Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1483525
1483525
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae.
http://www.jstor.org
SEYMOUR HOWARD
The workof art [in Panofsky's view of iconology]should be inter- and practiced, enriching the profession of art history. In effect, his
preted firstof all as a specific set of forms carryingsome mean- view unites ideals of expression and objectivitydeveloped over cen-
ing, then as a composition of "stories,"symbols, and allegories, turies of scientific and humanisticenquiry.2
and finallyas a symptom of a situation in the history of culture The word "iconology"indicates its comprehensiveness: "icon"
and of ideas; in each case the interpretationshould be based (Gk. image, re-presentation)and "logos" (Gk. word, speech, rea-
upon knowledge of the historical development... the history of son)-in short, the lore and language of visualization.
tradition. This embracingsense of the term, inheritedfrom Warburg,Saxl,
Needless to say, in practice iconology may stress one or the Panofsky, Dvorak, Schlosser, Hoogewerff, Gombrich,Wind, Meiss,
other idea [of conscious or unconscious symbolism].But in its Stechow, Held, et al., as includingall the meanings-explicit and
ideal, postulated form it is both the most unified and the most implied, denotative and connotative-in images, has, of course, a
general and all-embracing method for the historical interpreta- long history in studies of explanation and interpretation.
tion of art; it aims at as complete an understandingas possible Hermeneutics, philological exegesis, explication of texts (and of
of the artisticachievement of mankind. acts), and, ultimately, legendary divination based upon dreams,
Jan Biatostocki1 plants, animals, gestures, and the very landscape and heavens-all
prefigureiconology as ways to discover meaning.
In the arts, forerunnersof iconology reach back from the stud-
Iconology ies of conscious symbolism by the archaeologists Bernoulli,Clarac,
Visconti, Cavaceppi, Winckelmann,and Cayius to the works of Ripa
An ancient wisdom reads, As above, so below, as within, so and other Christian or Greco-Roman iconographers who trans-
without.The truthof these correspondences resounds in the words formed pagan mysteries and illusionisminto a schematic dictionary
of Jan Biatostocki's classic appraisal of Iconology.His study reflects of signs. Their iconography(a subspecies) has often been confused
the genial learningand generosity of a gifted humanist and the tra- with iconology, which deals as well with more wide-ranging and
dition of comprehensiveness and moderation that he championed deeper concerns.
83
SEYMOUR HOWARD
Intention
Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and
then see it. Both are impure situations and I prefer neither.6
84
? ...r=,# t-,_*_ .: ~~~~~~~~.
.... .....
.... ......
j-.-7...::-~._.
...;:-? i.... _-::::::--- .
-.: =...-? " ,i,
;'
?... ~,
* J_ . 'Xff
~ ,*..:;- ......:----:^-
-?,<Rt ......v
; _ ; '.-._,
-,--
?-' i-i1.
~. >
-.:,*r-.- ,..:, o _ j ; * *. ,_ _\_
...-,:,,
.*:._.
.. . . ..........
a
.
,- .~.: ,,/.. -'-G -
-;~ . , ]-,j? .~ _-.
'~.i ...
.:_:-- . ? .'
?B . ,-,~ .
'.:.,...B.
...', -.;,
- _ - . /---:-
.
...,- ;,-
....
c--'f
....l
'~~~~~~~~' :-.......
".U
?-?.~~~~~~~~~~
r- :::
pt?~~~~~~~~~~~~q~,,:_~- -,--,
? .
