A Theory of Style

Author(s): James S. Ackerman

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Spring, 1962), pp. 227-
237
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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 JAMES S. ACKERMAN

A Theory of Style

We use the concept of style, then, as a

way of characterizing relationships among
ART HISTORIANS are especially preoccu-
works of art that were made at the same
pied with defining the nature and behavior
time and/or place, or by the same person or
of style. For history to be written at all we
group. If we do not know where, when, or
must find in what we study factors which at
by whom works of art were produced, then
once are consistent enough to be distin-
the process may be inverted to allow hy-
guishable and changeable enough to have a
potheses that works of the same style are
"story." In political-social history these fac-
tors are sometimes institutions, sometimes
from the same time, place, or person(s). In
this second role, style is an indispensable
persons or groups-units which retain theirhistorical tool; it is more essential to the
identity over a span of time or shift of lo-
history of art than to any other historical
cale, yet change and develop as they react to
discipline.
their environment and its changes.
Because works of art are preserved for
In the study of the arts, works, not institu-reasons other than their historical or bio-
tions or people, are the primary data; in
them we must find certain characteristics graphical significance, they often lose all
which are more or less stable, in the sense
extrinsic evidence of their historical posi-
tion, so that no record survives of the art-
that they appear in other products of the
ist(s), era, or locale which produced them.
same artist(s), era or locale, and flexible, in
Without such evidence-coordinates of
the sense that they change according to a
time and space-it is impossible to plot the
lefinable pattern when observed in in-
graphs of consistency and change that are a
stances chosen from sufficiently extensive
prerequisite for the writing of history. But
spans of time of geographical distance. A
isolated fragments of evidence may be ex-
listinguishable ensemble of such character-
tended into a credible historic account by
istics we call a style.
conclusions based on style; one signed work
may be sufficient to construct the oeuvre of
JAMES S. ACKERMAN is professor of fine arts at Har-
vard University. an artist, one dated work to associate a type
This essay was written for a volume on Art and of production with an epoch.
Archaeology which will constitute part of a gen- Style thus provides a structure for the his-
eral critique of the humanities in America for the
Council of the Humanities at Princeton University.
tory of art. Other structures are possible
While it uses examples and, to some degree, terms (e.g., the biography of artists), but that of
style is the most comprehensive, since it is
that are art historical, the theory presented is in-
tended to be applicable to the study of style in any
the only one that can be built with minimal
of the arts. I am indebted to my colleagues in the external documentation on the evidence of
Council for criticism, and I have been stimulated
greatly by the ideas of Ernst Gombrich, Georgeworks of art alone. Because our image of
Kuibler, Jesse Reichek, and Meyer Schapiro. style is not discovered but created by ab-

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 228 JAMES S. ACKERMAN

stracting them in accordance with such

certain patterns; our
featur
from perceptual
works of mechanisms
art cause
forus to inter-
th
ing historical
pret what we see in and
terms of what we cri
know
meaningless
and expect.
to The factor
ask, of stability as
in style w
is style?";can be traced to a sort of
the instinctual inertia;
relevan
"what definition of
presumably, if natural inclinations sty
were un-
useful disturbed by imagination,
structure for ambition,the
and
I suggested that
other desires, the
society and language would re- co
means of establishing
main fixed and art would have a history of r
individual works of art. In this it resembles more or less competent copies of the work of
the concepts of society and culture, whichsome Daedalic demigod. But we are merci-
are based on similar definitions of relation-
fully favored with instincts and passions
ships; anthropologists also use the word that struggle with-though they never quite
"style" to designate a complex of behaviorovercome-that inertia, and these contri-
patterns within a society. There is no objec-
bute the flexible factor in style.
The artist submits to this tension be-
tive correlative for our image of a style; we
may observe and define certain traits tweenor stability and change, between the re-
characteristics in a single wort of art, but
production of existing forms and the inven
we cannot call them traits of Rembrandt's tion of new ones, by necessity, not by
choice. Unlike a machine, he cannot repro-
style, Gothic style, or Tuscan style without
summoning our experience of other works
duce without inventing, for when change is
by Rembrandt, or the "Gothic period"
not prompted by inventiveness it is
prompted
(which is itself a historian's invention), or by boredom. So art has never
from Tuscany. A particular work of beenart
static; when it is not vital, it actively
therefore may represent or exemplifydegenerates.
char- Conversely, the artist cannot
invent without reproducing; in order to
acteristics of a style in the way that a person
may be representative of a society, but tomake
saya meaningful innovation he must be
that it "has a style," as we often do, is not
able to concentrate his forces upon the few
illuminating. If we use the word "style"aspects
to of his work where circumstances
define a certain artistic currency, it favor
is in-fresh departures; for the rest, he relies
on the support of his tradition and of his
efficient to use it also to define the unique
environment.
traits of single works of art. The virtue of An artist cannot invent him-
the concept of style is that by defining self out of his time and, if he could, he
rela-
tionships it makes various kinds of orderwould succeed only in making his work in-
out of what otherwise would be a vast con-
comprehensible by abandoning the frame-
tinuum of self-sufficient products. work in which it might be understood.
The relationship of stability and change
In using an image of style to establish or-
derly relationships among works of art,varies
we according to the pace and degree of
individualization of a culture; in recent art
follow the path of the artist, who-by choos-
ing to accept or to alter certain features of
a powerful factor of flexibility causes radical
the art around him-establishes a relation- shifts of style in the course of a generation,
while
ship which is the predominant factor in the in ancient Egypt stability predomi-
formation of his individual style. Fornated
the to the point that barely perceptible
innovations were sufficient to secure the vi-
artist and for his audience, style is a protec-
tion against chaos; it serves the same pur-tality of a style for three milennia.
In the tradition of modern Western criti-
pose as do cultural patterns and institutions
in society. A class of works of art of cism,
any the forces that make for change in art
have been praised more warmly than those
kind-pyramids, ruler-portraits, still lifes-
is orderly and distinguishable because that
it is make for stability. Since the Romantic
necessary to human beings not only to ex- the military hero has been admired
period
press themselves within establishedmore
pat-for his adventurousness than for his
caution, and the artist-hero more for his in-
terns, but to experience the world around

