The Renaissance Studies In Art And Poetry edition by Walter Horatio Pater Arts Photography eBooks
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THE history of the Renaissance ends in France, and carries us away from Italy to the beautiful cities of the country of the Loire. But it was in France also, in a very important sense, that the Renaissance had begun. French writers, who are fond of connecting the creations of Italian genius with a French origin, who tell us how Saint Francis of Assisi took not his name only, but all those notions of chivalry and romantic love which so deeply penetrated his thoughts, from a French source, how Boccaccio borrowed the outlines of his stories from the old French fabliaux, and how Dante himself expressly connects the origin of the art of miniature-painting with the city of Paris, have often dwelt on this notion of a Renaissance in the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, a Renaissance within the limits of the middle age itself--a brilliant, but in part abortive effort to do for human life and the human mind what was afterwards done in the fifteenth. The word Renaissance, indeed, is now generally used to denote not [2] merely the revival of classical antiquity which took place in the fifteenth century, and to which the word was first applied, but a whole complex movement, of which that revival of classical antiquity was but one element or symptom. For us the Renaissance is the name of a many-sided but yet united movement, in which the love of the things of the intellect and the imagination for their own sake, the desire for a more liberal and comely way of conceiving life, make themselves felt, urging those who experience this desire to search out first one and then another means of intellectual or imaginative enjoyment, and directing them not only to the discovery of old and forgotten sources of this enjoyment, but to the divination of fresh sources thereof--new experiences, new subjects of poetry, new forms of art. Of such feeling there was a great outbreak in the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the following century. Here and there, under rare and happy conditions, in Pointed architecture, in the doctrines of romantic love, in the poetry of Provence, the rude strength of the middle age turns to sweetness; and the taste for sweetness generated there becomes the seed of the classical revival in it, prompting it constantly to seek after the springs of perfect sweetness in the Hellenic world. And coming after a long period in which this instinct had been crushed, that true "dark age," in which so many sources of intellectual and imaginative enjoyment had [3] actually disappeared, this outbreak is rightly called a Renaissance, a revival.
The Renaissance Studies In Art And Poetry edition by Walter Horatio Pater Arts Photography eBooks
I had to read this for a class I was taking. The writing is a bit old-fashioned but overall I thought it was a good book. It definitely opened my eyes to the Renaissance.Product details
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The Renaissance Studies In Art And Poetry edition by Walter Horatio Pater Arts Photography eBooks Reviews
I've tried to force my way through this and am having trouble getting through the pomposity and twisted history. I doubt I'll ever finish it so I'll just review it now. The format was a bit dull and had a few errors. I think it better as a book.
This book is more about the spirit of the Renaissance than about Renaissance artists or their works of art. What Walter Pater perceived that spirit to be was the pursuit of effect. Throughout his essays, Pater intimates that effect is the grand end of art; and in his Conclusion he recommends effect, or experience, as the object of life to his readers, who were, in his day, impressionable young intellectuals. So in the essays he speaks longingly of ‘some unexpressed pulsation of sensuous life’ (p. 118) or of becoming something rather than learning something (p. 119.) He expresses these desires, either through what he fancies was the experience of an artist, or through what an artist has professed to having experienced. But in his Conclusion, he is bold enough to recommend the ideal rather plainly, not just furtively wink at it. He is still speaking the language of evasion through abstractions there. The advice is nevertheless his own, and not so indistinct as to pass over the heads of his critics or those that he desired to make disciples of. What he commends for adoption is the subjection of system to experience (p. 153.) In other words, he prescribes that one should never allow beliefs to judge or obstruct experiences. This existentialist-materialism, bon vivant worldview, should remind us of what is disdainfully put forward by the apostle Paul when imagining what the practical upshot might be if death were really the end ‘let us eat and drink,’ by which we are to understand fully, indiscriminately, and as sinfully as you please. In Pater’s ideal world, you may read into ‘moral sexlessness’ (Appendix, p. 157) your wildest, most sinful dream as the experimental ideal that trumps your belief system. Amoral neutrality is what Pater’s recommendation amounts to a position that must be open to any experience. Not surprisingly, the Victorians labeled him a hedonist.
