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Culture Documents
cole
des hautes E
ge (Paris: Flammarion, ss): Let us imagine. That is what historians always must
do. Their role is to assemble the remains and traces left behind by men of the past, to
establish and critique the evidence scrupulously. But these traces, especially those left by
the poor, by everyday life, are scarce, discontinuous. For remote periods such as the one
in question here, they are extremely rare. A framework can be erected from them, but it
is very fragile. Between its widely spaced supports is a gaping uncertainty. Thus when it
comes to Europe in the year sooo, we must use our imaginations (s,).
PAGE 278 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:19 PS
Notes 279
z. See the remarkable article, suggestive in ways that transcend its specic subject,
by Pierre Fedida, Passe anachronique et present reminiscent: Epos et puissance memori-
ale du language, LE
geTemps
Modernes s, no. z (sso): ,osoz; republished in Didi-Huberman, Fra Angelico. That the
history of art in the objective genitive sense (the discipline) is crucially constitutive of
the history of art in the subjective genitive sense (of contemporary art, for example) is
forcefully demonstrated in Hans Belting, The End of the History of Art? trans. Christopher
S. Wood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ss,). Finally, I emphasize that the en-
counter in question cannot function as a general model; it exemplies only how a con-
straint (one imposed by the present) can be turned to advantage.
,z. Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, s,z). The conceit of a period looking at itself through its own eyes is
emphasized in the title of the French-language edition: LOeil du Quattrocento: LUsage de
la peinture dans lItalie de la Renaissance, trans. Y. Delsaut (Paris: Gallimard, ss,). In the
preface, Baxandall himself writes that the fth chapter of the book assembles a basic
fteenth-century equipment for looking at fteenth-century pictures (unpaginated).
,,. Ibid., sso.
,. Vezzoso, wanton, mignard, full of wantonesse, quaint, blithe, buckesome, game-
some, attring, nice, coy, squeamish, pert, pleasant, full of affectation. John Florio in the
rst Italian-English dictionary (s,s and soss), s,.
,,. Ibid., s,,s. For a more fully developed argument contesting the applicability of
Landinos categories to Fra Angelico, see Didi-Huberman, Fra Angelico, z,zo.
,o. Robert Klein was fully aware of this when he wrote: In the case of art history, in
particular, all theoretical problems . . . are reduced to the one and basic question: how to
reconcile history, which furnishes its point of view, with art, which furnishes its object.
Form and Meaning, soo.
,,. The literature on this question is vast. On Alexander Rodchenko, see N. Tarabou-
kine, Le dernier Tableau, trans. A. B. Nakov and M. Petris (Paris: Champ libre, s,z), esp.
oz. On Marcel Duchamp and the pronouncement this is art, see Thierry de Duve,
Au Nom de lart: Pour une archeologie de la modernite (Paris: Minuit, sss). On postmodern-
ism, see Yves-Alain Blois, Modernisme et postmodernisme, Encyclopedie Universalis: Sym-
posium (Paris: E.U., sss), ss,o.
,s. For a critique of the past in the history of art, for which he substitutes the two
PAGE 279 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:20 PS
280 Notes
theoretical terms paradigm and origin, see H. Damisch, The Origin of Perspective, szs,,
,,,z, ,s [English ed., xixxxiv, z,o, ,,so].
,. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv.i.z; Loeb Classical Library (s,z), :zooos.
o. Vite z:,o [Lives s:zo, (Preface to the Second Part)].
s. Rather, the history of art in the objective genitive sense has dened the history of
art in the subjective genitive sensethe interesting thing in this context being that the rift
between the two was operative in the work of this painter who decided to take up the
pen . . .
z. Whose own life is the climax of Vasaris work. Vite ,:s,,o [Lives z:oz,o].
,. And regarding historicity only. We will see that, in their implicit philosophy of
knowledge, most art historians are neo-Kantianand unknowingly so. For a discussion of
this question of implicit philosophy, of its specic role in the practice that concerns us here
and its difference from a pure and simple world picture, see Louis Althusser, Philosophie
et philosophie spontanee des savants (so,; Paris: Maspero, s,), esp. ssso.
. Hegel species: Universal history . . . is then, generally speaking, an exterioriza-
tion of Spirit (Geist) in time, as Idea exteriorizes itself in space. G. W. F. Hegel, The
Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree (New York: Dover, s,o), ,z [translation altered]. First
published in German in ss,,.
,. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (sso,; Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, s,,), s, z.
o. For a rigorous analysis of Hegels conception of the end of art (in which end
signies neither conclusion nor death), see Pierre-Jean Labarrie`re, Deus redivivus: Quand
lintelligible prend sens, in Mort de Dieu: Fin de lart, proceedings of a conference held in
Strasbourg in sss (Strasbourg: C.E.R.I.T., so), z,,,.
,. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit, z [translation altered].
s. Ibid., ,,,o [translation altered].
. Hegels Aesthetics, trans. T. M. Knox (London: Clarendon Press, s,,), s:so,.
,o. In Greek, symptoma designates that which chooses or falls with: a fortuitous en-
counter, a coincidence, or an event that disturbs the order of thingsin accordance with
the invisible but sovereign law of tuche.
,s. On this fundamental notion of the revelatory death and the Aristotelian to ti e`n
a (designated in the Latin tradition by the term quidditas), see Pierre Aubenque, Le Pro-
ble`me de letre chez Aristote (,d ed.; Paris: P.U.F., s,z), oo,o.
,z. Visit the Louvre and stand in front of the Mona Lisa, if what you want to contem-
plate is the reection of a crowd. Is this another visual effect associated with the cult of
images?
Chapter 2
s. The villain of the piece, I mean the Renaissance, invented the notion of art on
which we still live, although less and less well. It conferred on the production of objects
which has always been the acknowledged raison detre of the artistic professionthat
solemn investiture of which we may rid it only by ridding ourselves of the object at the
same blow. Robert Klein, The Eclipse of the Work of Art (so,), in Form and Meaning:
Essays on Renaissance and Modern Art, trans. Madeline Jay and Leon Wieseltier (New York:
Viking Press [s,], sso.
z. It is no accident that the most famous art historiansfrom Heinrich Wolfin and
Aby Warburg to Bernard Berenson, Erwin Panofsky, Edgar Wind, E. H. Gombrich, Fred-
erick Harrt, and Andre Chastelwere interested primarily in the Italian Renaissance.
,. See the famous article by Erwin Panofsky (to which we will return): The History
PAGE 280 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:20 PS
Notes 281
of Art as a Humanistic Discipline, in Meaning, sz,. First published (as Introductory) in
Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (New York: Oxford
University Press, s,), ,,s.
