The Idea of an Image Made by Chance by H. W. Janson - Essay Example

Image by Chance Order No. 275582 No. of pages: 8 1st 6530 The image made by chance is the manifestation of human visual perception and the way in which our cognitive facilities shape our thought processes. Janson believes that art is replete with numerous instances where we can see the “image made by chance.” In its earliest form it referred to the figures perceived by human eyes, in materials scattered around in their natural surroundings. It could be the perception of a face as seen in the pebble found at Makapansgat in South Africa1, million years ago that caused it to be preserved as a work of art. (Bednarik, Robert) This image made by chance or what could be called accidental images is proportional to our capacity of imagination. (Gamboni, Dario,pp16) Mantegna finds that an affirmation for accidental images or image made by chance leads to a denial of the classical heritage.2 (Gamboni, Dario, pp27) The cloud images in his work show different representations, such as the horse man in the top left-hand corner in his Saint Sebastian of 1459. Janson is of the view that the horse man appeared while the artist was painting the cloud and was retained as a “visual pun” in accordance with classical theory, but he did not take it to its final complete rendering because of mismatch with his work. (Gamboni, Dario, pp27) This image is most unremarkable and left incomplete in order to retain the contours of the cloud which has primacy in his schematic theorization. An image made by chance finds difficulty in acceptance as a work of art when taken in the context of the definition, that all art springs from a purposeful activity. When we look at a work of art as the image of chance, it necessitates that we attach to it divinity or a supernatural force which has shaped it or else support its existence based on an individuals imagination. In classical times, the chance images were mainly of three kinds-those found in the rocks, clouds and blots. Plinys Natural History tells of an image of Silenus chanced upon when a block of Parian marble was split open with wedges. (Page 341, Volume 1(XXXVI, v) In describing another work by Protogenes, (XXXV,x) and another painter Neacles, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the “strokes of luck” which made their work possible to achieve. In the Middle Ages the chance images were used more in theological writings than in artistic pursuits.3 Anslem of Canterbury (Cur Deus homo, ed. F. S. Schmitt, Darmstadt [1960], p. 16) compares arguments to “figments painted on clouds” (Page 343, Volume 1) By the end of the Middle Ages several relics were the only instances where chance images were given prominence, save for some works of art such as the Nativity scene from Germany, where three faces are gleaned in the ground near St. Joseph. While the face on the left is made from a piece of drapery the other two are found between plants, an instance of foliage chance image. (Page 344, Volume 1) Gothic art, inspite of its realistic representations gave importance to the chance image and this is seen in the ornately painted borders of a manuscript, which survives, from Netherlands entitled Hours of Catherine of Cleves. One of the borders is painted with butterflies where the wings are used to project chance image. On one of these wings can be seen a human face which looks like a decaying corpse that is coming back to life. This rendition of the butterfly as the corpse is definitely not unintentional, and the artist has painted it in this way as a symbol of vanitas, which is associated with death. In a painting by Albrecht Dürer we have chance images where pillows are used as “malleable rocks” and chance images are painted on them. Ladendorf 4was the first to identify these pillows, seven in all, where one has the image of a turbaned Turk and yet another shows the face of a man, craggy and wearing a pointed hat. (Page 345, Volume 1) It was during the Renaissance that we have the greatest expositions on chance images, both in sculpture and painting. Leone Battista Albertis treatise De statua, from 1430 uses this idea to describe how sculpture originated by saying that artists may “ observe in tree trunks, clumps of earth, or other objects of this sort certain lineaments which through some slight changes could be made to resemble a natural shape.” His views on painting were diametrically opposite to those on sculpture and he in facts calls painting a noble and liberal activity but his theory on painting is guided by a scientific outlook. It is in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci that we have the first and most unambiguous statement about the chance image in painting, where it is compared to “the sound of bells, in whose pealing you can find every name and word you can imagine.” Leonardos ideas about chance images may have been shaped by earlier artists like Botticelli who said that he could see in a stain “a fine landscape” (Leonardos Treatise on Painting, ed. And trans. Philip McMahon, Princeton [1956], I, 59) The image of chance is in the main perceived in natural formations and objects and it is the work of an artist to imitate nature. Leonardo is emphatic that chance images are projections of the artists imagination and although his theory of chance image in painting was new, it was transference of the same theory, from sculpture to painting. In the works of Leonardo, we do not find the use of chance images in any spotted walls or floating clouds but what is certain is that he strongly advocated the use of chance images. In a work entitled “A Madonna and Saints”, made by one of his followers in Milan we see extensive use of an image made by chance. The painting consists of a group standing against a ruined landscape and in the crumbling stones can be seen the face of a man, bearded and wearing a hat. (Page 348, Volume 1) Piero di Cosimo5 was very impressed by this theory put forth by Leonardo, and it is said that he often stared at clouds and spotted walls, seeing in them “equestrian combats and the most fantastic cities and the grandest landscapes.” To Leonardo a chance image took place in the mind of the artist, who transferred it to his painting and was very different from a Botticelli stain, which seemed to him a vague design. Leonardo’s preoccupation with senses and beauty is seen in his theory on painting, but the chance image is also of great importance to him. Leonardos theories were