botticelli to illustrate the second canto of the Dioina commedia. See Schuyler Camman, "The Symbolism of the Cloud Collar Motif," Art Bulletin" (1951): 1-9: and Marcel Granet, La Pensee chinoise. and ed. (Paris. '950), pp. ,58ff. 128. Johannes Sambucus, Emblemata et aliquot Nummi antiqui operis (Antwerp, 1564). See Mario Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, znd ed. (Rome, 1964), pp. )4ff. 129. Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. pp. 98-99. 1,0. Kepler, Opera omnia, cited in ibid., P: 84. 1,1. Ibid., p. 69 (my emphasis). It is all the more remarkable rhat Kepler, before Desargues (see above), came to consider a point at infinity as a particular case of a finite point. See Kepler, Ad vitelloniem paralipomena (Frankfurt, 1604), P' 9, (the letters refer to a figure. given in the text): "Focus igitur in circulo unus est A, isque idem qui et centrum: in Ellipsi foci duo sunt B C. aequaliter a centro figurae remoti et acutiore. In Parabole unus D ist intra secrionem, alter vel extra vel intra sectionem in axe fingendus est infinite intervallo a priore remotus, adeo ut educra H G vel I G ex illo caeco foco in quodcunque punctum sectionis G, sit axi D-K parallelos [Therefore there is one focus in a circle (A) which is the same as the centre: in an ellipse there are two focal points (B and C), equally distant from the centre and the end-point of the figure. In a parabola one (D) is inside the section. another must be imagined either outside or inside the section on the axis, separated from the former by an undefined interval, such that a line drawn from H to

Notes to Pages I69-JI

295

G, or I to G from this blind focus into any point of the section G should be parallel D-K]" Cited in H. F. Baker, Principles of Geometry (Cambridge, Eng.,

to the axis

1929), vol. I, P' 178; trans. David Money. 1}2, Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, p. 8I. I)).

Ibid., p. 84-

'34. Ibid., pp. 86-87. Newton was to be the first to aIlirm the infinity of the universe, for reasons as much theological as scientific. See Koyre, Etudes dhistoire de la pemie scientifique, P' 84135. "Since Ptolemy was once mistaken over his basic tenets, would it not be foolish to trust what moderns are saying now? Is it not more likely that this huge body which we call the Universe is very different from what we think?" "The Apology for Raimond Sebond,' The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, trans. and ed. M. A. Screech (Harmondsworrh, Eng., 1991). The diameter of Copernicus's world is at least two thousand times greater than that of the world of Aristotle and Ptolemy. See Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, pp. 34-)6. 1)6. Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, p. 31. 137. Koyre,

Etudes

netutoniennes,

p. 30.

138. See the marquetry pictures executed in about 1480 for the study of Federico da Montefelrro in Gubbio (now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York); see E. Winternitz, "Quauroceruro Science in the Gubbio Study," Metropolitan Museum Bulletin (October 1942): 104-16, and Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses et perspectives curieuses, p. 59. 139. On the enlargement and restructuring of the musical space of the Renaissance, and its relation to the enlargement and restructuring of physical and cosmic space, see Edward E. Lewinsky,

"The Concept

of Physical and Musical Space

in the Renaissance," in the papers for 1940-41 for the American Musicological Society, pp. 57-84. '40. Alberti, Della pittura, bk. I, pp. 7'-72; On Painting, bk. I, pp. 56-57. The method criticized by Alberti consisted in arbitrarily drawing a first line parallel to the base line, then a second whose distance from the first was two-thirds of the latter's distance from the base line, and so on. According to Alberti, the defect of this method was a theoretical one: it is not governed by the rule of the central point. 141. See Argan, "The Architectute

of Brunelleschi

and the Origins of Perspec-

tive Theory"; and Prancasrel, Peinture et societe, pp. 17- 19. 142. See Karl Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven," Art Bulletin 27 (1945): 1-27. '43. Andrea Palladio, I quattro libri dellarchitettura (Venice, 1570), bk. I, vol. 4, preface. 144. See the catalogue of the "Symbolisme cosmique er monuments religieux" exhibition, Paris, Guimet Museum, July '95), catal. no. 167. Campanella's "city of the sun" exalted the cosmic value of utopia: "In the firmament of the cupola are all the great stars of the sky, with theit earthly names and properties ....

There you

296

Notes to Pager IJ2-73

can see the poles and the meridians, incomplete

because the lower part is miss-

ing, but completed ideally by the spheres of the altar. Seven lamps named after the seven planets are always kept alight there"; ibid., catal. no. t69. 145· Andre Chascel, Art et humanisme a Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique (Paris, 1959), P' 213. In Botticelli's series of drawings for the Divina commedia, a plan of the cosmos illustrates the second canto: it consists of eleven concentric circles, the central one of which represents the earth (terra); next come the zones of the air (aria) and fire ([uoco); then the various heavens. It is the same schema

as that later used by Peter Appianus in his Cosmograpbia. See Yvonne Batard, Les Dessins de Sandro Botticelli pour fa Divine Comedie (Paris, 1952),p. 80, reprod. p. 82. 146. See Camman, "The Symbolism of the Cloud Collar Motif," p. 8, n. 52. The English language expresses this duality by the opposition between "sky" and "heaven," which repeats the distinction that the Romans made between coeius and polus. It is worth remembering that the church built on the Mount of Olives to

commemorate the Ascension of Christ, a round church (which would normally have been covered by a cupola), was left open to the skies. Pilgrims were invited to position themselves on the very spot from which the Apostles watched the miracle, and to raise their eyes to the infinite depth of the sky, jusr as they had. 147. Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, pp. 48-49. 148. Riegl, Die Entstehung der Barockkumt, pp. 85-86. 149. "The Madonna of FolIgno.... The theme is that of the Madonna in glory, an old motive, but to some extent novel since it was not often treated in the Quattrocento. That century, unembarrassed by ecclesiastical conceptions, preferred the Madonna to be seated on a solid throne rather than floating in the air, but the changed emotional climate of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. which tended towards a sharper separation between earthly and heavenly things, preferred this idealized scheme .... The halo around the Madonna is softened and dissolved in a painterly way, but not completely so, for the old-fashioned, rigidly designed disc is retained as part of the background, bur the clouds are made to flow around it while the accompanying putti, to whom the Quatrrocento conceded at most a little scrap of cloud on which to rest, can now rumble about in their element like fish in water." Heinrich WaltHin, Classic Art, trans. Linda Murray and Peter Murray (London, 1994), pp. 128-30. I50. The same applies for a construction with a single vanishing point as applies to one with a series of layers spread out along the same horizon (see the sinopia of the nativity painted by Uccello for the church of San Martino alia Scala, in Florence; see the catalogue for the exhibition "The Great Age of Fresco:' New York Metropolitan Museum [1968], caral. no. 36, reprod. p. 149). And it also applies for the constructions that Panofsky calls "fishbcnes" (Flschgriite),in which vanishing lines run two by two to points regularly disposed along the same vertical axis (or line), which, according to Panofsky, was the schema characteristic of ancient perspective. Panofsky, Die Perrpektlveals "ymbollsche Form," pp. 106if., fig. 5.

