A modern version of this play with framing frames is found in Pasolini's
novelistic
fragment Petrolio.
Niklas Luhmann - Art of the Social System
8. For the period after Adorno, see David Roberts, Art and Enlightenment: Aesthetic Theory after Adorno (Lincoln, Nebr. , 1991), p. 21: "Aesthetic theory can no longer claim a vantage point beyond art?
9. Paul Valery raises this question in Variete, quoted from CEuvres, Pl&ade ed. , vol. 1 (Paris, 1957), p. 1240: "Si l'Esthetique pouvait etre, les arts s'eVanouiraient necessairement devant elle, c'est-a-dire devant leur essence. " On the disappoint- ing fruitlessness of a philosophical aesthetics for die self-reflection of art, see also Eckard Heftrich, "Das asthetische Bewufitsein und die Philosophic der Kunst,"
in Helmut Koopmann and J. Adolf Schmoll, called Eisenwerth, eds. , Beitrdge zur Theorie der Kunst im ip. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1971), vol. 1, pp. 30-43. Apart from being aimed at die romantics, this critique is primarily addressed to Goethe and Schiller.
10. We need not only think of Hegel. For illustrations see, e. g. , Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde, quoted from Werke in zwei Bdnden (Berlin, 1980), vol. 2, pp. 5-99. esp. p. 88.
11. Rosario Assunto elaborates this point in Die Theorie des Schonen im Mitte- lalter (Cologne, 1963). See also Wilhelm Perpeet, Asthetik im Mittelalter (Frei- burg, 1977).
12. For bibliographical references, see Chapter 6, n. 66.
13. After the proliferation of print, one finds an extensive body of literature devoted to this issue, especially in Italy. See Bernard Weinberg, A History ofLit- erary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1961); Baxter Hath- away, The Age of Criticism: The Late Renaissance in Italy (Ithaca, N. Y. , 1962).
14. This is evident in eighteenth-century depictions of life in the cities (Lon- don, Paris) and in the aestheticization of country life.
15. With reference to the educational system, see Niklas Luhmann and Karl Eberhard Schorr, Reflexionsprobleme im Erziehungssystem, 2d ed. (Frankfurt, 1988); on die system of science, see Niklas Luhmann, Die Wissenschafi der Gesellschafi (Frankfurt, 1990), pp. 46$ff. ; on the legal system, see Luhmann, Das Rechtder
Notes to Pages 252-54 383
Gesellschaft (Frankfurt, 1993), pp. 469fE; on intimate relationships, see Luhmann, Liebe als Passion: Zur Codierung von Intimitdt (Frankfurt, 1982); trans, as Love as Passion: The Codification of Intimacy, trans. Jeremy Gaines and Doris L. Jones (Cambridge, Mass. , 1986; rpt. Stanford, Calif. , 1998).
16. Niklas Luhmann and RafTaele De Giorgi, Teoria della societd (Milan, 1992), pp. 36off.
17. See Federico Zuccaro, L'idea dei Pittori, Scultori edArchitetti (Turin, 1607), quoted from Scritti d'arte Federico Zuccaro (Florence, 1961), pp. 149-312 (149ff. ).
18. On the already-stale discussion occasioned by the construction of the cathedral of Milan, see James S. Ackermann, "'Ars sine scientia nihil est': Gothic Theory of Architecture at the Cathedral of Milan," Ars Bulletin 31 (1949): 84-111. Today we would say that a conflict between theory and practice was at stake; but this opposition did not exist at the time.
19. For an investigation of the striking stylistic changes in Guercino, see Den- nis Mahon, Studies in Seicento Art and Theory (London, 1947; rpt. Westport, Conn. , 1971).
20. Rudolf Stichweh, Derfruhmoderne Stoat und die europdische Universitat: Zur Interaktion von Politik und Erziehungssystem int ProzeJ? ihrer Ausdifferen- zierung (16. -18. Jahrhundert) (Frankfurt, 1991).
21. See also Rudolf Stichweh, "System/Umwelt-Beziehungen europaischer Uni-
versitaten in historischer Perspektive," in Christoph Oehler and Wolff-Dietrich
Webler, eds. , Forschungspotentiale sozialwissenschaftlicher Hochschulforschung: Bun- desrepublik Deutschland-Osterreich-Schweiz (Weinheim, 1988), pp. 377-94.
22. Support of art by the church could now assume the form of support by territorial states governed by the church.
23. See Chapter 4, section VI, above.
24. On such zones of overlapping, e. g. , in the educational system, see also Luhmann and Schorr, Reflexionsprobleme im Erziehungssystem, pp. 53ff. We are thinking in particular of the family, but also of the economy (the education of apprentices and so on).
