Realism in Berninis Apollo and Daphne and Poussins Et in Arcadia Ego - Essay Example

? Realism as a Method to Depict Immediacy, Unexpectedness, and Wonder in Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne and Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego By Course Name Professor Institution Location Date It’s kind of like that feeling you get immediately after you scrape your knee deeply; you know there is a serious and long lasting pain that is about to overtake you, but for that split second everything just seems to hang in the air. It’s that disruption of stasis that I felt the night my ex dropped the “we need to talk” line on me. It’s cliche and immature to dwell on emotional turmoil, yet that night my roommate got an earful of conversations and complaints. Before turning in for the night, he left me with that old as time adage that has passed through nearly every broken heart. “You can’t understand happiness without feeling pain,” he told me, and as cliche as the phrase is, it is still something I hold to be true. As I studied Apollo and Daphne1 and Et in Arcadia Ego2, I couldn’t help but wonder if Gian Bernini and Nicolas Poussin were attempting to express the same heartache that is so central to this human condition we share. Beyond the longing gaze in Apollo’s eyes and the lamenting stare of the shepherd’s face, what drew me to this question were not the works themselves, but the emotions I felt because of the works. To capture these emotions, Bernini and Poussin incorporated a novel technique of using realism as a means to achieve the awe-inspiring effect so common to Baroque visual culture. In his 1998 book Italian Baroque Sculpture, Boucher highlights the fact that awe-inspiring effects such as “immediacy and mimicry, and the unexpected and the surprising were all prized by Baroque artists”3. Just as happiness cannot be realized without first experiencing a baseline of pain, feelings of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder cannot be realized without first experiencing a baseline of normalcy. To provide viewers with this baseline normalcy, Bernini and Poussin chose to depict their shocking scenes with a realistic style. Rosenthal captures this technique in her article “The Basic Theories of French Classic Sculpture” by saying, “An illusionism which disregards tactile reality requires utmost visual reality. It is for this reason that it became one of the most important aims of Italian Baroque sculpture to represent ‘flesh as flesh’…”4 . While this quote focuses on sculpture, this emphasis on a realistic style was central to all Baroque visual culture. Combining realistic figures with the shocking imagery of a woman turning into a tree or a forgotten tomb in the middle of a field created these desired effects. Because realism is necessary for the effects of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder, realism was essential to Baroque visual culture and was skillfully incorporated into the works Apollo and Daphne and Et in Arcadia Ego. The most obvious effect in Bernini’s sculpture is one that is highly associated with Baroque visual culture: immediacy. In his article “The Element of Motion in Baroque Art and Music”, William Flemming describes this increased feeling of immediacy in Baroque culture by saying, “The Baroque period brought about a quickening of the pulse of human affairs. It was an age of movement, activity, exploration. Time is of utmost importance. The mechanical clock becomes the dominant symbol of this period and performs the unique function of translating the movements of time into spatial dimensions.” If one is to follow this symbolism to Bernini’s sculpture, then Daphne’s extended arm is minutes away from striking twelve: an obvious symbol of the immediacy felt in the scene. This sculpture is not a still life; this is the peak of action in a moment that will define the lives of these two gods forever. To simply depict this scene with a realistic style would completely miss the specter of a woman turning into a tree, yet to completely focus on the tree would be to ignore the metamorphosis. This is where Bernini’s true genius is realized. To achieve the effect of immediacy that would become so common to Baroque visual culture, Bernini used the symbol of a clock’s hand almost at midnight to confer the intensity and drama of the moment to the viewer. Bernini uses realism to relay this feeling of immediacy, and because realism is necessary for the effect of immediacy, it was essential to Baroque visual culture and is skillfully incorporated by Bernini in his statue Apollo and Daphne. Poussin uses the same symbolism in Et in Arcadia Ego. As the shepherds are discovering the tomb, their rods resemble clock hands at just before twelve. Poussin uses this symbol to give the readers the sense of immediacy felt by the shepherds upon discovery of the tomb, and upon realization that they too will die and be forgotten. The symbol of the clock hands is a symbol of the brevity of life. Poussin also used realism to confer the immediacy of the truth behind this symbol to the viewer. An isolated, forgotten tomb in