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 A Theory of Style 229
novations than for
istics so ephemeralhis ability
that they appear in that
dition. This preference work alone, and have no currency. exempIn short,
gressive" view materialof characteristics
art are not usually
opposed
to a conservative view which would favor changeable enough, nor expressive charac-
teristics stable enough to define style or to
the forces of stability. Neither is really rele-
vant to criticism. Change and stability provide
sim- a structure for history; they may be
ply are primeval forces in style and cannot called symptoms rather than determinants
be invested with value expect in termsofof style, since a dispositon toward certain
some preconceived image of man's destiny. materials or expressive modes characterizes
the production of any time, place, or person.
II Technique, or the process by which mat-
ter is given form, is a more sensitive gauge
If the characteristics of the work of art of style than the strictly material aspect of
the work of art, but less sensitive than the
that contribute to a definition of style must
exhibit some stability and flexibility, thenconventional character. To say that a
temple is constructed of dowled ashlar
all of its possible characteristics cannot con-
blocks and that its trussed roof rests on lin-
tribute in equal measure. Conventions of
form and of symbolism yield the richest tels supported by columns is to reveal more
harvest of traits by which to distinguish of its style than to say that it is built of
marble, wood, and iron; but it does not dis-
style. I mean by conventions an accepted
vocabulary of elements-a scale of color, tinguish
an a Greek temple from a Roman or
architectural Order, an attribute of a God Neo-classic one.

or a saint-and a syntax by which these ele- Yet technique may be a fundamental

ments are composed into a still-life, a stylistic determinant; this occurs because
temple, or a frieze. We get an image of theusually it is not merely a means, but serves
style of an individual by observing the inter-important formal or symbolic functions. In
action of his private conventions and the Gothic architecture the ribbed vault, which
public conventions of his time and place.represents a substantial advance in engi-
Since conventions, like language, are theneering, is not just a device for achieving an
basic vehicle for the communication of expressive form, it is itself an expressive
meaning, society aids the artist in promoting
form, whereas in the skyscraper design of
their stability and in controlling the rate,
the last generation, the aim to "reveal" the
the degree, and even the nature skeletal
of theirsteel frame in the exterior design
change. Religious symbolism, for example,
had a symbolic motivation-the skeleton,
is determined by religious establishments as to be covered for fire protection;
in fact, had
well as by artists, and other less utilitarian
its reflection in the facade design, often
conventions, such as those of landscape
achieved artificially, symbolized "honesty."
painting or of recent abstract art,Gothic
are sus-
and early twentieth-century archi-
tained, if not formulated, by the needs of an
tects were uncommonly interested in struc-
economically powerful class.
ture, and this promoted an extraordinary
Other inherent characteristics help less
flexibility in technique. Structural change
in determining style; aspects of the work of
in Gothic
art as a material object change so little in architecture was so rapid and so
the course of history that they might appearthat it can be traced systematically
rational
in a succession of cathedrals started within
almost anywhere at any time. So to say that
a painting is done on wood, thatthe same generation; vaulting or buttressing
a statue
weighs three hundred pounds, or that a methods alone are sufficient to provide a
building is thirty feet high is to make a state- key to chronology. By contrast, the techni-
ment which, for all its precision, conveys cal change in other great phases of Euro-
little of style. Conversely, at the opposite pean architecture-from 550 to 350 B. C. or
pole, an evocation of the unique expres- from 1450 to 1650 A. D.-was negligible,
siveness of the work of art reveals character- almost an insignificant component of style.

