The Art of the City by Simmel Georg; Stone Will;

Author:Simmel, Georg; Stone, Will; [Georg Simmel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 5512008
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2018-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

VENICE

(1907)

BEYOND ALL NATURALISM, which imposes on art the law of external things, there prevails a demand for truth which the work of art must fulfil, even though it only issues from itself. If a mighty entablature rests on columns in whose support we have no confidence, if the emotive words of a poem direct us to an ardour and profundity of which we are simply not persuaded, then we sense the lack of truth, a lack of accord between the work of art and its own idea. However, once again art faces a decision between truth and falsehood because it belongs to an overall context of being. In a way which proves difficult to grasp, behind every work of art the will and sensibility of a particular soul can be traced, a particular conception of the world and existence—but not always in such a way that the work is the faithful expression of that deeper, more universal reality that it still induces us to feel. Rather, strangely enough, many a work of art directs us towards an inner and metaphysical world which should find expression in it but ultimately expresses nothing. Now the individual parts may well be harmonious and quite perfect among themselves; but the whole sprouts from a root to which it does not belong, and the more complete it is in itself, the more radical the lie when seen in the context of an inner life, a world view, a religious conviction that it denies at the deepest point of its being.

The different arts participate in such truths and falsehoods to varying degrees. In terms of architecture—which concerns us here—naturalism cannot demand any truth regarding equanimity with the exterior. All the more markedly, then, does architecture claim the interior truth: that the weight-bearing forces are sufficient to bear the load, that the decorative features find the place where they can best disclose their inner emotion, that details remain faithful to the style in which the whole presents itself. The harmony or confliction which the building maintains with the spiritual meaning or sense of life to which it is connected, and by which it is illuminated, is all the more mysterious since it is only a demand that it sets itself but cannot always fulfil.

Perhaps this serves to elaborate the key distinction between the architecture of Venice and that of Florence. In the palaces of Florence, and throughout Tuscany, we perceive their exterior as the clear expression of their inner sense: strong-willed, serious, the unfolding of a power that can be felt in every stone, each representing a self-assured, self-accountable personality. The Venetian palaces, on the other hand, are a precious game, their uniformity masking the individual characteristics of their people, a veil whose folds follow only the laws of its inner beauty and reveal the life behind it by concealing it. Every inwardly truthful work of art, as fantastic and subjective as it might be, expresses some mode and way in which life is possible. When you pass along the Grand Canal you imagine: whatever life is—at least it cannot be like this.

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