built around the premise that “all our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” (Marsilio Ficino: Five Questions Concerning Mind)6 Artistic images are created by the mind because the mind absorbs objects in nature whether they are beautiful or not. The chance image occurs because the artists mind is already crammed with images which have been recorded by his senses and it is into these sensory “reservoirs” that the artist delves into while constructing his work. (Marsilio Ficino: Five Questions Concerning Mind) Leonardo calls upon artists to look closely at clouds, walls and multi-hued stones in order to find in them images which they can then transfer onto their works. It is the artists’ job to project these visuals on to his canvas. When an artist uses his senses to create his art, he should accept all that he finds appealing to his senses and infuse it in his creations, because an artist with “sharp senses” does not need scientific theory to create what his mind sees. The inner mental powers that created chance images according to Alberti, were given a further impetus in Leonardos theorizing. In Albertis hand this mental skill was a filter that separated the beautiful from the unappealing, but with Leonardo this became the capacity to “reorganize creatively the material gained in perception.” (Marsilio Ficino: Five Questions Concerning Mind) Leonardo moved away from objectivity towards that theory of art which laid emphasis on the inherent genius of its practitioner. This led to the technique of sprezzatura, where rational control was sacrificed for a frenzy of inspiration. This led to the visual arts having an unfinished, rough look. Leonardo’s stress on the chance image is cited as one of the reasons for the new style of painting, popular in the 16th century, in which the polished surface of strongly patterned stones such as agates were used as the background for composition of portraits and figures. The colored veins stood in for the clouds and other landscape complements. These were seen as “an interplay of ars and natura” by Baltrušaitis7 and were more often than not, treasured by royalty. Leonardos exhortations on chance image as seen in his Treatise on Painting found its greatest acceptance in modern times. Alexander Cozens, a British landscape painter in his work “A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape” suggested that artists could employ “a mechanical method... to draw forth the ideas” wherein they put ink blots on a paper, using a brush and then refer to this for ideas for drawing. According to Cozen his method is an improvement on Leonardo’s technique of observing images on walls and such things since the artist is free to create the chance images at his will and pleasure. (pg 350, Vol 1) and the work that emerges is “a production of chance, with a small degree of design.” These “blot-scapes” with a “graphic rhythm” were derided by critics and Henry Fuseli terms them as “modern experiments of extracting compositions from an ink-splashed wall.” Inspite of the shortcomings of this method, it endowed landscape artists the freedom to unshackle their brush from the rigors of a strict style and its effect on Turner and Constable was indeed profound. In the hands of Whislter, the idea of chance images were so radicalized, that the artist said that he would use “any incident …which shall bring about a symmetrical result.” Here the word incident is a stand-in for chance and symmetry stood for “harmonious.”(pg 352, Vol1) The image of chance found many expositors in the modern day also, and the artistic world which was turned upside down by the work of Dada and surrealism, had its roots in chance image which they claimed was the most important component of aesthetics. Hans Arp wrote about the muse of chance and Marcel Duchamp was an avid practitioner of chance effects. The chance image in their works became “chance meetings” where the placing of the objects in the most oddest of ways liberated the imagination and put the onus of interpretation on the viewer. The effect of chance in inspiring an artist is acknowledged as one of the most singular theories in the field of creativity. Commenting on Jackson Pollack’s paintings, his mother gives us an unbiased view of the role of the unconscious with regard to artistic production. Especially pointing out to Pollack’s paintings that looked perverse and chaotic and probably maybe a collage of confusion, that many critics found to be particularly disturbing and surmised that this type of art could have been generated or adapted by chance. Pollack had a close association with psychoanalysis and hence he improvised in his paintings. “The primary point on which this visual joke turns, of course, is the realization that the random splatters of sauce on the mother’s apron are analogues of the so called “dripped” or “poured” paintings of ca. 1947 -50, that have become known as Pollack’s signature works.”8 (pgs. 72 - 91) References See Horst W. Janson, “The ‘Image Made by Chance’ in Renaissance Thought,” De Artibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky (New York: New York University Press, 1961), I, pp. 254-266; H. W. Janson, “Chance Images,” in Philip P. Wiener, ed., Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas (New York: Scribner’s, 1973), I, pp. 340-53; Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, L’art de la tache. Introduction à la Nouvelle méthode d’Alexander Cozens (Paris: Limon, 1990). Robert Bednarik, “The ‘Australopicethine’ Cobble from Makapansgat, South Africa,” South African Archaeological Bulletin, no. 53 (1998), pp. 4-8. Jurgis Baltrušaitis, “Pierres imagées,” Aberrations, quatre essais sur la légende des formes (Paris, 1957). Heinz Ladendorf, “Zur Frage der künstler- ischen Phantasie,” Mouseion, Studien... für Otto Förster (Cologne, 1960), pp. 21-35. ARCHITECTURAL THEORY OF THE RENAISSANCE http://www.tau.ac.il/~arthis/ARCH/6-THEORY-REN.htm Marsilio Ficino: Five Questions Concerning Mind, in Ernst Cassirer, Paul Kristeller, John Randall, Jr. eds., The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1948 H. W. JANSON. The Dictionary of the History of Ideas Electronic Text Center. PO Box 400148 Charlottesville VA 22904-4148 434.924.3230 at the University of Virginia Library. © 2003 the Gale Group Last Modified: Thursday, May 1, 2003 Dictionary of the History of Ideas http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhiana.cgi?id=dv1-47 Potential Images By Dario Gamboni Read More