Painting, sculpture and architecture as representative arts; an essay in comparative æsthetics

Front matter

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Preface

T^HIS book contains an application to the arts of sight of the principles unfolded in the volume entitled " Art in Theory." For the benefit of readers not acquainted with that volume, its general conclusions have been briefly reviewed in the first two chapters of this, which chapters, without lessening the intelligibility of the rest of the discussion, may be omitted by those not interested in the philosophy of the subject. In connection with this review, and also, to an extent, in other parts of the volume, the various factors entering into visible representation have been correlated to those entering into audible representation as already unfolded in the volume entitled " Poetry as a Representative Art " and in the essay on " Music as a Representative Art," published in the volume entitled " Rhythm and Harmony in Poetry and Music."

As for visible representation considered by itself, the principles underlying this have, for the first time, been shown to be the same as applied not only in the higher arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, but also in the art intimately connected with the first two, of pantomime or gesture, as well as in the methods of reading character, hardly less intimately connected with them, which are employed with various degrees of success in physiology, physiognomy, phrenology, and palmistry.

IV PREFA CE.

Like the other books of this series, the present is amply illustrated ; in part to enable those who cannot obtain access to galleries or libraries to understand exactly what is meant by its statements ; in part to enable them, through numerous examples, to come to a perception of the truth of these statements. This latter result is by no means easy to attain. Few things require more time, if for no other reason, because they necessitate experience, than learning to recognize, put together, spell out, and read fluently the symbols representing the subtle language of the arts whether of sound or of sight. To conduct the reader through certain preliminary stages of this process, is the object of this book. It is acknowledged that the pathway through which he will be led is a little unusual, and so too the conception of representative significance at which he is expected to arrive. But it is hoped that he will not therefore be deterred from giving the treatment candid consideration.

This remark applies not only to the general reader, but even to some acknowledged specialists. I once went over the motives of Wagner with the most broadly cultured musician whom I knew, and I found that while he perceived, at once, the representative elements in what are ordinarily termed imitative passages, he failed to perceive them, till pointed out to him, in many other passages so unmistakably developed from the intonations of speech that to me they seemed to talk — of course only in the sense of voicing the trend of emotive processes which alone is possible to music — almost as plainly as if the notes were words. The fact struck me, at first, as strange, my own musical education having been limited, aside from vocal studies, to seven or eight years' practice on the piano, a course in thorough bass and harmony, and about

PRE FA CE. V

two years' application of them to an organ played in church, — all before I was out of my teens. But upon reflection, I understood that what he lacked was my twenty years' experience in teaching the melody of speech. So with the significance of visible form. One whose experience has forced him, as mine has, to the conclusion that every shape of the human body, natural or assumed, has a meaning peculiar to itself, though possibly beyond even an expert's power of interpretation, finds himself, very soon, according to the principle of association, drawing the same conclusion with reference to all shapes, whether human or not human. Those who think it not essential to discuss the general accuracy of this conclusion, as applied to all phenomena audible or visible ; or who imagine that, if true, art has no mission in revealing and emphasizing it, have, simply, not learned all that life is designed to teach them ; or those who conceive that the methods through which art can fulfil this mission can be apprehended and appreciated without their stopping to think over each detail of the subject, to examine the exemplifications of it, and to apply many original tests of their own to it, have not yet begun to learn the methods through which life can teach them anything of deep importance.

Nor can it be said that, at the present time, there is no need of a book dealing with this subject, or with the other subjects which have been treated in this series of volumes. Everybody who reads much is probably aware that, as applied to the plastic arts, statements go practically unchallenged which assert — to quote from reviews upon "Art in Theory" published in prominent journals — that "Art is the application to anything" — the italics are quoted — " in the spirit of play and for pleasure only, of