Pater’s promotion of hedonism and deviant lifestyles is camouflaged in his essays. But in his essay on Wincklemann, the art historian (b. 1717), the cover fails to completely conceal what Pater sponsors. You get a sense, in an extract on page 123, that Wincklemann might have been a homosexual. Then, on page 126 Pater mentions, with characteristic cloudiness, the reason for his Subject’s layover in Trieste on his way to Rome “a child with whose companionship Wincklemann had beguiled his delay.” Without any qualification added which might relieve our suspicion concerning this planned delay, who will not wonder the worst about it? Research beyond this book reveals that Wincklemann was a homosexual who was fond of boys. Should we not suspect Pater of subterfuge, then? On page 120 he tries to absolve Wincklemann of the hypocrisy of his nominal faith, which he suddenly professed in order to gain a post in the library of the pope. Pater covers for his Subject as a matter of course—there is no doubt about it. Walter Pater simplistically calls the Renaissance what he wished it had been a “spirit of rebellion and revolt against the moral and religious ideas of the time” (p. 16.) It was not that simple. Pater’s backward wish reflects the dream that he wants reality to become a deviant, anti-religious society.
Forget about learning about pieces of art and what they were meant by the artists to convey. If you are after concrete criticism like that, you need to pass over The Renaissance by Walter Pater and get your hands on something like Michael Levey’s Early Renaissance, which is enlightening
and satisfying, not abstract and frustrating. To Pater, it matters little what this or that piece of art actually means. “What effect does it really produce on me?” (p. xxix.) That seems to be his only concern, or at least his main one. The ‘soul-facts’ of a work of art, what the Editor translates as ‘that ambiguous area between evidence and invention’ (p. xii), is what Pater would direct you to consider. In other words, what would you like this piece of art to mean? He would have loved modern art, which, because of its nebulosity, lends itself to nothing more than that! Much of the art that Pater barely touches upon in these essays has since been shown to be the works of different artists than he supposed were their creators. That should not matter to us because his commentary is too whimsical to distinguish one thing from another anyway.
Walter Pater is abstract, indefinite, and cloudy because he strains to produce an effect; his Renaissance is more a work of art than an effort to inform. What he says Winckelmann was not content with, “that the atmosphere between him and other minds should be thick and clouded” (p. 141), Pater, for the sake of producing his effect, indulged in. Like the pagan story was subjected to, his criticism of the Renaissance is almost ‘purely artistic or poetical treatment’ (p. 20.) He may be hinting at a response to those who will not like his obscure approach when he speaks of a narrow culture that would live on acorns after the discovery of wheat (pp. 5, 160.)
But there are times when he drops his airy-fairy communication in order to summarize to us the contents of some story or event. He is at his best then; and indeed, there is some effect transmitted, like when we read of someone who might have been traced ‘by the blood upon the grass’ and upon whom fell ‘that great malady of love’ (p. 15.) And who cannot picture the gipsy children on Sunday morning, “with their thick black hair nicely combed, and fair white linen on their sunburnt throats”? (p. 37.) Very effective! His vignettes on the life of Leonardo De Vinci are fascinating and evocative (pp. 63, 65, 66, 76.) His one paragraph biography of Joachim Du Bellay is one of the most pathetic (evoking pity) summaries of a life that I have ever read (pp. 104, 105.) If he had given us more life like that, The Renaissance would be riveting instead of vaguely interesting.
Though the meaning of an art piece cannot be reduced to what it means to each one of us (for then it would mean nothing in particular), you may find meaning (as I did) in the circumstantial similarities between certain artists and yourself. The essay on Wincklemann, for all its faults, may stimulate the singularity of purpose and vision that you need to reach your goal. The long road to perfecting your artistic touch may have to be, as it was for Da Vinci, ‘through a series of disgusts’ (p. 66.) Your resolve can be steeled by attention to Pater’s essay on him. Taken as a whole, though, this classic is not worth the trouble; it is not a classic for the right reasons; it deserves no esteem. The Renaissance is not grounded in practical intercourse; a style whose purpose it is to shade rather than clarify will be hardly decipherable. Grandiloquent style can cause a transitory effect, though. To sum up these are needless essays on the Renaissance; the content is largely meaningless, but pretty; and just percolating, are tones of pride and bitterness.
This is a very good overview of the Renaissance period for the college students, gives you the understanding of the main events in that period of history.