Notes to Pages 173-76

297

'51. See Philippe Sollers, "Un Pas sur la Iune," Tel Que/39 (Autumn 1969): 3-12. 152.. Giordano Bruno, De l'infinito uniuerso e mondi (1584), dedicatory epistle, cited in Koyre, From the Closed Work! to the Infinite Universe, P' 42. The allusion to Pluto and Jupiter probably refers to the above cited text in which Palingenius drew a distinction between the shadowy realms the empire of which extends beneath the douds, and the realm of the gods, situated above the clouds.

'53. Koyre, Etudes galiliennes, P: '9· 154. Although Alberti appropriates the project for the geometrizacion of pictorial space that is associated with the name of Brunelleschi,

he does not con-

fuse physics and geometry. The concept of movement that affects an istoria is still strictly Aristotelian: movement assimilated to change, and changes of place, the

only changes that a painter can portray, are no different in nature from that of other movements of the body, such as generation and corruption, growth and wasting, and the change from health to sickness. It is also in Aristotelian terms that Alberti distinguishes between seven kinds of changes of place: upward, downward, to the left, to the right, forward, backward, circular (an allusion to the circular movement so important to traditional cosmology). The space of a representation is not the empty, qualityless, uncenrered void of geometry. Governed as it is by the rule of the vanishing point, it, like Kepler's space, only exists thanks to the bodies that occupy it, bodies whose movements, interplay, spacing, superpositioning, and mutual overlapping define the perspective of the istoria. See Alberti, Della pittura,

bk. 2, pp. 92-98; On Painting, bk.

2,

pp. 75-81.

155. Roberto Longhi does not wish to do Correggio the injustice of believing that, since painting was cosa mentale (a thing of the mind), he was content with purely imaginary light. But he does admit that it is necessary to make up for the inadequate light in order to study the painting thoroughly. The paradox is that it was not until the advent of electric light that Correggio's work could produce all

its potential effects. See A. G. Quinravalle, Gli affmchi del Correggio, presentation. ]56. "[ede isoiierende Schranke zwischen Gotlichen und Weldichem ist gefallen [Every frontier between the divine and the earthly is abolished]." Riegl, Die Entstehung der Barockkunst, P: 53. '57. Koyre. Etudes d'histoire de fa penseescientifique, pp. 176-77. 158. Galileo Galilei, Sidereus nuncius, in Opere, vol. 3, P: 80; French trans., Le Messager celeste (Paris, 1964) (my emphasis). 159. Aristotle, Meteorologica 1.9. 160. See Calileo's lerrer to Cigoli (,624), in Opere, vol. 6. 16I. "Come la terra e una stella (How the earth is a star]." Richter, ed., Literary Works of Leonardo do Vinci, vol. 2, p. III. 162. Galileo, letter to Benedetto Castelli, 21 December 1613; French trans. in Galilee. Dialogues a lettres choisies (Paris, 1966), P' 81. 163. Dame, Purgatorin 28.81; Galilee, "Discours des comeres" (1619), in Dialogues et lettres cboisies, P' 81.

298

Notes to Pages 176-79

16+ Paul Henri Michel, preface

to Galilee,

Dialogues et lettres choisies.

165. Cited by Stefano Bottari, Correggio (Milan, 1961), pp. )6-37. 166. Giovanni-Baerisra Armerini, lIer; precetti della pittura (Ravenna, 1587; reprint, Milan, 1820), P' 2)1. 167. See Panofsky, Galileo as a Critic, P' 5, n. 2. 168. See Koyre, La Revolution astronomioue: Copernic,

Kepler, Borelli

(Paris,

1961).

169· Francastel opportunely notes that it was only in the seventeenth century that Euclid's Elements were arranged in their present order, more or less consciously so as to justify a vision of the world that the plastic arts had begun to elaborate as early as the fifteenth century (Peinture et socititl, P: 109). 170. Giordano

From the Closed World to the Infinite Uni-

Bruno, cited in Koyre,

verse, p. 45. 171. See Marie-Christine GIDeon, Trompe-l'oeil et decor p/afonnant

romaines de l'age baroque (Rome,

dans les eglises

1965).

172. This is the point at which to stress that, in Rome at least, a considerable time lag separated so-called Baroque architecture and so-called Baroque painting. Most of the major decorative works designated as such date from the late seventeenth century, that is to say from a considerably later period than that of "high Baroque" as defined by art historians. The Cesu church remained with no decor of this kind for over a century (see Andrea Sacchi's painting representing The Visit

of Urban VllJ to the Gesu in 1039, Rome,

Museo Nazionale

eli

Roma).

In truth,

the architecture of Bernini, Borromini, Pietro di Cortona, and Rainaldi seems to exclude any kind of painted decor: it produces architectural entities that are complete in themselves and do not lend themselves to illusory openings. Ceiling painting only became widely accepted

at a quite late date, in buildings

of a classical

structure that had not been designed for it. WolfHin's thesis according to which Baroque art replaced the quest for "solid" effects that characterized the linear perspective of the early Renaissance by immaterial effects and atmospheric perspective is, at least where Baroque decor is concerned, nor acceptable: just as the painters of stage scenery rook over from the architects who had defined the structure of the stage upon which Baroque spectacles were performed

(see Kernodle,

From Art

to Theatre, P' 186), similarly so-called Baroque decoration developed as it were in

counterpoint on architectonic structures that were in many cases Baroque in name only but with which it was integrally connected in its very ptinciples. 173. For another example of an eventual rejection of perspective da/ sotto in su, see "Memoir

on the Life and Works of Mr. Mengs,'

Anton Raphael Mengs,

Works (London,

Returning to Rome, he undertook Vola of Cardinal

by the Chevalier d'Azara, in

1796), vol. 1, p. 16: to

paint the ceiling of the gallery of the

Alexander A1bani, in which he represented

the Goddess of Memory

and the Muses, their offspring.