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 230 JAMES S. ACKERMAN

III a bias in favor of the Classic; the Parthenon,

Amiens, and Raphael were thought to be
One of the most stubborn and challeng-
peaks of the cycle (as expressed in the terms
ing problems of art history is to explain the
"High" Gothic; "High" Renaissance) to-
motivations and behavior of change in style.
WVhile this involves concentration on flex-
ward which earlier artists aspired and from
which later artists retreated.
ible factors, we could not separate one style
At the turn of the century, Alois Riegl,
from another, nor speak of a style, without
who supported his theory of style with stud-
first defining it in terms of stable factors. We
ies of non-classical phases (Late Roman,
create classes such as Impressionism, Ba-
Early Baroque art), was influential in per-
roque art, or Picasso's "Blue Period" on the
suading colleagues to grant equality to all
assumption that a certain complex of ele-
phases. He promoted a principle which
ments common to a group of works is suffi-
typifies art history in this century, that the
ciently stable, distinct, and relevant to jus-
best solution to an artistic problem is the
tify characterizing it as a style. In a similar
one that best fulfills the artist's aim. But
way, political historians distinguish "per- this relativism in the sphere of value was
iods" within the constant flux of human ac-
accompanied by determinism in explaining
tion-the Middle Ages, the Reformation, or
the dynamics of style; in place of the bio-
the Colonial Era-in terms of what they be-
logical metaphor, Riegl put cycles of evo-
lieve to be cohesive and significant social
lution from an early "haptic" to a later
events. This definition of a style in terms of
"optic" phase. At the same time, Heinrich
its stable factors is a hypothesis (and one
Wolfflin offered a still more influential the-
which we must challenge constantly) that ory of preordained evolution from Classical
makes it possible to study change. While to Baroque form in terms of polar formal
style usually can be defined in reference to
categories: closed-open, linear-painterly,
a more or less fixed block of historical time,
etc. As compared to the biological tradition,
the study of its processes of change requires
reference to the succession of events within which had the disadvantage of being ap-
that block. plicable to only three of the major styles
of Western art, that of Riegl and Wolfflin
For most of the five hundred yearsdescribes
of more universal patterns of style,
modern art history the patterns of change
though eras remain-among them Carolin-
have been described in biological meta-
gian and nineteenth-century art-which
phors. Vasari, the most scholarly historian
give little support to their systems. In the
of the Renaissance, believed that style, "like
past half century no new theories of style
human bodies, has a birth, a growth, an have
age- taken root; in this country none has
ing and a death." The scheme survived intoeven been proposed. This is not due so
the last century, when it got refinements much to satisfaction with earlier theories
from Darwin and his colleagues and when as to the rise of a narrow scientism which
terms such as the "evolution" or "life" of
has made philosophical speculation sus-
style entered our vocabulary. Most of Va- pect. Although we cannot work without a
sari's followers before 1850 were interested
theory of style, and although we continue
chiefly in the art of two epochs-antiquity to speak of classical, baroque, or painterly
and the Renaissance-which were suscepti- forms, we have allowed the systems that
ble to being fitted into the biological life- give meaning to these terms to slip into
cycle, and even those who turned from classi-
the unconscious, where they operate with-
cism toward the Gothic found that the out the benefit of our control, as a barrier
formula still could be used. Toward the end
against new perceptions.
of the last century, scientific scholarship All of the major theories of style have
and the broadening of taste encouraged abeen determinist in the sense that they de-
more specific and less normative model of fine a preordained pattern of "evolution":
evolution from an archaic to a classic to a
the earlier phase of a style is destined to
baroque phase. There remained, however, move toward the later. This is to say that at

