Winkelmann: Greek ideal and others.
all one's life
Winkelmann1717 was born in the Prussian town of Stendar. He was in an atmosphere of poverty, frustration, depression and busyness throughout his youth. Winkelmann has been immersed in Greek culture since middle school. His longing for Greek full of vowels has made him want to travel to the south, and going to Rome has become his career to overcome poverty for most of his life. For winkelmann, two major changes in his living place have become two steps to reach the peak of his artistic career. One is 1747. At the age of 30, he left Prussia and came to Saxony, and finally he was able to engage in his favorite career. Dresden, the capital of Saxony, is rich in cultural and artistic heritage. Here, he established a valuable friendship with artists at that time. From the poetic language of Greece to the plastic arts in which he has been immersed, a new life is open to him. 1754, in order to realize his wish to go to Rome, winkelmann accepted Catholicism, and Goethe boldly called him a heretic. During his Renaissance, Pater called him artistic loyalty and sacrificed religious loyalty. It was also in this year that he wrote two important articles, Some Opinions on Imitating Greek Works in Paintings and Sculptures and About Interpretation. Another location was changed from 65438 to 0755. When winkelmann finally came to Rome, he was very satisfied to wander among the remains of ancient art. Here, winkelmann's ancient artistic accomplishment is increasing day by day. He has become an expert in appreciating, researching, cataloging and even restoring newly unearthed works of art, and won the title of director of ancient cultural relics of the Holy See. The History of Ancient Art (hereinafter referred to as Art History) was published in 1764. All this has won him a great reputation. His motherland invited him. 1768, winkelmann, who lived in Rome for 12 years, set foot on his way home. However, a great nostalgia for Rome made him return to Rome as soon as he arrived in Vienna. During his stay in Trieste, he met a young man named akaki Li and showed him the various gold medals he won in Vienna in a friendly way. As a result, he was greedy by this young man. At this time, 19-year-old genius Goethe was waiting for the arrival of winkelmann, and young people in Leipzig even planned to meet him in Dessau. In Goethe's later draft to commemorate winkelmann, he thought of Wen's sudden death, thinking that his early death prevented him from experiencing aging and left a lasting and beautiful image to the world. Pater deeply regretted that they had never met: "Goethe was in his prime, and he was waiting for winkelmann with great curiosity, and was not disturbed by the' charge' movement he experienced as an adult. Winkelmann is as important to him as Virgil is to Dante. Winkelmann, with deep friendship, has reached the age of practicing to such a state; Emotion is now very suitable for focusing on a dynamic friendship at some point. The history of German literature seems to have lost an opportunity to gain such a famous friendship, which can promote cultural inheritance and its influence will never die. "
Although Goethe's later articles about Song Yu's Ci are inconsistent with historical facts, his views on winkelmann's death are quite representative. In his book "Winckelmann and His German Critics" (winkelmann and His German Critics), hatfield examined in detail the response of winkelmann's sudden death. For a month in a row, winkelmann's death became the topic of everyone and the center of newspaper news. It was not until the details were available that people believed that his death was true. Winkelmann's death really expanded his influence throughout Europe. Not only one or two individuals or groups, but almost all intellectuals have deeply felt the loss of a precious thing. All kinds of eulogies and eulogies keep popping up. In winkelmann's language, Held compared him to a beautiful boy who served wine in Greek mythology. Lessing even said that he was willing to trade his life for winkelmann. "Kloz and Weiss, who had a bad personal relationship with him, quickly expressed this sense of loss. As the most uncompromising enemy of winkelmann, Haman also expressed great anger at his murder. " "In Leipzig and Riga, in Vienna and Berlin, people of different occupations and beliefs generally feel that this murder has taken away a great personality and a first-class mind from Germany. This general sense of loss may be the most powerful proof of winkelmann's high reputation in Germany. "
trend
Winkelmann's temperament, as agreed by Goethe and Pater, is full of ancient spirit. In Rome, he lived a "primitive, simple and Hellenistic life", but his spirit was in a state of excitement and integrated with the Greek spirit. Pater listed him as the last chapter of Renaissance, because he was regarded as a person whose spirit belonged to the previous generation.
