Reading Rembrandt: Beyond the Word-Image Opposition 9789048504145

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voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina i

reading rembrandt

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina ii

The Amsterdam Academic Archive is an initiative of Amsterdam University Press. The series consists of scholarly titles which were no longer available, but which are still in demand in the Netherlands and abroad. Relevant sections of these publications can also be found in the repository of Amsterdam University Press: www.aup.nl/repository. There is a list of all AAA titles published to date at the back of this book.

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina iii

Mieke Bal

Reading Rembrandt Beyond the Word-Image Opposition

3 a Amsterdam Academic Archive

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina iv

Reading Rembrandt. Beyond the Word-Image Opposition was originally published in 1991 by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (isbn 0521 39154 7). Cover design: René Staelenberg, Amsterdam isbn 90 5356 858 1 nur 640 © Amsterdam University Press • Amsterdam Academic Archive, 2006 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina v

preface for the AAA-edition In the popular imagination, an archive is a refuge for forgotten objects awaiting revival. It is a place of dust and sleep, where committed historians hunt for hidden treasures. An archive such as the AAA-series of Amsterdam University Press transforms that image. Here, no dust, no forgetting. The books prepared to reemerge through this archive are not so much forgotten, but threatened with extinction while there is still a need for their availability. This archive is not even a place, but a state: a state of readiness. In the case of Reading Rembrandt this modified sense of the archive seems appropriate. The book has not been reprinted after its second edition in 1994, yet it continues a life on Xeroxed. When I wrote this book I had no idea it would be such a scandal piece; a stumbling block for an entire discipline, for some, and a breath of fresh air for others. While one reviewer wrote that everyone ‘must read this book’, another warned against its danger. Both responses, and many in their wake, seemed a bit over the top. In fact, Reading Rembrandt was written in a much more modest spirit. I had become intrigued by relations between texts and the images allegedly made ‘after’ them. A strong example would be biblical images, seen as illustrations, more or less adequate but never fully ‘true’ to the complexities of the texts. Rembrandt’s work exemplifies cases of the opposite. Sometimes, the images, in their visual complexity, told me things about the text that, as a committed reader, I had not quite grasped. Rembrandt as a biblical scholar? This was the small revelation that got me going. I think the relationship between textual and visual ‘discourse’ has not been understood in all its subtleties, even today. As the subtitle intimates, I hope to look at Rembrandt’s images outside of, or beyond, the opposition that inevitably establishes hierarchical inequality between the media. The continued relevance of this book concerns primarily the way we can ‘read’, or understand images. The word ‘reading’ in the book’s title indicates the emancipation of the image from its subordinate role of illustration, not its appropriation by linguistic imperialism. What the book attempts to map are ways of making visual meaning on the basis of our engagement with what we see when we stop to look at an image with more than fleeting attention. In addition to the historical study of origin and making, I believe that images ‘live’ within a social, cultural context, and speak to us in ways that are different from, but as important as, the way literary texts continue to engage us. The methodology of historical approaches is not exclusively nor fully equipped to analyze this aspect of meaning making in the present. Another aspects of the book concerned the ‘aliveness,’ the ongoing vitality of the work left to us by that artist called ‘Rembrandt.’ The quotation marks indicate Rembrandt’s acutely felt presence in the contemporary world, not a historical or archaeological leftover from the past. This approach entailed undermining the boundary between ‘high’ art and other visual expressions. ‘Rembrandt’ is the name, the title, for the significance of ‘high art’ for ‘popular culture’. It exemplifies the importance in the present of things made in the past – and how the present continuously modifies its meaning.

