The Hidden Hand
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Postures Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 1 13/05/2019 10:45 Desmond Morris Postures Body Language in Art Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 2 13/05/2019 10:45 Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 3 13/05/2019 10:45 Introduction 6 Greetings 8 Distress 166 The Hail 10 · The Handshake 16 · The Embrace 22 Weeping 168 · Mourning 174 · Agony 178 The Bow and the Curtsey 26 · Kneeling 32 · Prostration 40 Terror 182 · Disgust 186 · Symbolic Distress 190 Blessings 48 Self-protection 192 The Laying on of Hands 50 · The Latin and Orthodox Blessings 56 Fleeing 194 · Surrender 198 · Armour 202 · Cut-off 208 Buddhist Blessings 62 · The Vulcan Blessing 64 Body-cross 214 · Arms Folded 218 · Arms Akimbo 222 Fingers Crossed 224 · Protective Cornuta 226 Tattoos 228 · The Veil 230 Status 68 The Erect Posture 70 · The Double-split Hand 74 The Erotic 234 The Hidden Hand 80 · The Dominant Elbow 86 The Codpiece 90 · The Pointed Foot 94 · The Bent Body 98 The Nude 236 · The Female Breast 244 Uninhibited Actions and Urban Squalor 102 The Fig-leaf 250 · The Sexual Embrace 252 The Erotic Kiss 258 · Bondage 262 Insults 106 At Rest 266 Making a Face 108 · The Tongue-out 114 · The Nose-thumb 120 Finger Gestures 124 · Hand Gestures 130 · The Forearm Jerk 138 Legs Crossed 268 · Squatting 272 · Leaning 276 Mooning 140 Lying Down 282 · Rocking 290 · Yawning 294 Sleeping 300 Threats 144 Further Reading 308 The Raised Fist 146 · The Air-grasp 152 Picture Credits 309 The Threat-face 156 · The Glove-slap 160 Acknowledgments 314 Symbolic Threat Gestures 164 Index 315 Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 4 13/05/2019 10:45 Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 5 13/05/2019 10:45 of animals, and amused me when he said, with typical modesty, ‘I think Introduction I have got the scream, but I am having terrible trouble with the smile.’ The body language of his figures was clearly on his mind. He had recently done a portrait of a baboon and, knowing that I was a zoologist, he asked Every time an artist portrays a human subject, a decision has to be me if he had managed to get the scream of the animal right. I said that he made about the posture of the figure. Will the subject be standing, sitting had, but I was lying. The creature Bacon had portrayed was taken from or reclining? Will they be smiling, screaming or deadpan? Will they be a well-known photograph of a yawning baboon, but I did not dare tell hugging themselves or gesticulating? Will they be making a symbolic him this because he was notorious for destroying any painting of his that sign of some kind? Examining the body language displayed in works of had what he saw as an imperfection. He kept a Stanley knife in his studio, art reveals some unusual traditions and conventions, and tells us a great and had already slashed to pieces dozens of his paintings. I did not want deal about changing social attitudes and customs throughout history. his splendid baboon painting to suffer this fate, so I kept quiet about the It provides an exciting new way of viewing art. Even the most familiar yawn. It was obvious to me that the animal was yawning, because when paintings are suddenly seen in a fresh light. a baboon screams, it does so in the direction of whatever has provoked When we look at a portrait or the portrayal of a group of human the scream. Yawning is non-directional, and this particular baboon had figures in a picture, our attention is usually focused on the identity of the its jaws wide open, pointing upwards towards the sky. A man might figures, and the style and quality of the painting. We are aware of their scream at the heavens in frustration, but not a baboon. It pleases me to postures, gestures and expressions, but we do not study them in detail. think that this splendid painting survives because of a small fib of mine. It is the same when someone is gesticulating as they speak to us in One way to approach the intriguing subject of human body language ordinary conversation. We see that their hands are moving, and their in art is to take each part of the human body in turn, looking separately gestures have an influence on our feelings about what is being said, at the special finger gestures, the hand movements, the position of the but we do not consciously analyse what they are doing. arms, the tilt of the head, the facial expressions, the set of the legs and In my book Manwatching (1977), I introduced the subject of body the general postures of the body. But while this has the merit of being language and showed how