. Note the full title of the rst edition of Vasaris Lives: Le vite de piu` eccellenti architetti,
pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue inno a tempi nostri: descritte in lingua toscana da
Giorgio Vasari, pittore aretinoCon una sua utile et necessaria introduzione a le arti loro, z
quarto vols. (Florence: L. Torrentino, s,,o). Eighteen years later, he published a new and
expanded edition, illustrated with woodcut artists portraits, under a variant title in which
painters are listed rst: Le vite de piu` eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, scritte e di nuovo
ampliate da Giorgio Vasari con i ritratti loro e con laggiunta delle vite de vivi et de morti
dallanno .,,e inno al .,o,, , quarto vols. (Florence: Giunti, s,os). On the evolution of
Vasaris text between the two editions, see R. Bettarini, Vasari scrittore: come la Torrenti-
ana divento` Giuntina, in Il Vasari storiografo e artistaAtti del Congresso internazionale nel
iv centenario della morte [s,] (Florence: Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento,
s,o), s,,oo.
,. Julius von Schlosser, La Litterature artistique, trans. J. Chavy (rst German ed. sz;
Paris: Flammarion, ss), ,s. Vasari occupies the precise center of this classic critical
anthology: book ,, entitled Vasari, which is preceded by other books that refer to him
as to a fundamental pole of attraction, for example, book ,, entitled Artistic Historiogra-
phy Before Vasari. The notion of Vasari as inventor of the history of art is discussed by
Erwin Panofsky in The First Page of Giorgio Vasaris Libro: A Study on the Gothic
Style in the Judgment of the Italian Renaissance, in Meaning: sozz,, esp. s,s (marks
the beginning of a strictly art-historical approach). See also Jean Rouchette, La Renaissance
que nous a leguee Vasari (Paris: Les Belles-Lettres, s,), ss,oo (La premie`re histoire de
lart renaissant); Einar Rud, Vasaris Life and Lives: The First Art Historian, trans. from
Danish by Reginald Spink (London: Thames and Hudson, so,).
o. The principal modern editions of the Vite are those of G. Milanesi ( vols.; Florence:
Sansoni, ss,ss,; new ed. s,,); C. L. Ragghianti ( vols.; Milan: Rizzoli, sz,o; new ed.
s,s,); P. della Pergola, L. Grassi, and G. Previtali (, vols.; Milan: Club del Libro, soz);
and, above all, the variorum edition with commentary, incorporating both the s,,o and
s,os texts, ed. R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi (Florence: Sansoni, soos,). Note also the
French translation of the Vite overseen by Andre Chastel (ss vols.; Paris: Berger-Levrault,
sssss).
,. In the copious literature on Vasari, the rst of these questions is sometimes ad-
dressed, the second almost never. Nonetheless, I note the standard secondary sources: W.
Kallab, Vasaristudien (Vienna: Grasser, sos); Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy, .,,e
.oee (Oxford: Oxford University Press, soz), sosoz; Studi vasariani: Atti del convegno in-
ternazionale per il iv centenario della prima edizione delle Vite di Vasari [s,o] (Florence:
Sansoni, s,z); T. S. R. Boase, Giorgio Vasari: The Man and the Book (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, s,); Il Vasari storiografo e artista; Giorgio VasariPrincipi, letterati et
artisti nelle carte di G. Vasari (Florence: Edam, sss); Paola Barocchi, Studi vasariani (Turin:
Einaudi, ss); Giorgio Vasari tra decorazione ambientale e storiograa artistica [sss] (Flor-
ence: Olschki, ss,); dossier Autour de Vasari, Revue de lArt so (sss): zo,,; Roland Le
Molle, Georges Vasari et le vocabulaire de la critique dart dans les Vite (Grenoble: ELLUG,
sss).
s. In reality, this hunch benets from the important and well-known theoretical
elaborations on the work of the parergon. See Jacques Derrida, The Truth in Painting, trans.
Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ss,), s,s,;
on paratext, see Gerard Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, trans. Jane E. Lewin
PAGE 281 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:21 PS
282 Notes
(New York: Cambridge University Press, s,); and on textual and pictorial framing, see
Louis Marin, Du cadre au decor ou la question de lornement dans la peinture, Rivista
di Estetica zz, no. sz (ssz): soz,.
. Vite s:s [Lives s:,,].
so. Ibid., s: and , [Lives, s:, and ]; from, respectively, the rst and second dedications
to Cosimo (s,,o and s,os). Note that in the Torrentiniana edition, Vasari also invokes the
protection of Pope Julius III.
ss. Ibid. [Lives s:,, s].
sz. Ibid., s:s [Lives s:,]. On Vasari as court writer and painter, see H. T. van Veen,
Letteratura artistica e arte di corte nella Firenze granducale (Florence: Istituto Universitario
Olandese di Storia dellArte, sso).
s,. Hence the history of art was born of the pride of the Florentines, in the apt
phrase of G. Bazin, Histoire de lhistoire de lart, de Vasari a` nos jours (Paris: Albin Michel,
sso), s,.
s. The title of the Giuntina edition (see note above).
s,. See S. Rossi, Dalle botteghe alle accademie: Realta` sociale e teorie artistiche a Firenze dal
xiv al xvi secolo (Milan: Feltrinelli, sso).
so. Vite s:. This dedicatory text is absent from Lives (the de Vere translation), not
corresponding to the dedication published in its z:soo,o,.
s,. Ibid., s:sssz.
ss. Ibid. Vasari recounts these lives of the most famous artists of antiquity in a
Lettera di Messer Giovambattista Adriani, published in the s,os ed. (s:s,o [absent from
Lives]), as well as in the preface to Part ii (z:, [Lives, s:z,s]).
s. Ibid., s:sz [Lives, s:s,s]. This is a recurrent theme in Vasari: see esp. ibid., s:z
and [Lives, s:; the second reference is to a passage in the dedication Agli arteci del
disegno, absent from Lives (the de Vere translation)].
zo. Ibid., s:zzzz, [Lives, s:,z,,]. There is an admirable discussion of how various
factors erase the memory of things, in Niccolo` Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, ed. and
trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (s,s,zo; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, s,), so,o (book ii, discourse ,).
zs. Vite s:z, [Lives s:o,].
zz. See J. Kliemann, Le Xilograe delle Vite del Vasari nelle edizioni del s,,o e del
s,os, in Giorgio Vasari: Principi, letterati e artisti, z,s.
z,. Florence, Ufzi, Gabinetto del disegni, sossE. See Kliemann, Le Xilograe, z,s
,. Kliemann, Su alcuni concetti umanistici del pensiero e del mondo gurativo vasari-
ani, Giorgio Vasari tra decorazione, ,,,,, which discusses the theme of the three Fates and
the role of a text by Ariosto (Orlando Furioso, xxxiii) in the constitution of this allegorical
motif.
z. Virgil, Aeneid, s:,o,s. See Kliemann, Le Xilograe, z,.
z,. On the prehistory of this invention, see J. von Schlosser, La Litterature artistique,
zzs,o, (book iv, Les Precurseurs de Vasari). Richard Krautheimer, Die Anfange des
Kunstgeschichtsschreibung in Italien, Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft ,o (sz): o,.