.-.:~~~~~~~~~-~'
~,:
~.~,~, "-..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~::
?.c.....-~;"~~ ;
,-,~ '
~ ~~~~~ ~ ~ ~~~~~, .....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~,..~'~:,-~.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:
._--,,- -._,_-.--
2) Titian, Monkey Laocoon, c. 1545, woodcut by Niccolo Boldrini. A wry, playful, and possibly esoteric improvisation
by the Venetian colorist, made shortly after visiting Rome for the first time and caricaturing a prime norm of its sculpturesque
antiquarianism and Grand Style. Titian already owned a cast of Laocoon, whose poses and pathos appear
in his Brescia altarpiece of 1520-22.
responses reflect states and changes not only of reputationbut of My own research in the history of restorationillustrates how
understanding.9Their stories grow but can never be complete. The ancient fragments, such as Laocoon, become vehicles for projec-
Laocoon itself had a complex ancient history, now only partlypre- tion, liberatingwhat the beholder wants to express.1 Like the sug-
served. The subject, probablyoriginatingin oral traditionsthat dealt gestive hexagrams of the I Ching, oracular pronouncements, and
with themes of heroic sacrifice and hubris, was refashioned by astrological predictions (or indeed like placebos and holidays), the
Homer, Sophocles, and Virgil,its presently assumed model. In addi- restorationof antiquitiesserves as a medium for fancy and execu-
tion, the figures apparently refer to earlier sculpture groups, most tion that mirrorsthe maker's taste, will, and creativity.The incom-
notably in the Telephos and Gigantomachy friezes at Pergamon, pleteness or "open space" of the fragment offers us access to our
themselves images freighted with an ancestry that contributedto dormant imagination,our generative capacities. Like other divina-
Laocoon's functionsin the baroque Imperialcourt of Nero [Fig. 3].10 tions, restorations give pattern to a chaos of possibilities, echoing
85
. .....
SEYMOURHOWARD
... ...
f
. _,_
.,,~. i
#
~
~
*- ,r *. *r
X * : _1.d .x L'.? .. . eE
t r. . *S- .% %- ,r-
e # :|.K~r?-U??' o' s S-
' Bt'9 S.fi9
.fi 'i.
".-dx~,-
e~~~~~~~r~l
3) Telephos Threatening to Sacrifice Orestes at the Altar of 1*? _ s*X-. #e ar
.i .J
*X- e . e,..
a r.
u
i,'$?wb
a~
r*
t: j.
~ e er
**r
,
i
f
. . .18
.._..'4
'j,..~~~~~~~~~o.... . ....
* -
epic-dynastic cult relief from the Great Altar court interior, .,* o;l,
86
ON ICONOLOGY,INTENTION,IMAGOS,AND MYTHSOF MEANING
' . , ;:~?'
"'
;.E: l ---i-"'"'";::i': '
?
.-. ,
:. . ,- . t
one, nor for anyone all of the time. The notionof the "dassic,"a univer-
sal that survivesall change in time and place, is as much a snare and
illusionas is the idea of completeobjectivity.Whateveris life-enhancing
and gives some promiseof immortality to the mystic,magician,or aes-
thete has value and becomes culturalcapital.The ethos that survives
and thrives makes history and establishes, temporarily,reputationor
value for the communityand the self, even though,as the Baptists'song
cautions, Youmust cross the lonesome valleyby yourself.
Attempts to divine intentionmay be vain; nonetheless they are
rewarding exercises in discernment for the work-a-day worid.
Historians,trusted explorer-emissariesinto a dimmed past, function
as dedicants with our values-now ostensibly including objectivity.
By ritualimmersionthey retrievefor us, with an allied vision, what
has meaning for a constituency now, in the only time there is. As
successive waves of publicationsshow, each age, like a conqueror-
survivor, remakes the past in terms of its own image and interests, 6) Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q.,color reproduction of
as well as inheritance. Leonardo's Mona Lisa with graphite additions, 1919, Paris,
In the East, character and destiny are charted in horoscopes private collection. Rectified readymade, a transformative
draftedat birth,implyingthat we are then and afterward,as the part desacration revealing popular and esoteric meanings asso-
to the whole, at one with the universe,which as a continuumprojects ciable with the hitherto sacrosanct image.
backward and forward in time.15 How much in that infinite and
expanding cosmos can we retrieve,predict,or change by will? How
much is altered by our acts of observation,our absorbtion,and our
attempts at objectivity?