the middle of a field is not realistic, and to simply paint a tomb in a field would not give the viewer the effect of immediacy. Instead, when the forgotten tomb is combined with the realistic shepherds, the viewer can sympathize with the tomb’s discoverers and can feel the effect of immediacy the shepherds must have felt. Through his use of realism, Poussin effectively confers the emotion of immediacy to the viewer and utilizes an essential style to Baroque visual culture. Tied to the feeling of immediacy is the effect of the unexpected. This effect is certainly central to the myth of Apollo and Daphne, and so must be central to the statue. It is the illogic of the myth that makes it shocking and makes it memorable. No one expects the object of their love to turn into a tree before their eyes, it doesn’t happen and it doesn’t make sense, yet it is for this reason that the shock of the unexpected burns this image into the reader’s mind. This is the effect Bernini was attempting to capture in his sculpture: that double take moment where you’re too shocked to turn away and too surprised to forget the image. To achieve this, Bernini chose to incorporate portions of both tree and human figures in a realistic style to depict an unreal event. It is this marriage of the totally normal and totally abnormal that makes the effect of unexpectedness so vivid in his sculpture. The metamorphosis is the shocking part of the statue, and it’s this part that Bernini attempted to highlight through his use of realism. Bernini sculpted the bark rigid and natural, almost rising up from the stone Apollo and Daphne stand upon, as a symbol of the natural, tree side of Daphne’s metamorphosis. This is contrasted by the smooth curvature of Daphne’s beautiful body. The human figures look natural, and without the bark and leaves, would look almost mundane. Similarly, without the human figures, the bark and leaves would look incomplete but natural and static. Combining the two together gives the viewer the initial feeling of a baseline normalcy upon viewing the typical human forms, yet the effect of the unexpected is realized when the viewer sees the juxtaposed bark crawling up Daphne’s leg, and the contrasting branches of leaves engulfing her hands. This effect of the unexpected makes the sculpture memorable and significant to the viewer, and adds to the “meraviglie” of the work Bolland describes in her article “Desiderio and Diletto: Vision, Touch, and the Poetics of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne”5. Because realism is necessary for the effect of the unexpected and it was essential to Baroque visual culture, Bernini utilized the style to relay this effect to the viewers. Unexpectedness is an understatement to describe the feeling the shepherds must have had upon discovering the tomb. Unexpectedness is a central component to the painting Et in Arcadia Ego, and it is this unexpectedness that makes the painting memorable. The shepherds are deeply rooted in this life, as evidenced by their confusion and unexpectedness shown towards the tomb discovered. The tomb, conversely, stands as a symbol of the fate that awaits every person born. It is this unexpected transition from a careless shepherd in the field to a lamenting dead man walking that Poussin attempts to capture with realism in his painting. If Poussin had not depicted the tomb, and thus death, as realistic, the viewer would not be able to have the same revelation the shepherds had. Furthermore, because the painting is realistic, the viewer can better relate to the unexpectedness of finding a tomb forgotten in a field. If Poussin had chosen to paint the discovery in an unrealistic style, the viewer would have been quicker to dismiss the uncomfortable and unexpected realization that death awaits everyone; yet by painting the tomb in a realistic style, the viewer is forced to confront the reality of this absurd and unexpected fate. It is through his use of realism that Poussin creates the effect of the unexpected for the viewer, a style and effect central to Baroque visual culture. Possible the most important feeling to Baroque visual culture was the feeling of wonder. Baroque visual culture was centered on wonder and it is this wonder that still stirs inside of viewers today who stand in front of Apollo and Daphne and view the mystery of the ancient myth. While this wonder is easy to feel and to recount, capturing this effect was a much more difficult task. When Bernini was faced with the task of capturing the wonder of Daphne turning into a tree to be saved from Apollo’s love, he again turned to the marriage of the surreal with the normal to achieve his goals. If a viewer studying the statue simply focuses on the bark surrounding Daphne’s ankle, the feeling of wonder is lost on this seemingly mundane object. The lower bark is rigid, formed, and looks completely natural. This bark does not form to Daphne’s leg and is more akin to the rock from which it grows than to the body that it surrounds. This is Bernini’s realism showing. It is only when the viewer follows the bark up from the ground that the wonder of the sculpture is