Virtuosity and Emulation

Follow-up to An Academy of Emulation

Rubens, The Feast of Venus

At some level the idea of an academy of emulation encapsulates the general practice of emulation. In other words, what is taught is what an emulative artist would do (and continue to do throughout her or his career). To make the implications of this more clear—and to clarify perhaps how Old Master artists saw their challenges—I would distinguish two categories of techniques of classical work in the emulative tradition: techniques necessary for invention, and “pro forma” techniques. What I’m suggesting is that artists like Rubens, Cortona or Pittoni displayed their virtuosity by a combination of pro forma displays of accomplishment (part of the art of documentation), and more daring techniques proper to invention. Primarily (unless he was working on portraiture) Rubens would have privileged invention, with documentation as a necessary but complementary display of his mastery. Those two categories were composed of the following aspects:

I.      Techniques Necessary for Invention

1. Foreshortening
2. Rotating figures in space
3. Projecting shadows
4. Reflected lights (luminosity)
5. Spatial depth/layering

Spatial layering in Rubens

II.    Pro-forma Techniques

1. Anatomy (some telltale display, e.g. a prominent knee)
2. Perspective (even if, and generally more commonly, fragmentary)
3. Materials and textures (the “still life” aspect)

Still life in the Feast of Venus

G. B. Pittoni, The Sacrifice of Polyxena

The pro forma aspects are those things about which the consummate academic artist, Carlo Maratta, claimed tanto che basti—all that’s enough—in his polemical print addressed to students of drawing. One only needed, and should not usually exceed, enough of those pro forma displays to establish the credibility of the invented image. Since the image was a scene often difficult to pose or stage in the studio—think of ceiling paintings, or scenes of battle or martyrdom—invention was the thing, and artists primarily studied the figure in order not to need the model while inventing. Being able to imagine a figure turned, even hovering, in space, extending an arm and projecting a shadow or receiving a projected shadow from a distant object, making light bouncy and lively, and creating the illusion of space and depth beyond what could be achieved with linear perspective: this was the stuff of mastery, of virtuosity.

Invention techniques need imagination, pro forma techniques depend on documentation. The experience of documentation trains the imagination—not forgetting, of course, the documentation of exemplary works of art!

 

Still life

Perspective and spatial layering

AN ACADEMY OF EMULATION

What Would An Academy Of Emulation Look Like?

The Reasons We Learn To Draw:

I. to see

if we can’t see, we can’t understand

II. to understand

if we don’t understand, we won’t remember

III. to remember

Memory is the mother of the Muses

The Role Of Drawing In Making Art:

I. exploration

invention is the search for form

II. invention

invention is not a priori, it is discovered through drawing

III. refinement

once we have invented, we need to refine in order to make Beauty

How Drawing For Study Influences Drawing For Invention:

I. what you draw conditions what you invent

you only draw after masters you want to emulate

II. how you draw conditions how you invent

drawing after masters shapes your hand in a similar way to theirs

III. how you invent conditions how you draw (which conditions how you invent…)

your facility in invention facilitates your learning by drawing

Masters Are As Important As Models:

I. exemplary art frames our aspirations

other artists have defined a range of possibilities, and standards of achievement

our art is understood, evaluated, and interpreted with respect to theirs

we form virtual apprentices to these past masters

II. Ceci n'est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe): a picture is not the subject, it is an object

a painting is both a depiction of something else, and a material object with its own qualities (influenced by the material itself and the artist’s hand)

painterly technique is what distinguishes the subject from the object

therefore, how you paint is just as important as what you paint

III. the greatest masters were great thinkers (as Bernini described Poussin, un grande cervelone, a great big brain)

we don’t copy them, we emulate them

therefore, we need to understand them, and therefore

they need to be understandable

The Theme Is At Least As Important As Technique:

I. we learn to paint in order to compellingly convey stories and ideas

II. the classic subjects of paintings are what sponsor and condition classical form

III. how an artist painted Dido is just as important as how he or she painted shadows

This should clarify what would distinguish an academy of emulation (a truly classical academy) from an academy of imitation, which is most if not all of the academy’s out there; schools of realism more than academies per se, they are more properly ateliers, where one learns someone’s way of painting, rather than learning to think about and understand the nature of painting. An academy of emulation is directed toward invention, an academy of imitation is directed toward documentation.