v

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina vi

In that present, many things in the social sphere are different from the seventeenth century. The relationships between citizen and church, to name but one example, has changed profoundly, and so have the relations between the sexes, between masters and servants, the meaning of ‘child’ and ‘adult’, and even, in terms of life expectancy, the meaning of ‘life’ itself. Yet, I argue that these images speak to these issues in terms of today’s world. They inspire reflection, intellectual or affective engagement, even the transformation of contemporary ideas. The cultural text called ‘Rembrandt’, then, is alive, and kicking. This aspect of the book has been misconstrued as a-historicism. This book is, to the contrary, deeply historical, but the history it performs is that of the late twentieth century. Its claim, in other words, is that the participation of the contemporary viewer in the construction of the meaning of age-old images is relevant for a sense of history as, simply put, change over time. It was this aspect that was most misunderstood. As a result, I devoted a later book entirely and explicitly to this question: Quoting Caravaggio can be seen as the product of the criticism brought to bear on Reading Rembrandt. One issue that came up during my investigations of the images was the interest in, and what seemed identification with, women in social interactions. This gave the book a distinct feminist flavor, which had doubtlessly emerged, not from Rembrandt ‘himself’ – his alleged intentions – but from ‘Rembrandt’, the body of images floating around in the world today. I was not alone working in feminist art history, and many of the positive echoes I am still receiving in response to the book come from feminists who feel empowered by the book’s methodological rigor and depth. Providing an opening in a confining disciplinary orthodoxy is perhaps the book’s most enduring accomplishment. If one feels limited by a decades-old methodology of iconography and connoisseurship, how can one draw on other principles of academic standards? In this domain, Reading Rembrandt has not yet exhausted its relevance. It is fortunate that the number of art historians with more open-ended curiosities has increased dramatically since the book first appeared. What this book harbors is not an anything-goes indifference to method but, on the contrary, a keen awareness that opening boundaries is only possible if unquestioned dogmas can be persuaded by rigorous alternatives. Finally, the historical moment of today, after the ‘pictorial turn’ of which this book has been an active element in the 1990s, matters. Within and outside the university, people have noticed the increased cultural importance and presence of visual imagery. Some lament this, other applaud it; but nothing can undo it. This change has called for sophisticated methodologies to understand the power of images and their contribution to the formation of ideas. My guess is that today, the need for examples of methodological reflection on what it means to ‘read’ an image – to understand what it has to say, and do, on its own, visual terms – has increased along with the presence of visual expressions. All these reasons together seem to justify the placement, if that is the right word, of this book in the archive called AAA. I am, of course, grateful to Amsterdam University Press and its director Saskia de Vries, for this opportunity to revive the book. I am also

voorwerk Bal AAA 01-02-2006 13:40 Pagina vii

grateful for the possibility to accommodate the interest it has never ceased to generate. It is gratifying to see happen on a small scale to my book what that book argued to happen to all things made in the past. Publishing this book in the AAA series, then, is an instance of what I like to call, with a wink, a ‘preposterous history’. It is my hope that some readers, knowing my later work, will now read this book with a retrospective spirit, acknowledging that some of the criticisms brought against it were based on misreadings, while other criticisms still remain to be articulated. I look forward to see my thoughts of old challenged again, from within today’s cultural and academic situation. Mieke Bal January 2006

For Ernst

HEADING "REM13RANDT"

P('"di)J,~ "J?m,h",jlld,".- Il Fron, Vi~l1Jj Poetics to Con, parati vc :\ rlS

.25 l~

33 40 45 54

Visual Rhetoric: Th" Sl'llliotics of Ibpr

60

lnt roJuct;on The W.ll1Lkring WutJIb The Ha!", of LlIn,'li" LucTet;,,'s Last MOlllent Collt.lgious Logorr),,,,, S,'Il' ioti .. :\ pprOf,riat;ol1 1{c,,,1 Hal"" Th" Ill\pOrLlIll" of Tdhng Swries Cunclusion