Apollo with

In this work he

Notes to Pages 180-81

299

availed himself much of that which he had observed in the paintings of Herculaneum. to be seen in the Portico Museum: he attached a piece in continuation

to this painting.

to avoid the great error of works of this kind,

which is to terminate of itself, as is the modern custom; for by this method he avoided the disagreeable breakings off or curtailing, which always destroy the beauty of the figures. Nevertheless,

not to controvert

entirely that

mode, he painted the two pieces laterally. where entered only one figure to each, terminating according to the modern taste. 174. See the letter from Father Pozzo to the prince of Liechrenstein (1694), in Signiftcati delle pitture Jaffe nella volta della chiesa di Sane'lgnazio a Roma (Rome, 1828). It is known that Father Pozzo was later to decorate the Liechtenstein palace in Vienna with a famous fresco with a celestial perspective. 175. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia; ooero, Descrittione dell'imagini universal; cavate dall'anrichita et ria altri luoghi ... , opera non meno utile che necessaria a poeti, pittori, et scultori per rappresentare le vitti, oirta, affitti, et passioni humane (Rome, 1593), proem; see Glocon, Trompe-l'oeil, P: 158. 176. It was even to reveal itself to be remarkably loquacious; the prolixity of theologians is somewhat surprising when compared with the reserve of many mathematicians and scientists. One such was Buffon who, in the eighteenth century still, in the preface to his translation of Newton's Method of Fluxions (Paris, 1740), was still defending a strictly privative concept of the infinite: Most of our errors in metaphysics stem from the reality that we ascribe to ideas of privation. We are familiar with the finite, we see real properties in it, we remove them from it and when we consider it following that removal we no longer recognize it and believe we have created something new, when all we have done is destroy part of something that we used to know. So we should only consider the infinite, whether it be the infinitely small or the infinitely great, as a privation, a denial of the idea of the finite, which can be used as an assumption that in some cases can serve to simplify ideas, and must generalise their results in the practice of the sciences. All the skill thus lies in making the most of this assumption and trying to apply it to the subjects under consideration. All the merit thus lies in the application or, in a word, in the use that one makes of it. (pp, x-xi) 177. A formula first used by Nicholas of Cusa but frequently ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus. 178. Pascal, Pensees, ed. Brunschvicg, sec. 2, no. 72; English trans.: The Essential Pascal, ed. Robert W. Gleason, trans. G. F. Pullen (London, 1966).

T 300

Notes to Pages I84-88

CHAPTER

5 Our Sheet's White Care

I. As I myself attempted to do in a much earlier draft of the present chapter, "Un 'Outil' plastique: Le nuage," Revued'esthethique (January-June I958): 104-48. 2. Alexander Cozens, A New Method ofAssisting Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape, Ist e& (London, 1785); see Paul Oppe, Alexander and john Robert Cozens (London, I952). 3. Cozens, preface to A New Method, cited in Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion, 2nd ed. (London, I962), pp. I56-57. On Cozens, see H. W. Janson, "The 'Image made by Chance' in Renaissance Thought," in De Artibus Opuscula XL: Essays in Honour ofErwin Panofsky, ed. MiHard Meiss (New York, I96I), pp. 254-66; and a forthcoming work by Jean-Claude Lebensztjen. 4. Gombrich, Art and Illusion, pp. I57-58. 5. John Ruskin, Modern Painters (London, 1855), pt. 4, chap. I6; citing here from the 1856 ed., vol. 3, p. 255. 6. "We turn our eyes as boldly and as quickly as may be from the serene fields and skies of medieval art to the most characteristic example of modern landscape. And, I believe, the first thing that will strike us or that ought to strike us is their cloudiness" (ibid., p. 254). 7. Ibid., vol. I, p. 2I4. 8. Ibid., pt. 2, sec. 3, chaps. I and 2. In the last volume of Modern Painters (pt. 7, "Of Cloud Beauty"), Ruskin compares a cloud to a leaf that comes between man and the earth, just as a cloud comes between man and the sky. 9. Ibid., vol. 1, p. 218. IO. Ibid., chap. 4. II. Ibid., vol. 3, pt. 4, chap. I5. See Leonardo da Vinci, "Buildings Appear Larger When There Is Mist," in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. Edward MacCurdy (London, I938), vol. 2, p. 324. 12. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 3, p. 257. I3. Ibid., pt. 4, chap. I6. I4. Ibid., vol. I, p. 213. I5. "There is not a moment of any day of our lives where nature is not producing scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure"; ibid., p. 201. I6. In the first volume (p. 36) of Modern Painters, Ruskin classifies mystery among the six qualities (truth, simplicity, mystery, inadequation, decision, rapidity) of execution. 17. "There are landscapes that are volatized, dawns that fill the sky; celestial and fluvial festivals of a sublime, stripped nature, rendered completely fluid by a great poet." Joris-Karl Huysmans, Certains (Paris, 1889), p. 202.

