From Antiquity Onward
I’m happily not on the Tradarch
Listserv, but occasionally I hear if my name or work is invoked. In a
recent exchange there was some discussion about the difference between
imitation and emulation, and as I’ve pointed out in my
book, this confusion is at least a couple of centuries old. But it is a
mistake to think that emulation supplanted imitation in the Renaissance, as
Carroll William Westfall argues from an almost pre-Raphaelite position in American
Arts Quarterly. Westfall wants to separate architecture from the other arts
(of which, it was said, it was their mother); but cleaving the metopes from the
Parthenon frieze is easier in practice than conceptually (Phidias himself may
have operated as an architect). If architecture is not the art of building I do
not know what it is. The classical mind does not hold disparate positions on the various arts, whether literary or visual. And emulation is as old as antiquity, as all literary
scholars seem to know, but it is also natural to artists, part and parcel of
engaging in an art that has coherent standards of judgment. All serious artists
want to excel; competency is for craftsmen. Artists of that stripe are as old
as Phidias, at least. So, to put emulation in context, here are some quotes:
Longinus
This writer [Plato] shows us, if only we were willing to pay
him heed, that another way (beyond anything we have mentioned) leads to the
sublime. And what, and what manner of way, may that be? It is the imitation and
emulation of previous great poets and writers. And let this, my dear friend, be
an aim to which we stedfastly apply ourselves.
Longinus. 1899 On the Sublime. trans. Roberts,
W. R. XIII, 2. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/longinus/index.htm
For many men are carried away by the spirit of others as if
inspired, just as it is related of the Pythian priestess when she approaches
the tripod, where there is a rift in the ground which (they say) exhales divine
vapour. By heavenly power thus communicated she is impregnated and straightway
delivers oracles in virtue of the afflatus. Similarly from the great natures of
the men of old there are borne in upon the souls of those who emulate them (as
from sacred caves) what we may describe as effluences, so that even those who seem little likely to be
possessed are thereby inspired and succumb to the spell of the others'
greatness.
Longinus. 1899 On the Sublime. trans. Roberts,
W. R. XIII, 2. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/longinus/index.htm
3. Was Herodotus alone a devoted imitator of Homer?
No, Stesichorus even before his time, and Archilochus, and above all Plato, who
from the great Homeric source drew to himself innumerable tributary streams.
And perhaps we should have found it necessary to prove this, point by point,
had not Ammonius and his followers selected and recorded the particulars. 4. This proceeding is not plagiarism; it is like taking an impression from
beautiful forms or figures or other works of art. And it seems to me that
there would not have been so fine a bloom of perfection on Plato's
philosophical doctrines, and that he would not in many cases have found his way
to poetical subject-matter and modes of expression, unless he had with all his
heart and mind struggled with Homer for the primacy, entering the lists like a
young champion matched against the man whom all admire, and showing perhaps too
much love of contention and breaking a lance with him as it were, but deriving
some profit from the contest none the less. For, as Hesiod says, 'This strife
is good for mortals' (Works and Days
24, at Perseus). And in truth that struggle for the crown of glory is noble and
best deserves the victory in which even to be worsted by one's predecessors
brings no discredit.
Longinus. 1899 On the Sublime. trans. Roberts,
W. R. XIII. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/longinus/index.htm
Quintilian
23. I remember a practice that
was observed by my masters, not without advantage. Having divided the boys into
classes, they assigned them their order in speaking in conformity to the
abilities of each, and thus each stood in the higher place to declaim according
as he appeared to excel in proficiency. 24. Judgments were
pronounced on the performances, and great was the strife among us for
distinction, but to take the lead of the class was by far the greatest honor.
Nor was sentence given on our merits only once; the 30th day brought the
vanquished an opportunity of contending again. Thus, he who was most successful
did not relax his efforts, while uneasiness incited the unsuccessful to
retrieve his honor. 25. I should be inclined to maintain, as far
as I can form a judgment from what I conceive in my own mind, that this method
furnished stronger incitements to the study of eloquence than the exhortations
of preceptors, the watchfulness of paedagogi, or the wishes of parents. 26. But as emulation is of use to those who have made some
advancement in learning, so, to those who are but beginning and are still of
tender age, to imitate their schoolfellows is more pleasant than to imitate
their master, for the very reason that it is easier.
Quintilian’s
Institutes of Oratory, Book 1, Chapter 2
http://rhetoric.eserver.org/quintilian/1/chapter2.html
Pliny the Elder
The
most celebrated [artists] have also come into competition with each other,
although born at different periods, because they had made statues of Amazons;
when these were dedicated in the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus, it was agreed
that the best one should be selected by the vote of the artists themselves who
were present; and it then became evident that the best was the one which all
the artists judged to be the next best after their own: this is the Amazon by
Polycleitus, while next to it came that of Pheidias, third Cresilas’s, fourth
Cydon’s and fifth Phradmon’s.