Winkelmann's romantic and enthusiastic friendship with young people can be regarded as one of the manifestations of this fit. Plato praised the chapter of friendship and love, which made him regard friendship with young and beautiful people as the most precious. Goethe regards this friendship between people as one of the differences between ancient times and modern times. The passion for women in modern times replaced the loyalty between Achilles and Patroclus in ancient Greece. In Greek sculpture, gender is taboo, such as winkelmann's Apollo and Mars myths, and the most beautiful bodies are mostly men. Winkelmann was fascinated by the beauty of youth. "He said that he once knew many young people who were more beautiful than ancient angels." Here, friendship and beauty are synonymous, and his thoughts cling to the beauty of human body. "This makes him fully agree with the spirit embodied in Greek sculpture." This friendship is mostly recorded in winkelmann's letters, in which winkelmann enjoys great happiness, but also troubles and pains. "These fickle friendships make winkelmann's melancholy letters an enlightening and strange footnote in art history." In this kind of friendship, there is obviously a tendency of same-sex love. He did show exaggerated praise to some beautiful nobles, which was criticized by some people at that time. After winkelmann's death, Boden used the word "weakness" to imply the homosexual tendency of critical essays. Held used Ganymede (a beautiful boy who served wine around Jupiter) as a metaphor to praise winkelmann. This delicate, graceful and emotional character is consistent with winkelmann's enthusiastic praise of Greek art in temperament. Diderot said that winkelmann, like Rousseau, is full of passion and charm, and he is also full of enthusiasm for the primitive natural society. In this yearning, it is full of homesickness, homesickness-like desire and anxiety.
research method
With this intuitive grasp of physical beauty, winkelmann created a unique research paradigm of ancient plastic arts. Starting from intuition and experience, he observed the actual works of art, thus creating a way to understand art not from language works and written media-this is the main way for people to study art in the previous era-but through first-hand contact and direct sensory care, to discover beauty with their eyes. He hates to study ancient art from the perspective of knowledge rather than aesthetic experience.
copy
The core point of winkelmann's aesthetics is to imitate ancient Greek art, and the only way to make us great or even unattainable is to imitate the ancients. Imitation is different from Plato's imitation of nature and winkelmann's modern imitation. Greek artists imitate nature, but get the ideal beauty higher than nature. As an artist today, it is impossible to achieve ideal beauty by simply imitating nature like Benigni's works. Nature is ambiguous, and imitating nature will not teach us the beautiful outline of the Greeks. Greek art is regarded as a classic here. Imitation, as a canon's work, is a shortcut for us to achieve the integrity and perfection of nature. Without the guidance of sacred works, we will get lost in nature. Without Greek works, we would not have discovered the beauty of nature. (This is consistent with Lessing's understanding of genius. However, winkelmann made a strict distinction between "imitation" and "copying". His imitation is connected with freedom, imitating the spirit and rules of Greece, and the result of imitation is the imitator's own creation. The meaning of "imitation" obtained here in winkelmann is hidden in Renaissance and Baroque art. ..
Beauty and expression
The relationship between beauty and expression is the core proposition of winkelmann, and it is also the biggest contradiction that he has not solved. First of all, he opposes the expression of passion and lust in beauty, and thinks it is the enemy of beauty, because passion makes the body and mind in a "dynamic" state, changes the "physical state in which beauty hides" and destroys beauty. Because peace is the best expression of beauty, peace of mind and peace of body constitute "noble simplicity and the greatness of peace". Winkelmann likes to use the metaphor of sea and water to illustrate that the surface of the sea is rough, but the depth is static. The purer and tasteless water, the healthier it is. Secondly, winkelmann thinks that expression is indispensable to beauty, and "pure beauty" can't be the only object we care about. "Beauty must be brought into a state of action and emotion, and we use the word" expression "in art and" expression is a state that imitates our mental and physical activities and is felt, including all their desires and actions ". Winkelmann correctly understood "expression" and plunged himself into irreconcilable contradictions. But what he really thinks is inseparable from cents is not a dynamic performance, but a static performance, which is a "great mind." This kind of performance has been artificially limited. In this way, performance has become what Bao Sangkui called "an indispensable element of beauty and often destroys it".