G. Tanturli, Le biograe dartisti prima Vasari, in Il Vasari storiografo e artista, z,,s.
zo. Vite s:s [Lives s:s,].
z,. See H. T. van Veen, Letteratura artistica e arte di corte. For an introductory history
to the princely courts of the Renaissance, see S. Bertelli, F. Cardini, and E. Garbero Zorzi,
Le corti italiane del Rinascimento (Milan: A. Mondadori, ss,).
PAGE 282 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:22 PS
Notes 283
zs. In his frescoes in the Cancelleria in Rome, Vasari celebrated the patronage of Pope
Paul III with personications of Fama and Eternita`and he named the composition La
Rimunerazione della Vertu` . . . proof that the eternity of History has need of a princes
remuneration. J. Kliemann (Su alcuni concetti, so) has aptly remarked that Vasari here
combined two a priori heterogeneous conceptions of virtu`: one humanist, the other
courtly.
z. Giorgio Vasari was not a profound or original thinker: such is the beginning of
Boase, Giorgio Vasari.
,o. According to Andre Chastel, Vasari produced a history that is calmly ordered,
and conceived in accordance with a grand doctrine (introduction to the eleven-volume
French translation of Vasari overseen by Chastel [Paris: Berger-Lebrault, sssss), s:s,). By
contrast, R. Le Molle asks: Did he even have a doctrine? (soo).
,s. See Zygmunt Wazbinski, LIdee de lhistoire dans la premie`re et la seconde edi-
tion des Vies de Vasari, in Il Vasari storiografo e artista, s.
,z. Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (New York: Harper and
Row, so), ,,.
,,. Erwin Panofsky, The First Page of Vasaris Libro, zo,zo, where Vasari is ulti-
mately characterized as the typical representative of a period which, though outwardly
self-condent, was deeply insecure and often close to despair (zzo).
,. See E
crits, ,,s.
,,. E
crits, os, s,,,, [Fink, z,,,; second citation not in this selection].
,. For laymen the symptoms constitute the essence of a disease, and its cure consists
in the removal of the symptoms. Physicians attach importance to distinguishing the symp-
toms from the disease and declare that getting rid of the symptoms does not amount to
curing the disease. Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (ssos,), in SE so: ,,s.
,,. It is worth noting here that the epigraph to The Interpretation of Dreams from
VirgilFlectere si nequeo Superos/Acheronta movebohad earlier been intended to intro-
duce a text on symptom formation. See Freud, letter to Wilhelm Fliess dated December
, sso (The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, .,.,e,, trans. and ed.
Jeffrey Moussaief Masson [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ss,], zoo,). This
indicates the degree to which Freuds conception of gurability in dreams was determined
by another royal road, namely, the hysterical symptom. My own approach has been to
follow the same path, proceeding from the gurative symptom to the gure conceived in
its symptom. See Didi-Huberman, Invention de lhysterieCharcot et lIconographie photo-
graphique de la Salptetrie`re (Paris: Macula, ssz). On several occasions, Freud stated clearly
that hysteria might be a royal road leading to understanding of the symptom: The
wisest plan will be to start from the symptoms produced by the hysterical neurosis.
Freud, Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety (szo), in SE zo: soo. See also Freud, Introductory
Lectures . . . , in SE so: ,,.
,o. We must further remember that the same processes belonging to the uncon-
scious play a part in the formation of symptoms (bei der Symptom-bildung) as in the forma-
tion of dreams (bei der Traumbilding). Introductory Lectures . . . , in SE so:,oo.
,,. Panofsky, Zum Problem der Beschreibung und Inhaltsdeutung von Werken der
Bildenden Kunst (s,z), in Aufsatze, z.
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Notes 299
,s. Panofsky, Das Problem des Stils in der Bildenden Kunst (ss,), in Aufsatze, z,zo.
,. In March ss,, Freud began work on a collection, provisionally titled Zur Vorberei-
tung einer Metapsychologie (preliminary to a metapsychology), which he completed the
following August. It consisted of twelve articles, ve of which were nally retained and
published under the simple title Metapsychologie (Papers on Metaspychology). In one of them,
entitled A Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of Dreams, Freud presented
the notion of metapsychology as an attemptessentially uncertain and tentativeto
clarify and carry deeper the theoretical assumptions on which a psycho-analytic system
could be founded. SE s: zzz n. s and z, n. z.
oo. I am going to ask you seriously, by the way, whether I may use the name
metapsychology for my psychology that leads behind consciousness. Freud, letter to W.
Fliess dated March so, sss, Complete Letters . . . , ,osz.
os. Although E. Kraepelin is cited on its rst page. See R. Kilbansky, E. Panofsky, and
F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy (London: Nelson, so), s.
oz. Signicantly, this remark of Freuds concludes a passage on the roots of supersti-
tion (Aberglaube): I assume that this conscious ignorance and unconscious knowledge
(bewusste Unkenntnis und unbewusste Kenntnis) of the motivation of accidental psychical
events is one of the psychical roots of superstition. Because the superstitious person knows
nothing of the motivation of his own chance actions, and because the fact of this motiva-
tion presses for a place in his eld of recognition, he is forced to allocate it, by displace-
ment to the external world. . . . I believe that a large part of the mythological view of the
world, which extends a long way into the most modern religions, is nothing but psychology
projected into the external world. The obscure recognition (die dunkle Erkenntnis) (the endop-
sychic perception, as it were) of psychical factors and relations in the unconscious is
mirroredit is difcult to express it in other terms, and here the analogy with paranoia
must come to our aidin the construction of a supernatural reality (ubersinnlichen Realitat),
which is destined to be changed back once more by science into the psychology of the
unconscious. One could venture to explain (aufzulosen) in this way the myths of paradise
and the fall of man, of God, of good and evil, of immortality, and so on, and to transform
metaphysics into metapsychology (die Metaphysik in Metapsychologie umzusetzen). Freud, The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (so), in SE o: z,s,.
o,. Panofsky, Zum Problem der Beschreibung und Inhaltsdeutung von Werken der
Bildenden Kunst (s,z), Aufsatze, ,.
o. Ibid., .
o,. Ibid., .
oo. Ibid., z. See above, pages sosz.
o,. Panofsky, Introductory, Studies in Iconology (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
s,), ,; Panofsky, The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline, in Meaning, s, it is
revealed that the witty American is none other than C. S. Peirce.
os. P. Bourdieu in the Postface to his French translation of Panofskys Gothic Archi-
tecture and Scholasticism, published as Architecture gothique et pensee scolastique (Paris: Minuit,
so,), szs, s,s,z, soz.
o. On Panofskys expression artistic consciousness (central to his work), see S.
