First Steps in the Revival of Beauty
The task of calling artists to make and pursue beauty is a call many have made. I do not here wish to negate that call nor make such a call seem shallow, but I do wish to further it by giving some more direct action and reasoning to the artist as he navigates the broad call to the revival of beauty. The issue is that beauty is both a liberal master and an exacting master. This is not a thing to be afraid of. But even if it is slightly terrifying to face down the massive call to the revival of beauty, the way forward, like most things, is found not in unrestricted freedom but liberty out of discipline. It is also necessary to look at art as it was looked at, as a trade.
Chances are you have come across a young man who is forgoing college in order to pursue a career in the blue collar trades. Some of them even search out the more esoteric historic trades, hoping to be the lifeline between the old world and its talents and beauties and the world of future generations. Which is what a call for revival is all about.
In the past, societies would hold great art competitions and have grand reveals of works of art. Revealed pieces would sometimes be attacked physically. Murals would decorate the most important buildings. Books would be adorned with beautiful illustrations. The salons would host the very best paintings that portrayed the cultural ideals and identity of that society. Churches would sponsor artists to paint altar pieces and kings would have their likeness taken for posterity and power. All this is what I imagine is in the minds of those who make these calls to a revival of beauty.
Just as with building a house there is more than one way to paint a picture. There is the chiaroscuro technique of Caravaggio, the sgraffito of Raphael, and the sfumato of Da Vinci, as well as the alla prima of the Impressionists. And so, it is not the technical side of painting with which this article is interested but the ethos of an artist dedicated to cultural memory and participation. As a painter myself I will be focusing on painting as the primary example of steps towards revival. And I intend to quote the masters of painting rather than suggest at what they may have believed. The wonderful thing about the fine arts is that we have great quantities of their own writings on the subject. What I will quote isn’t even a small fraction of the wisdom they have passed down to us. But it is a wisdom seldom consulted. Their own words on their own arts and their own practices and their own commands for the creation of beauty. (All the quotes come from a single source of collected works: Artists on Art: From the XIV Century to the XX Century.)
The mentality of the artist as a disciplined person, rather than a creative trying to find a voice in the crowd of creative talent, is where we start. “Begin by adorning yourselves with these vestments: love, fear of God, obedience, and perseverance. And put yourselves under the guidance of a master as early as possible. And leave the master as late as possible.” The artist is first and foremost a workman of God. Cennini’s advice is in direct opposition to the common image of the artist, e.g., wild and open; transgressive and tolerant. The image of the artist here presented is one of spiritual beauty. It is in his alignment with the things above and before him which produce work that also reveres that which came before and are above.
While I agree with Cennini in the first quote I have scruples with this next quote from him. “Your life should always be arranged just as if you were studying theology, or philosophy, or other sciences, that is to say, eating and drinking moderately, at least twice a day, electing light and wholesome dishes and thin wines; saving and sparing your hand, preserving it from such strains as heaving stones, crowbars, and many other such things which are bad for your hand, from giving them a chance to weary it. There is another cause which, if you indulge it, can make your hand so unsteady that it will waver more, and flutter far more, than leaves do in the wind, and this is indulging too much in the company of women.” I see in this a few good pieces of advice as well as some which I believe hinder art. You should treat art very seriously, as if studying theology itself. It is a system and a mystery which both unfolds the world to understanding and veils it ever more. Controlling your appetite is also a good practice, with fasting we can see much we would not otherwise and with a full stomach we are satisfied with the hours in the studio. I believe he is wrong to advise against using your hands in other ways. Perhaps this was a time when the limp wrist didn’t mean much. A traditional, Christian man as an artist must not be an image of an effeminate man only able to handle a brush. An artist’s hands must be capable of strength and gentleness. A man’s hands should be able to lift heavy stones, hold his woman and paint a crisp line all within one day. And if the artist is a woman she must not let her hands be viewed as already perfect. She too would benefit from hands that can garden and hold a man as well as paint. As for the company of women, Cennini makes it clear that it is overindulgence that is the problem. Any other word can replace “women” here: caffeine, internet, food. Anything that makes you lose control of your hands and become immoderate should be considered an offense to your practice.
Yet there is another component. The presence of another beauty is a hindrance to the creation of beauty. It is expected that the presence of beauty is an opportunity and a catalyst for inspiration. This overlooks the very simple problem, as humans we are more naturally inclined to possess beauty than to create or to imitate it. So, another form of beauty will override the desires of creativity and demand attention. To create beauty is hard and far more goes into its creation than mere intent. The creation of beauty is rarely desired when beauty can just be taken in. It takes discipline to imitate beauty while in its presence. It is better to learn how to do that first and without beauties which will pull the artist away from his studies prematurely.