(,0

Vi~lI:i;lIlcl' and Ill\' p"lemic opl""itiull to much of p,ydloanalyti( thc")l'y, Ilc't'l' till' 11,1 I,d is the sym b(,li~,aIHm of;l hody parr, .i1l'1 Cl' thl' phallu, i" and il too i, lo;Hkd w';lb thc' ('OIIlH)UtiIH1, of gc'nder, Y l't 111c"l' ;u" t'adiC:llly ditYnl'llt III st:aus. Thc plulllls rcfc'I" to gClIdc'l' in term, ot" h'l\'''s alld ILl H'-nots, or " ( 0 h;\\T it" \'cr'lIS " ( 0 bc it," Tb" IU\'C'\' ill ('OlltLISI, is tlll1(bmcuLllly ~elldn ,pc'ritl'- - tllC na\"l is tb,' sClr "I dqxmkllcl' on lh,' IIH>lher - htH il is .l}rd-lIll,lgl' 0ppOSlI'()]L III this C"l\le~[, IlI'\'sUIl'S interpretation ofXI";'-".I> Ih'~T,,;orily "stelltalious, as \'oid \I'ithout spect;tlOl"ship (we his Ir,nd oI1/cI 1111,IX", ")~ I : ,17-~) :llso hec()I\l"s rL'!c\',lI1t ,IS .\ plt'a for .ill~t thi, kind of l'iSll~oI pOl'lics, Alpt'rs's (1.)SIi) book ,dso lic-Yotes ;ou~'lIli()n lO tlw dlL'.1tricll lllodeL Hignrollsly historical \\itl1(1111 t()llo\l'in~ old.:r, r:llhcr Stl('l'rI,ci;ll hi.. roric.t1 \'iL'WS in which thcltril'.Llit), \\'~lS 11t('r\-ly ;),..o(i,lInl wilh g,'stul"e.. , Ii~ht. ;lI1d drL'ss (Alpns, I;ts \\'(Hild sugg"'c rirst. in thl' \\'01l1l'n's stories thelt ! h:1H' r('ad. thl" 1":11)(" does not 1... ,,1 1" rL'volution: it i,' Olle, Se(ulld. th(' '\'()ltl:lll's pnspl"nivl' dol'S not oblitnatl' the lllale OIlL', Th,' men, the ra piS t\. :t re :ltt"ll(kd to with Sll rprising detail. But this [wcul1les kS'i s\lrpTlSill~ ",hell wc realize tlut for women, attending to the whl' of rape is the only \\';IY to overcome the feeling of pnsonal destructioll "'lthollt having to identify "'ith the rapist. And they deal ",ith thL' LlllL'stioll ",In' ill selllioti, terms, It is t:liling to lI11dnstalld the signs, rathl't thall the rhetorical rivalr\' hetweCIl ;1 JlI illed

worth and ilJ\'lgL', that Cluses rape i'l thc's,,: \\"OIlH:n \ lc'XIS, Altbol\gh it is a~ain the ,'(QIII of thL' II'Olllc'II, (hc,ir i,nago, t1ut emin: the rapists, the tc'xts rL'pre'l'lH nlll th" sikncc,d imagc' of voiceless Il'ome'l hut aetil'e women \\'h"", ;lnivity is denied meaning, The IllOSt illlpressin' exalllpk of this nl'\V of rape as the (knial of suhjectivity in t..:rms of the dc~llial ,,( ,IIC':II1\llg is thL' represL'lltation in llllchi Emcchl,ta's Till' R'Jl'" "(.\/1r l11etonYlllic idel\tit'cnion among wo IllC'll , with all d1O\ jOIll the Ille;l] and thus hrl'ak bl'r fatal i,oL1timl. h"lId', di,co\\rS[' u( this f,n\lldll1~ III \'rh of rhl' origm (If all the myll1t He,ld Mother Clnd all of you llIy dcar fril'nds.· said thc hyponite Mut. whcll order had sOlllcwll.1t h11

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,trelched Otlt. for the' breast to hL' showll, ,1I1d for thL' shotlldn to he raised, Although thL' body is Ileithn more Ilor kss "ugh'" them thc two others, thL' rL'lation~hip bet\\'l't'1l It and the viewer i~ now compktdI' differL'Ill, Stretch 1ll,lrk:l'n,;e, thc'y arc his 11'(>/1,', ;md th,'y call tha,'forc m'vcr l,lltirC'ly fall into the re,dlll ofthl' g;\zC' , ,,' Studying thnn, hcre, before stlldying the pail1lings, is a way tll retran' the ,t,'p:; of the' wl)rk uf rq1rc'sc'lllation and to rl'lnain in cOl1linuity with thc' r,'presenting ,ubjc'n ,IS \\'l' l'll1lS1run it, It is. Sll to sp,';lk, ;1 \\';1 y W kl'ep in wuch. HlIt before l\lrtllng to dl" t,'xt and thc' p;lillting> of Sman]]a with the,e dr:lwinp in mind, let liS tah' :I bri,'f 1llok at anuthn dra wing: l'iguH' .. ' .. is wn,;idl'l'ni a prep.ILlwry dr;lwing t'or "Rclllbr:ll1dt" 's ":.\ rI y .\1 r.~dll11,'. TIll' dr:l\\'mg (hgllH' -t,") do,'s Ilot belullg III the "ugly" nudes, The budy IS j"r rl'lllOH'cl trum the I1Lll\lre :llld r:lthlT H,'shy bodiL's ut' t!J" three other dr,l\\'lIlgs: il IS h'lnily :1 Ilude' ;11:111 This llra w'il1g sl1t1\\'s lb,' dfort ut' rq'H''''lItill~ thc' Il""lIl'1I1 o( gelling up fr(l!l1 a ,,',It, TillS dt(lr! IS lIot"bk III th" tCIl"O]) III the t'gUH"s b,ICk. The