Ferretti, Il demone della memoria: Simbolo e tempo storico in Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky (Ca-
sale Monferrato: Marietti, ss), s,,zoo. See also, above, pages and sss,.
,o. Bourdieu, Postface to Panofsky, Architecture gothique . . . , s,o,,.
,s. Ibid., s,z (my emphasis).
,z. PSF s:,o,,, s,, sso,, etc.
,,. Ibid., ,, and so,.
PAGE 299 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:31 PS
300 Notes
,. This is the title of a pertinentand anonymousreview of Cassirers The Philoso-
phy of Symbolic Forms published in Scilicet o, (s,o): z,,z,. I also cite, in a more humor-
ous vein, a remark by Lacan: The Kantian brush itself needs its alkali. E
crits, ,.
,,. Its as though chronological order were somehow deducible from logical order,
history being merely the place where the systems tendency to self-completion reached
fulllment. Bourdieu, Postface to Panofsky, Architecture gothique . . . , so.
,o. Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
s,s), soz, and, more generally, s,ooz. The same analysis, grosso modo, gures in the great
book by R. Klibansky, F. Saxl, and E. Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy, zs,,,.
,,. Such as the plants in the wreath, the book, the compass, the dejected dog, the
bat, Melancholias swarthy complexion (facies nigra), her head-on-hand posture, her
purse and bunch of keys. . . . See Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer, s,oo.
,s. Ibid., s,s.
,. Erwin Panofsky, Artist, Scientist, Genius: Notes on the Renaissance-Dammer-
ung, in The Renaissance: A Symposium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, s,,),
,,,, where Durer is invoked not only generally but in particular through his engraving
Melancholia. Remember that Panofskys Durer monograph ends with a chapter entitled
Durer as a Theorist of Art (The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer, zzs).
so. See, among other texts, Lacan, La Direction de la cure et les principes de son
pouvoir (s,s), E
crits, ,,s: The symptom is the return of the repressed in the compromise.
Note again the paradoxical equivalence, repeatedly underscored by Lacan, of repression
and return of the repressed in the symptom. This could be the starting point for a deeper
reading of the seminar on the sinthome of s,,,o, where Lacan broached the question
of art through that of the symptom. Another paradoxical equivalence is intimated there,
one according to which, with art and equivocationboth deeply implicated in the symp-
tomwe have only id [ca] as weapon against the symptom. . . . Another way of saying
that the work of art makes use of and plays with the symptom as much as it
thwarts it. See Lacan, Seminaire sur le sinthome, Ornicar? no. o (s,,): oso.
s. Just so, or even more so, has our synthetic intuition to be controlled by an insight
into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions, the general and essential
tendencies of the human mind were expressed by specic themes and concepts. This means
what may be called a history of cultural symptomsor symbols in Ernst Cassirers
sensein general. Panofsky, Introductory, in Studies in Iconology, so (emphasis in orig-
inal).
. As suggested by B. Teysse`dre, Iconologie: Reexions sur un concept dErwin
Panofsky, Revue Philosophique, no. s, (so): ,zs,o.
soo. See Panofsky, Introductory, in Studies in Iconology, ,,, where the verb is indeed
identify.
sos. It is in this sense that Daniel Arasse proposed the problems of iconographic identi-
cation be not wholly resolved, but rather thought iconographically: There also exists a
possible iconography of associations of ideas, and not only of clear and distinct ideas. D.
Arasse, Apre`s Panofsky: Piero di Cosimo, peintre, in Erwin Panofsky, ed. Jacques Bonnet
(Paris: Cahiers pour un temps, ss,), ssz.
soz. Freud, A Connection Between a Symbol and a Symptom (sso), in SE s: ,,.
so,. Ibid.
so. Ibid., ,o (my emphasis).
so,. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. John Cottingham, The Philo-
sophical Writings of Descartes (New York: Cambridge University Press, ss,), z:zs.
soo. An analogy with which we have long been familiar compared a symptom to a
foreign body [als einem Fremdkorper] which was keeping up a constant succession of stimuli
and reactions in the tissue [in dem Gewebe] in which it was embedded. Freud, Inhibitions,
Symptoms, and Anxiety, in SE zo: s.
so,. As I have already indicated (above, pages zozs), the question posed here is
meant to challenge historical research to justify itself, and to judge itself fully, only in its
own concrete expansion.
sos. As I write these lines, there has appeared a collection by Louis Marin, Opacite de
la peinture: Essais sur la representation au Quattrocento (Florence and Paris: Usher, ss), in
which the concept of representationadmittedly, inected by a contemporary prag-
maticis exposed in its double capacity to produce both transparency and opacity.
so. Panofsky, The History of the Theory of Human Proportions as a Reection of
the History of Styles, in Meaning, so,.
PAGE 301 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:32 PS
302 Notes
sso. In the same sentence, Freud concludes that the symptom has two aspects, adap-
tation and regression. Freud, Introductory Lectures . . . , in SE so: ,oo.
sss. See Georges Didi-Huberman, Puissances de la gure: Exege`se et visualite dans
lart chretien, in Encyclopdia UniversalisSymposium (Paris: Encyclopdia Universalis,
so), ,ooo.
ssz. The pertinent bibliography is large. I will mention only, regarding the critique of
sources, the indispensable book by E. von Dobschutz, ChristusbilderUntersuchungen zur
Christlichen Legende, z vols. (Leipzig: Heinrichs, ss), as well as the classic and more
general study by E. Kitzinger, The Cult of Images in the Age Before Iconoclasm, Dumb-
arton Oaks Papers s (s,): s,s,o.
ss,. Colossians z:sss,; z Corinthians :s, and :z; Hebrews :z.
ss. This comparison was used in the seventh century, regarding the Mandylion of
Edessa, in George the Pisidian, Expeditio Persica, s:so, as edited by A. Petrusi, Panegirici
epici (Ettal: Buch-Kunstverlag, s,), s.