Debate with Lessing
This contradiction did not confuse Lessing at all. He resolutely separated beauty from expression in plastic arts, and thought that plastic arts excluded expression. In fact, there is not much difference between the two. Lessing fully agrees with winkelmann that laocoon's face does not reflect the wailing and pain mentioned in Virgil's poems. What he disagreed with was winkelmann's explanation, and laocoon's quiet expression was the expression of a great mind. He believes that this has nothing to do with personality, but is entirely out of the requirements of the principle of plastic arts form. Plastic arts take beauty as the highest principle, and the passionate distortion of appearance is the destruction of beauty.
In this way, Lessing's laocoon appeared as a refutation of winkelmann and a solution to an important problem in art theory (the distinction between poetry and painting). Bao Sangkui thinks that Lessing and winkelmann played a marginal role in the issue of laocoon in the history of aesthetics. "Lessing represents an earlier tradition. He didn't see winkelmann's important works until his point of view was mature, so there were not many places to benefit from these works. " . I can't agree with this. Although they have never met, winkelmann plays an important role in Lessing's thoughts.
In the History of Ancient Art published by 1764, it is obvious that winkelmann revised his early views on laocoon sculpture (mainly imitating some opinions of Greek works in painting and sculpture), and he began to regard formal beauty as the highest principle of plastic arts. And try to distinguish the different abilities of artists and poets: "Beauty seems to be a measure of expression, which is of dominant significance to ancient artists." Unlike poets, sculptors can't choose the moment when the protagonist is immature, but just "need to choose the most beautiful image to express it, and he is related to the expression of feelings to a considerable extent, which can't damage the beauty depicted." So Neobo's daughters are almost indifferent to the flying arrows; Therefore, artists often show the state of the protagonist after completing the action, not the moment at that time. All these indicate the theme of Lessing in laocoon. However, winkelmann did not give up his "great mind". He seems to regard laocoon's slightly open mouth as the requirement of formal beauty of plastic arts and the expression of his great mind. He would rather be trapped in contradictions, confuse the beauty of form with the goodness of morality (perseverance, controlling emotions), and still grasp the "expression of great mind." He believes that these lofty and beautiful sculptures must have something to do with the great and peaceful souls of the Greeks. From this. The beauty of Greek art is not only the beauty of art, but also a symbol of a beautiful culture, which is why Goethe said that he "discovered Greek culture" for the Germans. It is this kind of thinking that has created the real history of modern art. Because linking political freedom with the beauty of artistic creation follows the same mode of thinking. We'll talk about these later.
The key question now is whether Lessing knew about the revision of the viewpoint of art history when writing laocoon. At the end of laocoon, Lessing suddenly said, "The History of Ancient Art by Mr. winkelmann has been published. I dare not continue writing until I finish reading this book. " This proves that the first chapters of laocoon refute winkelmann's early views. After this sentence, that is, after Lessing told readers that he had read Art History, he only refuted several common-sense mistakes in art history, and did not mention the revision of Wen's views at all.
Hatfield showed us the real relationship between laocoon and ancient art history through Lessing's laocoon manuscript in Winckelmann and his German critics. In the first draft and the second draft, Lessing didn't mention winkelmann and laocoon, but the influence of Wen's views obviously exists, such as his views on ideal beauty. The focus is on three drafts and four drafts, with three drafts written as 1763 and four drafts written as 1764. In the first part of the third part, Lessing mentioned laocoon for the first time and put forward her own views on winkelmann's "great mind". The second part implies that he hasn't seen art history yet. But in the third part, it seems that "winkelmann has realized in the history of art that sculpture can only express silence because of the requirement of beauty, but there is no such requirement for poets". On this point, we agree. Here, Lessing obviously refers to the viewpoint in art history that we quoted before. In the fourth draft, the title became "laocoon: Refuting winkelmann's Opinion". The real reason is the principle of beauty ",saying that" art history was published at this time ",while winkelmann revised his view of laocoon," He agreed with me that silence is a consequence of beauty ". Although Lessing is well aware of winkelmann's modification to him, he still takes Wen's early views as the object of refutation. At the end of the finished laocoon, Lessing suddenly declared that the history of art has been published, and he must read it first. Needless to say, winkelmann has predicted the theme of laocoon. In fact, drafts 3 and 4 were probably written by Lessing after reading art history. In other words, laocoon was probably written by Lessing after reading winkelmann's History of Ancient Art.
