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    John Berger, Degas Bronze Dancer

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    Rūta Šlapkauskaitė
    This poem discusses the relationship between art and the human body through the lens of a Degas bronze sculpture of a dancer. It uses the metaphor of bridges to describe how the dancer's pose maintains equilibrium and supports her body structure, with various body parts acting as pillars and beams. It argues we should look closely at the sculpture to verify the relationship between form and function, and see how the ordinary human body can withstand strain, like a bridge spanning what was once called the river Lethe.

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    John Berger, Degas Bronze Dancer

    Uploaded by

    Rūta Šlapkauskaitė
    71 views2 pages
    This poem discusses the relationship between art and the human body through the lens of a Degas bronze sculpture of a dancer. It uses the metaphor of bridges to describe how the dancer's pose maintains equilibrium and supports her body structure, with various body parts acting as pillars and beams. It argues we should look closely at the sculpture to verify the relationship between form and function, and see how the ordinary human body can withstand strain, like a bridge spanning what was once called the river Lethe.

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    This poem discusses the relationship between art and the human body through the lens of a Degas bronze sculpture of a dancer. It uses the metaphor of bridges to describe how the dancer's pose maintains equilibrium and supports her body structure, with various body parts acting as pillars and beams. It argues we should look closely at the sculpture to verify the relationship between form and function, and see how the ordinary human body can withstand strain, like a bridge spanning what was once called the river Lethe.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    71 views2 pages

    John Berger, Degas Bronze Dancer

    Uploaded by

    Rūta Šlapkauskaitė
    This poem discusses the relationship between art and the human body through the lens of a Degas bronze sculpture of a dancer. It uses the metaphor of bridges to describe how the dancer's pose maintains equilibrium and supports her body structure, with various body parts acting as pillars and beams. It argues we should look closely at the sculpture to verify the relationship between form and function, and see how the ordinary human body can withstand strain, like a bridge spanning what was once called the river Lethe.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    On

    a Degas

    bronze ofa dancer

    You say the leg supports thc bodY But have You never seen The sced in the ankle

    Whence the bodY grows? You say (if you are the builder of bridges I think you are) cach Pose Must have its natural cquilibrium Rut have You never seen Recalcitrant muscles of dancers t lol<1 their unnatural ou'n? You say (if as rational As I hope you are) the biped's evolution Was accomPlished long ago But have You never seen The still miraculous sign A little in from the hiP Predicting nine inches bclow Bodies fork in two?

    Then let us look together


    flVe who both know Light's the go-between Of space and time) Let us look at this figurc

    To verifr I my goddess And you thc stress.


    r57

    TH}- II'OfiI( OT ART

    'I'hink in tcrms of bridges.


    Sec, the road ofleg and back I Iingcing at hip and shouldcr I Iolds lirm from palm to hcel

    The moment of Cubism

    Singlc leg

    as

    picr

    Thigh abovc thc kncc


    Cantilcvering mcmbcr.

    'I'hink in tcrms of bridges


    Over what men once called Lethc. See, the ordinarv body wc cross through Vulncrablc, inhabitcd, warm Stands the strain too. I)ead Load, Livc Load And Longitudinal Drag.
    So lct the bridge this danccr archcs for us

    teashop ofl'the Gray's

    This essay is delicatetl to Barbara Nit'en nrho prompted Inn Road a long time ugo.
    Certains homme s sont dcs collines (]ui s'dldrent entre lcs hommes L,t voie nt au loin tout l'avenir \lieur quc s'il itait prc<sent Plus net que s'il itait passi.

    it in un,lRC

    Apollinairc

    Stand thc strain of all old prcjudicc


    So let's verilv again, You my goddcss

    And I the stress.


    rg6o

    'l'he things that Picasso and I said to one another during those I cars u ill no er bc said again, and cve n il'thev were, no onc rrould understand thcm ant morc. It was likc hcing ropcJ togcther trn a mounllin. Georges llraque

    'l'hcrc are happl moments, but no happv pcriods in history.


    'I'hc uork of art is thercfirrc
    onlr,a halt in thc bccoming and not afroz.cn aim on its ou,n.

    Arnold I Iauscr

    Irl Lissitzkr

    I Iind it hard to belicve that the most extreme Cubist \\'orks \\'erc painted over fifry'years ago. It is truc that I rvould not expcct thcm to
    have been paintcd todal'. Thev arc both too optimistic and too rcvolutionary for that. Perhaps in a wav I am surpriscd that thel'havc been painted at all. It nould seem morc likely that thcy wcrc yet ro bc
    painted. Do I makc things unnecessarilv complicated? Would it not bc morc helpful to sav simplv: thc I-eu' great Cubist works wcrc painted r58 r59

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