Reflections on the painting and sculpture of the Greeks : $b with instructions for the connoisseur, and an essay on grace in works of artWinckelmann, Johann Joachim
Philosophy
Reflections on the painting and sculpture of the Greeks : $b with instructions for the connoisseur, and an essay on grace in works of art
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim
Aesthetics -- Early works to 1800; Art -- Philosophy; Art, Greek
The following well-known old fable might also furnish a new image.
Salmacis, and the youth beloved by her, were changed to a fountain,
unmanning to such a degree, that
_Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit, exeat inde_
_Semivir: & tactis subito mollescat in undis,_
Ovid. Metam. L. IV.
The fountain was near Halicarnassus in Caria. Vitruvius[285] thought he
had discovered the truth of that fiction: some inhabitants of Argos and
Trœzene, says he, going thither with a mind to settle, dispossessed the
Carians and Leleges; who, sheltering themselves among the mountains,
began to harass the Greeks with their excursions: but one of the
inhabitants having discovered some particular qualities in that fountain,
erected a building near it, for the convenience of those who had a mind
to make use of its water. Greeks and Barbarians mingled there; and these
at length, accustomed to the Greek civility, lost their savageness, and
were insensibly moulded into another nature. The fable itself is well
known to the artists: but the narrative of Vitruvius might instruct them
how to draw the allegory of a people taught humanity and civilised, like
the Russians by Peter the First. The fable of Orpheus might serve the
same purpose. Expression only must decide the choice.
Supposing the above general observations upon allegory insufficient to
evince its necessity in painting, the examples will at least demonstrate,
that painting reaches beyond the senses.
The two chief performances in allegorical painting, mentioned in my
treatise, viz. the Luxemburg gallery, and the cupola of the Imperial
Library at Vienna, may shew how poetical, how happy an use their authors
made of allegory.
Rubens proposing to paint Henry IV. as a humane victor, with lenity and
goodness prevailing, even in the punishment of unnatural rebels, and
treacherous banditti, represents him as Jupiter ordering the gods to
overthrow and punish the vices: Apollo and Minerva let fly their darts
upon them, and the vices, hideous monsters, in a tumultuous uproar tumble
over each other: Mars, entering in a fury, threatens total destruction;
but Venus, image of celestial love, gently lays hold of his arm:—you
fancy you hear her blandishing petition to the _mailed_ god: “rage not
with cruel revenge against the vices—they are punished.”
The whole performance of Daniel Gran[286] is an allegory, relative to the
Imperial Library, and all its figures are as the branches of one single
tree. ’Tis a painted Epopee, not beginning from the eggs of Leda; but, as
Homer chiefly rehearses the anger of Achilles, this immortalizes only the
Emperor’s care of the sciences. The preparations for the building of the
library are represented in the following manner:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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