Of course, this is not to deny that Lessing reached his own conclusion independently of winkelmann, but they just reached the same goal by different routes. As Lessing himself said, "winkelmann seems to only extract the highest law of beauty from ancient works of art ... but we can also correctly reach the highest law of beauty through simple inference." But Lessing is still paranoid that winkelmann is the opponent in the debate.
Lessing's life is full of fighting. He doesn't like winkelmann's personality very much. He thinks that winkelmann's dependence on the nobility and the rich and his excessive praise are detrimental to his position as a naturalist and scholar. In a letter dated September 1768 after winkelmann's death, Lessing said that he planned to go to Rome. After the news spread, the public thought that he would continue his career in winkelmann, and Lessing was deeply angry at this rumor. 1775 When he arrived in Italy, his trip was not pleasant and he didn't get any unforgettable beauty.
Greek national characteristics
As a real modern art history, winkelmann's History of Ancient Art is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: 1, which links the achievements of artistic creation with the natural and political conditions of the society at that time and reveals the cultural spirit of an era. "In the sense of Greek national system and management, the most important reason why art is superior is freedom", "The way of thinking of the whole nation bred in freedom is like excellent branches and leaves on a robust trunk"; 2. He regards art as a process of development and change, and divides Greek art into four stages: ancient style, lofty style, elegant style and imitation style; 3. Style research is not to regard a work of art as an isolated individual, but to put it in the spirit of the times at its stage and grasp the overall style of the times. Of these three aspects, the first is the most important, which can explain why winkelmann has had such great influence in Europe for more than a century. Behind him, he left a fascinating Greek culture for the Germans, forming German Hellenism, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Hegel, Holderlin and so on. And in Britain, a romantic Hellenism? ), Keats, Shelley and so on.
Since the Middle Ages, people's impression of ancient times has always been Rome, which is regarded as the representative of the highest achievements in ancient times. The Renaissance regarded Roman art as a model. Although winkelmann was not the first person to turn his eyes from Rome to Greece, it was he who made this turn last for a century and a half and decided the taste of modern people.
In the book The Silent Urn: Romanticism, Hellenism and Modernity, David Ferry analyzed the significance of winkelmann in this way: Although ancient times were rediscovered as early as the Renaissance, the rediscovered ancient times were only a textual heritage (knowledge and literary heritage) without a cultural concept, in which politics and aesthetics were linked. It was not until18th century that Greece, as a comprehensive culture, became a complete and brilliant image. This modern image of Greece was created by winkelmann, who linked politics with aesthetics and freedom for the first time, thus discovering the importance of Greece as a unified and complete culture. In this culture, aesthetics becomes a window through which we can glimpse all aspects of a culture.
This seems to be beauty and expression again. Behind the "Greek beauty" is the free, hearty and healthy life of the Greeks. This is the ultimate meaning of Greek in winkelmann. As many studies have pointed out, this is actually winkelmann's Greece, not the historical Greece, and it is usually called Greek mythology. Greece became an ideology based on aesthetics in the18th century. The irrational and harsh aspects of Greek history are ignored or suppressed in the depths. Until Nietzsche showed another dimension of the spiritual world of ancient Greece in The Birth of Tragedy, that is, Dionysus, a dark and irrational Dionysus outside the rationality of Apollo. With Nietzsche's discovery of Dionysian spirit, the worship of ancient Greece in the history of modern thought ended.