Notes to Pages z88-94

301

I8. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 4, pt. 5, chap. 4, p. 56 ("On Turnerian Mystery"). I9. For a particularly virulent attitude in this respect, see William Blake, ''.Annotations to Reynolds," in Blake, Complete Writings, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (London, I957), pp. 445-79. 20. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 4, p. 57. 21. Ibid., p. 62. 22. Ibid., p. 58. 23. Ibid., vol. 5, p. u5, note. 24. Ibid., p. I22. 25. Ibid., pt. I, sec. I, chap. 5 ("Of Ideas of Truth"). 26. · Ibid., vol. 5, p. III. 27. "Where ride the captains of their armies? Where are set the measures of their march?" Ibid., vol. 4, p. 106. 28. Ibid., p. III. 29. Ibid., vol. I, p. 204. 30. Ibid., vol. 5, p. I21. 31. It is remarkable that the paintings of Turner in which the dissolution (but not the deconstruction) of the perspective cube is the most extreme are not land~ scapes, seascapes, or studies of the sky, but interior scenes (see the series of Interiors at Petworth, c. I830, now in the Tate Gallery), in which the cube, without however ceasing secretly to structure the composition, loses all oversharp shapes. In one famous picture (Rain, Steam, Speed, I844, National Gallery), Turner had no hesitation in associating "service of the clouds" with the emblem of modernity par excellence, the railway, as Monet was to in his Gare Saint-La.iare series, in which the linear structure corresponding to the metal roof is repulsed, significantly, by the steam emitted by the engines. · 32. ''.Accidental shadows can also be used successfully, that is to say shadows caused by something outside the picture, provided they look real, as in a landscape, in which clouds naturally produce effects which make certain terrains disappear into the distance." Alexandre-Franc;:ois Desportes, cited in Andre Fontaine, Conftrences inedites de l'Academie de peinture (Paris, I903), p. 66. 33. "It is one of the most discouraging consequences of this work of mine that I am wholly unable to take notice of the advance of modern science. What has conclusively been discovered or observed about clouds, I know not; but by the chance inquiry possible to me I find no book which fairly states the difficulties of accounting for even the ordinary aspects of the sky." Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 5, p. Io7. 34. Luke Howard, Essay on the Modifications of Clouds (London, I803), reprinted in The Climate ofLondon, Deducedfrom Meteorological Obs.~rvations (London, I8I8-20). See Goethe's two studies on Howard (Naturwirsenschaftlichen

\

T 302

Notes to Pages I94-96

Schriften) and his series of poems entitled ''.Atmosphare," "Howards Ehrengedachtnis," "Stratus," "Cumulus," and so on: The world which is so great and spreading, The sky so high and distant, All this my eyes can take in But not my thoughts. To find your way in infinity, You must first distinguish, then gather things together. That is why my winged song gives thanks To the man who distinguished between the clouds. {from ''.Atmosphare") 35. Kurt Badt, Wolkenbilder und Wolkengedichte der Romantik (Berlin, 1960). 36. See Louis Hawes, "Constable's Sky Sketches," Journal ofthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 32 {1969): 344-65. · 37. Example: "5 Sept. 1822: IO o'clock morning, looking south-east. Brisk wind at west. Very bright and fresh grey clouds running fast over a yellow bed, about half way in the sky." . 38. In his Lectures on Landscape Painting, published by Charles Robert Leslie; see Badt, Wolkenbilder und Wolkengedichte der Romantik, pp. 74 and 77· 39. ''.And indeed, shapeless forms leave no memory except that of a possibility, . . . just as a series of notes struck at random is no melody, so a puddle, a rock, a cloud, a fragment of coastline are not reducible forms." Paul Valery, Degas, danse, dessin, in Valery, Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. II94· 40. Goethe, letter to Zelter, 24July1823, cited in Badt, Wolkenbilder und Wolkengedichte der Romantik, p. 19 (my emphasis). . 4I. See the letter from Goethe published by Carl Gustav Carus as an mtroduction to his Neuen Briefe uberdie Landschaftmalerei (1831); in Badt, Wolkenbilder und Wolkengedichte der Romantik, p. 36. . 42. Goethe, "Wolkengestalt nach Howard" (1820), cited in Badt, Wolkenbtlder und Wolkengedichte der Romantik, p. 24. · 43. See Ruskin, The Storm-Cloud ofthe Nineteenth Century: Two Lectures Delivered at the London Institution (Orpington, Eng., 1884), pp. 34-35. This is the very subject addressed by Goethe's Farbenlehre. 44. Epicurus, Letter to Pythocles, in Diogenes Laertius, para. 100, trans. R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1958). . 45. Lucretius, De natura rerum 6.160-61, trans. W. H. D. Rouse, Loeb Classical Library {Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1953). 46. Ibid., ll. 246-47. 47. Epicurus, Letter to Pythocles, trans. Hicks, p. 84. 48. See Goethe, "Ganymede":

Notes to Pages I96- 99

303

Higher, higher I aspire The clouds float Toward me, bowing, the clouds Toward my nostalgic love Help me! Help me! In your bosom? Raise me up! Intertwining, intertwined, Up there, on your chest; 0 all loving Father! 49. Lucretius, De rerum natura 6.451-54. 50. Ibid., II. 462-66. 51. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 5, pp. 108-9. 52. Friedrich Nietzsche, "Le Cas Wagner," in Le Crepuscule des idoles (Paris, 1952), p. 35. 53. Friedrich Nietzsche, Le Gai Savoir, in Nietzsche, Oeuvres completes (Paris, 1967), p. 18 (my emphasis). 54. Friedrich Nietzsche, Considerations, p. 63. 55. Richard Wagner, "Le Theatre des festivals sceniques de Bayreuth" (1873), in Wagner, Oeuvres en prose (Paris), vol. II, pp. 170-74. 56. Richard Wagner, "Lettre sur la musique" (1860), Oeuvres en prose, vol. 6, p. 226. 57. Wagner, "Theatre des festivals sceniques de Bayreuth," pp. 174-77. 58. See Rene Leibowitz, introduction to Schoenberg et son ecole (Paris, 1947). 59. "Only where sight and hearing combine mutually is the true artist satisfied." Wagner, "L'Oeuvre d'art de l'avenir," in Oeuvres, vol. 3, p. 137· 60. Richard Wagner, "Opera et drame," in Oeuvres, vol. 4, p. 220. 6I. Wagner, "L'Oeuvre d'art de lavenir," p. 212. 62. Richard Wagner, "Sur la representation du Tannhaiiser" (1852), in Oeuvres, vol. 7, pp. 215-16. 63. Leibowitz, introduction to Schoenberg et son ecole, p. 59. 64. Richard Wagner, "Une communication a mes amis" (1851), in Oeuvres, vol. 6, pp. 57-58. 65. Debussy's Nocturnes (in particular the first of them, entitled Clouds) occupy a decisive historical position in this respect. In them, breaking away, despite appearances, from impressionism and the attractions of vagueness, Debussy strove to liberate the melodic line from thematic constraints, so that its instability and regulated energy would contribute to define the new musical space as an analytical . field, founded on symbiosis, displacement, and transformation. 66. Wagner continually criticized the mechanisms that c~nferred a .tacttle reality upon the image of the stage, and insisted on the need t~ i~olate ?1a~ image and get it to emerge in all its essential ideality. See "Un Coup d oeil sur l opera allemand contemporain," in Oeuvres, vol. II, p. 86: "What disgusted me most about

