Rand: Introduction to Objectivism: Aesthetics -- presentation notes © Susan
Fleck
1) Aesthetics: fifth branch of Philosophy: Art
is a need of the mind—of man in the capacity as thinker and valuer
a)
Art pertains to man precisely pertaining to the subject of philosophy
b)
Like philosophy itself, art has always existed
among men, from prehistory to the present—animals do not have art
c)
Aesthetics questions: What is art? What is its
role in man’s life? By what standards should an art work be judged?
d)
A work of art is an end in itself; it serves no
purpose beyond man’s contemplation of it—essential differentiation
2) Art
as a Concretization of Metaphysics: Art’s primary
root and concern is not ethics, but metaphysics
i)
Art is not a “frill” or mere indulgence; it has
a rational, worldly purpose: fulfills
essential spiritual need
ii)
Rand:
Art is inextricably tied to man’s
survival—not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical
survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness
(1)
human
consciousness is conceptual; it is an integrating
mechanism; man, as conceptual being
needs guidance of philosophy (implicit or explicit, as ultimate
abstractions—ultimate integration of its contents)
(2)
conceptual
being needs context, principles, and long-range direction—connection among his
goals
(3)
. .
needs coherence among his days, a broad overview uniting his disparate
experiences, conclusions, and actions into a sum
(4)
To
achieve such a sum, such a full integration, a man needs a code of ethics and,
above all, that on which ethics rests: a perspective on existence as such—he
needs a view of life—he needs metaphysical
conclusions
(5)
He needs
these things to the extent that he does function as a man, rather than an
animal, or as close to such one can come—as an unthinking, concrete-bound,
habit-driven drone
iii) Most
do not explicitly define their philosophy, but even if implicitly, one needs to
know fundamentally: what is the nature of the world in which I am acting and
what kind of being am I the actor?
(1)
Is
universe intelligible to man, or unknowable? Does man have power of choice—to choose his goals and to
achieve them, or is his life determined and he is helpless from the forces
around him? Is man, by nature, to be valued as good, or to be despised as evil?
etc.
(2) Metaphysical
questions that pertain to a view of the universe in relation to man
(3)
These
are not ethical questions regarding
what rules or principles one should live by—but metaphysics acts as man’s value conditioner (the link between
metaphysics and ethics)
(4) Metaphysical
value judgments is the basic orientation underlying the concretes of one’s
daily life
(a)
These judgments are not, and cannot be a
continuous object of conscious awareness; but man needs a view of life to be
available to him at all times—and available as a sum
(b)
But
metaphysical principles are the widest of all, involving the total of human
experience, subsuming a vast range of concretes by means of long chains of
abstractions—not even a philosopher can hold all of this within the focus of
his awareness as a sum
(c)
For
cognitive purposes in this context, a thinker needs analysis—i.e., separately
identified abstractions. For action,
a man needs the integration—the
all-embracing sweep, the vision of the universe
(d) If
this kind of vision is to be available to consciousness, fundamental
conclusions must be condensed into a unit on which one can choose to focus
(i)
He needs a concrete that can become an object of direct experience while
carrying with it the meaning of his whole view of life—this is the role of Art.
How should you “look” at Art?
n Subject: often this is the story the work tells
n Interpretation: how the artist expresses the subject
n Style: artist’s means of interpretation is artist’s style
n (Painting) Setting, arrangement of figures, treatment of space, color, light, etc.
n Context: a personal moment, historical period, political events, cultural influence.
n Emotion: artist’s emotion may not be same as the viewer’s response to it. May coincide “magically”
Art as selective re-creation . . .
n
Rand: Art is a selective re-creation of
reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments.
n
The artist makes a specialized use of the two
basic processes of human consciousness. He uses isolation and integration in
regard to
n
those aspects of reality which represent
man’s fundamental view of himself and of existence
n
out of
all the countless number of seemingly disorganized attributes, actions and
entities, he isolates what he regards as metaphysically essential and
integrates them into a single new concrete that represents an embodied
abstraction—a sensory-perceptual concrete such as a statue, a painting, a novel
n
a
deliberately slanted concrete; one
shorn of all irrelevances, broadcasting to viewers (readers/hearers): “This is
what counts in life—as I, the artist, see life”
n
Artist is the closest man comes to being God.
We validly speak of the world of
Michelangelo, of Van gogh, of Dostoyevsky, not because they create a world out
of nothing, but because they do re-create
one.
n
Each omits, rearranges, emphasizes the data
of reality and thus creates the
universe anew, guided by his own view of the essence of the original one
n
Example: One wishes to understand the
difference between an ancient Greek and medieval Christian perspective on the
universe.
n
Philosophers
could deliver many lectures covering the difference in regard to the primacy of
existence, the relation of soul and body, reason vs. faith, choice vs.
determination, etc.
n
one can
(barely) grasp specific details, but not the perspective as a whole
n
Then one contemplates a statue of
Michelangelo’s David as against a deformed, cowering
n
Greek
sculptors knew sometimes men are sick, and sometimes fail—but they did not
ascribe metaphysical significance to these negatives
n
Medieval
sculptors knew that some men are healthy, laughing, successful—but to them this
was a temporary accident or an illusion in the ‘vale of tears’
n
Augustine remarked, the person who thinks
himself happy “is more miserable still.”
