The Portrait: Capturing Achievement, Determination, and Courage He Center for the Official Portraits in the Past Tended Are Rarely Depicted
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October 2007 | Vol. VI No. 2 One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads The Portrait: Capturing Achievement, Determination, and Courage he Center for the official portraits in the past tended are rarely depicted. When they are, Humanities is to emphasize the purpose and re- for the most part they are presented proud to announce quirements of the institution over as stick figures. Why? One sugges- that a portrait of the personality of the individual, tion is that the artists painted these our Director, Pro- the portraits in Olin Library call at- images as a form of magic to help fessor Gerald Early, tention to the subjects’ personality, them gain control over the animals Tis now in place in the southwest role, and deeds. Both styles, how- they hunted. The shared belief that corner of Olin Library’s main level. ever, are products of their sociohis- the act of painting an animal could Dr. Jian Leng Rest assured that Professor Early is torical context. Both are historical capture the animal’s spirit might be not “hanging” around the library documents filled with shared cul- why there are so few realistic repre- alone. His is, however, the most tural meanings and messages. sentations of humans by these early recent portrait to be displayed in Cave paintings done as long ago artists. This seems consistent with Olin Library to honor prominent as the Paleolithic era demonstrated some cultures’ initial reaction to Washington University scholars photography where it was thought and leaders. that the photograph could Portraits, as we know magically capture the soul them today, have existed portraiture remains the art that of the subject. for about two and a half captures specific individuals It took painting tens of thousand years. Our need thousands of years to move to commemorate a spe- during the times of their most from cavern walls to the cific person and his or her inspired achievements surfaces of painted planes. distinctive traits emerged Portraiture, however, arises as a way to celebrate in- from a different lineage. dividuality and/or social status. A that we have a long history of rep- The first human forms represented portrait is a painting in which the resenting the world around us and by ancient artists seem to be iconic person’s face is the predominant that cultural context has always fertility figures. After having been element. It is, however, more than shaped content. The 17,000-year- largely absent during the Meso- a mere representation. As James old Paleolithic wall paintings at lithic, such statuettes appear again McNeil Whistler noted: “If a man Lascaux provide a good example, al- during the Neolithic. These Neo- who paints only the tree, or flower, though they are not the oldest such lithic sculptures are no longer cre- or other surface he sees before him renderings. Animals are depicted ated solely by carving or sculpting were an artist, the king of artists so realistically that something of bone or stone. In the Near East, would be the photographer. It is for the character of each creature is for example, figurines were fash- the artist to do something beyond revealed. These Paleolithic repre- ioned of plaster or clay. Still, much visit our blog site at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/publications/blog.html this: in portrait painting to put on sentations show complete mastery like their Paleolithic ancestors, the canvas something more than the of the chosen medium, even the face the model wears for one day, caverns’ irregular walls being in- to paint the man, in short, as well cluded in the engraved, drawn, and as his features” (The Gentle Art of painted elements. Yet despite the Making Enemies, 1890). Although skill of these early artists, humans editor’s notes continued Neolithic artists seem to fo- must also capture something cus primarily on female/fer- of the complex emotions and tility, or “Mother Goddess,” real character of the subject. imagery, presumably asso- The artist must capture an es- ciated with agricultural as sence that conveys respect for well as human fertility. So, and honors individual struggle, although they are the earli- determination, and courage. est examples of human-cen- Here perhaps we return to the tered art, their purpose was “magic” of creating a represen- quite different from that of tation of someone. Rather than the modern portrait. gaining control, we gain deep- The likeness of a specific er understanding and appre- person, which we associate ciation for a unique individual. with modern portraits, be- Certainly I think that is what gins in Egypt during Dy- Jamie Adams captures in his nasties I and II, ca. 3200 portrait of Professor Early. bc. Images of deities and Throughout the history of rulers were painted and portraiture, we have seen hu- carved in places of spiritual mans depicted as sacred fetish- or political importance, es, divine beings, and histori- such as temples, tombs, and cal personages. Throughout all palaces. Ancient