Nothing is more instructiveconcerning the complex, fragile, and Lisa, which Leonardo, its enlightened and insatiable student, contin-
reciprocalnuances of meaning and intentionthan the life of Mona ually changed and remade over the years. For contemporariesand
87
SEYMOUR HOWARD
88
ON ICONOLOGY,INTENTION,IMAGOS,AND MYTHSOF MEANING
89
SEYMOURHOWARD
10) Jackson Pollock, The Wooden Horse, 1948, Lee Krasner collection. A graphic-kinetic Abstract-Expressionist descendant
of Surrealist preconscious automatism, made with flung pigments and a found object, recalling archetypal forms
and processes used in Western American Indian sand painting.
attempt to discern the comprehensive meanings of a work. In Since antiquity,Eastem and Western sages have recognized
Aristoteliantimes, the works of man, the poet, were contrasted with that everythingcan have meaning in the eye of the beholder-con-
nature.25Greek imagery, based on phantasia (the imagination or sider the eloquence of paleolithicfound objects and industrialready-
enlightenings of psyche) and techne (the mastery of materials and mades. Brahminsstill bow to all things and beings.
mimesis) springs from a culture with an incomparablyinflected lan- To Philistines,myths are the fantasies of "others."But poetical-
guage that had no single word for art (Latinars, making) uniess we ly these parables and historiesgive form and meaning to all that is.
use, significantlyenough, poesis (making).26Art history,as an inte- Since the time of Thucydides, the historian,as such, has given a
grated study travelingthe high road of iconology and epistomology, "modern"secular-philosophicalpattern and meaning to events of
examines the phantasia and techne of things in and throughtime. moment for his people. That work preserves oral (and visual) tradi-
tions of religious storytellers,who described the trials and rites of
passage in everyday life with instructivemyth. Myths, like fables, are
Myths of Meaning lyricmetaphorsfor understanding,and all are true in this light.They
reflect a lust for knowing linked to survival,ruled by the brain and
now virtuallyinnate patterns of casual thought, which eventually
What does not teach? From whom can you not learn? What is prompts isolation, concominant guilt, and, ultimately,a complemen-
withoutmeaning? tary letting go. However, the seeming chaos of "random"events,
90
ON ICONOLOGY,INTENTION,IMAGOS,AND MYTHSOF MEANING
91
SEYMOUR HOWARD
disciplines, few of them deal with the special means of preverbal By definition, Iconology remains the single best integrating
imagery in art objects. Each sharpens but also burdens enquiry by study of the visual arts, since it embraces all subdiscipline cults, as
defining, hence limiting, the infinitive possibilities of meaning: Even noted in its comprehensive characterization and implementation by
the most satisfying gestalt is a short-lived closure. Jan Biatostocki.
1 J.
Biatostocki, Iconographyand Iconology,in Encyclopediaof World 5 G. P. Bellori,The Livesof Annibaleand Agostino Carracci,tr. and ed.
Art,New York, 1963, VII, 770-786 (historicalreview and assessments), 777, C. and R. Enggass, London, 1968, 16 (Annibale,respondingto his brother
781 (quotes). E. Panofsky, Studies in Iconology,New York,1939, and, more Agostino's rhetoricalcritique of Laocoon with a spontaneous drawing of
succinctly, idem, Iconographyand Iconology: an Introduotionto the Study of breathtakingaccuracy, countered,Poets paint withwords;painters speak with
Renaissance Art, in Meaningin the Visual Arts Garden City, N.Y, 1953, 26- works.), 61 (Annibale as a teacher by example and demonstration).The
54. For more recent reviews of iconology,see nn 23, 30. philosopher as model of his teaching: see esp. Socrates, in Plato's Crito
N.B. This study, preparedin 1989 for Porta Mortis,a Festschriftin 53-54.
memory of Jan Biatostocki (never published), has appeared in shortened 6 J. Cage, Jasper Johns Stories and Ideas, Stony Point, 1964, repro-
form in Source: Notes in the Historyof Art (XV/3, 1996, 1-13), which will be duced in Jasper Johns: Paintings, Drawingsand Sculpture 1954-1964, cata-
reprintedin my anthology Art and Imago: Essays on Art as a Species of logue, London, 1964, 27.