n
An art
work does not formulate the
metaphysics it represents; it does not (at least need not) articulate
definitions and principles. Art by itself is not enough, but the point is
that philosophy is not enough either
n
Philosophy
by itself cannot satisfy man’s need of philosophy: Man needs union of
philosophy and art
n
He
combines the power of mind and of body; the range of abstract thought with
irresistible immediacy of sense perception
n
(KEY) Rand: Art is a concretization of
metaphysics. Art brings man’s concepts to the perceptual level of his
consciousness and allows him to grasp them directly, as if they were percepts.
n
This is the psycho-epistemological function of art and the reason of its
importance in man’s life
n
Rand’s
term “Psycho-epistemology:” designates the study of man’s cognitive processes
from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic
functions of the subconscious.
n
In
essence, it is the way the subconscious automatizes certain things in the brain;
e.g. once one learns (grasps the meaning of) a word, or concept, the meaning is
there automatically to be called into
use by consciousness.
n
Our emotions are thus
psycho-epistemological—we have an automatic emotional response to something
based on prior knowledge and experiences stored in the subconscious
n
Even
when art does project a moral ideal, its goal is not to teach that ideal—purpose is not education
n
Teaching metaphysics and ethics is the task
of philosophy—art is not a substitute
n
Purpose of art is to show—to hold up to man a concretized vision of his nature and place
in the universe
n
By
converting abstractions into percepts, art not only integrates metaphysics, but also objectifies it
n
It
enables man to contemplate his view of the world in the form of an existential
object
n
To
contemplate it not as a content of his consciousness, but “out there” as an
external existent
n
Since
abstractions as such do not exist, there is no other way to make one’s
metaphysical abstractions fully real
to oneself
n
Rand: To
acquire the full, persuasive, irresistible power of reality, man’s metaphysical
abstractions have to confront him in the form of concretes—i.e., in the form of
art
n
Rand’s Atlas
Shrugged plot, characters, themes: gives one a concrete vision, not only
about metaphysical abstractions, but of abstractions regarding the full gamut
of the five branches of philosophy
n
This
is another expression of the primacy-of-existence
n
Since
consciousness is not an independent entity, it cannot attain fulfillment within
its own domain
n
To
satisfy even its own most personal needs, it must in some form always return to
its primary task—looking outward
n
To an
entity whose essence is perception, there can in the end be no substitute for
perception
n
Rand:
What the designer of a bridge or spaceship is to engineering, the artist is to
ethics: “Art is the technology of the soul. . . . Art creates the final
product. It builds the model.”
n
Not
all art works perform this function: The essential field in this context (which
can be supplemented by the other arts) is literature, which alone is able to
depict the richness of man in action across time, making choices, pursuing
goals, facing obstacles, etc.
n
Artist’s sense of life controls &
integrates his work
Sense of Life: an emotional,
subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence (a sum of metaphysics)
n
Many
(most?) men do not know in explicit terms what they regard as important: have
not given it much thought
n
But they
are able to create and/or respond to art
n
All men,
whatever their knowledge or mental content, hold metaphysical value-judgments
in a special condensed, subconscious form, which Rand calls a sense of life
n
From
early childhood on, an individual continually reaches conclusions in regard to
concrete issues and problems
n
These
choices and conclusions, along with feelings they engender, are constantly
being integrated into an abstract sum—a sense of oneself and of the world.
n
Since
the mind is an integrating faculty,
its contents have to be integrated—one cannot escape making in some form broad
generalizations about life, about humans, about reality
n
If a
man usually chooses to be mentally active, this will lead him (other things
being equal) to a sense of efficacy and of optimism (of a benevolent universe)
n
If a
man usually remains mentally out of focus, he gives himself up to chance; his
mental faculty continues summing up his experiences, instilling in him a sense of helplessness (of a
malevolent universe)
n
In both
cases, and in all mixtures in between, Rand claims:
n
what
began as a series of single, discrete conclusions (or evasions) about his own
particular problems, becomes a generalized feeling about existence, an implicit
metaphysics with the compelling
motivational power of a constant, basic emotion—an emotion which is part of all
his other emotions and underlies all his experiences. This is a sense of life.
n
Once
they reach adulthood, some men (very few) work to translate their sense of life
into an explicit philosophy
n
If
evidence requires it, they amend their earlier, implicit metaphysics—bringing
emotion into harmony with thought
n
others
may live out their lives tortured by a clash between their avowed beliefs and
their basic feelings
n
others
barely conceptualize metaphysical issues at all—they remain at the mercy of
their inarticulate sense of life, whatever that happens to be
n
In all
cases, the element responsible for art is the same—not explicit philosophy, but
sense of life
n
Rand: It is the artist’s sense of life that
controls and integrates his work, directing the innumerable choices . . . It is
the viewer’s or reader’s sense of life that responds to a work of art by
complex, yet automatic reaction of acceptance and approval, or rejection and
condemnation
n
Art is
inherently philosophical, even if those who create and respond to it are
not—art must express some
sense-of-life emotion
n
sense-of-life
emotions, being products of a complex chain and cause, can be difficult to
identify; but can be identified
n
most men
regard emotions as outside the province of the mind—widespread view that
artistic responses are inexplicable and that art is a species of the unknowable
(“I don’t know why, but I just love this painting”)
n Subject of art work—not to formulate or teach metaphysics (or ethics), but to show
n Role of an art work is to be a concrete unit upon which man contemplates—a whole view of life
Emotion: Emotion is a major factor both
in the artist's creation of a work and in the viewer's response to it. These
are not necessarily the same emotion, but sometimes they coincide in a magical
way, as in Renoir's festive Luncheon
of the Boating Party, which evokes a pleasure that comes from Renoir's
joy in the scene and his artistic mastery that convinces us that we, too, are
included in this long-ago gathering of friends
n
One’s emotional response to art: depends on
one’s own metaphysical viewpoint
(implicit or explicit)
n
Whether
men are rational or irrational, they usually react to art in profoundly
personal terms
n
When an
art work does objectify his metaphysics, the observer (or reader) experiences a
confirmation of his mind and self on the deepest level: the art work or story
implicitly tells him, “your grasp of the world is right, you are right.”