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 A Theory of Style 231
any stage in ess. We can,
the for example, designate
process some a work
than the will of artists must be at work from a later moment as a "classic" solu-
directing invention toward the goal that
tion and judge any earlier work according
to what it contributed or failed to con-
ultimately is to be achieved. Twentieth-
century scholars do not grant a priority tribute
of to that solution. Or, with Wolfflin,
value to any phase of the evolution, but wea can praise-or cite as especially sig-
value-concept lurks in the shadows; if nificant-solutions
it is in the classic phase that
contributed most to the making of the
the destiny of styles to evolve as they did,
then those works of art which promoted baroque phase.
that evolution are destiny-fulfilling and We cannot erase our image of the totality
those which did not are destiny-denying. of a style process in the past, but this need
The implication that the former arenot su-discourage us from trying to interpret
perior cannot be avoided. So, in our hand- a work of art in terms of its proper con-
text rather than its effects by gaining per-
books of the history of styles it appears that
the chief function of any work of art is to
spectives within the process at points short
contribute toward the works which follow of its termination. At any one of these
points we shall find an artist making a
it in a sequence; and the greater the con-
tribution the more "significant" the work. statue or designing a cathedral. He, too,
The history of art has been fashioned into is aware of works preceding his, and of
another version of the materialist success- works being made by his contemporaries,
story.1 and these constitute an important source
It is easy to understand how historians
in the formation of his style. Given our
studying Greek, Gothic, or Renaissancehabits
art of hindsight, it is necessary to add
first formulated a biological model thatand he is not aware of the works which
later a more sophisticated theory of an his; he knows only past and present.
follow
innate dynamics of style; in those periods
He accepts and rejects aspects of what he
the sequence of works is so evident,findsthe in things about him and he adds some-
number of "unsuccessful" productions so of his own. By his choice and by his
thing
few, that it appears almost inevitable that
contribution he moves a step-sometimes a
the Temple of Hera at Olympia should leap-away from the past. Are we, then, jus-
have led ultimately to the Parthenon, ortified
the in saying that he has moved toward
the future?
portal sculpture of the facade of Chartres to
In his terms the future is a void-how can
that of Rheims and finally to that of Claude
he move toward it? If he dreams of its
Sluter. The process is orderly; it is similar
in those two otherwise dissimilar epochs wonders,
of the dreams themselves, like his
Western civilization and finally it is so are creations of the present. He may
art,
familiar from our experience of living
happen to contribute to the future, but
things that we are tempted almost irresisti-
only by having concentrated all his powers
bly to define it as a natural or necessary
on the making of something intrinsically
one. At the least it would seem that the worthwhile in the present. If the sculptors at
designer of Olympia and the sculptors of had visualized as the ultimate goal
Chartres
of their effort something like the Rheims
Chartres were making the first steps toward
figures, they surely would have carved
the goal that was gained by their successors.
But even that apparently factual account
something like the Rheims figures. Artists
of a sequence of increasingly successful so-
communicate experiences rather than ex-
lutions to a problem contains a concealedpectations; they are not prophets. For these
germ of determinism. It introduces reasonsa trap the modern myth of the avant-
into which historians habitually fall, as a in art (adopted from a military term
garde
result of the benefits of hindsight. designating
When troops nearest the objective),
we review the surviving evidence of athoughproc- it has sustained lively polemics,
really
ess in the past, we can see the effects as well makes no sense, and threatens to de-
as the causes of any event within thegrade proc-the artist. Anyone who seeks to alter

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 232 TAMES S. ACKERMAN

or to accelerate The pattern of the style change,chang

then, is not
hope of determined by any destiny northe
anticipating by a com- f
become, like mon thegoal, but by fashion
a succession of complex d
in and purveyor decisions as numerous of as the works by
taste.
What ultimately which we have defined the style. We can
prevent
successfully detectanticipating
a pattern or distinguish a common
unpredictable problem because behavior
each decision in turn, by o
His effect its choice of elements
upon which are to be re- is
them p
chance. It tained or rejected and byon
depends its innovations,
his
by someone givesand,
to the whole a if itconfigura-
determinable is,
of those tion. Thesee
who configuration
it. mayPowe
appear pur-
works are poseful or predestined
more likely because eachto succes- b
weaker ones, sive work but often
retains something of those that
vigorously precede even it and because
by its artist
innovations,
they are considered
though not anticipated in earlier works, too are
angelo's latecoherentlyPietas;
related to them. But Willi
what actu-
ing) but even ally motivates
when the process is a constant
they
radical enough incidence of probings into the unknown,
(Botticelli
1860). not a sequence of steps toward the perfect
These observations suggest a different ap- solution.
proach to defining the process of change So we return to an earlier observation
in style. What is called "evolution" in the that the pattern of change is a product of
arts should not be described as a succession the tension in society and in the artist
of steps toward a solution to a given prob- between the instinct for the stability and
lem, but as a succession of steps away from security of established schemes and the hu
one or more original statements of a prob- man capacity (resulting partly from bio
lem. Each step, for the artist who takes it,logical
is and psychological differences) fo
final and definitive; he cannot consciously creating something unique and individu
make a transition to a succeeding step, for alized.
if Change is slow when the former is
stronger, rapid when the latter prevails
he visualizes something he regards as prefer-
able to what he is doing, he presumably As willa rule, the factor of stability gets more
proceed to do it, unless he is constrainedsupport
in from society and its institutions,
some way. So we cannot speak properly of and a the factor of change from the indi
sequence of solutions to a given problem, vidual imagination; creative vision seldom
since with each solution the nature of the is granted to groups. On the rare occasion
problem changes. when inspired patronage (Emperor Fred
erick II, Louis XIV) does more than the
We might visualize a style as a great
canvas on which generations of artists have artist to motivate a style, the patron prove
painted. The earliest ones sketch a composi- to be a creative individual who deserves
tion, later ones keep some of it, rub some to be called an artist. Given our backgroun
out and add some of their own, the next in the dialectic of German art history, it
do the same and so on. At any moment in is necessary to emphasize that a nation, a
the process there is a complete picture, but religion, a Zeitgeist, is likely, except in
no indication of what it will look like after its formative stage, to resist rather than to
promote change in style. The idea that
the succeeding artist has done his share.
At the close of the process, when some Germans, Catholics, or Baroque Man em-
artists have started on another picture,body
this a creative expressive will (I am re-
one is abandoned. But the final image,calling
al- Riegl's Kunstwollen) apart from
though composed of contributions from the contributions of their artist I find in-
comprehensible and distasteful. If German
every artist, cannot be said to represent
art is German, it is not because any creative
the aims of the earlier ones, nor to repre-
sent a solution to the problem posedinnovation
by in it has been produced by a
the first of them. mystical German Spirit, but because the