\

T Notes to Pages 204-7

Notes to Pages 200-204 it was the crudeness in laying bare all the mysteries of the scenery to the eyes of those spectators. Some believe that things that can only be effective from a carefully calculated distance must on the contrary be displayed as much as possible in the harsh footlights right at the front of the stage." 67. The very same year, 1888, in which Nietzsche wrote the letter from Turin that marked his break with Wagner, also saw the beginning of the publication, in monthly installments, of Japon artistique, edited by Samuel Bing, the future founder of the Salon de !'.A.rt Nouveau. 68. Henri Focillon, La Peinture au X!Xe et XXe siecle, du realisme nos )ours (Paris, 1928), pp. 206-8. 69. "Never has painting been so mysteriously discreet, you would think it a piece of silk imbued with deep and pale colors .... Whistler's nocturnes are unique in the history of painting and represent in its highest form the art of suggestion or, if you like, the lyrical intimacy of Western landscape"; ibid., pp. 198-99. 70. "The examination and contemplation of paintings [that represent] the Buddha and Buddhist scenes has an edificatory value that places such paintings in the highest rank. Next come landscapes, [the sources] of inexhaustible delights; views of mists and clouds are particularly beautiful. Bamboos and rocks come in the next class, then flowers and plants. As for pretty women and subjects 'with feathers or fur,' they are simply for the amusement of worldly people. They cannot be included among the pure jewels of art." Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 3, par. 158; see Nicole Vandier-Nicolas, Le Houa-che de Mi Fou; ou, Le Carnet d'un connaisseur de !'epoque des Song du Nord (Paris, 1964), p. 147· 7i. Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 3, pars. 19, 21, and 45; also pp. 35-36 and 49. 72. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 3, chap. 21; French trans. Raphael Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise (Paris, 1918), p. 173· 73. See Pierre Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao: Traduction

a

et commentaire pour servir de contribution al'etude terminologique et esthetique des theories chinoises de la peinture (Brussels, 1970), pp. 63-64. 74. See Schuyler Camman, "The Symbolism of the Cloud-Collar Motif," Art Bulletin (1951): l-9. 75. Qing lu: aerial perspective obtained by colors merging from blue into green,

with gold and brilliant colors also used, along with very fine lines. 76. Petrucci, Encyclopedie, p. 173· 77. Jin bi: a technique similar to qing lu, but with a more pronounced use of gold. 78. Petrucci, Encyclopedie, pp. 173-74. 79. Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai ming hua Ji (annals of celebrated painters in the course of successive dynasties; a work completed in 847), cited by Nicole VandierNicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine: Mi Fou (IOJI-II07), peintre et connaisseur d'art dam la perspective de l'esthethique des lettres (Paris, 1963), p. 63.

80. On the aesthetics of the scholars, see Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en

Chine. 8i. See Peter Swann, Chinese Painting (London, 1958). It is in this context that the text of Song Di (in the volume published by H. Giles as An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art [Shanghai, 1905]), cited at note 75 of Chapter 1, should be judged. 82. Lidai ming hua ji, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 62. The same rejection of heterodox techniques is to be found in the eighteenth century on the part of Zou Yigui. See Ryckmarts, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, pp. 46-47. 83. Ibid., pp. 132-34. See, for the Ming dynasty, the text of Dong Qichang cited in Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, pp. 34-35, n. 6: "Some people claim that every painter should found his own school. But that is nonsense. To paint willow trees, use the manner of Zhao Qianli; for pines, follow Ma Hezhi; for dead trees, follow Li Cheng; for those various models are eternal and could never be changed; and even if you reinterpret them in your own way, in the essentials you cannot diverge from this fundamental source. It would indeed be inconceivable to presume to creation of your own, scorning the classical rules." 84. "The paintings of Huang Cuan do not deserve to be collected together, they are easy to copy; the paintings of Su Hi cannot be copied." Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 3, par. 108; Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 97. 85. ''Antiquity is the instrument of knowledge; to transform consists in knowing that instrument but without becoming its servant. Knowledge that is closely linked to imitating is bound to lack breadth; so a fine man only borrows from Antiquity in order to found something in the present.... As for me, I exist through myself and for mysel£ ... And if it so happens that my work resembles that of some other master, it is he who is following me and not I who have sought him out." Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 3 ("La Transformation"), pp. 31-32. In a similar vein, see fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. l, chap. IO ("The Talent of Transformation"), and the texts cited in ibid., pp. 35-36. 86. See Mi Fu: "With a single movement, I have swept away the dreadful style of the two Wang [the two most universally venerated calligraphers] and have illuminated the Song dynasty for ten thousand ages." Cited by Tang Hou; cf. Ryckmans, "Les Propos sur la peinture de Shitao," Arts asiatiques 14 (1966): 95, n. 4. 87. See Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. l, p. II. 88. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. l, chap. 12, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture

chinoise, p. 33. 89. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 16. 90. See James Cahill, La Peinture chinoise (Geneva, 1960), p. II. 9!. fie ziyuan huazhuan, vol. l, chap. 13, "Ink and Brush," Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise, p. 35.

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306

Notes to Pages 207-II

92. Dong Qichang, cited in Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shi-

tao, p. 46, n. I.

93. Han Zhuo (twelfth century), Shanshui chuan quanzi (Complet~ treatise on landscape), cited in Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao. 94. Henri Focillon, Hokusai (Paris, 1925), pp. 19ff. 95. See Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 80, n. 2; VandierNicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, pp. 131, 230, etc. 96. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 47, n. I. 97. See the texts cited in ibid., p. 73, n. I. 98. Ibid., chap. 15, p. 115. 99. Ibid., chap. 9, p. 7I. IOO. fie zi yuan huazhuan, chap. 12. In the thirteenth century, Li Song described meticulous architectural drawings as the "painting of limits," jiai hua; see Cahill, La Peinture chinoise, p. 54. IOI. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 73, n. 1 (my emphasis). 102. Ibid., chap. 6, p. 51. 103. "To have the brush but not the ink does not mean that a painting is literally without ink, but that the wrinkles and washes are reduced to very little; the outlines of rocks are starkly drawn, the trunks and branches of trees stand out harshly, giving the impression of a lack of ink or, as they say, of 'bones predominating over flesh.' To have the ink but no brush does not mean that the painting was truly produced without a brush; it means that, in the tracing of rocks and the painting of tree-trunks, the brush made only light touches while washes were used to excess so that they came to hide the brush strokes and obliterate the presence of the brush. This produces an impression of a painting devoid of a brush; it is what is known as 'flesh predominating over bones.'" Tang Dei, cited in ibid., pp. 46-47. 10+ Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, trans. Cecil Grayson (Harmondsworth, Eng., 1991), bk. 1, pp. 55-56; see Chapter 3, p. rn. 105. "Schauplatz ist die Flache genauer die begrenzte Ebene.'' Paul Klee, Das bildnerische Denken (Basel, 1956), p. 39. It would be interesting to study how far medieval painting, if not the painting of antiquity, proceeded in the West, as did the later painting of the Renaissance, from a preliminary delimitation of the field or, as Klee called it, the pictorial "scene," for such an enquiry would be an indispensable preliminary to the elaboration of any theory of Western painting as such. 106. See Viviane Alleton, L'Ecriture chinoise (Paris, 1970), pp. 28-30. 107. Ibid. 108. In contrast, the base line of the quadrangle (la linea di sotto qua! giace nel quadrangolo), as Alberti puts it, in Western painting takes on the importance of a foundation, since it is on its basis and thanks to its division into equal segments