n
When it
clashes, by contrast, the experience represents a denial of your grasp of the
world
n Responses of passionate embrace or violent recoil
are inevitable
(summary- key points)
n The primary concern of art, whatever its
medium or viewpoint, is not ethics, but that on which ethics depends:
metaphysics
n
Purpose: man’s contemplation of it
n Basic
emotion: a sense of life
Style
n Artist does not fake reality, he stylizes it
n
The subject of an art work expresses a view
of man’s existence, while the style
expresses a view of man’s consciousness
n
The
style reveals an artist’s psycho-epistemology
·
An
artist may express a state of full focus—or clarity, purpose, precision; or a
state of fog—of the opaque, the random, the blurred
n
Style,
like subject, has philosophical roots and meaning: Rand: style reveals an
artist’s implicit view of the mind’s proper method and level of functioning
n Another reason why the viewer (or reader) reacts to art in profoundly personal terms—style is experienced as a confirmation or denial of his consciousness. [My Picasso museum experience]
n He slants data in calculated manner
n
An
artist’s function is not to observe
the data of nature, human or otherwise, then to report neutrally on what is
seen
·
“the way
men act” or “the way things are”—that is the job of science, journalism or
photography
·
Art
reports on “the way things are” metaphysically
n
Artist has to choose from his observations;
he has to slant the data in a
calculated manner
·
This is
not an escape from reality, but a unique form of attentiveness to it—a different focus on reality
·
Rand: An artist does not fake reality—he stylizes it
·
An art
work tells man not that something is,
but that it is important
n
“Important”
is not synonymous with “good”—an evil may be important
n
A
dictionary def: “important”—such as to entitle attention or consideration
n the only fundamental entitled to man’s attention is reality
n Style: Means of Interpretation --Masaccio:
The Expulsion
from the Garden of Eden, depicts a distressed Adam and Eve, chased from the garden by a
threatening angel.
n
1426-27
Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
n This fresco was cut at the top during the 18th century architectural alterations. This is one of the frescoes in the chapel which has suffered the greatest damage, for the blue of the sky has been lost.
n The scene has been compared to Masolino's fresco of the Temptation on the opposite wall. Masaccio's concrete and dramatic portrayal of the figures, his truly innovative Renaissance spirit, stand in striking contrast to Masolino's late Gothic scene, lacking in psychological depth. In Masolino's painting man, although a sinner, has not lost his dignity: he appears neither debased nor degraded, and the beauty of his body is a blend of classical archetypes.
n His Expulsion from the Garden (c. 1427 6’6” x 2’9”) – a subject in the iconographical tradition in which the nude human body could be portrayed in churches without raising eyebrows. (except – see next slide – obviously, it did raise eyebrows)
n Couple is approaching the light – casting natural shadows; surrounding figures with light and air, relating them to the space they occupy; so they appear as if seen in the round – he achieved an important innovation in painting – atmospheric perspective.
n He
portrays the drama with the body alone with virtually no reliance on
surrounding details; Eve, aware of her nakedness, cries aloud;
n Artist brings attentiveness and focus upon important aspects of it
n
Cognitive abstractions are formed by the criterion of: what is essential (epistemologically essential
to distinguish one class of existents from all others).
n
Normative abstractions are formed by the criterion of: what is good?
n
Aesthetic abstractions are formed by the criterion of: what is important.
n
An
artist may not even know his view of what is important in conscious terms—he
needs merely to re-create reality
·
Rand: His
selection constitutes his evaluation: everything in a work of art—from theme to
subject to brushstroke or adjective—acquires metaphysical significance by the
mere fact of being included, of being important
enough to include
n
example:
portrait of a beautiful woman wearing a glamorous gown, with a cold sore on her
lips
n
In real
life, the sore would be a meaningless infection
n
If
included in the painting: would make a metaphysical statement—ugly little
blister, like a demon leering out
n attempt at beauty is futile; man is a worm with delusions of grandeur, at the mercy of a reality that mocks his aspirations
n It reveals the artist’s implicit view of the mind’s proper method and level of functioning
n of clarity, purpose, precision
n or of state of fog—the opaque, the random, the blurred (much of “modern” / abstract Art
Slanting Reality—Focus on what is important - examples
n Caravaggio: The Calling of St. Matthew
n Goya: 3rd of May 1814I
n Rembrandt: Blinding of Samson
n Rembrandt: Aristotle with Bust of Homer
n Michelangelo: student of Donatello—lived in Palazzo Medici: Palace bursting with Neoplatonic and Humanist
ideas.
n
Believed
figure was imprisoned within block of marble—same way the soul is trapped
within the body---Profoundly Neoplatonic idea
n
Leonardo—beauty
found in nature; Michelangelo—found in the imagination
n His sculpture liberated human ideal
n His David: him who overcame the giant; an individual facing ‘giant’ battles
n Comparison to Donatello’s David; M’s is thinking about what he is about to do; D’s, reveling in what he has done.