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 A Theory of Style 233
an open,
nation and its as opposed to a closed
artists showsystem- a
keep certain haskinds of
been used by the best innov
modern historians
cast out and need
other not be describedIt
kinds. in detail,
is but by t
tive, the absence
post-facto, of it in a majority that
pressure of studies, so
art. particularly those devoted to the work of
individual
In proposing an alternative to current in- artists, causes the assumption of
an internal "evolution" from one work to
terpretations of patterns of change in style,
the next to gain precedence over a deep
I do not want to overrate the significance
analysis
of chronological succession. To do so is to of the genesis of each work in
succession.
imply that each work necessarily is related
more closely to its immediate predecessors
than to others of an earlier stage of a style
IV or
in what we have defined as different styles.
Indeed, the demands of society and the My primary aim is to explain change in
inclinations of artists make the innovations style as the manifestation rather of the
of the latest work by contemporaries in imagination
the of individual artists than of
same culture especially interesting, because historical forces that guide the actions of
men and nations. But if we attributed every
they represent attempts to solve in a familiar
language the kind of problem whichaspect is of change to the operation of indi-
challenging at the moment. But the creative vidual free will, we should not be able to
process is complex enough to be stimu- explain the crucial phenomenon that origi-
lated at many points; often the art of nally encouraged deterministic and evolu-
earlier times or of foreign places offers tionary
so- theories: that sequences in quite
lutions to such problems, too-it even different cultures may reveal similar pat-
may suggest new problems, since its lan-terns of change. In Greek, Gothic, and
guage is less familiar. So inspiration may Renaissance art there appears to be a phase
come from far as well as from near; some- of equilibrium (usually described as "clas-
times, especially, in the formulation of a sic") preceded by a more formalized, and
new problem, the distant past is actually followed by a freer phase. The fact that this
closer than yesterday, as Roman art was pattern cannot be found in every sequence
closer than Gothic to the early Renaissance(e.g., Roman, Carolingian, nineteenth-cen-
or primitive sculpture closer than Impres-tury art) does not lessen our responsibility
sionism to some painters of the early 1900's.to explain it where it can be found, if it
In visualizing a style process, then, we really is, as I believe, justified by the evi-
must keep in mind that the individual dence of the monuments themselves. The
innovations which give it pattern may be problem is to discover an explanation of
motivated as easily from outside as from recurrent patterns that avoids on the one
within the style itself. Since the artist mayhand the tyranny of external historical
experience and put to use in making a forces or laws, and on the other hand the
work of art anything in his environment,anarchy of mere chance.
the historian must reconstruct as much of Perhaps the clearest instance of a re-
that environment as possible. Each work current pattern in art is in the development
of art can be considered a repository of of ex-techniques from a stage of crudity and
periences entering from every directionexploration
in to a stage of refinement. Sculp-
the artist's surroundings. That it owes a for example, may learn to carve with
tors,
special debt to great predecessors in the greater finesse or to cast more and more
same tradition, to the artist's teachers and
complex forms up to a point at which they
colleagues, is no more than a plausible hy-attain-within the requirements of their
pothesis; the role of these likely contribu- style-a maximal potential for their body,
tors must be weighed against that of all the tools, and materials. But technique does
works of art and other possible visual andnot always behave in this way; desire for
non-visual stimuli available to the artist. progress in finesse occurs with variable in-
This contextual approach-establishing tensity and even may be absent. Nor is it