Notes to Pages 2II-I2 that it becomes possible to plot out the checkerboard paving that constitutes the "floor" of the perspective construction. 109. See Chang Tung-Sun, "La Logique chinoise," Yenching journal of Social Studies 1, no. 2 (1939); French trans. in Tel Que! 38 (Summer 1969): 3-22. no. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 1, chap. 16, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise, p. 44. III. "The division into two sections consists in placing the scene below, the mountain above, and, conventionally, one then adds clouds in the middle to mark out more clearly the separation between the two sections.'' Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. IO, p. 79. n2. "Wben divisions are made according to the method of three successive planes or of two sections, they seem to ensure that the painting is spoilt. . . . If, in each landscape, one embarks upon a kind of clearing operation or cutting it up into pieces, the result will not be at all alive, for the eye can immediately detect how it has been fabricated. . . . If one paints according to this method of three planes, how can the result be any different from an engraved plaque?" Ibid. n3. Chang, "La Logique chinoise," p. 12. n4. Gu fa yong bi shi ye ftl*.lf'HlHrdf?., "The law of bones, using a brush" (Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise, p. 7), or, as James Cahill translates it, "The Six Laws and How to Read Them" (Ars Orienta/is 4 [1961]: 372-81): "using the brush [according to] the method for bones." We need not go into the problems posed by the translation of Xie He's "Principles." But it i1s worth pointing out that the main difficulty encountered by Western specialists who are attempting to produce an equivalent translation in a European language is connected with the recurrence, in many statements, of the formula shi ye, which, according to the traditional interpretation, serves simply to identify the principle: with its numerical order (see Cahill, ibid.; Alexander Soper, "The First Two Laws of Hsieh Ho," Far Eastern Quarterly 8 [1948]: 412-23), while others assimilate it to a copula that gives articulation to the two pairs of characters that are in pllay in the manner of a definition ("which means," "that is to say"). Thus R. W. Acker (Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts on Chinese Painting [Leiden, 1954), p. 4) translates the second principle as follows: "Bare method which is [a way of) using the brush." Quite apart from the fact that Chinese possesses no verb "to be," the difficulty stems from the inability of Western logic to cope with a form of thought that is not familiar with the problem of equating two terms. As Chang Tung-Sun ("La Logique chinoise," p. 10) declares, "a formula such as 'shi . .. ye . . .'does not signif'/ that anything is identical to anything else and consequently does not constitute a logical proposition such as appears in the Western structure.'' The point is made simply to underline, yet again, that, quite apart from the problem of the context in which these notions appear, it is impossible to transfer some notions from a Far Eastern text to a Western one.

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308

Notes to Pages 2I4-r7

Notes to Pages 2I2-I4

130. Guo Xi, Linquan gao zhi, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine,

u5. "To draw the forms in conformity with the things" (Petrucci); "respond-

ing to things, images depict their form" (Cahill); "Correspondence to the object, which means the depicting of forms" (Acker). u6. "Apply the colour in accordance with the similarity of the objects" (Petrucci); ''.According to kind, set forth (describe) colours (appearances)" (Cahill); "Suitability to type, which has to do with the laying on of colours" (Acker). 117. "Distribute the lines and give them their hierarchical place" (Petrucci); "Dividing and planning, positioning and arranging" (Cahill); "Division and planning, i.e. placing and arrangement" (Acker). u8. Dai Xi, cited in Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 47. u9. Meng yang, "technical training," as Ryckmans translates it (ibid., p. 48). The origin of this concept is to be found in I Ching: "The task of the saint is to distinguish rectitude from chaos." From this the expression, in everyday language, comes to mean the basic instruction given to a child beginning to learn to read Chinese characters. 120. See Ryckmans, ed., Les -"Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 2, p. 27: "Ink comes from Nature, thick or fluid, dry or unctuous, however one wants it. The brush is controlled by man in order to express outlines, wrinkles, and different kinds of washes, as he wishes to." 121. Ibid., chap. 6, p. 51. 122. "Painting results from the reception of ink; ink from the reception of a brush; a brush from reception by a hand; a hand from reception from a mind." Ibid., chap. 4, p. 41. 123. Ibid., chap. 8, p. 63. 124. Chang, "La Logique chinoise," p. 12. 125. When referring to the pictorial practice or the pictorial theory of China, I am, clearly, not unaware of the fact that that practice and-to a lesser degreethat theory have a history, and that it would not be right to set on the same level a painter from the Han period and a Ming landscape painter. Quite apart from the fact that Chinese art is governed by a kind of historicity very different from the Western kind (a subject to which I hope to return), the reason why I here refer to Chinese painting and theory as a whole is simply in order to clear the way for a general theory in which Western art would lose its centralizing preeminence. 126. Jing Hao (?),Bi fa ji (Notes on the method of the brush; tenth century), cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 188. 127. Ibid., p. 187. 128. "When tackling the mountain, painting finds its soul; when tackling water, it finds its movement." Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture' de Shitao, chap. 7,

P· 57· 129. ''.A girl, perceiving the shadow of her lover on a wall, will draw the outline of that shadow." Chateaubriand, La Genie du christianisme, bk. 1, chap. 3 (a fable taken over from Pliny, Historia naturalis 35).

P·

205. 131. Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 3, par. 24; Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine,

P· 36.

132. Marcel Graner, La Pensee chinoise, pp. u5-48. 133. Ryckmans, ed., Les ''Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 17, P· 115.