'47

:ntist has succeeded ill the quasi-JlIa~ical trick ()frepresu in thL' eycs. In hgurL' -1-.3, the figure's eyes are not looking dircctl vat the vicwer but rest ill!'; more vaguelv ,omewhcre between flctiunal onlooker and oUbide spectator; the sharp eyes in this dra wing addrcss the vin'':L'r dirL'crly and instantaneously. These two pairs of eye's ,und in op po,ition to each other as I'epresellla tions of the gazL' and the gbnce, This is a first important point in rclation to the question of the eroticization of Susanna's body in the paintings, The eyes. in this drawing, arc' apostrophic. active, and positioned in time. They protect the body against the eyes of the viewer who, after \lL'in~ thus addressed, can only raisc his hat and walk lw, blushing. The viewel' of Figure -1- . .1 ean take her or his time and look on as long as it pleases him. Thi, dol', not mean that the actual viewillg time for the two draw i11 g' i, d ifferetlt; on t he contra ry, Figure -1-. -1- is mllch lllore confusing and will therefore require more viewing time Bm thL' viewing, however long; it takes, is positioned On a time scale. Viewers who watch Figure -1-,-1- for ten rnilltltes will rea lize all th ose minu te, that they are being indiscreet. Even t h.: bridest look at Figure -1-.], in contrast, will take the stature of a gaze: Out,ide ot time, undisturbed, the Vle\\'l'r can take in, usurp - B rysoll would sa y, /ll'elldn' ;; 1hnil'!. thc fllCllf" propllL't, who ",l\'es SuS,ltllla fmlll the dl\lth pellalry to which {/l(' n:ngdl,1 Eldcrs had Clllld,'ll1lied her, Th,' r,'1;1Iion herwcl'n the !:Olders' hdJavior ,1]1;ruund. Although the tl'l1siOIl in th .., early work is rei.llL'd 10 thc' Illddl"n prL'SL'nCL' of the' Eldns. it is their absence from rhe SC~llL'. of "'),i,,h Slls:llln;l Is the (cnter. which makes the carlin work so ditltTt'llt 11'0111 the Il' till' "il'w.:r ill n:presclILHions l.lt'thl' story of SllSJlltLl ;lnd I he Elders, till~'"S],,'d

TilE rOCALI/LR: TIlL FI(;UHATION 01-' TilE VlrWER The posi[ioll of thl' vicWLT endorsill~ vislIahry as a Illod,' 01 reading c,\n shift !nck ;lnd tl)rth and in variahk J,,!,:re,'s (i'om narrative !ocl!i2LT to "mtlC vOYl'l\r. 111 this secrion, \n' shall try to Wl' how these [Wo iJl1lT;'l't, But in order to ,1Void t.:rtnillological COil fusion, lllethndoln~iClI,'ckni(islll,JIld id,'ologicalllliaslll, it is illlpnati....e that wc t,rst ,ISSc'SS tbl' 1';,,,,11 status of th.: Ilarr,l\ive fOCllizl'l', just as \IT h:lll to :tSsl'ss thc cOllcepts of rhctoric :wd st,lrytdling, The ('OIl(('l't ot);'c.di::,uioll hl're relers to both IIdlTl1li,'c ;IS I(l lOll piI' .\)'0'1 ,lIP ;i1l1~OdllI().'

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/\ TASTE H>It VIOLENCE

H!.II\'ONESS Oil I:-IS I \1rpation ot the fcahl'dy power ,IS \\'l'll ,IS Ihe P,)\\'lT tu rc'prl'sent his ()\\'n Vl'rsiD!1 of t he story, We Ill;'y "'" th~lt he (kSnH'S it. Il)r that the task is formidable is sug-

