Is the face the index of the mind? (as smoke is an index of fire)
That seems to be a prevalent notion in European culture - but I'm not sure
it's universal. Especially in eastern Asia, where folklore is saturated with
various demons, especially mischievous "fox spirits", that love to assume the
form of wise old men or sweet and innocent young women. Woe to the lonely
traveler who thinks that attractive people are as innocent they appear!
Berger cites - and attacks - this example of the "physiognomic fallacy" in art
history:
"The shrewd, worldly-wise look in his eye - he was 36 at the time - makes him
seem much older than his years. His attitude is unaffected, as free and
natural as possible. He has just come in from the street and entering his
friend's studio, is taking off his gloves and cape. Thus Rembrandt observed
him, and thus revealed his innermost being" (Otto Benesch, 1957, discussing
Rembrandt's portrait of Jan Six)
Concerning which, Berger notes that :"Benesh's statement seems based on a
chain of presuppositions - first, that such an entity ("innermost being")
exists, second, that it can be known; third that it can be revealed; and
fourth that Benesch knows it and can recognize it when Rembrandt reveals it"
Whew!
That certainly makes Benesch's statement seem far-fetched -- and if it is
typical of the Vienna school of art history, it would undermine whatever claim
it has for putting art history on a scientific basis.
But "revealed" is the only word that provokes those four improbable
suppositions. If Benesch had replaced it with "imagined", the problem would
disappear.
And the other example that Berger offers avoids that issue:
"The portrait is an epitome of Rembrandt's ideals - dignified masculinity, a
certain quality of cool correctness mingled with an impressible warmth.
Rembrandt endowed the living subject of his art with traits of an active and
contemplative life, for in reality Jan Six was both a successful poet and a
politician... the automatic gesture of putting on a glove prefaces his going
out into the street...the actual public face has not been "put on" or
arranged, but the subject's features are relaxed in a momentary unawareness of
others as his mind is absorbed in gentle reverie" (Albert E. Elsen, 1967)
Berger does not attack the Elsen quote - except to note that there is some
dispute over when Mr. Six was putting that glove on or taking it off - and,
indeed none of Elens's statements are verifiable.
But what is verifiable in discussions of the imaginative arts? The weave of
the canvas, the chemistry of the paint, and then what?
As Berger notes, his skepticism can "boomerang and slice through my own
ekphrases" -- as he reads the painted face as "an index of what sitter and
painter "have in mind", an expression of their designs on the observer"
Though Berger claims "the difference is important in two respects". First -
his stories do not appeal to the archive (of information about the sitter)
And second, he accepts that "the act of portrayal represented by the image is
a fiction"
But don't we know that if "the portrait is an epitome of Rembrandt's ideals"
it's a fiction, and is Elsen's ekphrasis really harmed by the archival
information that he included? ("Jan Six was both a successful poet and a
politician")
Isn't that archival information something you, the reader of books about
paintings, would like to know?
So, I'm not convinced that physiognomic art history is all that problematical
as long as it is not overstated -- and as long it acknowledges that much more
than the face is involved in the representation of a person. (i.e., attention
should be paid to the entire painted surface)
It would be interesting to compare, for instance, Elsen's ekphrasis of the
portrait of Jan Six with whatever he might say about El Greco's portrait of
Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino (currently at the Art Institute)
http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rembrandt/rembrandt79.html
http://timelookingaround.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/467px-ElGreco-HortensioP
aravicino.jpeg
.. and just let him weave a story about different kinds of men and different
kinds of places, based, ultimately on his understanding of European life
rather than on some pseudo scientific approach to pictorial representation -
especially an investigation of the act of posing.
Berger asserts that "the act of posing, in the pre-photographic era, must
always be an intentional act"
But, I would note that portraits have often been made without the subject
posing at all (especially of very important people)-- and even if they have
posed - the pose taken may or may not have been the pose shown in the
portrait.
Berger asks for "a theory of posing that will recuperate the sitter's
contribution"
But that is no less speculative than one that aims to discover the sitter's
"innermost being"
And it's a lot less interesting -- since I think most of us, when seeing an
image of a person's face, feel compelled to ask "what was that person really
like?"
Or, at least, I am.
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