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the principle of proportion," or that " Art is simply, wholly, and entirely a matter of form . . . the best critical judgment nowadays assumes the identity of the art-form with the art-meaning." But few are aware that the result has followed which a logical mind would at once have anticipated, namely, that the same theory is applied to all the arts — to poetry, for instance. If they did know this, they might begin to surmise the danger of the situation. Think of the literary prospects of a country, of the possibilities of its receiving any inspiring impulses from its poets at a period when new authors, writing with the acknowledged motive of Dante, Milton, or Wordsworth, would, for this reason and for no other reason, fail to commend themselves to the leaders of literary opinion ! Yet one who has followed the views expressed in what maybe termed the professional critical journals of our country, would not be far astray in claiming that this accurately describes our own condition. The same France from which we have derived the notion that significance is not essential to painting, has also taught us, and the lesson has been accepted and subtly assimilated so as to become, almost unconsciously to ourselves, a part of the literary belief of some of us, that it is not essential, either, to poetry. In fact, Max Nordau's statement in " Degeneration," that " The theory of the importance of form, of the intrinsic value of beauty in the sound of words, of the sensuous pleasure to be derived from sonorous syllables without regard to their sense, and of the uselessness and even harmfulness of thought in poetry has become decisive in the most recent development of poetry," could be applied to France not only but to our own country. What Nordau means he indicates by quotations, — this, for instance, from Theophile Gautier : " For the poet words

PREFACE. VI 1

have in themselves, and outside the sense they express, a beauty and a value of their own. . . . Nothing is less ideal than a poet." He " is a laborer; he ought not to have more intelligence than a laborer." Also this from Charles Baudelaire : " If the poet has pursued a moral aim, he has diminished his poetic power, and it is not imprudent to wager that his work will be bad. Poetry has not truth for its object, it has only itself." And this from Gustave Flaubert: "A beautiful verse meaning nothing is superior to a verse less beautiful meaning something," which latter has been echoed in England by Oscar Wilde, who apparently is able in more departments than one to get along without those dualities which ordinary mortals suppose to be desirable. " From time to time," he says, " the world cries out against some charming artistic poet because, to use its hackneyed and silly phrase, he has 1 nothing to say.' But if he had something to say he would probably say it, and the result would be tedious. It is just because he has no new message that he can do beautiful work."

The reason why such writers fail to comprehend that which is true of representative significance, is easy enough to understand. Art is a complex subject. Significance is no more essential in it than is technique ; and the mere rudiments of this it takes years to master. As both Goethe and Longfellow have told us, the pathway to art, even if by this we mean merely the art of versifying, or of coloring with proficiency, is long. Unfortunately for many it is so very long that before they are fairly in sight of its termination they have apparently lost sight of everything else. Nevertheless the general, if not the aesthetic, public, upon whose judgment the rank of the art-work must ultimately depend, know and care little about technique, except so

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PREFACE.

far as it has enabled the artist to secure for his product a certain satisfactory representative effect. But this effect depends in some cases as much upon what may be termed the expressional norm chosen as the nucleus of development, as upon the method of its development ; in other words, as much upon that which is significant in the work as upon that which is excellent in its form. As shown in Chapters IV. to VII. of "Art in Theory," successful art is always the insignia with which the play-impulse decorates that which before the decoration has shown in practical relations its right to receive it. Just as a successful drama is an artistic development of imagination at play with the words of natural conversation ; so a successful melody is a development of the same at play with the intonations of natural conversation ; and a successful picture, of the same at play with the outlines and colors of natural scenes. What imagination does is to elaborate the form, this being accomplished in our own day through carrying out the laws of complicated systems of rhythm, harmony, drawing, or coloring. But the forms that art, if high art, in each case elaborates, are forms of expressing thought and emotion.

If this statement be true, the theories of this book have a practical as well as a theoretical bearing. Some time ago I listened to a rendering by a college glee club of the " Merry Miller " chorus from DeKoven's " Rob Roy." The question and answer " What, Margery ? — Ay, Margery," were sung in an unpardonably expressionless way; yet because true to the intonations of speech, they took the audience by storm ; and I can now recall no melody of great popularity in which underneath all the decorative vestiture of the form, however much the pitch may be pushed up here or pulled down there, it is not possible to

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detect general outlines true to certain first principles of vocal expression. Some melodies, indeed, like " Comin' thro' the Rye " can be talked off with absolute fidelity to every musical note. But if melody be thus developed from speech, the same must be remotely true of harmony for this, in its turn, as shown in Chapters XII. to XV. of " Rhythm and Harmony," is itself, in its incipiency, a development of melody.