This work by Walter Pater, published in 1873, as
a volume of collected (previously published) essays
along with an essay on "Winckelmann", a Preface, and
a Conclusion was [and perhaps still is] an extremely
influential work of aesthetic criticism. The volume
helped shape [influence] the perceptions, the
attitudes, and the approaches of many youthful readers
in the late 1880's and 1890's. It is very interesting
to read, immensely engaging to consider and muse about,
but also offers cautions to the overenthusiastic,
easily influenced [or persuaded] disciple.
This volume consists of an Introduction [by the
editor, Adam Philips], a Preface [by Pater], 9 chapters,
and a Conclusion (in this particular edition
by Oxford Classics there is also a chronology, a
Selective Bibliography, an Appendix titled "Diaphaneite,"
and Explanatory Notes in the back. The chapter titles
(after Pater's Preface) are Two Early French Stories;
Pico Della Mirandola; Sandro Botticelli; Luca Della
Robbia; The Poetry of Michelangelo; Leonardo da Vinci;
The School of Giorgione, Joachim Du Bellay; Winckelmann;
and Conclusion.
* * * * * * * * * *
What's the problem here? Well, unfortunately, Pater
is not completely reliable as an objective perceiver
or critic. He tends to be a bit eccentric in his
individualistic perceptions and interpretations of
the art works, but he goes ahead and defends this
approach in a very "modern" sounding fashion --
which seems to include a bit of "situational perceptions,"
subjective impressions of perception and response,
and subjective criticism. Which makes for extremely
engaging [sometimes irritating] reading, but leaves
something to be desired as far as objective and
judicious thoughtfulness and truthfulness. Pater
seems to believe that it is acceptable to "bend"
or even create facts to further his own it-pleases-
me-to-think-that-this-is-or-should-be-so desires.
We know that we are on a slippery critical slope
[though it will sound all too familiar to modern
ears and modern apologetics] when the editor Phillips
informs us "In Pater's first published writing, his
essay on Coleridge of 1866, he had suggested that --
'Modern thought is distinguished from ancient by its
cultivation of the "relative" spirit in place of the
"absolute" ... To the modern spirit nothing is, or
can be rightly known, except relatively and under
conditions." It doesn't take much time to realize
that such a critical position is going to lead to
an end-position of aesthetic, critical, and moral
relativism ("You can't tell me I'm wrong, because
there is no one set way of seeing, analyzing,
believing, or evaluating."-- the spoiled, indulged child's
self-justification for the validity of its own
ego supremacy and authority against that of any
parental or adult restrictions. Such a position usually
means a lack of any meaningful in-depth self questioning
or objective evaluating of personal motives, and a
welcoming of lack of restraints in the pursuit of
pleasure and non-self discipline. And this, of course,
is the critical negative refrain that often comes
against the decadent followers of Pater's credo.]
The second fall-out effect of Pater's evaluations
and pronouncements is that some of his disciples
[self-styled] went farther than even he was willing
to approve with their hedonism and purposefully
shocking lifestyles and "decadent" behaviors and
aesthetic appetites.
But it came from statements like this, which Pater
may have meant one way, but which their subjective,
individualistic perceptions took another way "The
aesthetic critic, then, regards all the objects with
which he has to do, all works of art, and the fairer
forms of nature and human life, as powers or forces
producing PLEASURABLE SENSATIONS [caps are mine], each
of a more or less peculiar or unique kind. [We value
them --he says] for the property each has of affecting
one with a special, a unique, impression of pleasure.
Our education becomes complete in proportion as our
SUSCEPTIBILITY to these impressions increases -- in
depth and VARIETY."
Let the perceiver and the critic -- and the
experiencer -- proceed with extreme caution and good
judgment.
* * * * * * * * *
The book that launched modern art.
This book has influenced almost all subsequent studies of the period,the main figures,etc. should be one of the first books one reads on the subject. And a delight if you savour a fine stylist. Need i say more?
I repurchased this book because I enjoy Pater's writing style. It will be apparent to those who read and understand this book that "art for art's sake" (never said by Pater) did not sanction the labelling of the kitchen sink as art. His standards are quite exacting.
This edition is limited to the lectures themselves and a short preface and conclusion. The typeface is clear and well spaced. There are no annotations to assist with the occasional foreign phrase.
I had to read this for a class I was taking. The writing is a bit old-fashioned but overall I thought it was a good book. It definitely opened my eyes to the Renaissance.
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