Autobiography(London, 1997, in press). When I recentlybegan to paint again, I was amused and gratifiedto
2 Methodology: J. Biatostocki, Stil und Ikonographie:Studien zur learn through first-handinterviewsat West Coast and Japanese exhibitions
Kunstwissenschaft,Dresden, 1966; idem, The Message of Images: Studies in how widely responses to the narrowlyperceivedcontent in my stronglyreduc-
the Historyof Art,Vienna, 1987. tive works differed:and, on the other hand, how much in theirthematicmean-
Macrocosm-microcosm,.alchemical-Cabalistic quotations: Hermes ings could be discerned and freshly revealed by viewers before titles were
Trismagistus Tabula Smaragdina 1; Z. ben Shimon Halevi, Kabbalah: provided. On layers or resonances of meaning in arts, see, further,W.
Traditionof Hidden Knowledge,London, 1979, 25. Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity,London,1947, and S. Howard,I.R.I.S.:
3 0. Pacht, Panofsky's Early Netherlandish Painting, review, The Artist'sIntentand Proliferationof Meanings, Art Criticism,9, 1994, 1-8.
7 Peter and Paul: see Gal. 2 (holier-than-thou
BurlingtonMagazine, 98, 1956, 110-116, cited in Biatostocki nl, 781, who Paul assails Peter's con-
also cites other problems in traditionaliconologicalstudies as concerns the servative values-discussed with Professor Paul Castelfranco).The English
origins, transmission,transformation,and contaminationof images, an indif- 14th-centurysaying of unknown origin, rob Peter to pay Paul, preceded by
ference to quality by commentators, their idiosyncraticreadings, overinter- French and Latinversions (Tanquamsi quis crucifigeretPaulum ut redimeret
pretation,etc.-clearly the tool is only as good as the practitioner. Petrum:As it were that one wouldcrucifyPaul in order to redeem Peter, cited
4 Mind-bodyand biosphere:A. Szent-Gyorgi,Drive of LivingMatterto in C. E. Funk,A Hog on Ice and OtherCuriousExpressions,New York,1948,
Perfect Itself, Psychosynthesis, 22, 1966, 153ff.;J. E. Lovelock,Gaia: A New 90f.), seems to preserve something of a more ancient insight.
Look at Life on Earth,Oxford,1979; J. Eccles, Animal Consciousness and 8 Expressed and not intended, intended and not expressed: The
Human Self-Consciousness, Experientia,38, 1982, 1384-1391; M. G. Coles, Creative Act, in Salt Seller: The Writingsof Marcel Duchamp (Marchanddu
Modern Mind-BrainReading: Psychophysiology, Physiology, and Cognition, Sel), eds. M. Sanouilletand E. Peterson, New York, 1973, 138-140:
Psychophysiology, 26, 1989, 251-269; J. Polidora, Mind-BodyWellness: All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the
Annotated Resource Guide, Healdsburg,California,1996 (bibliography). spectator brings the workin contact with the external worldby deci-
92
ON ICONOLOGY, INTENTION, IMAGOS, AND MYTHS OF MEANING
93
SEYMOURHOWARD
Calvesi, Duchamp invisibile:la construzionedel simbolo, Rome, 1975; J. F. ethnography, and Eastern philosophy,see especiallyJ. Campbell,The Mythic
Moffitt,MarcelDuchamp:Alchemistof the Avant-Garde,i The Spiritualin Art: Image, Princeton, 1974, and idem, HistoricalAtlas of Worid Mythology,New
AbstractPainting 1890-1985, catalogue, eds. M. Tuchmannand J. Freeman, York, 1982. For detailed readings of psycho-dynamicsin mythic lore, see,
Los Angeles, 1986, 257-271 (see also 45-57); Howardn17 (HiddenNaos). e.g., M. L. Von Franz, Individuation in FairyTales, New York, 1977.