It is true that it is said of the melodies of speech, as well as of the movements of gesture, such as are considered in the present volume, that their significance differs in different countries. But those who say this, as some have done, imagining the statement, however true, to involve a refutation of any principle advanced in this series of essays, merely show how superficially they have read them. As applied to music, for instance, such a statement is not made with reference to time, force, or volume — only with reference to pitch, as used in the inflections. But in " Rhythm and Harmony," pages 265 to 267, it is very carefully shown that the inflection is not representative of the phraseology but of the motive expressed in the phraseology, many instances being cited in which precisely the same phrases are rightly uttered with exactly opposite inflections. This being understood, the objection mentioned falls to the ground. When, for instance, for reasons which the reference just given will indicate, an American says to you at the table, " Will you please pass me the bread ? " with a rising inflection on the last word, what is uppermost in his mind is to indicate his acknowledgment that your action in the matter is questionable ; and that he leaves it open for you to do as you choose. But when an Englishman asks the same question, as he almost invariably does, with a falling

PREFACE.

inflection, what is uppermost in his mi«nd is to make an assertion with reference to his wishes, and to indicate, as, in other matters, he is apt to do to such an extent as to seem, at times, slightly dictatorial, that it is not open for you to differ from him in thinking that, if you are a gentleman, you are expected to do as he— gently — bids you. People of Southern Europe, even Irishmen, sometimes end what seem positive assertions with an upward turn of the voice. But they are not positive assertions. They are grammatical forms of assertion as uttered by men with habits acquired by being constantly contradicted, or, at least, obliged to subordinate their own views to those of others, who alone are supposed to have a right to speak with authority. Of course, such methods of intonation, once acquired, may be continued from father to son by imitation. But despite the tendency to this latter, they usually cease to be continued after social and religious conditions change. One generation of residence in America will train any foreigner, whatever his language, to express his decided sentiments just as in his own land his own babe, before learning to imitate, invariably does, without any such questionable suggestion. Again a Bedouin will beckon you toward himself with a quick movement of his hand, the palm of which is not turned up, as with us, but down. What does this form of gesture mean? Very clearly, that the Bedouin, while he wishes you nearer himself, is not opening his whole heart to you, or asking you to occupy a position on a social or sympathetic level with himself. On the contrary, unconsciously, perhaps, he is on his guard against you and intends to keep you in a safe and proper place — below him. See pages 156 to 161. In fact, the character of his gesture affords an almost posi-

PREFACE. XI

tive proof of the hostile nature of those with whom he and his fathers have for years been accustomed to associate.

Similar explanations might show that other apparent exceptions to the principles unfolded in these essays furnish, when intelligently interpreted, the strongest possible confirmation of their universal applicability ; though, of course, among the hundreds of illustrations used or suggesting themselves to the reader, it would be strange if some were not found which it would be difficult to reconcile with any principle whatever.

But it is hoped that a few such examples which, possibly, on second thought, the author might explain, or the reader apprehend differently, will not deter any from a serious consideration of the principles themselves, the acceptance of which cannot fail to have an important influence upon all one's views either of art or of life. For, if true, they show that the poems, symphonies, paintings, statues, and buildings produced by the artist differ from the elementary forms of these produced before his appearance, mainly in the greater degree in which he has learned to read through forms, whether human or not, that which is in the soul of man and of all things. For one who practises art or enjoys it, or takes any interest in it whatever, though not beyond a perception that it is about him and has come to stay ; and not only for such an one, but for all who live in a world surrounded by appearances which could awaken infinitely more interest, were it believed that every slightest feature of them might be recognized to be definitely significant and suggestive and, therefore, instructive and inspiring, — this, certainly, is a conception of art and of life and of the relations between them, which is worth holding.

Princeton, September, 1895.

Contents

Correspondences between the Principles of Representation in the Arts of Sound and of Sight . 1-13

The Higher Arts as All Representative — Of Mental Processes — Of Material Phenomena — The Principle of Correspondence by Way of Association and Comparison, as Applied to Language — Representation by Instinctive Exclamations — By Reflective Imitative Sounds — Poetry and Music as Developed from these Two Methods — Correspondences by Way of Association and Comparison in the Arts of Sight — Differences in the Ways in which the Two are Recognized and Used — The Instinctive and Reflective Tendencies as Respectively Manifested in Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture — The Emotive as a Combination of Both Tendencies — Illustrated by Facts.