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 234 JAMES S. ACKERMAN

always possible, for

been uniformly massive so
in Romanes
solved at the start
building, by ofin chose
concentrating stresses a
the Van Eycks, the
points. The lightening firs
process was barel
adopt oil glazes, achiev
noticeable in the first experiments w
surviving bulky
pictures a
members, but once conceived, te
it w
that was never surpassed and rarely continued to the limit of the structural
equalled. strength of stone (and even beyond, as
There is no predetermined law of tech- demonstrated by the collapse of the choir
nical progress any more than there is a law of Beauvais cathedral). A similar develop-
of stylistic evolution. Even where we find ment of skeletal structures occurred with
techniques systematically refined to a point the introduction of the steel frame in the
at which they reach their maximal poten- last century, in that it encouraged a sys-
tial, the succeeding steps cannot be pre- tematic development away from massive-
dicted; at that point, artists may abandon ness and a metamorphosis of the masonry
the benefits of finesse (Manet as against the wall into glass, as in Gothic architecture.
Salon painters); maintain the level achieved In discussing figural sculpture and skele-
(Renaissance sculpture after Donatello); or tal structure I have implied that there is
be unable to prevent a decline (mosaics and something about the posing of the technical
stained glass after 1300). problem that suggests the direction in which
But while technique need not progress a succession of solutions is likely to move.
in refinement, it often does, and where tech- But what that something is cannot be ex-
nical problems are similar in different plained in terms of technique alone; it is
styles, the pattern of the progress is simi- also a matter of formal and symbolic aims.
lar. Figural stone sculpture in the round What impels an artist along the path to-
is found in many diverse cultures; the typi- ward finesse is not so much a love of skill
cal pattern of change begins with stiff, for its own sake as the conception of forms
frontal, and blocky figures and passes on to that are beyond the reach of existing skills.
more mobile and rounded ones. One reason In figural sculpture this conception often
has something to do with imitation; the
for this is that the technique of carving
stone with a metal instrument does not style is drawn from its blocky beginnings to
change fundamentally; in any epochfreer and
themore rounded forms because the
beginner has difficulty in turninghuman
a block body is freer and more rounded
into a human figure without retaining a
than a block. So long as each artist in turn
blocklike character. The stone and the is intrigued by the problem of mimesis the
chisel impose their own laws which process the
is likely to continue along the scale
artist must obey, and this is true fromat thethe
blocky to the illusionistic. The
most refined as well as at the most aims seldom are so simple; in one sense
primitive
level; there is a limit to freedom, to the archaic Greek figural sculptors followed
length an unsupported arm can be extendedsuch a path, but at the same time they be-
without breaking, to the amount that can came increasingly intrigued by a sophisti-
cated linear refinement which was non-il-
be cut from the lower position of the block
without weakening the superstructure. lusionistic; sculptures of the early fifth
This-together with the classical heritage century had to reject that refinement vigor-
-explains certain similarities between ously in order to resume the mimetic proc-
highly developed techniques in different ess; but they in turn were drawn to ideal-
eras (the figure in Hellenistic sculpture, ization and generalization as well as to
Bernini, Canova). imitation of the human body.
We find another example of the pressures The appeal of illusion best illustrates
exerted on the artist by technique in the de- how the acceptance of a problem directs
velopment of skeletal structure in Gothic the artist, for he continually may adjust
architecture. The invention of the rib his art to conform to his perceptions of
vault and the flying buttress madetheit
world about him. The notebooks of
possi-
ble to lighten vaults and walls, which had da Vinci are evidence of just this
Leonardo