ss,. At the other end of this story, Giambattista Marino reties the knot by devoting
the second part of his Dicerie Sacre (sos), entitled On Painting, to the Holy Shroud of
Turin. G. B. Marino, Dicerie Sacre, ed. G. Pozzi (Turin: Einaudi, soo), ,,zos. See, on this
subject, M. Fumaroli, Muta Eloquentia, Bulletin de la Societe de lhistoire de lart francais
(annee ssz), (ss): zs.
sso. George the Pisidian, Expeditio Persica, s:so, s.
ss,. A. Paleotti, Esplicatione del sacro Lenzuolo ove fu involto il Signore, et delle Piaghe in
esso impresse col suo pretioso Sangue . . . (Bologna: G. Rossi, s,s).
sss. George the Pisidian, Expeditio Persica, s:s,,,, s.
ss. See H. Pfeiffer, Limmagine simbolica del pellegrinaggio a Roma: La Veronica e
il volto di Cristo, in Roma .,ee.,,: Larte degli anni santi (Milan: A. Mondadori, ss),
soos.
szo. Dante, Divina Comedia, Paradiso xxxi, so,,: Qual e` colui forse di Croazia / viene
a veder la Veronica nostra, / che per lantica fame non sen sazia.
szs. See Walter Benjamin, A Little History of Photography (s,s), trans. Edmund
Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter, in Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings vol. :, .,:,.,,,, ed.
Michael W. Jennings, Harriet Eiland, and Gary Smith (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press
of Harvard University Press, s), ,o,,o. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction (s,,), in Illuminations: Essays and Reections, ed. Hannah
Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, sos), zs,,z. M. Blanchot, Es-
sential Solitude, in LEspace litteraire, zzz,: Fascination is fundamentally connected to a
neutral, impersonal presence, an indeterminate One, an immense, faceless Someone. It is
a relation sustained by the gaze, a relation that is itself neutral and impersonal, with the
depth without gaze and without contour, an absence that one sees because it is blinding
(z,).
szz. Obviously, in accordance with Genesis s:z,: God created man in the image of
himself, / in the image of God he created him.
sz,. For the precise expression found in a tropiary, or collection of liturgical chants,
honoring the Mandylion, and cited by Leo of Chalcedony as authority in his letter to
Nicolas of Andrinople against iconoclasm, see V. Grumel, Leon de Chalcedoine et le
canon de la fete du saint Mandilion, Analecta Bollandiana o (s,o): s,o,,.
sz. Because character, throughout the Christian tradition, is a notion central to the
sacrament. See, for example, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, iiia.o,.so.
sz,. And when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, the skin on his face shone
so much that they would not venture near him. Exodus ,:,o. Meanwhile the eleven
PAGE 302 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:33 PS
Notes 303
disciples set our for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them.
And when they say him they fell down before him. Matthew zs:sos,.
szo. In different versions of the legend of the Mandylion, the dazzling character of the
face is attributed sometimes to Christ, sometimes to its envoy Thaddeus, sometimes to
the image itself. One can at least compare the old version of Eusebius of Ceasearea, The
Ecclesiastical History, i, s,, trans. Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, sz), s:s,,, to the later versions that invent the image absent in the early
version of the story. See E. von Dobschutz, ChristusbilderUntersuchungen zur Christlichen
Legende, s:sozo and s,sz. See also C. Bertelli, Storia e vicende dell-immagine edes-
sena, Paragone , nos. zs,/,, (sos): ,,,.
sz,. See R. Harprath, entry no. sz, in the exh. cat. Raffaello in Vaticano (Milan: Electa,
ss), ,zz,. Different authors ascribe different dates to the two works, but this problem
is of no concern to us here.
szs. Especially noteworthy are the shrouds in Lierre, Belgium, in Besancon, in the
Spanish monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos (near Burgos), in Cadouin or Enxobregas,
Portugal, and so on. It should be remembered that the rst polemics against the photo-
graphic-miraculous rediscovery of the Shroud of Turin, in sss, came from French
Bollandist and archeological circles. See U. Chevalier, E
crits, z,,,o [Fink, ,], a` propos the birth of truth in the hysterical revela-
tion.
s. There was no longer anything healthy in him, from the soles of his feet to the
top of his head. Jacobus de Voragine, La Legende doree, trans. J. B. M. Roze (Paris: Garnier-
Flammarion, so,), s:zoo. See Georges Didi-Huberman, Un Sang dimages, Nouvelle
Revue de psychanalyse ,z (ss,): sz,s.
s,. See Hugo of Saint-Victor, Miscellanea, cv, P.L., cixxvii, col. so (De triplici simi-
litudine). And, in general, R. Javelet, Image et ressemblance au xiie sie`cle de saint Anselme
a` Alain de Lille, z vols. (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, so,).
so. See A. E. Taylor, Regio dissimilitudinis, Archives dhistoire doctrinale et litterraire
du Moyen Age (s,): ,o,o. P. Courcelle, Tradition neo-platonicienne et traditions chret-
iennes de la region de dissemblance, Archives dhistoire doctrinale et litterraire du Moyen Age
,z (s,,): ,z,, followed by a Repertoire des textes relatifs a` la region de dissemblance
jusquau xive sie`cle, z,.
s,. On the Kunstliteratur of the entire period, see J. von Schlosser, La litterature artist-
ique, trans. J. Chavy (sz; Paris: Flammarion, ss), ss,z.
ss. Theophilus, De diversis artibus schedula, trans. J. J. Bourasse, in Essai sur divers arts
(Paris: Picard, sso). This is an old, very inaccurate translation (rst published in the
Dictionnaire darcheologie by Migne). The oldest manuscript copy of this treatise dates from
early in the thirteenth century. Previously, the original text was thought to date from the
fourteenth century, but now it is dated to the twelfth century. It has also been conjec-
tured, on the basis of an annotation on the one of the surviving manuscripts (Theopulius
qui est Rogerus . . .), that the pseudonym Theophylus hides the identity of a celebrated
goldsmith of the early twelfth century named Roger de Helmarshausen, who signed a
portable altar now in the treasury of Paderborn Cathedral. C. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o
trattato della pittura, ed. F. Tempesti (Milan: Longanesi, ss), the oldestnonautograph
PAGE 304 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:34 PS
Notes 305
manuscript of which dates from s,,; the text was probably written around s,o. See J.