much we can learn by studying human actions systematic and objective, it is also rather dry and academic. A more rather than just by listening to words. I was focused on social encounters rewarding approach is to look at what a particular form of body language in everyday life, but I did include one or two paintings that showed a signals to us. What is its social function? What emotion does it reveal? particular gesture or posture very clearly. Much later, in 2013, I published This is the method I have employed here. In some cases, it is a matter a book on the evolution of human art, The Artistic Ape, in which I looked of universal human body language that is understood all over the world. at the changes that have occurred over a period of three million years of Everyone comprehends a frown or a shaken fist. But other actions are artistic activity. In this volume, I have put these two subjects together, deeply embedded in a particular phase of history, or in a local culture, combining my two separate fields of study for the first time. I have often where special rules of conduct have been imposed. So this book is three wondered why Napoleon was always portrayed with his hand pushed into things: a study of human body language, a cultural history of social his waistcoat – now, at last, I know the answer. Identifying a posture and customs and a survey of changing artistic styles. It covers a vast range then analysing its meaning, not only in terms of basic human behaviour, of visual creativity, from prehistoric figurines, tribal artefacts and early but also in relation to the customs of the period in which it was depicted, religious art to modern art, folk art and graffiti. And it ranges from Europe has turned out to be an absorbing story of art detection. For this, my to the Far East, and from Africa to the Americas. Juxtaposing hugely double life – as a scientist and as an artist – has proved invaluable. varied images side by side was often the best way to illustrate a particular On a personal note, I recall that when Francis Bacon and I were point, and to bring the subject of body language in art vividly to life. examining Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman (1937) at close quarters, we began a discussion of facial expressions in art that made me realize how important the subject of body language was to him. When he died, I was not surprised to see that he had a copy of Manwatching in his bedroom. What did surprise me was that he had two copies, one clean and neat, and the other thumbed and grubby. The implication was that he used one for reading at leisure, and kept the other to refer to when working in his studio. He asked me many questions about the facial expressions 6 7 Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 6 13/05/2019 10:45 Postures_Prelims_Repro_pp_001_007.indd 7 13/05/2019 10:45 is a reminiscence, fellow citizens, and an imitation of the posture The Hidden Hand of Solon, showing his customary bearing as he used to address the people of Athens. One of the best-known gestures in historical portraits is Napoleon’s In the 18th century, the Grand Tour of classical locations became hidden hand [58]. The emperor stands proudly erect with his right hand extremely popular with wealthy young upper-class men, who grew thrust deeply into his bulging white waistcoat. Many reasons, some of them familiar with the costumes and conduct of the inhabitants of ancient verging on the ridiculous, have been offered to explain this characteristic Greece and Rome. This knowledge seems to have spread the idea that posture: he had a stomach ulcer; he was winding his watch; he was scratching it is more dignified to conceal your right hand when striking a pose an itch; he had breast cancer; he had stomach cancer; he had a deformed [55, 56]. The artists of the day soon began to suggest to their sitters that, hand; he had a shoulder injury that he wished to conceal; he kept a when having a portrait painted, it would benefit them to stand with perfumed sachet in his vest that he would sniff surreptitiously; he was the right hand thrust into their clothing. In 1737, in an etiquette guide wearing a ring given to him by a secret lover that he had to hide from entitled The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior, the author, François Nivelon, Josephine; he was giving a secret Masonic sign; and, finally, that artists remarked that the hidden-hand pose signified ‘manly boldness tempered do not like to paint hands. with modesty’. Increasingly, the pose came to be considered a sign of The truth is rather different. To start with, all the explanations that good breeding.