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 A Theory of Style 235
process of adjustment; tistic production admits butnature
does not de-
an objectve goal toward
mand systematic which
and recurrent patterns of
should strive, and minute observations of change in style.
it are systematically translated into the
terms of painting. But the example of V
Gothic architecture proves how problems
which cannot be solved by models in na-On what grounds may we establish the
ture may still guide the process of solu-
limits or extent of a style, and differentiate
tions. The development of the skeletalit from other styles? Sometimes the ques-
structure was motivated, among othertion is partially answered by social-histori-
things, by a continuing desire to get more
cal phenomena, as in epochs when a new
light. So long as this desire prevailed, the
style is started abruptly to satisfy a new
revision of forms was bound to be in the
need (early Christian architecture) or termi-
direction of substituting glass for stone- nated by disaster or acculturation (Aztec,
first, by concentrating stresses in the skele-
Northwest Indian art); or when it is co-
ton, and second by reducing the mass ofextensive
the with a closed political or geo-
skeleton itself.
graphical unit (ancient Egypt). Most of
These observations do not modify my Western art, however, from Greek antiquity
earlier strictures against predetermined pat-
to the present day is a great mega-style
terns. The artist involved in such a process
within which we attempt to find plausible
need not be striving toward a distant andsubdivisions that help to clarify the his-
unobtainable goal; he merely may be torical
re- process.
fining the solution of his predecessor. So Style is not the only framework within
the Gothic architect might say: "At Soissons
which historical process can be studied in
they managed to get more glass and thinner
the arts. Classes of works exemplifying a
piers than at Paris but I shall do still particular technique or a formal or sym-
better." He did not have the "classic" solu-
bolic convention reveal processes which
tion of Amiens in mind. The same psychol-
may span several styles (e.g., the history of
ogy would apply even in cases where itthe dome, of perspective, of landscape
might be said that there is only one cor-painting, of the iconography of the Im-
rect solution, for example, the geometrical
maculate Conception). Another kind of
projection of a three-dimensional figure framework is formed by the entire body of
onto a two-dimensional plane in Renais- work produced within an arbitrarily chosen
sance painting. span of time such as a decade, a century, or
One plausible explanation, then, for pat-a political reign. But limits of this kind,
terns of change in style is that wherewhich a presume some special significance to
certain problem posed at the start of a style
mere contemporaneity, are less likely to
continues to challenge artists over an ex- prompt fresh perceptions than those sug-
tendled span of time, and only where gested it by criteria of style deduced from
suggests one type of solution rather than an-
works of art themselves. The framework
other, the process will show progressive re-
most highly favored by students of Renais-
finement toward the preferred type of solu-sance and Modern art-the oeuvre of a
tion. When similar patterns are exhibited
single artist-is subject to similar deficien-
in different cultures, it is likely that the pre-
cies. It has the apparent advantage that
ferlred type of solution is in some way its limits are inexorably fixed by mortality,
similar. Refinement of this kind is neither
and that it normally is coextensive with a
inevitable nor necessarily desirable. The consistent personal style that behaves as a
stability of Egyptian art is due to the fact
minuscule echo of larger styles. But the
that the solutions arrived at an early stage
presumption of consistency in human be-
were considered optimal for centuries; by ings is unwarranted; the life span of an
contrast, Roman and nineteenth-century
individual can be as insensitive a meas-
art tended to shift often from one problem
ure of style as any arbitrarily chosen seg-
to another. In short, the psychology of ar-
ment of time. One artist or the artists of a

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 236 JAMES S. ACKERMAN

century flowsadhere
may into another withoutto
perceptible
a de-si
from one flections. I think
style toof Giotto and Duccio in
anothe
such shifts are more the rule than the ex- this category; they represent the flowering
ception. of the late Middle Ages and/or the origins
We distinguish one style from another by of the Renaissance, according to the his-
noting differences in the use of conventions, torian's needs-to his definition of what is
materials, and techniques. We do this by significant.
referring to an image of the norms of a style If we accept, then, a theory of confluent,
as a whole-style in the stable sense; but the overlapping, and interacting styles in place
image does not help to determine chrono- of a cyclical-evolutionary one, the problem
logical or geographical limits. We can de- of fixing limits becomes much less urgent.
fine easily generic differences between a The cycles of traditional art history must
Gothic and a Renaissance statue without
have beginnings and ends and new cycles
being able to specify the first works
need to of
be started by somebody; but the
Renaissance sculpture. limits of confluent styles such as Gothic-
This is because the creative process in- or Renaissance-Baroque can be
Renaissance
fixed wherever
volved in contributing to the formation of the problem at hand re-
quires,
a new style is not of a different order from since they admittedly have no ob-
other creative acts. Both radical and con- jective reality.
servative artists choose what they want So tolong as it matters a great deal when
retain and what they want to reject and from by whom a new style is initiated, it is
their tradition and contribute something difficult to distinguish the innovator from
of their own. When the balance favors re- the genius, for the premium tends to be
tention, styles survive; when it favorsplaced re- rather on novelty than on quality.
jection, they dissipate-though they While maythe two are not necessarily antitheti-
flourish, particularly in the provinces, cal, long a theory that exaggerates the impor-
after desertion by the adherents of a tance newof the initiation of styles cannot admit
current. Since the extinction of one style a dispassionate examination of the relation-
is neither the prerequisite for nor, neces- ship of novelty to quality. The great artist
sarily, the result of the initiation of is an-
often an innovator, but his genius does
other, old and new styles may exist not side- consist so much in the innovations
by-side and mutually influence one another; themselves as in his ability to make them
and several new ones may coexist evenexpressivein and forceful. Innovations can
the same locale: in Paris of the early twen-be made by anyone, and often minor ar-
tieth century: Cubism, the Fauves, Futurism, tists have conceived novelties that gained
etc.
significance and force only in the hands of
A style, then, may be thought of their as a betters. It is useful to designate as the
class of related solutions to a problem-or start of a style the work of a great master,
responses to a challenge-that may bebut said often he is only one, and not always the
to begin whenever artists begin to pursue first, to employ the new elements that
a problem or react to a challenge which characterize the style. But by the power of
differs significantly from those posedhis by art he frames the innovations into prob-
the prevailing style or styles. It is easy lemsto or challenges that continue to absorb
his successors for generations. These suc-
detect a "significant" difference when artists
vigorously reject major features of a tra- cessors are expressing their respect, not
ditional style and consciously aim to elimi- for the novelty but for the quality and au-
nate them from their work (Carolingian thority of certain works of art. Being art-
and Renaissance architecture, most early ists and not chroniclers, they tend to be
twentieth-century movements); but theindifferent
dis- to the question of whether those
tinction is quite unclear when the inven- works were the first of their kind.
tions of an artist who thinks of himself as By taking a neutral position with respect
a faithful bearer of tradition become the to innovation, we awaken our perceptions
nucleus of a wholly new style, and one to the realm of qualities that distinguished
style