realized. As the bark stretches up, it begins to surround Daphne’s thigh and hips, curving itself to her body and engulfing her form. This is the wondrous moment of the statue. Only when the viewer truly feels as if he or she is watching bark actually take over Daphne does the effect of wonder begin to sink in, and this feeling is only evident at the unreal interface between two realistically depicted forms. The shock of Daphne’s metamorphosis is made clear when the natural roughness of the bark is compared to her smooth and curved human form. Because realism is necessary for the effect of wonder, it was essential to Baroque visual culture and skillfully employed by Bernini. Poussin also skillfully marries the surreal with the normal to achieve the effect of wonder. Poussin’s painting deals with the equally wondrous theme of life and death, and to relay this feeling to the viewer, he matches the surreal forgotten tomb with the normal appearance of the shepherds. In his painting, the shepherds are a symbol of life. They are the background of normality upon which Poussin contrasts the surreal symbol of absurd death. Individually, each of these elements offers the viewer far less wonder than their combination. A forgotten tomb is not wondrous; it is sad and lonely. Furthermore, pastoral shepherds are certainly not the stuff of wonder. These shepherds were chosen for their normality, but it is this complete lack of wonder in the subjects that, when contrasted with the complete abnormality of the tomb, instills the feeling of wonder in the viewer. Because realism is necessary to achieve the effect of wonder, Poussin effectively relays this emotion to his viewer through this central style of Baroque visual culture. Bolland describes in her article one possible interpretation of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne by explaining that it is, “said to celebrate the sense-based pleasures of art.”6 If the viewer follows this logic, than it is not hard to see why Bernini chose not only to highlight the effects of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder in his sculpture Apollo and Daphne, but why he chose the Baroque style to begin with: because Bernini, Poussin, and Baroque visual culture as a whole believed these sense-based pleasures were the purpose of art. Bernini chose to draw out feelings of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder in the viewer because these feelings were the stuff of life to him. They were the reason he created, and they were the beauty he wanted to others to see in the world around them. The Art Bulletin furthers this idea with an interpretation of both Apollo and Daphne and Et in Arcadia Ego. “…Apollo and Daphne [show] disillusionment about the frailty of physical love, and the Et in Arcadia ego in the first treatment shows nothing but regret at the impermanence of human happiness,”7 yet does this interpretation negate the beautiful feelings of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder that these works so eloquently draw out of the viewer simply because these feelings are limited to the spans of our lives? Absolutely not. Knowing these sense-based pleasures are limited to the living only makes them sweeter. Just as it is impossible to know happiness without first feeling pain, it is impossible to know the beauties of this life without first knowing that these beauties will end. It is because realism is necessary for this effect that Bernini and Poussin chose to use this style, but it is because this effect was central to Baroque visual culture that they chose to focus on it in their respective works. Through feelings of immediacy, unexpectedness, and wonder, Baroque visual culture helps people see the beauty in the world around them today, and its influence remains. Bibliography 1. Anon. 1938. Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego. The Art Bulletin. 20(1) p.96. Accessed May 31, 2011. 2. Bernini, G. L., 1622. Apollo and Daphne. Galleria Borghese, Rome. 3. Bolland, A., 2000. Desiderio and Diletto: Vision, Touch, and the Poetics of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, Art Bulletin 82(2) pp.309-29. Accessed May 30, 2011. 4. Boucher, B., 1998. Italian Baroque Sculpture. New York: Thames and Hudson. 5. Flemming, W., 1946. The Element of Motion in Baroque Art and Music. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 5(2) pp.121-28. 6. Mitchell, E. D. Apollo and Daphne. Accessed May 30, 2011. http://faculty- staff.ou.edu/M/Erika.D.Mitchell-Deluca-1/ApolloandDaphne.html. 7. Rosenthal, G., 1942. The Basic Theories of French Classic Sculpture. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2(6) pp.42-60. Accessed May 30, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/426156?seq=10&Search=yes&searchText=bar oque&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Di id%253A10.2307%252Fi217705%26Query%3Dbaroque%26Search.x%3 D0%26Search.y%3D0%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=1&retur nArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=null. 8.  Poussin, N., 1637.  Et in Arcadia Ego. Chatsworth House, North Derbyshire, England. Read More