21 Tantrickundalini:See, e.g., P. Rawson, The Artof Tantra, London, Chaos theory and diagrams of three-dimensionalcomputer-generat-
1973, 168ff., fig. 75. ed graphics by Mandelbrot,Lorenz, et. al., chartingthe patternsof seeming-
Leonardo's and Duchamp'sgeometry: see. e.g. Pythagoras, Euclid, ly randomevents: J. Gleick,Chaos: Makinga New Science, New York,1987.
Pacioli, geometry, proportion,perspective,etc., in J. P. Richter,The Literary Square one: See Trungpa n15, tapes, and First Thought Best
Worksof LeonardoDa Vinci, London, 1939, passim, esp. II,360f. (memoran- Thought,New York, 1983.
da). Cathexis on geometry,evident in Duchamp'sChocolate Grinder(Schwarz 28 I deal brieflywith the historian'srole as mediator(ego) between the
n17, no. 197, Neuilly,1913) and LargeGlass (no. 279, New York, 1915-1923), rule-bound chronicler (superego) and the impulsive critic (id) in
is featured especially in his Unhappy Readymade (no. 260, Buenos Aires, Winckelmann'sDaemon: The Scholar as Critic,Chronicler,and Historian,in
1919), a geometry book exposed to the elements, a wedding gift to his sister AntiquityRestored, n10, 162-174, esp. 171f., 282 n 29.
and Doppelganger Suzanne, another esoteric and onetime Section d'Or As usual, the Greek roots are informative,Chronos logos: of time, its
painter. See also comparisonsin Reff n17, figs. 1-2, 9-10, 15-18, and discus- lore, dated; kritikos:able to argue, discriminate,judge; historia: learning,
sions and diagramsin Art and Geometry,ed. S. Howard,esp. 19-22, Leonardo. knowing by inquiry.
22 Projected and cryptographic imagery: H. Rorschach, Psycho- The extent of a historian'sinvestmentand absorbtionis revealed by a
diagnostics, a Diagnostic Test Based on Perception (1921), Berne, N. Y., disarminganecdote told by Prof.Alain Renoir(grandsonof and subject for the
1942; H. A. Murray,ThematicApperceptionTest Manual,Cambridge, Mass., Impressionistpainter):In his firstvisit to Englandhe spoke of workadaymat-
1943; J. Baltrusaitis,AnamorphicArt (1955), tr. W. J. Strachan,New York, ters, unself-consciously, in book-learned and familiar-to-himChaucerian
1977; E. H. Gombrich,Art and Illusion;A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial English,to the delightof suddenly charmed and trust-filledfellow medievalists.
Representation,New York, 1960 (the normativereview), passim, esp. 105ff., On evidence and inference:Recall, too, the unletteredand unswayed
182ff; S. H. Hartand S. W. McDaniel,SubliminalStimulation,in Marketing skeptic's query, Was you there, Charley? and, further,habituallydiffering
Applications in Consumer Behavior: Classical and Contemporary views, perspectives, and descriptions of the same phenomena in the film
Dimensions,eds. J. C. McNeal and S. W. McDaniel,Boston, 1982, 65-174 Rashomon, and by witnesses generally.
29 Polykleitosand para mikron:Pollittn26, 15, 88f. n. 6, citing Philo
(bibl.; historic sources); S. Howard, Hidden Images: Antipasti, Source, 8/2,
1989, 25-31 (bibl.;covert imagery in subliminaladvertising,house and auto- Mechanicus Syntaxis 4.1.49 and Galen De Placitis Hippocrateset Platonis
mobile facades, grylloi, anamorphoses, Gauguin, Michalangelo, Hogarth, 5.425, in discussions of symmetria, commensurability,number, nuance, and
Blake, Friedrich,Runge, et al.). articulatingthe good (Plato Timaeus 53), See also Plutarch Questiones
Dali's Endless Enigma: R. Descharnes, Salvador Dali, tr. E. M. Convivialae 2.3.2 (Polykleitos on the difficultiesof finish); Pliny Nat. Hist.