25. Leon Battista Alberti characterizes these artists in the introduction to his
treatise Della Pittura (1436) as "nobilissimi et meravigliosi intellecti" (Florence,
1950), p. 53-
26. For the inversion of this proposition, which suggests itself today, see Mi-
chael Serres, Lagenese (Paris, 1982).
27. On this context of pulchrum, see, e. g. , Hieronymous Cardanus, De Uno
Liber, quoted from Opera Omnia (Lyon, 1663), vol. 1, pp. 277-83 (278).
28. For the sake of our argument, there is no need to clarify the question whether the common presentation of this transformation in terms of the con-
ceptual pair animistic/mechanistic is sufficient. For an investigation of this prob- lem with reference to Pomponazzi, Cardano, and Telesio, see Eckhard Kefiler,
3<<4
Notes to Pages 254-55
"Selbstorganisation in der Naturphilosophie der Renaissance," Selbstorganisation 3 (1992): 15-29. The conflict between animism and mechanism results from the attempt to go beyond the determination of the one as a number and, hence, as a
fictio mentis.
29. Onthedevelopmentofsciencetowardastateseveredfromareligiouslyde- fined cosmos and without aesthetic obligations, see Wolfgang Krohn, "Die 'Neue Wissenschaft' der Renaissance," in Gemot Bohme et al. , Experimentelle Philoso- phic: UrspriingeautonomerWissenschaftsentwicklung(Frankfurt, 1977), pp. 13-128.
30. A different set of distinctions indicates this rupture in the evolution of art.
Before this rupture, the beauty of mathematical proportion (understood in Pla-
tonic terms) was positioned against sensuous pleasure. See Robert Klein, "La
forme et l'intelligible," in Umanesimo e simbolismo, Archivio difilosofia (1958), pp.
103-21; on the construction of the gothic cathedral, see Otto von Simson,
"Wirkungen des christlichen Platonismus auf die Entstehung der Gothik," in
Joseph Koch, ed. , Humanismus, Mystik undKunstin der Welt des Mittelalters, 2d
von
ed. (Leiden, 1959), pp. 159-79;
Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order (New York, 1965); on Re- naissance architecture (Alberti, Bramante, Palladio), see Rudolf Wittkower, Ar- chitectural Principles in the Age ofHumanism (London, 1949). The visibility of the principles of construction was therefore not an issue (or only a secondary issue). After this rupture, the situation was the opposite: art became a matter of deceiv-
ing the senses, hence a way of enriching experience.
31. See, e. g. , Chap. 17, "De artibus artificiosisque rebus" of Hieronymus Car- danus, De suhtilitate libri XXI (Niirnberg, 1550), pp. 3i6f. , which rejects the un- necessarily subtle method of Raymundus Lullus (p. 295).
32. See Alastair Fowler, Spenser and the Numbers of Time (London, 1964); Fowler, ed. , Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis (London, 1970).
33. See the painter Paolo Pino, Dialogo di Pittura (1548), quoted from Paola Barocchi, ed. , Trattati d'arte delcinquecento, vol. 1 (Bari, i960), pp. 93-139.
34. Ibid. , p. 115.
35. Quoted from the edition by Andrea Masini in Arnaldo Baruschi et al. , eds. , Scritti rinascimentali di architettura (Milan, 1978), pp. 23-144. See also Wit- tkower, Architectural Principles.
36. See Carlo Borromeo, Instructions fabricae et supellectilis ecclesiasticae, quoted from Barocchi, Trattati d'arte del cinquecento, vol. 3 (Bari, i960), pp. 1-113.
37. On the religious aspect of this debate, see Heinz Schlaffer, Poesie undWis-
sen: Die Entstehung des asthetischen Beumfitseins und der philologischen Erkenntnis (Frankfurt, 1990).
38. For an overview, see Robert J. Clements, "Condemnation of the Poetic Profession in Renaissance Emblem Literature," Studies in Philology 43 (1946): 213-32.
Simson, The Gothic Cathedral: The Origins of
Notes to Pages 255-58
385
39. See Plato, Republic, II, XVIIff. and X.
40. See Russell Fraser, TheWar Against Poetry (Princeton, N. J. , 1970).
41. For contemporary evidence, see Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense ofPoetry
(1595; rpt. Lincoln, Nebr. , 1970). For an overview, see further the texts in G. Gre- gory Smith, ed. , Elizabethan Critical Essays, 2 vols. (London, 1904).
42. Sidney complains that historians, "captivated to the truth of a foolish world," provide poor examples (ibid. , p. 22).