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km enUlIllltlT' till' 1l\;1I1-\\'Ol\l;1I1 !'rohkm, Y,ld is ,I good "";LlIlpk 01' thL' (ormid;l hie- \\"(111\;111. ShL' is !lot just the SOln("" of nelti,,' sln'lI t"h h~T", ill JII i,liosYllCfalic ,ie\\' ot' t he' IVluses," but ,dso lIll' 1I);tk ;HI is! 's ril';I!. or cOIllIl;lllioll, in crcJtion, Y;ler, ClLli"1 ;llld Il>fc,'lid d't'Hl ,'c!mcs Tohias's quict al1d IlHCd"ul roncnltr,\Iiol1, Bodl Y,l,,! ;11](\ T ohiJS COllCl'mr,)tc ill ll)rccfu! suspens,,- Th"y COIlCC'llIr;HC \\';lh l'ycs th;ll are tht' c,'lllr;11 orbJ'IS of their bodi"s, Alld ,heir ,'I'CS COllcclltr;lll' oil \\'hat they dirl'Cl lIwir ),;Lllds to do, The OllC anist is a SOil ti~tlr,' assisted b:' his IIwtlll'r: the oth", is ;L W"IIl;lIl Both USl' ;l poilHL'd illstnllll":l1t ;lIld l"Tfnrm their ,nt Oil lI11' Sllrl;IC,' of the' impoIL'II!. hlind hody of ,) I1UII, III elK :trrog,llioll "I' :trtislic ,m.! social mastery, VcLizqucz gavl' the "'0111;111 :lllc'I](!:II11 tile' humbk, yet jlldisp~'lIsahle, assiglllllclI( of reprc'SC'nting work, I k did so i1l or,kr 10 COlltL'''' tll llI;lIl;lg~';lbk proportiolls the fllrcd'uJ pn'SL'II(~' of \\'0I1U'1 ill Ihl' ;IS(c'IISio ll to ;lrtistir ;lnd m;tsClIlill,' 1'01""'-' "R"llIbr,mdt" pnKl'l'ds othCT\\'lSC ['n'll kss llldillnl to discolIlI[ tll(' I'L1(" of \\'OmC'II, he 1I)"k,'s thur IIll;lg"s 'IS I1I1l1,) IllSl"'UJ!,1I .\ll'lllUti '11.'." .'.1 \'1I .H\ SV 'julln):d.)~ ,)lp :-1UIO!' ,1 oq.\\ j.ll[l0lll ,lIP SI li 'S."""lll1'J JljU."i-; uo P·lSl"l '1l"1.),\,).!

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illlluiry whL,thcr ar! :lI1d its inhnL'ntly ambitious quality COltl lK sccn ill rda(ioll to ilk:lls and idcl!iz;ltiun, Thc' self that hecomcs thc' objcCl of rel;ltiunal investmcnt ill 11ar,'issism ClI1 lw dcscribcd .IS Ih" ",I~f(rq~ate or urganizatioll (so 1;11' as it cxists) uf all thc' sclf-repn''''l1t:ltiolls'' (Sehafc.-, 1\>6]: 14:;), It is illlp{lrtallt that WL' kc'L'p ill milld I hc' plural t(\fIll of the noull "sdi:' rcprc';;c'ntatiolls," Sdt:'rcprcsc'luti'11ls ;Irc IlUlllc'rotlS and cllJnging, :1I1d occupy diffcrc'nt roks ill thc psychic' systC'lll, They arc COIlst,uHly tc>tl'll agaimt thc s(;lI1dards thc' SUbJCTt holds and against dl( sllhJCTt's rl'pl'cSl'nLltions ufreality. The hypothl'sis that thc pro,'rss of .In deri\'l's It, dYllamism frnl\l till' tl'llsions brought about by th" cOllfrcllJ(;ltion hl,twccll rl'prcsL'lltaliolls of sdi' - and of objc'cts, Illr that matter - :lIld sl:lIlcbrds till: slIbj'Tt holds, partially SUbSlIllll'S till' hypothcsis of Ilarcissism, Thr two mcet whcn thc id",di/;,tHlll to which the C{mfrollLlIiolt O(t"11 kads concerns lhc self, BUI idcdiz;\lion, in turn, must be confrOllt"" 'with lhc rdatioltship b"t\\'c'c'n thc' SUbjl'C! and his or heT idc'als. Ideals ,Irc' st:lIldards (If, for ex:unpk, pL'r!c'nioll, be;llIty, c'xcdkllce, f(r:l\ilicllioll, The conccpt of idcals is f(o:t1-oriC'I1lC'd :\lld IhL'rchy '!J1I to Il a consequential act that neech to be performed with CJre and

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