Donatello: Mary Madalene, who is usually depicted anointing Jesus’ feet, attending to his burial, guarding his tomb, discovering resurrection
n This: after years of living in desert – rejecting life of body
n Striking absence of beauty makes her powerful and memorable
n Originally in Florence Baptistery: reminder of original sin, washed away—and of the universal presence of death among the living
3) Art can be judged rationally.
a)
Intrinsicism: aesthetic appraisal does not involve any “aesthetic sense” that
determines qualities inherent in an art work apart from any relation to human
consciousness—an equivalent of a mystic “conscience” in ethics, which, “just
knows” the right estimates
b)
Subjectivism: nor does the rejection of such an intrinsic faculty mean one must
retreat to the notion that art is a matter of taste, personal or social, about
which there is no disputing
c) again
we see the false alternative of intrinsicism vs. subjectivism
d)
As in ethics, so in aesthetics, value is an
aspect of reality in relation to man;
in this case evaluation of a certain kind of human product (art) in accordance
with rational principles, principles reducible to sense perception
i)
One
reduces aesthetic principles to the nature of art, and art to a need of human
life, i.e., to the primary of ethics, which in turn reduces to one’s acceptance
of the axiom of existence
ii)
Like goodness, therefore, beauty is not “in
the object” or “in the eye of the beholder.” It is objective. It is in the
object—as judged by a rational beholder
e)
Objective evaluation must recognize that art
includes both aesthetic means and
metaphysical content. Full objectivity consists in identifying
both elements, judging each rationally, then integrating one’s judgments into
an estimate of the total
i)
Like
judging people, the emotional effect produced by the total may range across the
spectrum, from revulsion to indifference to delimited appreciation to a profound
embrace of substance and form
ii)
It is not a contradiction to say: this is a
great work of art, but I don’t like it—meaning one likes it based on purely aesthetic appraisal, but does
not like the deeper philosophical meaning
4) Aesthetic
Value as Objective: There is a difference between philosophic and aesthetic
judgment
a)
In
judging an art work qua art, one enters the domain of a highly personal
emotion, sense of life
i)
The goal
of art, again, is not to prove but to show; to concretize whatever sense of life the artist has
ii)
Rand: The fact that one agrees or disagrees
with an artist’s philosophy is irrelevant to an aesthetic appraisal of his work
qua art. A false philosophy can be embodied in a great work of art; a true
philosophy, in an inferior one
b) How
does one judge aesthetic value?
i)
Standard answer, Objectivism rejects—is that
one judges it by feeling
(1)
even
though the task of art is to concretize a certain emotion (summation of
metaphysical conclusions), this does not mean that emotion is a tool of
cognition (already disproved)
(2)
feeling that a work of art is a superlative
embodiment of profound value-judgments does not make it so
ii) Valid
assessment requires a process of reason
(1)
With
rare exceptions, aestheticians who rejected emotionalism turned instead to
authoritarianism
(a)
They laid down basic rules to govern the
evaluation of plays, music,
paintings, and buildings
(b)
These
rules were usually derived from esteemed art works of the past, then
upheld as a guide for all future art
(c)
This
approach was represented by the period of Classicism; these standards
are still widely regarded as an example in aesthetics of “the cool voice of
reason”
iii)
A proper
aesthetic evaluation is neither emotional nor authoritarian. Rand’s objective approach:
(1)
Objective
evaluation requires that one identify the artist’s theme, the abstract meaning
of his work
(a)
exclusively
by identifying the evidence contained in the work and allowing no other,
outside consideration
(i)
outside,
such as what artist or others say
what is the meaning of the work
(2)
taking
his theme as criterion, evaluate the
purely aesthetic elements of the work
(a)
the
technical mastery (or lack of it) with which he projects (or fails to project) his view of life
(3) To
translate a metaphysical feeling into the terms of perceptual experience is a
very demanding task for artist
(a)
one must
know what one wants to express and how to do it within the medium and form one
has chosen
(b)
one
must know the potentialities and limitations of the attributes of the medium he
chooses (oil, music, etc.)
(c)
then one
must methodically exploit those attributes to the end of conveying one’s
meaning in its every shading of nuance
(d)
as
composer Richard Halley in Atlas Shrugged
states: The real artist knows what discipline, what effort, what tension of
mind, what unrelenting strain upon one’s power of clarity are needed to produce
a work of art . . .
iv)
Contrary
to today’s common viewpoint, artistic creation is the opposite of the
self-indulgent, the whim-worshiping, the irrational.
(1) Most
artists who shrug off selectivity in regard to subject do it on the grounds
that what counts in art is only style
(a)
Rand: in
most aesthetic theories, the end to which all other aspects of an artwork are
the means—the subject—is omitted from consideration, and only the means are regarded as aesthetically
relevant . . .
(b)
. . The
end does not justify the
means—neither in ethics nor in aesthetics. And neither do the means justify the
end: there is no aesthetic justification for the spectacle of
Rembrandt’s great artistic skill employed to portray a side of beef. . . . In art, and in literature, the end and the
means, or the subject and the style, must be worthy of each other.
