The aesthetic narrative is the most important because it attempts to explain why we are especially interested in the paintings of Rembrandt rather than his peers in 17th. C Netherlands -- like Jan Lievens, his exact contemporary with whom he shared a studio. Both of them were equally successful in their day. Any "genetic" and "contextual" narrative that applies to one would equally apply to other. But Worldcat shows 192 books about Lievens, and 26,535 books about Rembrandt.
So why are there so many more stories told about the one than the other? One answer is institutional. Rembrandt has been canonized by art historians much as the letters of Paul were canonized by the bishops of the early church. So for every interpretation of a non-canonical text from that period -- say, the Gospel of Thomas -- there will be a thousand - or even a thousand-thousand - interpretations of Paul's letters. And this institutional world of modern scholarship is the one in which Berger lives, and to which he renders such exemplary service by quoting so many of his colleagues. He's not writing about Rembrandt -- he's writing about writing about Rembrandt - or to push the envelope of human understanding to its very limits : writing about writing about writing about Rembrandt. (which is what makes his prose too dense for Kate to comfortably follow) But there are also narratives that establish a canon rather than ride on its coat tails -- like Carl Van Doren's discovery of "Moby Dick". Here are the aesthetic qualities which Van Doren presented in the very first sentence of his discussion of Melville in "The American Novel", 1922: "Herman Melville much surpassed Simms and Cooper in boldness and energy of speculation and in richness and beauty of style" "Boldness", "energy", "beauty", "richness" -- these are all aesthetic attributes. And even if their presence can never be proven -- the way an astrophysicist can prove the temperature on the surface of Mars - they begin an attempt to describe an objective, measurable fact: the fact that Van Doren really enjoyed reading Melville. Which is the foundation of all art criticism. ............................................................................. ........................................ >I agree that the narratives re art should include the technological, the autobiographical, the conservation/provenance, and patronage (which could be one category) but also three. As for the aesthetic, no, because it is not objective and descriptive. Besides, it is implicated in all the other categories. ____________________________________________________________ Home Improvement Projects Click here to find experienced pros to help with your home improvement project. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=QtGipYIud4GyXIsAhYojXgAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAShAAAAAA=