Ibid., chap. 7, P· 57· Marcel Graner, La Pensee chinoise, pp. 123-24. Chang, "La Logique chinoise," p. 12. Ryckmans, ed., Les ''Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 13, P· 89. 138. Ibid., pp. 49 and 58. 139. ''.As men of the past have said, a poem is a painting without shapes, a painting is a poem that takes a [visible] shape. Philosophers have often expounded on this theme and I, for myself, have regarded this as a guiding principle. Thus in my days of leisure I have often meditated upon the poems of the Jin and the Tang, both those of the past and those of the present. Some of these fine lines give perfect expression to the deep activity of man (fa zhong zhi shi: visceral activity), others, in ornate fashion, describe the spectacle presented to their eyes ..... What is the best way to discern the idea by which painting is guided? When ev1~rything around me becomes familiar, and my heart and my hand are at one, I can at last freely conform to the rules and discover in all that surrounds me a way to return to the source." Guo Xi, Linquan gao zhi, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, 134. 135. 136. 137.

pp. 195-96. 140. Granet, La Pensee chinoise, p. 118, n. 5. See E. J. Eitel, "Feng-shuei ou principe de sciences naturelles en Chine," Annales du musee Guimet 1 (1880): 20353.

141. The journeys that painters were traditionally expected to make may be compared to the epic theme of the forays made by emperors. The training of a painter is not limited to literary culture and a knowledge of the works of the ancients: "It is also necessary for an artist either in a c;arriage or on horseback, to make tracks, in his journeys, across a good half of the universe. Only then will he be able to wield the brush." Guo Xi, cited in Ryckmans, "Les Propos sur la peinture de Shitao," p. u2, n. 6. The journeys of Zong Bing (375-443) took him ~st to the east (the starting point for the activity of Yang, which is linked to the sprtng), next to the south. Only then, forced by ill health to return home, did he paint the sites that had delighted him on the [four] walls of his room. 142. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 17, P· 115. The eight directions correspond to the eight trigrams in an octagon in the I Ching. As for the number five (the five mountains, but also the five elements, the five sounds, the five colors, etc.) situated in the middle of the nine prime numbers (the nine provinces, the nine rivers, the nine heavens, the nine rubrics of the Hong Fang, the nine halls of the Ming Tang, etc.), it is regarded as the symbol of the Center (see

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310

Notes to Pages 2I8-20

Notes to Pages 2I7-I8

Granet, La Pensee chinoise, chap. 3, "Le Systeme du monde"). In other words, the four pillars and the four cardinal mountains that in nature play a role analogous to that of the leaders of society now seem to be complemented by a fifth, corresponding to che central pillar and assimilated to the axis of the universe. The four (barbarian) seas correspond to the inorganic space that circumscribes the saints. Ibid., p. 359. 143· Granet, La Pensee chinoise, p. 318. 144· Ibid., p. 125. 145· "To enable the sovereign to exercise his central action, it was necessary, between the sixth month, which marked the end of the summer, and the seventh, which was the first month of autumn, to institute a kind of time of rest, counted as one month although not attributed any definite duration. It only possessed an intellectual duration, and this in no way encroached upon the twelve months or the seasons; yet it was far from being of no account: it was the equivalent of a whole year, for within it seemed to lie the motor of the year"; ibid., p. 103. 146. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 8, p. 64. 147· "Lu Chaishi said: Su Wen Chang, speaking of painting, values surprising mountain peaks, steep cliffs, wide rivers, waterfalls, weird rocks, old pine trees, and Daoist hermits and priests. In general, he values a painting onto which the ink has dripped drop by drop, filled with cloud and mist, which is empty as if one could not see the sky, yet full as if one could not see the earth. In those circumstances, the picture is a superior one. These words do not seem to tally with what has been said above (concerning opening up the Sky and the Earth); but Wenchang is a scholar with a free soul. Amid extreme fullness, he had ideas about extreme emptiness. He says 'empty' and 'full': those two words reveal his character." fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. I, chap. 16, Petrucci, Encyclopedic de la peinture chinoise, p. 44. 148. According to Granet (La Pensee chinoise, p. 125, n. 3), "the word jie means 'articulation,' and evokes the image of a length of bamboo. It designates the instrument used to beat out the rhythm (the king gets the Yin and the YtJng to act in concert by beating the rhythm ofthe four seasons) and the divisions of time that serve to space out and regulate the passing of the seasons." 149. ''As for the immensity of the landscape: with its land stretching for a i:housand leagues, its series of peaks, its ranks of cliffs, even an immortal who, in his flight wished only to take a superficial glance could not take it all in." Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 8, p. 64. 150. Ryckmans rightly emphasizes the ambivalence of the sign yi - in the concept of yi hua -ii; yi means not only "one" but also the absolute One of the I Ching (the bar, the original fundamental emblem that, through successive divisions and combinations, expresses the totality of phenomena), the One that, upon being divided, produced the Sky and the Earth. The supposed etymology of the character tian "}(.., "sky," in typical fashion associates the notion of one with the notion of the absolute: "}(.. signifies extreme height that nothing can surpass; this

character comes from the association of yi -, "one," and da

3II

*' "large." Ibid.,

p. 17. . . 151. "I have often seen beginners grab a brush and fill a .~1cture ~1th blots a~d clumsy lines. The very sight was painful to the eyes; one 1mmed1ately felt disgusted. How could such a picture please connoisseurs?" fie ziyuan huazhuan, vol. l, chap. i6, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chi.noise, ~· 44·. 152. Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 3, par. 76, cited in Vand~er-N1col~s, Ar: et sage~se en Chine, p. 73. That is something that admirers of Japan1sr:i, ~tartmg ~1th WI:1stler, persisted in not perceiving ("We have come to speak of pamtmg that,;s elevat~ng, of a painter's duty, and of particular paintings that are full of thought ; Ten 0 clock), thereby clearing the way for an idealist interpretation of Fa: Eastern .art ~nd for the development, in the West, of pictorial practices t~at clai~ to be. mspired by it (in particular by calligraphy), practices whose funcuon of ~d1eolog1cal ~onc~al­ ment- by borrowing the outward aspects of Far Eastern practlc.s but obhteratmg the theory, the "thought" behind them-has by now been fully demonstrated. 153· See the technique known as yun suo, "enclo~ed in clou,~," that is app~ied to the mists that float before waterfalls, half concealmg them: When one pamts those clouds, one must leave no trace of the brush and ink. One simply makes an outline with a faint colour, thereby showing the skill of one's hand." Petrucci,

Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise, p. 161, 6.g. 77. . 154· Dong Qichang, Bi mo pingmiao, according to Vand1er-N1colas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 240. , . 155· Bertolt Brecht, "Sur la peinture chinoise," in Brecht, Ecrits sur la lztterature et l'art (Paris, 1970), vol. 2, p. 69 (my emphasis). 156. Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai ming hua ji, chap. 6, cited in Shio Sakanishi, The Spirit ofthe Brush (London, 1939), P· 40. . . . 157· Mi Fu, Huashi, chap. 2, par. 160, accordmg to Vand1er-N1colas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 149. Li Cheng, zi (alias) Xianxi, one of the greatest landscape painters of the period of the Five Dynasties, who died in 967. So many ~orks w~re attributed to him in the Song period that Mi Fu de9.ared that he would like to wnte "an essay on his non-existence." Huashi, chap. 3, par. 18, cited in Vandier-Nicolas,

Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 34·

. . 158. "The wind and the rain, obscurity and clarity consmute an acmo~phenc mood; dispersion and grouping, depth and distance constitute the schematic organization; verticals and horizontals, hollows and relief create the rhythm; shade and light, thickness and fluidity create spiritual tension; rivers and .clouds, clustered together or scattered, create the link; the contrast between crevices :,nd outcrops create an alternation of action and withdrawal." Ryckmans, ed., Les 'Propos sur la

peinture" de Shitao, chap. 8, p. 63. 159· Ibid., p. 90, n. 2. . , . . 160. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 3, chap. 18, Petrucci, Encyclopedz,~ de la pemture

chinoise, pp. 165-66.

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312

Notes to Pages 220-24

161. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 3, chap. 1, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de

Notes to Pages 225-30

la peinture

313

165. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 8, p. 64. 166. Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai, cited by Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts, pp. 154-59. "Once one has understood that there are two styles of painting, one

178. See Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 219. 179. Huysmans, "Whistler," in Certains, p. 66. 180. See Meyer Schapiro, Paul Gfzanne (London, 1988), p. 4. 181. Paul Cezanne, letter to Emile Bernard, 23 October i:905, in Correspondance (Paris, 1937), p. 276. 182. "The reading of the model and its realization is sometimes long in coming for the artist." Cezanne, letter to Charles Camoin, 9 December 1904, Correspondance, p. 267. 183. See Clement Greenberg, "Cezanne," in Greenberg, Art and Culture (Boston, 1961), p. 55. 184. See Cezanne, letter to Charles Camoin, Correspond.ance, p. 268; to Emile Bernard, 23 December 1904, Correspondance, p. 269; also to Emile Bernard, 23 October 1905, Correspondance, p. 276. 185. Schapiro, Paul Gfzanne, p. 17. 186. Cezanne, letter to Emile Bernard, 23 October 1905, Correspondance, p. 277

abbreviated (shu), the other detailed (mi), then one can engage in discussion about it." Gu Kaizhi, zi (alias) Chang Kang, was a calligrapher and portraitist of the Jin period (fourth century). Lu Tanwei worked in the fifth century, Zhang Sengyou in the sixth century. Wu Daozi (eighth century), the great ancestor of the "scholars," was famous for the speed with which he worked: he is supposed to have painted from memory, in a single day, a panorama of the River Jialing. 167. Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, p. 16. 168. Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 16. 169. The text is attributed to the calligrapher Cai Dong (132-92), the inventor of the cursive (bajen) style; see Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 55. 170. See Xuanhe Shu Pu (a catalogue of the autographs of the emperor Hui Zong, twelfth century), cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 55. 171. Dong Qichang, Hua chansi suibi, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, pp. 122-23. 172. Dong Qichang, Hua yan, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine,

(my emphasis). 187. "I regret my advanced age, on account of my coloring sensations." Cezanne, letter to his son, 3August 1906, Correspondance, p. 281. 188. Letter to Emile Bernard; Correspondance, p. 277. 189. Letter to Ambroise Vollard, 9 January 1903, Correspondance, p. 252. 190. Mallarme, Oeuvres completes (Paris, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade), p. 455. 191. Lactantius, Divinae institutiones 3.17, cited by Maurice Solovine, in Epicure: Doctrines et maximes (Paris, 1937), pp. 118-19. 192. Joachim Gasquet, Gfzanne (Paris, 1926), pp. 117-18. 193. See Meyer Schapiro, "On Some Problems in the Semiotics of Visual Art: Field and Vehicle in Image-Signs," Semiotica I, no. 3 (1969): 223;-24; reprinted in A. Kroeber, ed., Theory and Philosophy ofArt: Style, Artist, and Society: Selected Papers (New York, 1994), pp. 1-3. 194. El Lissitzky, "New Russian Art: A Lecture" (1922); see Sophie LissitzkyKilppers, El Lissitzky (London, 1968), p. 334.

chinoise, pp. 121 ff. 162. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 3, chap. 21, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture chinoise, pp. 172-73. 163. "The Mountain, with its peaks rising one above the other, its succession of cliffs, its secret valleys and deep precipices, its high sharply pointed crags, its vapors, mists and dews, its wisps of smoke and clouds, puts one in mind of the unfurling flow and ebb of the Sea; but all that is not the soul manifested by the Sea itself; those are simply qualities of the Sea that the Mountain appropriates." Ryckmans, ed., Les "Propos sur la peinture" de Shitao, chap. 13, p. 89. 164. fie zi yuan huazhuan, vol. 3, chap. 21, Petrucci, Encyclopedie de la peinture

chinoise, p. 173.

P· i41. 173. Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, p. 64, according to a text borrowed from Shen Zongqian, a calligrapher and pa.inter active in the eighteenth century. 174. ''.As for spattered ink, that is using ink delicately and subtly without allowing the brush strokes to appear, as if [the image] simply spurted forth." Li Ri-hua, a painter of the seventeenth century, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine,

p. 64. 175. Tang Zhiqi, the author of the Huishi weiyan, cited in Vandier-Nicolas, Art et sagesse en Chine, pp. 241-42. 176. Translator's note: The French word trait can mean either "trait" or "fea-

ture" and also "line." 177. Brecht, "Sur la peinture chinoise."

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