Although, as Lessing pointed out, there are many mistakes in winkelmann's art history, such as the creation year of laocoon, most of the works he saw were late Greek works, which did not represent the typical style of Greek art, but he still created a vast Hellenism. For winkelmann, Lessing, Herder and Schiller, Greece is a group of "Na? Ve people "(simple people), their lives are simple but healthy, their hearts are quiet but great, lofty and beautiful, and they live closest to nature, that is," they are primitive in the most positive sense of the word ". In this way, the morality that Greece gained from winkelmann became the reaction of baroque, rococo and other artistic figures who ruled the upper-middle German society. Moreover, this enthusiasm for Greece has actually turned into a search for German national culture and national spirit. Here, Greek culture is the opposite of French culture. People reject French pseudo-classicism, but regard Greek culture as a great example worth learning. Lessing is an active advocate in this regard. He held high the flags of ancient Greece and Shakespeare and fought against French art. He extended the Greek ideal to an important field-sensibility. Greece is not only rationalism, but also rich in sensibility. He said that laocoon really shouted. Greeks don't suppress their feelings. They expressed their feelings naturally and freely, which is the natural nature pursued by people in the18th century.
Debate between ancient and modern times
In fact, Lessing tried his best to coordinate the ancient world with the modern world, and understanding Greece was one of such efforts. The contradiction between the ancient world and the modern world has become the core proposition in the fields of philosophy, history, literature and art since the Renaissance. Bao Sangkui said, "Since Dante's time, people have been looking for the answer to this question, no matter whether the principles on which ancient life depends are exactly the same as those on which modern life depends, better or worse. With the accumulation of personnel and the awakening of free wisdom, the understanding of this opposition is deeper and the efforts to resolve this opposition are more adequate. " Winkelmann smashed the pseudo-Greek tradition in the late Renaissance, injected humanism and rationalism into the Greek spirit, and formed a real passion for Greek culture, which is actually a projection of the pursuit of modern spirit. Lessing advocates antiquity, but believes in the rationality of the modern world. Therefore, starting from the human nature of * * *, he tried to find the similarities between ancient ideals and modern life, and to communicate classicality and romance. This kind of effort can be seen everywhere in his thoughts. "Gays in the ancient world show themselves to the modern world", "especially to Lessing through literature and to winkelmann through plastic arts".
In Schiller's place, the problems of ancient and modern China and foreign countries were put out more clearly and solved initially. "Simple poetry" and "sentimental poetry", classicism and romanticism are juxtaposed in his place. Simplicity represents the true naturalism of Greece, and sentimentality represents the modern "second-hand nature". It is important that Schiller put simplicity and sentimentality on the same position. He has a famous saying, "Ancient people are great because of finiteness, while modern people are great because of infinity". I went to Goethe. "He devoted his life to reconciling the essence of Greek culture and the romantic spirit. The marriage between Faust and Helen is a symbol of his lifelong efforts. " Winkelmann and Lessing have passed away, but Schiller Goethe, as their heirs, created his own "genius period", during which "the full significance of modern art was fully recognized by German consciousness. As bernays said, Goethe' liberated' that century. "
In the fourth chapter "Application to Later Generations", Becker carefully analyzed the transformation process of "God", "Ancient", "Modern" and "Later Generations". Christian theologians created the original beautiful Garden of Eden, replacing the ancient golden age envisioned by the ancient Greeks. From then on, the source of human value is in God, on the other side. 15th century to18th century, "humanists reveled in the newly discovered past", and Greek culture was rediscovered, replacing the Garden of Eden and becoming a new kingdom of heaven, built on this shore and on the ground. This change is very important. From then on, people's value lies in the earthly life of life itself. Since the establishment of the golden age of Greece, the modern world itself has been arguing with it. 1October 27th, at a meeting of the French Academy, Povalo left before Bello finished reading his poem "The Age of Great Louis". This dramatic scene is regarded as a landmark event in the dispute between "ancient" and "modern" in the history of literature. A progressive concept makes people realize that the modern world is superior to the ancient times, because "human beings are continuous in the long river of various times in history and must be regarded as a person who continues to live and learn", so modern people must be superior to their predecessors in utilizing the achievements of previous times. Therefore, the progressive view will inevitably lead to the emergence of "later generations" value standards, which will replace God, ancient times and the world as all value standards until today. It is the final judgment of our secular behavior. "Ah, descendants, you are the most beautiful and tender hope of mankind ... for you, we risk being hit by tyranny; Your happiness is the price of our efforts. " As a result, later generations were used to "drive away the double illusion of Christian paradise and ancient golden age." They replaced their love for God with their love for mankind, their atonement with their own perfection, and their immortality in another world with the hope of living in the memory of the future. "