Hermetic Heresies: a Sculptural Revision of the Iconography of The
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University of Cape Town The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town HERMETIC HERESIES Charlayn Imogen von Solms HERMETIC HERESIES A Sculptural Revision of the Iconography of the Classical Muse Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Art (in sculpture) at the University of Cape Town, 1998. Front cover illustration: Mosaic of the Muses from Trier, West Gennany, 2nd century A.D. Back cover illustration: Nine Malic Moulds, 1914-15, Marcel Duchamp Only within the last two or three generations have such images as TRAINS, AIRCRAFT and AUTOMOBILES acquired in the imagination those powerful properties once possessed by horses, serpents and chariots to give expression to our psychic lives. They comprise typical symbolic substitutes ... This substitution-phenomenon merits attention, especially since it indicates the future of symbols, a future which can affect group representation as well as individual images ... Chevalier & Gheerbrandt: 1996 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 2. The Historical Muses: A Genealogy ................................................................................................................................................ 10 3. Three Contemporary Versions of the Muse ......................................................................................................................... 22 4. An Iconographic Revision ........................................................................................................................................................................... 31 4.1. Towards a Model ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 4.1. i Museum (Mneme) ......................................................................................................................................................................... 36 4.1. iiAcademy (Melete) ·····························································································································································-···········40 4.1. iii Temple (Aoedte) ............................................................................................................................................................................ 44 4.2. The Ninefold Muse .................................................................................................................................................................................. 50 4.2. I Core (Kalliope) ............................................................................................................................................................................... 52 4.2. II Dart (Erato) .................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 4.2. III Cypher (Polyhymnia) .......................................................................................................................................................... 60 4.2. IV Orb (Urania) ................................................................................................................................................................................. 64 4.2. V Siren (Melpomene) ................................................................................................................................................................. 68 4.2. VI Ether (Thalia) .............................................................................................................................................................................. 72 4.2. VII VITRIOL (Kleio) .............................................................................................................................................................. 76 4.2. VIII Arc (Euterpe) ........................................................................................................................................................................ 80 4.2. IX Aeon (Terpsichore) ............................................................................................................................................................. 84 4.3. Two Keys .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 89 4.3. iv Thesaurus .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 90 4.3. v Index .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 5. Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 96 6. End Notes ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 98 7. References ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 107 8. Appendices····························································-·····-.. ·········································································································································· 112 9. Select Bibliography ................................. :.............. ~ ............................................................................................................................................ 116 Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge the generous assistance of the following: The University of Cape Town Research Committee for a University Research Scholarship and the Scholarships Committee for Jules Kramer Music & Fine Art Scholarship, Jules Kramer Grant and Maciver Scholarships. The financial assistance of the Centre for Scientific Development, (HRSC, South Africa) towards this research is also acknowledged. (Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not to be attributed to the CSD or the University of Cape Town). I sincerely thank my father for invaluable technical guidance and assistance, my mother for moral support, and my brother who helped out when computers crashed. Above all, I thank Associate Professor Bruce Murray Arnott for his excellent and resolute supervision, as well as the time, effort and patience which he devoted to this project. 1 2 Myth is the natural language of the supra-individual world. Only in terms of those symbols and images that constitute a myth is it possible to give expression, not to that which is transient, but to that which abides through all change. Sherrard: 1992 3 Fig. 1: Mount Parnassos as seen from below the shrine rf the muses at the sacred precinct at Delphi. Its connection in ancient times with Apollo and the muses led to its subsequent reputation as mountain rf poetic inspiration. 4 1 Introduction ... the iconography and the gods of this ancient (Greek mythological) tradition have, since Hellenistic and Roman times, and particularly in the Renaissance and post-Renaissance world, been regarded aesthetically, or at best allegorically, and the sense that they correspond to anything real, to an intelligible reality, and that they are dynamic potencies active in life itself, has been lost. (Sherrard: 1992, 135) Through the vehicle of mythology an extensive collection of symbols has survived the nearly ninety generations that separate the present from ancient Greece.1 It is tempting to deal only with those inherited mythological constructs that make immediate sense and discard the rest as antiquated. But, since mythological systems record layers of communal history and experience accumulated over millennia, these pervasive "memories" are not so easily circumvented. Considering the enormous time-frame within which mythologies evolve, those symbols which are potent enough to gain a place within the mythos, are unlikely to cease being pertinent: "The symbol remains, but its verbal, visual, audible and emotional settings live and die or remain dormant." (Chevalier: 1996, 943) It is broadly accepted that experiences leave imprints on the unconscious