II

Correspondences between the Factors of Representation in the Arts of Sound and of Sight 14-22

Factors of Visible Representation to be Considered Separately and as Combined — Duration, Time, and Pauses in Sounds Correlated to Extension, Size, and Outlines in Shapes — Force, Gradation, and Regularity among Sounds Correlated to Similar Effects in Shapes — Measures, Rhythm, and Accent Correlated to Measurements Proportion and Shading — Pitch and Quality of Sounds Correlated to Effects of Color — Effects of Accent on the Pitch of Tones Correlated to that of Shading upon Color — Each Factor of Visible Effect Representative — Instinctive, Reflective, and Emotive Representation Illustrated as Applied to Extension or Size — As Applied to Shading and Color.

XIV CONTENTS.

III. Page

Representation by Means of Extension or Size 23S&

Representation in Art Based upon Methods of Expressing Thought and Emotion through the Use of the Human Body — Size as Representing Heaviness, Strength, Immovability, Substantiality, or the Opposite — As Representing the Important, Influential, Dignified, or the Opposite — The Representation of these Conceptions Made Consistent with the Representation of Actual External Appearances through the Laws of Perspective as Indicating Nearness — Differences between Requirements of Representation in these Arts and in Music and Architecture — Similarity, Nevertheless, in the Methods of Representation — As Applied also to the Laws of Perspective — Recapitulation and Illustrations of these Methods as Applied to Size.

IV. Representing by Means of Shape : the Accenting

or Shading of Outlines .... 39~54

Force, Pitch, and Quality, as Exemplified in the Arts of Sound — Illustrations — Pause and Accent as Correlated to Outline and Shading — Touch or Handling as Differing in Strength, Gradation, and Regularity : Strength — Examples of Strength and Delicacy of Touch in Outline Sketches — Other Examples — The Same as Applied in Connection with Color — As Applied in Sculpture — As Applied in Architecture — The Importance of the Effects of Light and Shade in this Art.

V. Gradation in the Outlines of Shapes, Curved

Angular and Both Combined . . . 55-87

Meaning and Effect of Gradation as Applied to Outline — Effects of Gradation in the Arts of Sound — Corresponding Effects in the Arts of Sight — Three Methods of Describing the Outlines of a Form — Each Method Representative of both Mental and Material Conditions — How Drawing by the Hand is Representative of Instructive, Reflective, and Emotive Mental Conditions — How the Actions of the Body are Representative of the Same — How Appearances in Nature are Similarly Representative to the Mind of the Spectator — Curvature — Angularity and Straight Lines — Hori-

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

zontality and Effects of Repose, Verticality and Effects of Elevation and Aspiration — Mixed Lines and Effects of Excitation — Illustrations from Landscape Gardening — From Painting and Sculpture — Quotations Confirming these Explanations as Applied to Painting — To Sculpture — Similar Outlines as Used in Architecture — Their Representative Meanings : The Rounded Forms — The Straight Lines and Angles — The Combinations of Both — Recapitulation.

VI

Regularity in Outlines : Radiation, Parallelism, Circles, and Ovals .... 88-105

Regularity as Applied to Sizes and Shapes — Framework of Lines on which Art-Products are Constructed — How this Accords with the Requirements of Nature in General, as in Radiation or Central Point — As in Setting — As in Parallelism — Also with the Requirements of Individual Objects in Nature — This Framework Accords with the Requirements both of Mental Conceptions and Material Appearances — Significance of Regularity and Irregularity in Representations of the Mind — Of External Natural Phenomena — Blending of Regularity and Irregularity in the Human Form and Face — As Judged by an Ideal Framework — Its Vertical Lines — Its Horizontal Lines — Facial Regularity does not Involve Sameness — Slight Departures from it not Inconsistent with a Degree of Beauty — Great Departures Allowable for the Sake of Expression or Contrast — Necessity of Considering Differences and Deviations in Regularity Especially as Manifested in the Innate and Assumed Appearances of Men.