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 A Theory of Style 237
artists evoke from traditional elements in hangover of the old biological metaphor-
their art. Equally important is the evalua- which confuses criteria of style (Mannerism
tion of "minor" and "unsuccessful" styles, is a style-term) with vague chronological
which are forced into the background by spans ("early Renaissance" means about
cyclical or dialectic theories which allow 1400-1500 in Italy and something else in
only one "major development" at one time. other countries). Categories that are created
Because Leonardo and Raphael were so for the purpose of making distinctions of
effective around 1505, the powerful style and should be built logically on criteria of
original art of Botticelli and Piero di style. Furthermore, since the selection of a
Cosimo at the same period has been rele-style as the object of study inevitably in-
gated to obscurity. It is revealing that thisvolves a presumption of cohesiveness, it
art, at the close of the Florentine earlyshould follow and not precede the hypothe-
Renaissance, should have suffered more sis that a certain group of works is closely
from our historical biases than other com- integrated and clearly distinguished from
parable terminal expressions-the late other groups. If we assume the existence of
Michelangelo, El Greco, Vermeer, Turner. a style at the start (a danger with pat con-
I believe that this is because this second cepts such as "Classic" and "Romantic"
group, which produced little following in etc.), we shall delude ourselves into
periods,
their time (younger artists could not emu- into it what does not belong.
crowding
late or understand their achievement), In was
this essay I have tried to define princi-
"successful" in modern times once our own ples based as far as possible on the examina-
art had trained us to appreciate it. A theory
tion of the creative process, so that the in-
dividual work of art, and not the force of
that properly accredits the socalled "minor"
and terminal expressions by accentuating some vague destiny, might be seen as the
the complexity of the context of any primework mover of the historical process re-
of art should promote a subtler and more vealed by style. So I have interpreted the
penetrating criticism. concept of a style and of its limits as a
If our image of a style is formed about a
generalization which we form, by compar-
succession of works that develop the poten-
ing individual works, into shapes that are
tial of a given problem, then stylesconvenient
of a for historical and critical pur-
relatively modest extension make the most poses. I hope that my image of confluent
rewarding frame for study. Grand, epochal and concurrent styles, by avoiding the im-
frames such as Renaissance and Baroque plication of a predetermined evolution and
are too large to help in making criticalhierarchy
dis- of values, may admit a method
tinctions; we cannot agree on defining which
their is sensitive to the actual causes and
problem. Renaissance scholars generally effects of works of art and that it may en-
recognize this difficulty, but the monolithic
courage the interpretation of any creative
image of the Baroque still causes works actof
in terms of the total context in which it
radically opposed styles (Bernini and wasdeperformed.
Hooch!) to be forced into a single category.
At the opposite extreme, the channel of
works by a single artist may be too con-
stricted, for reasons which I have already
1 See Meyer Schapiro's classic survey and critique
stated. of style theory in Anthropology Today (Chicago,
1953), pp. 287-312. My earlier statement on the sub-
The subdivision of large epochs into
ject (in The Visual Arts Today [Middletown, 1960])
lesser spans (Early and High Renaissance,
has been criticized by Thomas Munro in the JAAC
Mannerism) is a compromise-partly a (1961), 414 f.
XIX

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