von Schlosser, La Litterature artistique, szo,z [The Craftsmans Handbook: The Italian Il
Libro dellArte, trans. Daniel V. Thompson Jr. (c. s,; New York: Dover, soo)]. Note that
the bibliography on Cennini is very small compared with that concerning Vasari. Cenninis
painted oeuvre is all but unknown; some art historians think of him, for this reason or
that, before anonymous frescoes, most of them badly damaged. As a recent example, see
the exh. cat. Da Giotto al tardogotico: Dipinti dei Musei civici di Paadova del Trecento e della
prima meta` del Quattrocento (Rome: De Luca, ss), no. oz by E. Cozzi, ss,.
s. Theophilus, Essai sur divers arts, s,so.
s,o. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, s (there is more in the same tone
on p. z). But the rst lines of the handbook are answered near the end: Praying that God
All-Highest, Our Lady, Saint John, Saint Luke, the Evangelist and painter, Saint Eustace,
Saint Francis, and Saint Anthony of Padua will grant us grace and courage to sustain and
bear in peace the burdens and struggles of this world (s,s).
s,s. Theophilus, Essai sur divers arts, so.
s,z. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, s and z.
s,,. Theophilus, Essai sur divers arts, s,.
s,. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, s [translation altered].
s,,. As Andre Chastel does in his s,, article Le dictum Horatii quidlibet audendi potes-
tas et les artistes (xiiiexvie sie`cle), in Fables, formes, gures (Paris: Flammarion, s,s),
s:,o,, where his gloss on the entire passage consists of: Nothing more commonplace.
But nothing in Cenninis textor in fourteenth-century paintingauthorizes what fol-
lows: We must not conclude from this a particularly pious attitude. In reality, the
problem here is that of articulating the tendency toward the autonomy of pictorial art,
present even in Cennini (and his famous formula si come gli piace, which Chastel rightly
emphasizes), with the religious context of all of his thought. Here we see a neo-Vasarian
art historian discounting the second element to safeguard the rst, whereas what is needed
is a dialectical understanding of their relationship to each other. In a classic study rst
published in sos (and tellingly not mentioned by Chastel), Ernst Kantorowicz showed the
way toward such a dialectical analysis. See E. Kantorowicz, The Sovereignty of the Artist:
A Note on Legal Maxims and Renaissance Theories of Art, in Essays in Honor of Erwin
Panofsky (New York: Millard Meiss, sos), zo,,; reprinted in Kantorowicz, Selected Studies
(J. J. Augustin: Locust Valley, N.Y., so,), ,,zo,.
s,o. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, chaps. , so, z, [translation altered].
s,,. For instance, Saint Thomas Aquinas dened science as the assimilation of the
intellect with the thing through an intelligible guise that is the resemblance of the thing
understood. Summa Theologiae, ia.s.z. Furthermore, science was thought to be one
of seven gifts of the Holy Spirit emanating directly from God (ibid., iaiiae.os.). And in
the end all of this of course returned to the given of faith: The gifts of the intellect and
of science correspond to faith (ibid., iiaiiae.s.z).
s,s. On the materialis manuductio before Suger, see J. Pepin, Aspects theoriques du
symbolisme dans la tradition dionysienne: Antecedents et nouveautes, in Simboli e simbo-
logia nellalto medioevo (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sullalto medioevo, s,o), s:,,oo.
On Abbot Suger, see Panofsky, Abbot Suger of St.-Denis, in Meaning (so), sos,.
s,. Accord your will with that of God / And your every desire will be realized. / If
poverty constrains you or if you feel pain, / Then seek Christs succor at the Cross.
These four verses from the manuscript Ricciardiano zso were omitted from the French
translation as well as from the English translation.
soo. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, s,s.
PAGE 305 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:34 PS
306 Notes
sos. Theophilus, Essai sur divers arts, ss.
soz. I take this expression from J. Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages, trans.
Rodney Payton and Ulrich Mammitesch (ss; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, so),
z,,.
so,. I allude to two classic books that address these problems: J. Seznec, The Survival
of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, s,z) [rst published in French, so; rst English
translation s,,], which challenges the idea of a rebirth of pagan Antiquity in the f-
teenth century. E. Wind, Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance (s,s; London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, sso), to which might be contrasted, for example, the work of T. Verdon, in
Christian City and The Renaissance: Image and Religious Imagination in the Quattrocento, ed.
Timothy Verdon and John Henderson (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, so).
so. One could write an entire history of the conception of the Middle Ages as the
weak link in the history of art, from Vasari to Panofsky. See, on Vasari: A. Thiery, Il
Medioevo nellIntroduzione e nel Proemio delle Vite, in Il Vasari storiografo e artistaAtti
del Congresso internazionale nel iv centenario della morte [s,] (Florence: Istituto Nazionale
di Studi sul Rinascimento, s,o), ,,ssz; I. Danilova, La peinture du Moyen Age vue par
Vasari, in ibid., o,,z. On Panofsky: J.-C. Bonne, Fond, surfaces, support (Panofsky et
lart roman), in Erwin Panofsky, ed. Jacques Bonnet (Paris: Cahiers pour un temps, ss,),
ss,,.
so,. To cite only two texts that, despite their differences, converge on this great ques-
tion: M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences (New York:
Random House, s,o), ,o,s,; and La Science et la verite, in E
crit du temps s
(sss): ,,z.
soo. See R. Le Molle, Giorges Vasari e le vocabulaire de la critique dart dans les Vite
(Grenoble: ELLUG, sss), soz,s.
so,. Vite s:,o [Lives s:o].
sos. Ibid.
so. Ibid., s:,,z [Lives s:,].
s,o. Ibid. E. H. Gombrich has exposed the myth as spurious: Gombrich, Giottos
Portrait of Dante? Burlington Magazine szs (s,): ,ss,.
s,s. We are here very far from the notion of the long Middle Ages formulated by J.
Le Goff, LImaginaire medieval (Paris: Gallimard, ss,), viiixiii, ,s,.
s,z. C. Avery, Linvenzione delluomo: Introduzione a Donatello (Florence: Usher, sso),
,.
s,,. The bo`ti, which had accumulated in the church from c. szooso, were moved to
the cloister in soo, and completely destroyed in s,s,. See O. Andreucci, Il orentino istruito
nella Chiesa della Nunziata di Firenze: Memoria storica (Florence: Cellini, ss,,), soss.
s,. Lorenzo de Medici placed his bloodied clothes on his bo`to after surviving the
Pazzi plot of s,s.
s,,. For a history of this phenomenon, which merits further study, see G. Mazzoni, I
bo`ti della SS. Annunziata in Firenze: Curiosita` storica (Florence: Le Monnier, sz,).