VII. Representation Through the Natural Shapes

of the Human Body : General Principles, 106-124

Importance to Art of the Study of the Meaning of the Shapes and Postures of the Human Figure — Sources of Information on this Subject — Relation of the Subject to Physical Facts — Meaning of Roundness or Broadness, Sharpness or Narrowness, and Length — Indicative Respectively of the Vital, the Mental, and the Motive Temperaments — Correlation between these and the Tendencies of Outline already Considered — The Forms Necessitated by the Physiological Conditions Underlying the Three— The Vital and

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Breadth of Form — The Mental or Interpretive and Sharpness at the Extremities — Connection between the Vital and Mental as Indicated by Length — The Motive or Active and Length of Spine and Muscles — The Same Shapes as Interpreted According to the Observations of Phrenology — Of Physiognomy — The Round Face — The Sharp Face — The Long Face — Of Palmistry — Different Temperaments are Usually Blended in All Men — Mental Tendencies Corresponding to All the Temperaments Exist in Each — How They are Manifested by the Torso and Lower Limbs — By the Hands and Head — In Connection with Activity.

VIII. Representation Through the Postures of the

Human Body : General Principles . . 125-140

Three Divisions of the Subject, namely, the Sources, Directions, and Forms of the Movements — The Vital or Physical Sources of Movements Show that the Vital Tendency Leads to Instinctive, Unconscious, Unpremeditated Expression — The Mental Tendency to Reflective, Conscious, and Premeditated Expression — The Motive, Emotive, or Moral Tendency to a Combination of the Two Forms of Expression — The Mental or Interpretive Directions of the Movements Show that Vital Expressions Move away from the Body — Mental Expressions Move toward it — Motive Expressions are in Combinations of the Other Two, as when Alternating or Oblique — Delsarte's Theories — The Active Effects of the Movements are, in the Case of Vital Expression, Free, Graceful, and Round — Of Mental Expression, Constrained, Awkward, Straight — Of Motive Expression in Action Covering Much Space, hence Long — If Very Emotive, Varied and Angular — If Moral, Tense and Rigid — How the Actor's and Orator's Movements Combine Curvature and Straightness, Grace and Strength.

IX. Representation Through Particular Gestures

of the Torso and Limbs. . . . 141-164

Complex Nature of the Subjects to be Treated and the Order in which they will be Considered — Different Parts of the Body as Imparting a Peculiar Phase to Emphasis — Vital versus Mental Move-

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PAGE

ments of the Body in Genera] Illustrating this : Those Mainly Physical of the Lower 'Torso— Of the Lower Limbs — Mainly Mental of the Hands and Head with Upper Torso — Mainly Emotive of the Upper Torso with Shoulders and Arms — Mental or Interpretive Movements of the Hands — The Place in the Physical Sphere in which the Hand is Held : Horizontal Extension — Vertical, Downward, and Upward Extension — Meaning of Gestures as Determined by their Physical Relations, as About, Below, or Above the Breast — Indicative not of Actual so much as Conceived Relations — Interpretive Shapes Assumed by the Hand — Physical Suggestions of the Fist — Mental of the Fingers — Emotive of the Palm — Closing Gesture with Averted Palm — Opening Gesture with the Opposite — Motive Expression in the Methods of Managing the Arms — Movement From and Toward the Body and in Both Ways.

Representation Through Positions and Movements of the Head and Face . . . 165-191

Correspondences between Gestures of the Head and of the Rest of the Body — Physical Movements of the Head Toward or From Objects or Persons, Directly, Sideward, or Obliquely — Phases of Mentality Suggested by its Different Parts — Illustrations of how these Parts Operate in Connection with the Movements — Complicated Nature of Expression by Movements of the Head, Eyes, and Facial Muscles — Meaning of Movements or Positions of the Head Forward with the Eyes Looking on a Level — With the Eyes Looking Downward — -Or Upward — Meaning of Movements or Positions of the Head Backward with the Eyes Looking on a Level — With the Eyes Looking Downward — Or Upward — Meaning of Normal Positions of the Head — Difficulty of Distinguishing between these Different Movements or Positions — Facial Expression Corresponding to Shapes Assumed by the Fingers in Hand Gestures — Rigid Physical Effects like those of the Fist with Mouth, Brows, and Nose — Mental Effects of Concentration, like those of the Finger — Emotive Effects as in the Closing and Opening Gestures, Through Using Muscles of the Mouth — The Eyebrows — The Eyes — The Nostrils — Outline Diagrams of Different Effects — Comic Effects.