(2) The
second principle of aesthetic judgment (after theme), does pertain to style—the
requirement most simply described as clarity
(a)
“clarity”
denotes the quality of being distinct, sharp, evident to the mind, as
against being obscure, clouded, confused
(b)
a
requirement of any human product that involves a conceptual meaning
(c) Art,
like science, philosophy, and cooking instructions, must be “fully
intelligible”
(i)
an
artist can choose to present the universe as an incomprehensible jungle—but
only if the presentation itself is intelligible
(d)
Rand:
Predominantly (though not exclusively) a man whose normal mental state is one
of full focus, will create and respond to a style of radiant clarity and
ruthless precision—a style that projects sharp outlines, cleanliness, purpose .
. . A man who is moved by the fog of his feelings and spends most of his
time out of focus will create and respond to a style of blurred, “mysterious”
murk, where outlines dissolve and entities flow into one another, . . . where
colors float without objects, and objects float without weight . . .
(i)
if a
writer decides to dispense with the rules—he jettisons definition, logic, and
grammar in order to offer . . . word salads—then he objecitifes, concretizes,
and communicates nothing
(e) An
objective art work respects the
principles of human epistemology; thus, it is knowable by the normal processes
of perception and logic
(i)
The
nature and meaning of such art is independent of the claims of any interpreter,
including the artist himself
(ii)
Objective
art is not necessarily good, but it is
graspable by a rational being
(3) The
third principle of aesthetic judgment, which can make the difference between
good and great art, is integration
(a)
Rand:
‘the hallmark of art’: An artist weighs the need and implications of every
item, major or minor, which he considers including in his work
(b)
he
regards and presents the items he chooses not as isolated ends-in-themselves,
but as attributes of an indivisible whole.
(c)
Report
of sign that hung on wall of Fritz Lang’s (Director) office during making of
the film Siegfried: Nothing in this
film is accidental.
Though this film represents a malevolent sense of life which Rand
rejects, she thought this film was great art, and the sign is the motto of
great art
Three principles for judging (summary from above notes):
1. Taking
artist’s theme as criterion, evaluate the purely aesthetic elements
of the work with which he projects his theme.
2. Style:
Clarity—is the work distinct, evident to the mind (“fully intelligible”); i.e.,
knowable by normal process of perception and logic
3. Integration: Are all the elements in the work presented as an indivisible whole?
Michelangelo, the
divine: Architect, Sculptor, The Reluctant Painter (“painting is for
women”)
n Vasari,
his biographer, wrote: “The man who bears the palm of all the ages,
transcending and eclipsing all the rest, is the divine M. Buanarroti, who is
supreme not in one art only but in all three at once.”
n Foremost
a sculptor: On the contract for the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling – he
pointedly signed—“Michelangelo the sculptor”—as a protest
n He
had fled to
St. Peter’s Basillica:
Above all, Michelangelo recognized the essential quality of Bramante's
original design. He reverted to the Greek Cross and, as Helen Gardner expresses
it: "Without destroying the centralizing features of Bramante's plan,
Michelangelo, with a few strokes of the pen converted its snowflake complexity
into massive, cohesive unity."
When Pope Julius died in 1513, Bramante was replaced with Giuliano da Sangallo, Fra Giocondo
and Raphael.
Sangallo and Fra Giocondo both died in 1515, Bramante himself having died the
previous year. . . In 1520 Raphael also died, aged 37, and his successor Baldassare Peruzzi maintained changes that
Raphael had proposed to the internal arrangement of the three main apses, but
otherwise reverted to the Greek Cross plan and other features of Bramante.[27]
This plan did not go ahead because of various difficulties of both church and
state. In 1527
Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's (1506) follows that of the
Pantheon very closely, and like that of the Pantheon, was designed to be
constructed in tufa concrete for which he had rediscovered a formula. . . .
Sangallo's plan (1513), of which a large wooden model still exists. . .
According to James Lees-Milne the design was "too eclectic, too pernickety
and too tasteless to have been a success". . . . Michelangelo redesigned
the dome in 1547, taking into account all that had gone before. . . .
Michelangelo died in 1564, leaving the drum of the dome complete . . . he left
some drawings and a wood model . . . Giacomo della Porta and
Sistine
Chapel as Pope Julius II inherited it: without a decorated ceiling, but with
side walls frescoed by leading painters of fifteenth century. The vault
is of quite a complex nature and it is unlikely that it was originally intended
to have such complex decoration. Pier Matteo d'Amelia provided a plan for its
decoration with the architectural elements picked out and the ceiling painted
blue and dotted with gold stars.
Michelangelo's memories of his
difficult relationship with Julius, as related to his biographer Condivi, can
seem a little paranoid. He said more than once that he thought Julius was going
to kill him. When you see Julius as the rampaging warlord he was, this doesn't
seem so unlikely. When Michelangelo fled Rome for Florence after a flunky
turned him from the Pope's door, the Pope sent messages to the Florentine
government "full of threats" if he didn't go back; eventually
Florence had to send him to Rome because the alternative was a war with the
Pope. Julius commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel, and yet his impatience drove the artist to distraction.
