Nietzsche and ArtLudovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario)
Philosophy
Nietzsche and Art
Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario)
Aesthetics, German -- 19th century; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Aesthetics
When we find such delicate and beautifully rhythmic patterns as those
which Dr. A. C. Haddon gives us in his interesting work on Evolution
in Art, and are told that they originated in the frigate birds, or in
woodlarks, which infest the neighbourhood from which these patterns
hail;[12] when we are shown a Chinese ornament which resembles
nothing so much as the Egyptian honeysuckle and lotus ornament,[13]
and we are told that it is derived from the Chinese bat, and when we
are persuaded that an ordinary fish-hook can lead to a delightful
bell-like[14] design; then our knowledge of what Art is protests
against this desecration of its sanctity--more particularly after
we have been informed that any beauty that the original "Skeuomorph"[15]
may ultimately possess is mostly due to rapid and faulty copying
by inexpert draughtsmen, or to a simplifying process which repeated
drawings of the same thing must at length involve.
This is nonsense, and of a most pernicious sort. No mechanical copying
or involuntary simplification will necessarily lead to designs of great
beauty. One has only to set a class of children to make dozens of
copies of an object--each more removed than the last from the original
--in order to discover that if any beauty arises at all, it is actually
_given_ or _imparted_ to the original by one particular child, who happens
to be an artist, and that the rest of the class will be quite innocent
of anything in the way of embellishments, or beauty of any kind.
It would be absurd to argue that the beak of a frigate bird had not
been noticed by particular natives in those parts of the world where
the creature abounds; but the creative act of making an ornamental
design based upon a pot-hook unit, such as the frigate bird's beak
is, bears no causal relation whatsoever to the original fact in the
artist's environment, and to write books in order to show that it
does, is as futile as to try and show that pneumonia or bronchitis or
pleurisy was the actual cause of Poe's charming poem, "Annabel Lee."
Riegl, Lipps, and Dr. Worringer very rightly oppose this view of Semper
and others. In his book, _Stilfragen_, Riegl successfully disposes of
the theory that repetitive patterns have invariably been the outcome
of technical processes such as weaving and plaiting, and points out
that, very often, a vegetable or animal form is given to an original
ornamental figure, only after it has been developed to such an extent
that it actually suggests that vegetable or animal form.[16]
Dr. Worringer goes to great pains in order to show that there is
an Art-will which is quite distinct from mimicry of any kind, and
that this Art-will, beginning in the graphic arts with rhythmic and
repetitive geometrical designs, such as zigzags, cross-hatchings and
spirals, has nothing whatsoever to do with natural objects or objects
of utility, such as baskets and woven work, which these designs happen
to resemble.[17]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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