Comment on Venus Priapus
In his 1755 Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst [Thoughts on Imitating Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture], the German art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann called on the artists of his day to establish a collection of prototypes that would draw upon:
“all of mythology; the best poets of ancient and modern times; the secret worldly wisdom of many nations; ancient monuments on stone, coins, and tools” (Winckelmann, op. cit. 2012, p. 163).
Such a collection of prototypes should make it possible for artists to absorb the “worldly wisdom of the past,” and thereby acquire the ability to juggle an advanced, allegorical vocabulary of concepts and images in their own artworks.
Allegory, in particular, was one of the “great general laws,” the fundamental, essential traits, that Winckelmann had identified in Greek art, and which he had called on the artists of his day to follow. These “general laws” were:
- Imitation of “beautiful nature” in combination with “ideal beauty.”
- Use of “the Greek outline,” i.e., the contour lines that define a figure as neither “bloated” nor “gaunt,” and which give it a sense of unity.
- Drapery in the form of “thin and wet robes,” which permit the “noble” contours of the body to emerge clearly.
- A “noble simplicity and quiet greatness … both in pose and in expression.” The figure should maintain its “strength of soul” and not succumb to exaggerated pathos, so-called “parenthyrsis”.
- An allegorical visual language DP: “An artist who has a soul, who has learned to think … shows that he is a poet and [paints] his figures with the help of images, that is, allegorically.”
It is with Winckelmann as backdrop that one can best understand both Thorvaldsen’s art-theoretical mindset and the raison d’être of his “prototypical” art collections, as well as his figures’ “Greek” shape and complex allegorical significations.
Last updated 11.02.2021