s,o. See Aby Warburg, The Art of Portraiture and The Florentine Bourgeoisie
(soz) and Francesco Sassettis Last Injunctions to His Sons (so,), in The Renewal of
PAGE 306 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:35 PS
Notes 307
Pagan Antiquity: Contributions to the Cultural History of the European Renaissance, ed. Gertrud
Bing with F. Rougemont (s,z), trans. David Britt (Los Angeles: Getty Center for The
History of Art and the Humanities, s), sszzs and zzzoz.
s,,. Cennini, Il libro dellarte o trattato della pittura, chaps. clxxxiclxxxvi, pp. sz,z.
s,s. Vite ,:,,, [Lives s:,,o].
s,. Votum est promissio Deo facta, etc. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, iia
iiae.ss.sz. On the extension of the concept of votum, see P. Sejourne, Voeu, in
Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, xvz (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, s,o), cols. ,sszz,.
sso. Aby Warburg, The Art of Portraiture . . . , proposed that Florentine portraiture
had three aspects: religious, pagan, and magical. The historical question broached here is
vast, extending from Roman imagines and Etruscan tombs to the royal efgies studied by
Ernst Kantorowicz (The Kings Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology [Princeton:
Princeton University Press, s,,]) and R. E. Giesey (The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renais-
sance France [soo; Geneva, ss,]).
sss. And if the cadaver is so like, that is because it is, at a certain moment, likeness
par excellence, altogether like, and it is nothing more. It is likeness, likeness to an absolute
degree, upsetting and marvelous. But what does it resemble? M. Blanchot, Les deux
Versions de limaginaire, in LEspace litteraire (Paris: Gallimard, sos), ,,s.
ssz. You have been taught that when we were baptized in Jesus Christ we were
baptized in his death (in mortem ipsius baptizati sumus); in other words, when we were
baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the Fathers glory, we too might live a new life. Romans o:,.
ss,. As maintained by, for instance, Federico Zeri. See F. Zeri, Behind the Image: The
Art of Reading Painting, trans. Nina Rootes (ss,; London: Heinemann, so).
ss. On the fundamental notions of the gap and the dislocating limit of the imaginary,
see again E
crits, ,,z [Fink, sso], and, above, all, Jacques Lacan, The Seminar, Book ii. The
Ego in Freuds Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, trans. Sylvana Tomaselli
with notes by John Forrester (s,,,; New York: W. W. Norton, ss), so,s.
ss,. H. Michaux, Face a` ce qui se derobe (Paris: Gallimard, s,,).
Appendix
s. Interpretation, so (in French in the original).
z. See N. Schor, Le Detail chez Freud, Litterature ,, (sso): ,s.
,. Sigmund Freud, Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (sos/o,), in SE ,,
p. .
. We know that the paradigm of the treasure subtends Panofskys interpretation of
Titians Allegory of Prudence (see Meaning, soos). More recently, Carlo Ginzburg has
conferred a new legitimacy on the iconographic roman a` clef, arguing that paintings can
reveal the secret of their commission. See Carlo Ginzburg, The Enigma of Piero, trans.
Martin Ryle and Kate Soper (London: Verso, ss,).
,. Gaston Bachelard, Essai sur la connaissance approchee (Paris: Vrin, sz,). See also
chapter ss of the same authors La Formation de lesprit scientique (Paris: Vrin, sso [ssth
ed.]), zss,,.
o. Bachelard, Essai sur la connaissance approchee, .
,. Ibid., ,.
s. Lives, z:,. Diderots remarks about Chardin begin as follows: Approach, every-
thing becomes muddled, grows at, and disappears; move away, everything recreates and
PAGE 307 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:35 PS
308 Notes
reproduces itself. Oeuvres esthetiques (Paris: Garnier, sos), s. That this magic of
painting should have preeminently manifested itself in representations of esh, of the
incarnate, already points to the crux of the problem: between body (its supposed depth)
and color (its supposed surface). See Georges Didi-Huberman, La Peinture incarnee (Paris:
Minuit, ss,), zooz.
. Bachelard, Essai sur la connaissance approchee, z,,.
so. Jacques Lacan, The Seminar, Book xi: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-
analysis, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: W. W. Norton, s,,), zszs,.
ss. Bachelard, Essai sur la connaissance approchee, z,,, z,,.
sz. These views are echoed, although on the basis of very different premises, in a
recent article by Rene Thom articulating a critique of sorts of descriptive and experimental
reason: R. Thom, La Methode experimental: Un Mythe des epistemologues (et des sa-
vants?), Le Debat , (March ss,): sszo.
s,. Bachelard, Essai sur la connaissance approchee, so.
s. Aristotle, Physics, ii.,.sb [trans.: The Physics, with English trans. by Philip H.
Wickstead and Francis M. Cornford (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, s,,)].
s,. Ibid., sbs,a. Furthermore, it is perhaps not by chance that Littres denition of
the detail in painting focuses on material effects, all of which are related to problems of
surface and texture: Said, in painting, with regard to hair, small accidents of the skin,
embroidery, the leaves of trees (Il se dit, en peinture, des poils, des petits accidents de la peau,
des draperies, des broderies, des feuilles des arbres).
so. Aristotle, Physics, i..sza.
s,. I take this phrase from the beautiful pages that Ernst Bloch devoted to the close-
up gaze. See Experimentum mundi: Question, categories de lelaboration, praxis, trans. G.
Raulet (Paris: Payot, sss), ss,, o,, etc.
ss. On the jet, the sujet, and the subjectile, see Didi-Huberman, La Peinture incarnee,
,,,. [N.B.: A set of terms extrapolated from the Latin subiectio to expound a radically
interactive, psychoanalytically inected account of the relation between the viewer and
(the surface of a) paintingtrans.].
s. Panofsky, Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, s,), , (my emphasis).
zo. Such as the troubling corkscrew in the Nativity by Lorenzo Lotto now in Siena,
astutely analyzed by Daniel Arasse: The new-born child retains his umbilical cord,
attached to his belly and clearly knotted. Daniel Arasse shows that the iconographic
unicum here takes its meaning from three series: event-based (the sack of Rome), cult-
based (the holy Umbilical Cord of Jesus), and theological (the notion of virginity). See
Lorenzo Lotto dans ses bizarreries: le peintre et liconographe, in Lorenzo Lotto, Atti del
convegno internzionale di studi per il v centenario della nascita (Asolo, sss), ,o,sz.
zs. Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, ss,), xvi.
zz. Ibid., xixxx.
z,. Ibid., z,.
z. Ibid., xxv.
z,. Ibid., ,zsss.
zo. Ibid., xxiv.
z,. Ibid., sss,, z,,,, ,oos, ,,,, z,s.
zs. Ibid., ssos.
z. Ibid., s,z,, zzzz,.
,o. Ibid., s,o.