Egyptian these stylistic changes, portrai- artists stressed the impor- ture remains the art that cap- tance of the profile, dis- tures specific individuals during torting perspectives and the times of their most inspired proportions. The subject achievements. We at the Cen- was deemed more important than sty- This was followed by the antirepresenta- ter for the Humanities are very pleased, listic considerations. A representational tional and even iconoclastic Early Chris- but not surprised, that a portrait of our approach to portraiture first occurs dur- tian, Byzantine, and Medieval periods. Center’s director has now been added to ing Akhenaton’s revolution in New King- The Renaissance is said by many to those of other distinguished Washington dom Egypt. He was the first pharaoh to be the golden age of painting. From the University individuals proudly displayed be represented in a realistic manner, with fourteenth through the mid seventeenth at Olin Library. plaster life casts taken from the faces, century, painting reflects the revolution Jian Leng and in some cases the entire bodies, of of ideas and science (astronomy, geogra- Associate Director this ruler and his courtiers. Although the phy) during this period. As illustrated in The Center for the Humanities frontal profile was still used in portray- Leonardo da Vinci’s many studies from ing Akhenaton, his posture and figure are nature and human anatomy, artists repre- Make a Gift to the Center our first evidence of portraiture in a truly sented individuals with almost scientific for the Humanities modern sense. Akhenaton’s reign was, precision. Renaissance Flemish, Dutch, however, short-lived. oin other donors and supporters and German painters took a more realis- Jto ensure that the Center for About a thousand years later, in late tic, less idealized approach than did their the Humanities can continue to Etruscan and Republican Rome this tra- Italian colleagues. The Italians’ artwork fulfill its mission. Help us continue dition reappears. In Rome portraiture derived from ancient Greece and Rome, to make the humanities a part of was expressed in sculptures. In Roman but the northerners retained a stylistic public life and yours. Egypt, the art of painted portraiture sur- residue from the sculpture and illuminat- vives in coffin-portraits found in the Late ed manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Send your check, payable to Antique cemetery of Al-Fayum. These are Washington University, to: In the nineteenth century, photogra- The Center for the Humanities funeral portraits of ordinary people and, phy brought an entirely new approach aside from frescos, are the only paintings c/o Shannon MacAvoy Grass to portraiture. Cameras that capture an Washington University in St. Louis of the Roman period that have survived. individual’s likeness irrevocably altered Campus Box 1210 In Europe, idealized figures of kings and our attitudes toward the portrait. But One Brookings Drive rulers began to be popular, and ac- capturing the likeness of an individual, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 curate depiction of form and figure as Whistler said, is not enough. An artist was again relegated to the shadows. book of the month by Gerald Early Strictly Right: William F. Buckley and the not only for a particu- tary did not really speak American Conservative Movement lar branch of conserva- for them or to them. But By Linda Bridges and John R. Coyne Jr. tism that wanted to af- when liberals and the John Wiley and Sons, 2007, 358 pages fect and be accepted by left accuse right-wing including index and photographs mainstream political commentators of be- The Rake: A Novel thinking in America, ing opportunists, it has By William F. Buckley Jr. but for liberals who the tinny sound of envy HarperCollins, 2007, 278 pages wanted both a foil and a rather than the ring of tool, and the media that real truth. Who, in the There is little doubt that William F. wanted a face and a per- political punditry game, Buckley is the most celebrated conser- sonality. isn’t an opportunist? vative writer and thinker in post–World Buckley, who himself Politics, in part, is about War II America. He is credited with savage opportunism and bringing conservatism into the Ameri- had a television show, Firing Line, that lasted the exploitation of the can mainstream, which he clearly did, fantasies, insecurities, although there is a debate among con- thirty-three years, paved the way for such figures as writer and inadequacies, and delusions of various servatives about how much this compro- segments of the public. mised their doctrines and principles. He commentator George F. Will and radio did this by giving conservative punditry personality and author Rush Limbaugh. Buckley, indeed, was a skilled and an intellectual veneer and by making it Will and Limbaugh, of course, have pro- canny mix of high-culture affect and something worthy of the media’s atten- duced their own series of conservative populist appeal, something that none of tion by making himself something wor- clones and knockoffs: Dinesh D’Souza, his imitators and successors has come thy of the media’s attention.