XV111 CONTENTS.

XI. Page

Correspondence between the Effects of Tone in Sounds and of Color in Scenes — Mental Effects of Different Degrees of Light — Instinctive, Reflective, and Emotive Effects — Effects of Pitch and Quality in Color, as in Sound, very Closely Allied — Representative Effects of Different Qualities of Tone — Their Correspondences in Colors — Cold Colors and Normal or Pure Tones as Instinctive — Warm Colors and Orotund Tones as Reflective — Varied Colors as Emotive — Confirmation of these. Correspondences from Facts of Experience — From the Use of Color in Painting — Especially the Human Countenance — In Sculpture — In Architecture — Representation of Natural Effects of Distance through Cold and Warm Colors in Painting — In Architecture — Correspondence between the Effects of Mixed Tones and Colors — Representative Influence of Black— With Cold Colors— With Warm Colors— Of White with Cold Colors — W'ith Warm Colors — Further Illustrations — Conclu-

XII

The Development of Representation in Painting and Sculpture ..... 213-238

Connection between what is to Follow and what has Preceded — How Poetry and Music are Developed from Language and Intonation — Analogous Methods as Exemplified in Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture — Prehistoric Pictorial Art — Representing External Appearances not only, but Mind — Earliest Art of a Historic Period — Picture Writing — Hieroglyphic Writing — Description of — Art as Distinguished from Writing in Egypt — In Greece — Early Representation of Ideas and Later of Natural Appearances only — Symbolism of Early Christian Art and Naturalism of Later Art — Ideas and Nature as Represented at the Renaissance and at Present — Possibility of Two Opposing Tendencies — Justification for each of them — Yet need not Exclude each other — So far as Exclusive each is Detrimental — Practical Application of these Facts to Present Conditions — The Yellow Book — American Illustrated Magazines — Importance of the Subject.

CONTENTS. XIX

XIII. Page

Represextation of Mental Conceptions in

Painting and Sculpture .... 239-253

Our Interest in Objects of Sight is Influenced by their Effects upon our Thoughts and Emotions — Bearing of this Fact upon Representation in Painting and Sculpture — Bearing of the Same upon the Use of the Term, The Humanities — Practical Reasons for Disregarding the Importance of Significance — Attention to Significance not Inconsistent with Equal Attention Given to Form — Nor Attention to Form with Attention to Significance — Theoretical Reasons for Disregarding the Importance of Significance : Lessing's Theory — The Truth of this not Denied in these Essays — The Real Meaning of his Theory — The Principle Underlying it — The Reasons Underlying this Principle — Pictures that are not Able to Interpret themselves — When a Picture is truly Literary — Illustrations — Events, though they should not be Detailed in Pictures, may be Suggested.

XIV. Forms of Painting Interpretive of their Own

Significance 254-279

The Possibility of Significance and the Need of Explanation — Quantity and Quality of Significance as Determining Artistic Excellence — Subjects as Determining the Rank of Products — Execution as Determining the Same — Flowers and Fruit — How made Representative of Significance — Landscapes — How made Representative of Significance — How still more of the Human Element may be Introduced — Other Examples — Figures and Faces of Men — Portraits — Characteristic Portraiture — Representative of the Artist's Thought and Emotion — Ideal Portraiture — Genre Paintings — Symbolical, Allegorical, and Mythological Paintings — Historical Paintings — Examples.

XV

Forms of Sculpture Interpretive of their Own Significance: the Function of Explanations ....... 280-290

Differences between the Subjects of Painting and Sculpture — Portraiture in Sculpture — Poetic Description of the Dying Gladiator

XX CONTENTS.

PAGE

— The Laocoon — Symbolic, Allegoric, Religious, Mythologic, and Historic Sculpture — Verbal Explanations as an Aid to Artistic Effect — Have the Same Relation to Painting and Sculpture as to Music — The Interest and Attractiveness of Things Seen is Increased by our Knowledge with Reference to them — The Same Principle Applies to Things Depicted in Art.