Pliny the Elder, Natural
History, trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library, 1938, p. 167
http://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL394.167.xml
Pliny the Younger
It may not be amiss when you have read only so much of an
author at once, as to carry in your head his subject and argument, to turn, as
it were, his rival, and write something on the same topic; then compare your
performance and his, and minutely examine in what points either you or he most
happily succeeded. It will be a matter of very pleasing congratulation to
yourself, if you shall find that in some things you have the advantage of him,
as it will be a great mortification if he should rise above you in all.
You may sometimes venture to pick out and try to emulate the
most shining passages of an author. Such a contest is, indeed, something bold;
but as it passes in secret, it cannot be taxed with presumption. Not but that
we see many persons enter this sort of lists with great applause, and because
they do not despair of themselves, advance before those whom they thought it
sufficient honour to follow.
Pliny, Letters, Book Seven, Letter 9, To Fuscus
http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny07-09-E.html
On Ancient Roman
Sculpture
Failure in artistic endeavors was not, then, primarily
defined as the inability to surpass one’s predecessors. The Romans did not
assign that sort of value to progress. Rather, real failure was characterized
by a lack of interest in even attempting to meet the standards of “the
ancients.”
Perry, E. E. “Rhetoric, Literary
Criticism, and Roman Artistic Imitation,” The
Ancient Art of Emulation: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, ed. E.
Gazda, Ann Arbor, 2002, p. 163
On Ancient Roman
Architecture
Evidently the aim [of Constantine’s arch] was to emulate
quite literally the Severan arch, the site of which, at the heart of the Forum
Romanum, made it Rome’s triple arch par
excellence. It seems highly likely that the later architect overlaid his
own design over drawings of the earlier building…[A series of] adjustments made
the proportions even more ‘classical’ than those of the earlier arch,
presenting an intriguing counterpoint to the otherwise innovative character of
contemporary architectural developments.[1]
Wilson Jones, M. 2000. Principles of Roman Architecture. New
Haven: Yale. 124
On Petrarch, and by Petrarch
Himself
On the one hand he read authors like Ennius and Plautus only
once and quickly at that; if he [Petrarch] memorized anything of theirs, it was
so alien to his own thoughts that it stood in his memory as another’s. On the
other hand, he read and reread Virgil, Cicero, Horace, and Boethius. He
digested their works so thoroughly that they entered his bone marrow, not just
this memory. They became so much a part of his mind that occasionally their
phrases came to his pen without his recognizing the source or even that they
came from someone else.
Pigman III, G. W. Spring, 1980. Versions of Imitation in the
Renaissance. Renaissance Quarterly.
Univ. of Chicago Press (Renaissance Society of America), Vol. 33, No. 1
The inaccessible peak, which Monicus upbraids Silvius for
struggling toward, panting and exhausted though he is, is the height of fame,
the rarer sort of fame, which but few succeed in attaining to. The deserts
where Silvius is said to wander are scholarly pursuits… Murmuring fountains can
be used of men of letters and of those who have the gift of eloquence, inasmuch
as little streams of intellectual influence flow from the wellsprings of genius
that are within them, with a sound, so to speak, that charms and delights us.
Petrarch, Letter, “On the Nature of
Poetry”
http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/read_letters.html?s=pet13.html
From Vasari, On
Various Artists
So Pietro [Perugino] often used to ask, of those he knew to
have travelled the world, whereabouts were the best masters of that calling
[painting]: and particularly he asked this of his master, who always replied to
the same effect, namely that in Florence more than anywhere else appeared men
who were perfect in all the arts, and especially in painting, because in that
city people are spurred on by three things. First is the sharp criticism so
often expressed by so many people, as the air of Florence breeds naturally free
spirits not generally content with mediocre works, but always considering them
more in respect of the good and the beautiful than with regard to those who
made them. Next, if anyone wishes to live there, he needs to be industrious,…
And the third spur, surely no less effective than the others, is a lust for
glory and honour which the very air of Florence generates in those of every
profession, and which if they are persons of spirit will not let them simply be
the equals of those they see to be men like themselves, let alone lag behind,
though they acknowledge them as masters.