One day, he told Condivi, the Pope
asked when he would finish. "When I'm able to," he said. The Pope's
reply was terrifying: "You want me to have you thrown off that
scaffolding, do you?" Michelangelo finished quickly. Indeed, he told
Condivi he had rushed some things in his fear of the Pope. Another time the
Pope beat Michelangelo with his staff. But the artist still asserted himself,
still insisted on his vision. When Julius urged him to put gold on the Sistine
paintings he said this would be inappropriate because in biblical times people
were poor
(Integration &
Context) Sistine Chapel Ceiling: (Painted between 1508 and 1512—same
timeframe as when Raphael was painting School
of Athens and others in the Scriptura).
66 feet high; 5,800 aw. ft. painting; Over 300 figures; Three zones
(Platonic)—Plato’s world of matter, world of becoming, world of being
n Plato
had triple divisions in much of his thought (e.g. 3 classes-workers, free
citizens, philosophers= brass, silver, gold; learning—ignorance, opinion,
knowledge; soul had three faculties—appetitive, emotional, and rational; only
the intellective part could aspire to immortality)
n The
iconography is a fusion of traditional Hebrew-Christian theology and
Neoplatonic philosophy
n Space
is divided into geometric forms—triangle, circle, square—eternal forms in
Plato’s philosophy representing the true nature of the universe.
n Lower
level of ceiling, were unenlightened men and women imprisoned by their physical
appetites and unaware of the divine word; Zone 1, consisting of the lunettes
and spandrels, depicts the biblical ancestors of Christ [along with four other
typological scenes in the corners]
n In
middle zone—(squares-area between the spandrels) inspired Old Testament
prophets and pagan sibyls who through their writings and prophecies impart
knowledge of the divine will and act as intermediaries between humanity and God;
n (slide—Prophet
Isaiah): Above each prophet and sibles and framing central panels are ignudi (nude youths); Christian
tradition—these figures would have been represented as angels. In the Platonic
theory, however, they personify the rational faculties of the sibyls and
prophets by means of which they contemplate divine truth and by which they are
able to bridge the gap between the physical and spiritual, or earthly and
heavenly, regions.
n (slide
– Sibyl of Delphi) Thus, all the prophets and sibyls have a single figure below
to denote the body, a pair of nudes behind them to signify the will, and a
heroic ignudo to personify the immortal soul. In Greek tradition
and in Plato, she was the priestess of Apollo at
n These
figures also serve to soften the contours of the architectural design
n The
center panels tell the story of creation and of men and women in their direct
relationship to God—in (reverse) sequence from the book of Genesis: Center
panel 9: God Dividing the Light from
Darkness: (panels are in reverse order, chronologically)
n Creation of
n the
climax and the realm of pure being are attained. Here is clarity from chaos,
order from the void, existence from nothingness
n Light
here is the symbol for enlightenment and the knowledge that gives freedom from
the darkness of ignorance and bondage-- Only through the light of wisdom can an
individual attain the highest human and divine status. “You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free,” say the scriptures (John 8:32); “Know
thyself,” the Delphic oracle told Socrates
n God
has progressed from the paternal human figure in the Creation of Eve
to a swirling abstraction in the realm of pure being. . . . In the words of
Pico della Mirandola, the human being “withdraws into the center of his own
oneness, his spirit made one with God.”
n The
weight of expression, story content, and philosophical meaning are carried
entirely by Michelangelo’s placement and treatment of the more than three
hundred human figures in a seemingly infinite variety of postures
n Many writers consider that Michelangelo
had the intellect, the Biblical knowledge and the powers of invention to have
devised the scheme himself. This is supported by Condivi's
statement that Michelangelo read and reread the Old Testament while he was
painting the ceiling, drawing his inspiration from the words of the scripture,
rather than from the established traditions of sacral art. There was a total of
343 figures painted on the ceiling
n He designed his own scaffold; Contrary to popular belief, he painted in a
standing position, not lying on his back. According to Vasari, "The work
was carried out in extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work
with his head tilted upwards.”
n Michelangelo has elaborated the real architecture with illusionary or fictive
architecture.
The Last
Judgment
(1534-1541): M leaves ideals of High Renaissance behind. Sacking of
n The
first impression we have when faced with the Last Judgment is that of a truly
universal event, at the centre of which stands the powerful figure of Christ.
His raised right hand compels the figures on his lefthand side, who are trying
to ascend, to be plunged down towards Charon and Minos, the Judge of the
Underworld; while his left hand is drawing up the chosen people on his right in
an irresistible current of strength.
n Together
with the planets and the sun, the saints surround the Judge, confined into vast
spacial orbits around Him. For this work Michelangelo did not choose one set
point from which it should be viewed. The proportions of the figures and the
size of the groups are determined, as in the Middle Ages, by their single
absolute importance and not by their relative significance. For this reason,
each figure preserves its own individuality and both the single figures arid
the groups need their own background.
n The
figures who, in the depths of the scene, are rising from their graves could
well be part of the prophet Ezechiel's vision. Naked skeletons are covered with
new flesh, men dead for immemorable lengths of time help each other to rise
from the earth. For the representation of the place of eternal damnation,
Michelangelo was clearly inspired by the lines of the Divine Comedy:
n Charon
the demon, with eyes of glowing coal/Beckoning them, collects them all,/Smites
with his oar whoever lingers.
n We
know that many figures are portraits of Michelangelo's contemporaries. The
artist's self-portrait appears twice: in the flayed skin which Saint
Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and in the figure in the lower left
hand corner, who is looking encouragingly at those rising from their graves.
