Recollections of the Renaissance in Gustave Moreau’s The Apparition.

“Des Esseintes thought that never before had a water colour attained such magnificent colouring; never before had the poverty of colours been able to force jewelled coruscations from paper, gleams like stained glass windows touched by rays of sunlight, splendours of tissue and flesh so fabulous and dazzling. Lost in contemplation, he sought to discover the origins of this great artist and mystic pagan, this visionary who succeeded in removing himself from the world sufficiently to behold, here in Paris, the splendour of these cruel visions and the enchanting sublimation of past ages.”

Des Esseintes, the anti-hero of Huysman’s decadent novel A rebours, ponders the origins of Gustave Moreau’s startling watercolour (The Apparition) , which shows Salome, as observed by Herod and Herodias, transfixed by the floating head of the decapitated John the Baptist. It’s not surprising that Salome appealed to Huysmans, as she was perhaps the greatest Symbolist obsession of them all. You only have to recall Wilde’s play about her; Wilde was an avid fan of A rebours, too. The author has Des Esseintes intoxicated by the character: using typically rarefied and ornate language, he comments on the cultural, geographical origins of this figure. More importantly, from the art history point of view, through his aesthete protagonist,  Huysmans shows us how to look at a work of art. Yet, this seems far from mere connoisseurship, more like using a picture to put one in a state of meditation. It’s almost as if the image has become a mandala, an aid to mental concentration. I’m deliberately invoking mysticism and the occult here because Huysmans was interested in those subjects; and his interests in art would surely have overlapped with the esoteric. Art history could be seen in Des Esseintes’s setting as initiation, the lifting of a veil, remember Watts’s language, mentioned in the previous post?

“Deep in contemplation, he would try to puzzle out the antecedents of his great artist, this mystical pagan, this illuminee who could shut out the modern world so completely as to behold, in the heart of present-day Paris, the awful visions and magical apotheoses of past ages.”

“Des Esseintes found it hard to say who had served as his {Moreau’s] models; here and there, he could detect vague recollections of Mantegna and Jacopo de Barberi; here and there, confused memories of Da Vinci and feverish colouring reminiscent of Delacroix. But on the whole the influence of these masters on his work was imperceptible, the truth being that Gustave Moreau was nobody’s pupil.”

De Esseintes is putting his art knowledge to work here, in order to divine the presence of other masters, mainly renaissance painters, in this image. As he doubtless knew, Symbolism didn’t suddenly appear decked out in all its jewelled finery in the late 19th century, but evolved through study of the renaissance and earlier epochs. I can detect echoes of Mantegna; the stiffly standing soldier reminds me of the contrapposto of some of his figures, maybe in the Triumph of Caesar. I’ll add Bellini to Des Esseintes’s list as he seems to be a vague presence; the golden vault of Herod’s palace reminds me of some of the ceilings in Bellini’s Venetian altarpieces. I’m not so sure about Leonardo, but the slender curves of the salacious Salome suggest Jacopo de Barbari’s mannered nudes; I had the opportunity to study them recently in the Gossaert exhibition in London. Delacroix? The colours are typical of him, and Moreau would have admired him as most of the French symbolists did. The demure, female musician seems to be based on figures in Delacroix’s Algerian watercolours.  But I shouldn’t play the sources game. Huysmans was astute enough to realize that Moreau was his own master; he took from others and imprinted his own distinctive style on the tradition. Here’s Moreau’s Self-Portrait- he looks the kind of neurotic genius who’d produce such a disturbing image. No wonder Des Esseintes made his art the centrepiece of his collection.

Comments

[Judy]

Great post! The esoteric and mysticism was thoroughly ingrained in the work of many 19th Century artists. I believe that Tissot felt his religious images came to him whilst in a trance. The idea of the artist as medium and spiritualist practice as a means to access creativity was put forth convincingly, if perhaps at too great a length, by Sophia De Morgan her spiritualist classic "From Matter to Spirit" (1863). Many of her ideas were influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg whom I also seem to remember as making the comparison between mysticism and creativity.

[H Niyazi]

Fascintaing post David. I'm beginning to regret missing the Moreau exhibition that just rolled through my neck of the woods!

You mentioned Bellini - I would cite another clear renaissance parallel is Cellini's perseus - the pose of the figure and the disembodied head hearken to it magnificently.

There is nothing wrong with 'the sources game' - artists generally are not people living in a vacuum immune to outside influences and inspiration. The trick is to impart their own signature style on the theme, which Moreau has done magnificently here.

It is fascinating seeing the perseus/medusa motif make it through the ages - something which I examined a few months back in the post 'Renaissance recycling- Perseus as Medici Avenger' (link below for those interested)

http://www.3pipe.net/2010/10/renaissance-recycling-perseus-as-medici.html

Kind Regards
H

[David Packwood]

Judy,

Yes, this is the time for that blend of religion and the occult. I don't know exactly how spiritualism affected the 19th century English artists, but it's clearly important. I know more about Swedenborg's connection with Blake, but of course the latter was a massive influence on the symbolists. I did show a few of De Morgan's paintings on a previous course- not surprised she was involved with gnostic matters too.

H,

Cellini works for me- I can definitely see the source, not hidden too much by Moreau. I wonder how I missed that!

I'm a bit cautious about source-hunting- though I still think it's legitimate- because I have been criticized for it before, when I was a doctoral student.

Best- David

[Judy]

@David, Swedenborgian concepts underpinned a lot of 19th C. Spiritualist thought because, I suppose, he described the spiritual realm so vividly. However, its influence on writers has been better explored than that of artists. I believe that the Transcendentalists/Luminists were greatly influenced by Swedenborg. George Inness being the most obvious.

Some graduate work has recent been done on how Spiritualist ideas such as those expressed in Sophia De Morgan's book influenced how the soul was depicted in art/automatic drawings. Interestingly enough in contrast with Evelyn De Morgan who painted spiritualist allegories Georgiana Houghton, Hilma Af Klint and Emma Kunz all painted their ideas about spiritualism in abstract ways.

[H Niyazi]

@David - that's a shame to hear that it's discouraged academically, but I'm also not surprised.

For myself at least, looking for thematic congruences in art and literature over large spans of time is easily the most fun part. Now you now why I felt uneasy when I was formally studying art history! In the sciences, patterns are beautiful and golden things - whether it's mathematics or observing similarities in anatomical structure and function across different parts of the body(as my training entailed.

Kind Regards
H

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