“Pietro Perugino,” Lives of the Artists: Vol. II, trans. George Bull, Penguin
Classics, 1987, pp. 87-88
But some believe he was deterred from this [staying in Rome]
by the abundance of works in sculpture and painting to be seen in that city,
both ancient and modern, and by seeing many young disciples of Raphael and of
others, bold in draughtsmanship and confident and effortless in painting, whom,
so timid was he, Andrea did not have the heart to emulate. And so, riddled with
doubt, he decided it would be best to return to Florence; and there, reflecting
little by little on what he had seen, he benefitted so much that his works have
since been highly praised and admired, and, moreover, imitated more after his
death than during his lifetime….
“Andrea del Sarto,” Lives of the Artists: Vol. II, Penguin
Classics, 1987, p. 165
Now that I have described the works of this talented painter
[Raphael] I must, before giving further details of his life and death, take the
trouble, for the benefit of our artists, to discuss the various styles in which
he painted. In his boyhood, then, he imitated the style of his master, Pietro
Perugino; and after he had vastly
improved on it as regards drawing, colouring, and invention, he considered
that he had accomplished enough. But when he was more mature he realized he was
still a long way from the truth. Then he saw the works of Leonardo da Vinci,….
“Raphael of Urbino,” Lives of the Artists: Vol. I, trans. George Bull, Penguin Classics,
1987, p. 315
Having considered all this, therefore, Raphael, being unable
to compete with Michelangelo in the branch of painting to which he had set his
hand [the nude figure], resolved to emulate and perhaps surpass him in other
respects. So he decided not to waste his time by imitating Michelangelo’s style
but to attain a catholic excellence in the other fields of painting that have
been described [in addition to animals and portraits, “countless other things,
namely, draperies, shoes, helmets, armour, women’s head-dresses, hair, beards,
vases, trees, grottoes, rocks, fires, skies overcast or clear, clouds, rain,
lightening, fine weather, night-time, moonlight, bright sunshine, and countless
other subjects which are used by painters nowadays.”]
p. 317
This was because the instinctive grace of Michelangelo’s
work was enhanced by study and practice; and every day he produced work that
was still more inspired. For example, it was at that time [he was about 17]
that he made the copy of an engraving by Martin the German [Martin Schongauer]
that brought him considerable fame. Michelangelo did a perfect pen-and-ink copy
of this copper engraving, which showed St Anthony being tortured by devils,
soon after it had been brought to Florence. He also did the scene in colours;
and for this purpose in order to copy some of the strange-looking demons in the
picture he went along to the market and bough some fishes with fantastic scales
like theirs. The skill with which he did this work won him a considerable
reputation. Michelangelo also copied the works of other masters, with complete
fidelity; he used to tinge his copies and make them appear black with age by
various means, including the use of smoke, so that they could not be told apart
from the originals. He did this so that he could exchange his copies for the
originals, which he admired for their excellence and which he tried to surpass
in his own works; and these experiments also won him fame.
“Michelangelo Buonarotti,” Lives of the Artists: Vol. I, Penguin Classics, 329
Wittkower on Bernini
and Poussin
It is well known that most of Bernini’s early works are
close to some ancient model. Until a generation ago the Borghese Amalthea was believed to be Hellenistic.
His Pluto reveals the close study of
the Hercules in the Capitoline
Museum, a statue that Algardi had restored at a slightly later date. The David refers to the Borghese Warrior, and the Apollo of the Apollo and Daphne to the Apollo Belvedere …
As a rule, Bernini begins by following a classical model. In
elaborating his idea, however, he ends up with an intensely Baroque solution …
[T]he paintings of the early Poussin are comparatively loose, and only as he
matured did they become progressively formalized; by contrast, the works of the
early Bernini are comparatively classical, and only later in his career did
they become progressively free and imaginative.
Wittkower, R. 1975.”The Role of
Classical Models in Bernini and Poussin,” in Studies in Italian Baroque. Boulder: Westview Press.110; 112-113
Baldassare Gracián
Choose a heroic model,
and emulate rather than imitate. There are examples of greatness, living texts
of renown. Let each person choose the first in his field, not so much to follow
him as surpass them. Alexander cried at the tomb of Achilles, not for Achilles
but for himself, for unlike Achilles, he had not yet been born to fame. Nothing
makes the spirit so ambitious as the trumpet of someone else’s fame. It
frightens away envy and encourages noble deeds.
Baldassare Gracián, 1647, aphorism
75, 1993. The Art of Worldly Wisdom.
trans. C. Maurer. New York: Doubleday. 43
And lastly, Dryden,
from a
post of last year:
[Shakespeare’s portrait]
Bids thee thro’ me, be bold; with dauntless breast
Contemn the bad and Emulate the best…
John Dryden, “To Sir Godfrey
Kneller, Principal Painter to His Majesty”, from Miscellanies (1694), in The
Poems of John Dryden, ed. John Sargeaunt, Oxford Editions of Standard
Authors, 1948, p. 168.