n (Minos
slide) Minos, the Judge of the Underworld. According to Vasari, the artist gave
Minos the semblance of the Pope's Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, who
had often complained to the Pope about the nudity of the painted figures.
n Biagio
stated publicly "that it was a most dishonest act in such a respectable
place to have painted so many naked figures immodestly revealing their shameful
parts, that it was not a work for a papal chapel but for a bathhouse or house
of ill-fame.“
n Michelangelo took his revenge on Biagio by
adding his portrait to the damned; in the guise of Minos, he looks on impassive
and depraved, "with a huge serpent coiled around his legs, in the midst of
a crowd of devils".
n The
painting is a turning point in the history of art. Vasari predicted the
phenomenal impact of the work: "This sublime painting", he wrote,
"should serve as a model for our art. Divine
n Comment-question:
This being a picture behind the altar, how would you like to go to church and
sit where you were facing this monumental painting?
n I would be looking up at the ceiling instead – that may say a lot about my psychology of avoidance ;-)
Integration: Leonardo da Vinci: Last Supper (1495-98): Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan, Italy
n whole
world of meaning – aimed at expressing the crucial symbol of man’s mistake; he
worked so long on this. We watch the shock wave of the fatal announcement
traveling through the disciples; in a first movement of fright and flight; it
is reflected on the stiffened outer figures of Simon and Bartholmew; it comes
back towards the Master in a surge of dedication. But there is now a hesitant
ripple in it, and the icy seizure of betrayal aware of itself. We feel it will
further move away in a sense of awful destiny, go on moving through time. . . .
perhaps the cryptogram of a not wholly Christian idea: Man, the revealed image
of the cosmos, again and again failed by mankind
n Orderly
composition: Everything is important.
E.g., why does he place Judas with Peter and John? Largest window behind Jesus
(emphasis); curved pediment arching above head -- Light from center window with
curved pediment above functions as a halo around Jesus’ head. He is perfectly
centered – perspective lines converge –behind his head, leading viewers eyes to
Him. Six apostles on each side; four equal groups of three. Jesus’ arms
extended diagonally – equilateral triangle in the center. Action building from
the wings leading to central calm of Jesus. Most psychologically powerful
moment in story of the supper – Jesus announced that one apostle will betray
him.
n
Difficulty in painting emotions of faces. Leonardo said the most difficult thing to
paint was “the intention of Man’s soul.” The reactions run the gamut of human
feeling from fear, outrage, and doubt to loyalty and love – emotions reflected
in the searching facial expressions and eloquent gestures that plumb the
psychological depths of each character
n Defiant
Judas is isolated as the only one who really knows – drawing back, face in deep
shadow, hand clutching the moneybag. “Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me
is with me on the table” (Luke 22:21).
n Florentine
heritage of harmony as expressed in numbers: 12 apostles in four groups of
three on either side of lonely central figure; four wall hangings on each side
and three windows – alluding to the four gospels and the Trinity; Twelve also
refers to the passage of time—the hours of the day and months of the year—in
which human salvation is to be sought.
n Usual
fresco technique of rapid painting on wet plaster not good – he experimented by
mixing oil pigments with tempera in order to lengthen the painting time, get
deeper colors, and work in more shadow effects. Unfortunately, the paint soon
began to flake off the damp wall.
n Over
the years – it has been so often restored and repainted that only a shadow of
its original splendor remains. . . . the intensity of the facial expressions
can only be recaptured through the few preparatory drawings that have survived
n Note:
we have da Vinci sketches he made in preparation for painting, of faces of
specific disciples—some have feminine looking features (re: Dan Brown’s da Vinci Code)
Jacopo Bassano: Last Supper (1542); Many artists
were inspired by da Vinci’s Last Supper
n Instead
of the elegant grouping of figures in Leonardo's
painting, which inspired it, this dramatic scene features barefoot fishermen at
the crucial moment when Christ asks who will betray him, and the light passing
through a glass of wine stains the clean tablecloth red
n Recent
restoration has only now revealed the extraordinary original colours, which had
been heavily painted over in the 19th century, when the emerald green and
iridescent pinks and oranges were not in fashion
Raphael
(1483-1520—died at age 37): School of
n The picture has long been seen as
"Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the
classical spirit of the High Renaissance."
n This painting was part of Raphael's
commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic
Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della
Segnatura was
the first of the rooms to be decorated
n its subject is Philosophy, and its overhead
tondo-label, “Causarum Cognitio” tells us what kind, as it appears to
echo Aristotle’s
emphasis on wisdom as knowing why, hence knowing the causes, in Metaphysics Book I and Physics Book II. Indeed, Plato and
Aristotle appear to be the central figures in the scene below. However all the
philosophers depicted sought to understand through knowledge of first causes.
Many lived before Plato
and Aristotle, and hardly a third were Athenians.
n Raphael's
work in the Vatican Stanze was open to the curious; while Michelangelo left
strict orders that no visitors were to be allowed in the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo, busy as a bee himself, consumed with a daunting task, apparently
had little interest in Raphael’s work. But Raphael had an interest in his.
