Contemporary Art in the Light of History by Rosenthal Erwin Rosenthal Deborah. Esplund Lance

Author:Rosenthal, Erwin,Rosenthal, Deborah.,Esplund, Lance.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

III

Art Theories and Manifestos Old and New

(i)

“History is a pattern

of timeless moments.”

T. S. ELIOT

Art and art theories have existed side by side since Greek and Roman antiquity. From Plato and Aristotle to Cicero and Seneca and the Hellenistic Christian philosophy of Plotinus, the historian repeatedly finds variations of the belief that the work of art is not so much the result of an imitation of the natural model as it is the realization of an inner image, an “idea”, born in the soul of the artist. This conception acquired religious momentum in neo-Platonic philosophy (Plotinus). Since Christian doctrine holds that reality is imperfect, the role of the artist—with the help of his inner image—is to create something more beautiful and perfect than reality. Medieval aesthetics, as developed by such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura, provided a theological basis for the metaphysical origin of artistic form with their concept of “similitudo”: the work of art corresponds to the “simile” in the artist’s soul, and this inner image is born by the grace of God.

At the end of the 14th century, Cennino Cennini wrote what is probably the first book about art for artists. He did not develop any specific theories, and his work remains essentially a craftsman’s handbook. He does, however, besides giving advice on how to paint a panel or paint a wall in a fresco-like manner, suggest that artists should copy directly from nature. In the early 15th century, the artists themselves developed aesthetic theories, but since they had studied theoreticians such as Vitruvius and Euclid, they dealt largely with practical rules. Architects and painters like Alberti and Piero della Francesca formulated practical aesthetics in handbooks on mathematics and surveying, perspective and colour, and they gave advice on how to apply these practical skills in the pursuit of “ideal” beauty. Alberti, for example, was already operating with a concept of “ideal” beauty which could only be achieved on the basis of experience and scientific study.

Soon afterwards, however, during the second half of the 15th century, Florentine humanists developed a new philosophy and with it a new aesthetic. In the so-called Platonic Academy, led by Marsilio Ficino, Plato’s doctrine of “ideas” was merged with theories and doctrines from mystical and hermetic philosophy. Ficino’s younger companion, Pico della Mirandola, was a staunch follower of the new system in which old Alexandrian culture, mixed with Greek, Roman, and Oriental elements, won new significance. It is a remarkable fact that at the time when the artists of the early Florentine Renaissance began to lean heavily on classical models and ideals, the new-Platonic thinkers began to develop a definitely anti-classical philosophy (though this itself had roots in antiquity, too), it may safely be said that the conceptions and theories behind the strongly anti-classical movements which arose during the course of the following centuries have had their origins in the philosophy of the Florentine Renaissance. This is particularly true of Mannerism, as this essay intends, in part, to show.

We should at this point mention

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