PAGE 308 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:36 PS
Notes 309
,s. Ibid., s,o,s.
,z. Paul Claudel, LOeil ecoute (Paris: Gallimard, so), ,z. The passage actually con-
cerns Soldier and Laughing Girl (c. so,,) in the Frick Collection, New York. It is quoted [in
part] by Alpers, The Art of Describing, ,o [translation altered].
,,. Alpers, The Art of Describing.
,. Maurice Blanchot, LEspace litteraire (Paris: Gallimard, s,), z,.
,,. Marcel Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu (ss,zz; Paris: Gallimard, s,), ,:ss.
,o. Ibid., ss,.
,,. To my knowledge, no one except a painter, Martin Barre, has noticed that the
famous yellow wall is not a wall at all, but a roof: another example to add to the list of
aporias of the detail. But if we have seen a wall there instead of the inclined plane of a
roof, perhaps this is precisely because the color yellowas pantends to go frontal in
the picture: in other words, to obfuscate the iconic transparency of the representational
inclined plane.
,s. A differentiation broached previously in Didi-Huberman, La Peinture incarnee, esp.
,os, z,.
,. Claudel, LOeil ecoute, ,.
o. This in reference to the technique for making what is known as bobbin lace or
pillow lace (dentelle au fuseau), in which the threads, placed on little bobbins, are unrolled
onto a pillow where they cross and interweave in a rotating motion controlled by the
lacemaker, who pins each stitch with needles, which she moves as the work proceeds.
s. That the visible is the elective air of the process of denial (Freuds Verleugnung), this
is what we are taught, beyond Claudel, by the profusion of texts, always contradictory, to
which the history of painting has given rise. On the visual logic of the Verleugnung, see O.
Mannoni, Je sais bien, mais quand meme, in Clefs pour lImaginaire, ou lAutre Sce`ne
(Paris: Seuil, so), ,,.
z. See Lawrence Gowing, Vermeer (London: Faber and Faber, s,z), ,o; Alpers, The
Art of Describing, ,s.
,. Alpers, The Art of Describing, ,s,z.
. Ibid. The hypothesis that Vermeer used a camera obscura was supported by Dan-
iel A. Fink, Vermeers Use of the Camera Obscura: A Comparative Study, Art Bulletin ,,
(December s,s): ,,o,; and contested by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Perspective, Optics,
and Delft Artists Around .o,e (New York: Garland, s,,), zs,z (regarding The Lacemaker,
zsz).
,. Alpers, The Art of Describing.
o. See P. Bianconi and G. Ungaretti, Lopera completa di Vermeer (Milan: Rizzoli, so,),
nos. o (pl. ix) and (pl. viiix).
,. Ibid., no. ,o (pl. i).
s. Ibid., nos. z (pl. xxxix), ,, (pl. iv), and z (pl. ixi).
. Ibid., nos. zs (pl. xxxv), ,s (pl. xii), and ,z (pl. xi).
,o. Ibid., nos s (pl. xixxxi), s, (pl. xxii), ss (pl. xixii), and zo (pl. xxiii).
,s. Ibid., nos. , (pl. vvi), , (pl. xiii), and s (pl. x).
,z. Ibid., nos. ,z (pl. xi).
,,. Georges Bataille, Masque, in Oeuvres comple`tes (Paris: Gallimard, s,o,),
z:o,. On hysterical paroxysm and the hysterical t, see Georges Didi-Huberman, Inven-
tion de lhysterie: Charcot et lIconographie photographique de la Salpetrie`re (Paris: Macula,
ssz), s,oos, z,,,.
,. See J. M. Charcot and P. Richer, Les Demoniaques dans lart (sss,; Paris: Macula,
ss), s,oos, z,,,.
PAGE 309 ................. 11379$ NOTE 07-20-05 09:47:36 PS
310 Notes
,,. Sigmund Freud, Hysterical Phantasies and Their Relation to Bisexuality (sos),
in SE :soo.
,o. What is meant by this are occurrences in the body that show themselves and in
this self-showing as such indicate something that does not show itself. When such occur-
rences emerge, their self-showing coincides with the objective presence [Vorhandensein] of
disturbances that do not show themselves. Appearance, as the appearance of something,
thus precisely does not mean that something shows itself; rather, it means that something
makes itself known which does not show itself. It makes itself known through something
that does show itself. Appearing is a not showing itself. But this not must by no means be
confused with the privative not which determines the structure of semblance. Martin
Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. Joan Stambaugh (sz,; Albany: State University of New
York Press, so), z,zo.
,,. I recall, briey, that cause is not to be confused with motive, nor with re-
pressed desire. The cause, said Lacan, is whats off (cest ce qui cloche) and that of
which the objet a manifests the pregnance, as object-cause of desire.
,s. See, notably, Interpretation, ,s,s, ,o.
,. Pan, masculine noun. s. Large part of a dress, cloak, or dress coat. Dun des pans
de sa robe il couvre son visage / A son mauvais destin en aveugle obeit. . . . z. Hunting term. A
snare made of cord that one sets in a forest. Pan de rets, a snare used to catch large animals
. . . ,. A
pan, tout a` pan, phrase used in some French provinces meaning full up to the
brim (Littre). The etymological origin of the word is not pagina, as Furetie`re thought,
but pannus, which means a torn or tattered part of a surface.
oo. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard
(New York: Hill and Wang, sss), dedication page and zozs, z,.
os. Ibid., ,.
oz. Ibid., zo.
o,. Ibid., ,o,, [translation altered].
o. Ibid., ,,.
o,. Meyer Schapiro, On Some Problems in the Semiotics of Visual Art: Field and
Vehicle in Image-Signs (so), in Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society
(New York: George Braziller, s), s,z.
oo. Ibid., zo.
o,. In a recent book, Jean-Claude Bonne greatly extends the scope of the nonmimetic
elements of the iconic sign and at the same time considerably increases their analytic
precision, showing, using the example of the tympanum at Conques, how they function
and how they establish parameters for the smallest units of a gurative ensemble. See
Jean-Claude Bonne, LArt roman de face et de prol: Le Tympan de Conques (Paris: Le Syco-
more, ss).
os. Marcel Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu, ,:,,:,,,.
o. Ibid., ,,,.
,o. Ibid.
,s. Ibid., ,,,,s.
,z. I owe these two phrases (trait supplementaire; indicateur de manque) to Louis
Marin (discussion at the colloquium in Urbino).
,,. See Hubert Damisch, Theorie du nuage: Pour une histoire de la peinture (Paris: Le
Seuil, s,z), sso.
,. Lacan, Four Fundamental Concepts, s and, more generally, o,ss.
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