Raphael paid a secret visit aided by the pope to view Michelangelo’s ceiling in
progress. So profoundly did it affect him that he returned to his work in
the Stanza della Segnatura (the pope’s private library), where he proceeded to
pay tribute to Michelangelo by incorporating a seated figure of Michelangelo in
the foreground of his masterpiece fresco, The School of
n Arch,
‘stage’, statues at bottom—all painted on flat wall; the symmetry; All lines of
linear perspective drawn to shoulders of Plato and Aristotle touching;
n Commentators have suggested that nearly
every great Greek philosopher can be found within the painting, but determining
which are depicted is difficult, since Raphael made no designations outside
possible likenesses, and no contemporary documents to explain the painting. To
complicate matters, beginning from Vasari's efforts, some have received multiple identifications,
not only as ancients but also as figures contemporary with Raphael.
n Plato’s Timaeus – which is the book Raphael places
in his hand – was a sophisticated treatment of space, time and change, including
the Earth, which guided mathematical sciences for over a millennium. Aristotle,
with his four elements theory, held that all change on
Earth was owing to the motions of the heavens. In the painting Aristotle
carries his Ethics.
n Plato’s side—philosophers and thinkers
of ‘rationalism ‘idealism’ ‘what is really true’ – Statue of Apollo, God of
sunlight and poetry and rationality
n Heraclietus (with Michelangelo’s face):
One never steps in the same river twice (Change)
n Diogenes, more-or-less laying in the
center, off by himself, is the Cynic, the skeptic
n Aristotle’s side—philosophers and
thinkers of “science” “empiricism” “this
world is real”—Statue of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom
n (new
pic with 21 numbers in diagram)—parenthetical names are contemporary
characters from whom Raphael is thought to have drawn his likeness
1: Zeno of
Citium 2: Epicurus 3: unknown[14]
4: Boethius
or Anaximander
or Empedocles?
5: Averroes
6: Pythagoras
7: Alcibiades
or Alexander the Great? 8: Antisthenes
or Xenophon
or Timon? 9: unknown (Fornarina as a
personification of Love) or (Francesco Maria della Rovere?)
10: Aeschines or Xenophon?
11: Parmenides?
12: Socrates
13: Heraclitus
(Michelangelo)
14: Plato
(Leonardo da Vinci) 15: Aristotle
16: Diogenes 17: Plotinus
(Donatello?)
18: Euclid
or Archimedes
with students (Bramante?) 19: Zoroaster
20: Ptolemy?
R: Apelles (Raphael)
21: Protogenes (Il Sodoma, Perugino, or
Timoteo Viti)
Early Twentieth Century: avant
garde
n
People
& works: experimental, innovative
n
Pushing
boundaries of what is accepted as norm
n
Promotion
of radical social reforms
n
Saint
Rodrigues 1825 essay- 1st use of notion:
“the power of the arts is indeed the most immediate and fastest way” to social
reform
n
Over
time: movements “art for art’s sake”
n
Concerned
with aesthetic rather than social forms
n
1930s
Frankfurt school- term: mass culture
- bogus culture for new industries
n
Publishing,
movie & record industries
n
Antithesis
of avant garde
n
WWI: Dada – The world & war were
“nonsense” (c. 1916-1922) ------anti----
n
anti-war
politics
n
anti-modern
world: ridiculed what was considered to be the meaninglessness of it
n
anti-bourgeois
nationalist and colonialist interests
n
anti-tradition
n
anti-cultural
and intellectual conformity
n
anti-logic
and reason:
embraced chaos & irrationality
n
anti-aesthetics
(intended to offend & shock)
n
anti-art
n
Many isms in avant garde
n
Fauvism
n
Cubism
n
Futurism
n
German
Expressionism
n
Dadaism
n
Surrealism
n
DeStijl-ism
n
Abstractionism
Examples: Dalí: Persistence
of Memory & Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
n Knowable by normal processes of perception
and logic? The need for interpretation
??
n Surealism
implies expression of workings of the subconscious mind
n Maurice Escher (staircases)
anti-art: Abstract or non-objective
n examples:
n Rothco:
Color Field 1
n Judd: (open box structure on floor)
n Mondrian:
Composition (colored squares and
rectangles)
n Hepworth:
Three Forms 4
n Noguchi
Museum (ground sculpture)
n Jackson
Pollock: Autumn Rhythm (Jack the
Dripper)
n Norman
Rockwell: Man looking a abstract art
c)
Art is not “for art’s sake,” but for man’s sake. One
contemplates art for the vision of reality it offers, not because, devoid of
vision, it is merely a vehicle of technical virtuosity
i) “Abstract”
art: The extreme of the anti-subject attitude is the idea that an art work
should not depict recognizable entities at all, i.e., that it should have no
subject
(1)
This
irrationalism amounts to the notion that the way to recreate reality is to
dispense with it
ii) “nonobjective
art” flouts the rules of the human mind, perceptual and conceptual; it is
addressed to man as he does not
perceive and cannot think
(1)
Such
a product is not open to human cognition; it is defiantly senseless
(2)
One errs
if one sanctions these products by the effort of interpretation; they can be
given “meaning” only by those who claim to decode “symbolism” hidden from the
normal (non-mystical) mind
iii) These
products are not “art with a new viewpoint” or even “bad art”; they are to art what the arbitrary is to
cognition—it is anti-art
(1)
metaphysically,
it is the attempt not to re-create, but to annihilate reality
(2)
Rand:
epistemologically, it is the attempt not to integrate, but to disintegrate
man’s consciousness—to reduce
it to a pre-perceptual level by breaking up percepts into mere sensations
(a)
This is
the intention behind the reducing of language to grunts, of literature to
‘moods,’ of painting to smears, of sculpture to slabs, of music to noise