Morse, New York,1976, 126, pi. 31, figs. 125-130 (Dali lists of hidden images 34.53 (Polykleitosjudged most praiseworthyin mutual contest by Phidias,
and their ink sketches). Kresilas, et. al.).
23 On the iconological alternativesof Warburgand his fellows to the On discoveries and truths resulting from minute description and
turn-of-the-century (and later) formalismof Wolfflin,Worringer,Bell, Fry,and detail, see Freud n16, e.g., XVII,3ff., introductionto From the Historyof an
contemporary avant-garde art., see Biatostocki nl; W. Heckscher, The InfantileNeurosis; further,The Concordance to the Standard Editionof the
Genesis of Iconology, in Stil und Uberlieferung in der Kunstdes Abendiandes: Complete Psychological Worksof SigmundFreud,ed. S. A. Guttmanet. al.,
Akten des 21. InternationalenKongresses fOrKunstgeschichtein Bonn 1964, Boston, 1980, IV,91-99 (description, c. 1600 entries), 109-111 (detail, c. 600
Berlin, 1967, III, 239ff; E. H. Gombrich, Aby Warburg: An Intellectual entries). See also Panofsky nl, 1953, 33-39 (from pre-iconographicdescrip-
Biography, London, 1970; M. Podro, The Critical Historians of Art, New tion to iconologicalsaturationin as many historicallyrelated documents as
Haven, 1982; M. A. Holly,Panofskyand the Foundationsof Art History,Ithaca, can be mastered).
1984; and S. Ferretti,Cassirer, Panofsky, and Warburg:Symbol, Art, and Aesthetic substrata:See esp. Plato and Aristotleon Truth, Beauty,
History,tr. R. Pierce, New Haven, 1989. For a polemicalextrapolation-critique and Justice, in The Great Ideas: A Syntopiconof Great Books of the Western
on the term and on selected discussants in various fields, see W. J. T. World,ed. M. J. Adler, Chicago, 1952, I, 112-125, 850-79, 11,915-93.
Mitchell,Iconology:Image, Test, Ideology, Chicago, 1986. 30 For the proliferatingexaminationsof method and consequent disar-
Pollock's Wooden Horse of 1948: L. Alloway, Jackson Pollock. ray in art historyand humanisticstudies, see, e.g., C. Elam, Art History or
Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection of Lee Krasner Kunstgeschichte? BurlingtonMagazine, 129, 1987, 643-644; L. Treitler,
Pollock,catalogue, London, 1961, no. 48 (child'srockinghorse head, found in Music and the HistoricalImagination,Cambridge,Massachusetts, 1989, esp.
an abandonedhouse on Long Island;flungpaintgenre begun in previousyear). ch. 1; and E. H. Gombrich,Topics of Our Time: Comments on Twentieth-
24 Imago: E. Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, New York, CenturyIssues in Leamingand in Art, Berkeley, 1991. For precursorsof the
1955, II,84, III,233 (Freud'sestablishmentin 1911 of his joumalImago,contin- so-called New Art History in literarystudies, see, e.g., MLAInternational
ued in AmericanImago,dealing with applicationsof psychoanalysisto the arts). Bibliographyof Books and Articleson the ModernLanguages and Literatures
25 Aristotle (1988), IV, 27-34, nos. 1401-1743 (categories of criticism:archetypal,con-
Metaphysics 7.7-9; Physics 2.1.3 (productsof techne).
26 Techne and Phantasia textualist, cultural,deconstructionist,feminist, formalist, hermeneutic, histori-
theory:J. J. Pollitt,The Ancient View of Greek
Art: Criticism,History,and Terminology,New Haven, 1974, 32ff., 53ff., 201ff. cal, linguistic,literary,Marxist,new criticism,new historicism,phenomenolog-
(excerpts). ical, postmodernist, poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, psychological,
27 Mythography:For interpretationscombining the psychological theo- reader-response, rhetorical,semiolic, socialist-realist,sociological, structural-
ries of Freud, Jung, Kerenyi, and Neumann with traditionalanthropology, ist); IV, 34-41, nos. 1744-2140 (18 categories of literarytheory).
94