In his Commentaries, Lorenzo Ghiberti laid out a list of other disciplines which the artist should be familiar with in order to create well. The list was grammar, geometry, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, perspective, history, anatomy, theory of design and arithmetic. Are these all necessary for the artist today? I’m not convinced some disciplines such as medicine are necessary but most of these schools are only going to make you a better man and a better artist, capable of designing a beautiful piece and conveying the cultural reason for the piece with precision and grace.
What is your goal as a traditional artist? Alberti says in On Painting, “The painter will take pains not only to achieve a good likeness of every part, but add beauty also. For beauty, in painting, is both welcome and demanded.” Beauty is of course not just prettiness but a draw of the mind to the most true form of an image or idea. But the purpose of painting is as it relates to nature. We are witnessing a massive shift towards a newfound love of nature and the created order. Painting is that love expressed in a supreme way. Leonardo da Vinci says “If you despise painting, which is the sole imitator of all the visible works of nature, it is certain that you will be despising a subtle invention with which philosophical and ingenious speculation takes as its theme all the various kinds of forms, airs and scenes, plants, animals, grasses and flowers, which are surrounded by light and shade. And this truly is a science and the true-born daughter of nature, since painting is the offspring of nature. But in order to speak more correctly we may call it the grandchild of nature; for all visible things derive their existence from nature and from these same things is born painting. Therefore, we may justly speak of it as the grandchild of nature and as related to God Himself.” To dislike painting is to dishonor the grandchild of God and thus God Himself.
The nature of art must be respected and admired by the artist. It is not abnormal for art to be considered the expression of impossible things, but it is still within art to be bound. “Art is not a different thing from nature, nor can it pass beyond nature’s boundaries.” And in order to impress the viewer it must be done by way of surpassing the material, materiam superbat opus, and not by the distortion of nature. The limit of nature’s boundaries does not mean a strict interpretation of the model as seen by the artist but the duty of the artist to not deform the natural form and to still call it that form. Today we have a general sense that art can distort the natural form in order to make the form more easily apprehended by the soul, and so it is not so much that art cannot distort for good reasons, but that art must not lie. To not lie is the most basic duty of the artist. But to tell the impossible is not a lie. The relation between what nature can create and what art can tell is the line of the real and the ideal. It is the line between lesser and a higher calling. As Poussin says, “Thus, by nature, it is impossible that a woman should unite in herself all the beauties possessed by the image of Helen, which was perfectly beautiful and therefore better than possible.”
The relation of nature to what is commonly called the transcendental is what is in view in the creation of art. The fine artist is in a unique position among the trades and arts to bring to view that which is a beauty of the world above as it manifests on earth, or to create it out of the artistic spirit. He may dabble in the affairs of human life, and he may create good art by it. He may even engage in political art for the edification or the social improvement of his home. But ultimately, he is to control himself. As Sebastiano Conca says “Do not let your desire to please lead you so far in search of the new as to lose sight of the true. Nature is very ancient and still pleases. Novelty may at best strike the fancy of one age, but the good artist must work for eternity, so far as the fragility of human things allow.”
Finally, what is the social purpose of art? After the primary reasons for creating art and a brief discourse on how the artist should himself behave and approach art, what role should art play in our society? Thinking classically, and not eschatologically as most do today, art is a program to raise the virtue of the populace. To invigorate love and devotion. It has only been a recent development to consider art as the image of a yet to be made present social order. The image of a kingdom or utopian ideal called into being. Art that is involved in a higher calling is not calling out to a socially perfect situation, it is calling to the raising of the human spirit. It builds up rather than calls down. Fine art is a trade because it finds its resolution within its own way of promoting a greater human nature. “The arts are the imitation of nature in her most beautiful and perfect form; a feeling natural to man attracts him to the same end…then will those marks of heroism and civic virtue offered the eyes of the people electrify its soul, and plant the seeds of glory and devotion to the fatherland.”
The aspiring artist should not be disheartened. Today fine art is not a trade useful for making money, though one can survive as an artist. It is something the artist must do or else feel empty. It is also not a greatly judged field. Even as a traditionalist artist we must recognize that our call is not to be perfect. Either in imitation or creative genius or some other aspect of the trade. “Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity,” per Henry Fuseli. While the professors at art schools are sometimes unbearable in their desires to question all artistic norms, the uneducated public is on your side. They do not desire genius or bedazzlement. Their desire that art should conform to certain standards is merely the nature of art as a trade asserting itself in their minds. If experimenting with plumbing is undesirable it is likewise for art. The public is a wonderful patron, a forgiving patron, and a demanding patron. “The public has never been ungrateful; it has always applauded not only beautiful works, but even simple attempts, when made in the right spirit,” observed Thomas Couture. In the end the trade of fine art is a stamp on our lives. A witness to our human nature. We build houses, we set tables, we fix old windows, and we make art. This then is the first step in a revival of beauty. Being human in accordance with the laws of nature and nature’s God.
Image Credit: Unsplash.