43. Representative of many others is Antonio Minturno, L'artepoetica (1563; Naples, 1725), p. 39. See further Bernardino Daniello, La poetica (Vinegia, 1536), pp. 5 and 44fE; Torquato Tasso, Discorsi dell'arte poetica e in particolare sopra il poema eroico (1587), quoted from Prosa (Milan, 1969), esp. the first two discorsi.
44. See Agnolo Segni, Raggionamento sopra le cosepertinenti alia poetica (Flo- rence, 1581), pp. 17-19, quoted from Baxter Hathaway, Marvels and Common- places: Renaissance Literary Criticism (New York, 1968), p. 51.
45. On the allusions to the planned French marriage of Queen Elizabeth, see David Norbrook, Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance (London, 1984), pp. 88f.
46. "Soil die Kunst tauschen oder blofi scheinen? " Schlegel will ask with ref- erence to Shakespeare; the answer to this question requires, according to Schlegel, "die tiefste Spekulation und die gelehrteste Kunstgeschichte. " See critical frag- ment no. 121, quoted from Schlegel, Werke, vol. 1, p. 184. In his Gesprdch iiber die Poesie (vol. 2, p. 177), Schlegel questions this very question--that is, its underly- ing distinction: "Es ist darin (in der romantischen Poesie) gar keine Rticksicht genommen auf den Unterschied von Schein und Wahrheit, von Spiel und Ernst. "
47. This issue was debated extensively in the seventeenth century on the occasion of the letters of a Portuguese nun, published by Guilleragues, which were composed in such an emotional state that dieyflyin the face of the rules of writing classical love letters. See the new edition of die Lettres portugaises, by F. Deloffre and J. Rougeot (Paris, 1962). Are these letters authentic or not? This question is difficult to decide. And holding the book in one's hands doesn't help. On the strategies of confusing facts and fiction in the beginning of the modern novel, see also Lennard J. Davis, Factual Fictions: The Origin ofthe English Novel (New York, 1983).
A modern version of this play with framing frames is found in Pasolini's novelistic fragment Petrolio. A group, which remains anonymous, de- cides to subject the text's protagonist, Carlo, to surveillance. The spy who has been selected for this task fabricates detailed reports of his observations. One night the suitcase containing these reports is stolen, which makes it impossible, even for Pasolini, the author of the novel, to provide an accurate account of the facts. ("This, of course, is reflected in my narrative. ") He is forced to replace the now "unreadable" texts by the imagination, by his imagination, and in so doing,
he renders himself visible as someone who has plenty of obscenities to report and,
386 Notes to Pages 258-59
as the reader might suspect, is not entirely without interest in the matter. "The reader shall forgive me for presenting him with such boring matters; but I sim- ply live the genesis of my book. " See Pier Paolo Pasolini, Petrolio (Berlin, 1994), quotations on pp. 63f. Even the boredom imputed to the reader is part of the frame boredom/interest, which the author obviously uses to speculate on an in- terest by the reader that supports his own inclinations.
48. Especially in conjunction with the foundation of the Academia del Dis- egno in Florence (1563). The word itself is documented much earlier. See Francesco Doni, HDisegno (Venice, 1549), which I did not have a chance to con- sult directly.
49. For a successful implementation of beauty, see esp. Baltasar Gracian, Agudezay arte de ingenio, 2 vols. (Huesca, 1649; Madrid, 1969). See also the im- portant Introduction by Benito Pelegrin to the French translation of this work,
Art etfigures de I'esprit (Paris, 1983). According to Gracian's Criticdn oder Uber die allgemeinen Laster des Menschen, "everything in life happens as if in an image, in- deed in the imagination" ([1651-1657; Hamburg, 1957], p. 108). This is why philo- sophical wisdom comes about only by way of a disillusionment {desengano). But
this move annuls whatever beauty and happiness contribute to the success of truth as a merely communicative requirement.
50. "Verdad amiga, dijo la Agudeza, non hay manjar mas desabrido en estos estragados tiempos que un desengano a secas, que digo desabrido! no hay bocado mas amargo que una verdad desnuda" (Gracian, Discurso LV, Agudeza y arte de ingenio, vol. 2, pp. 191-92). Similarly, Federico Zuccaro, L'idea dei Pittori, p. 271: disegno is necessary in order to instill vitality and practical use into intelligence and the sciences.
51. Gracian, Discurso XV, Agudezay arte de ingenio, vol. i, p. 163.
52. See Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Eine Geschichte der Spanischen Literatur, 2 vols. (Frankfurt, 1990), esp. vol. 1, pp. 8off. Fitting out individuality with onto- logical and religious ambivalence is characteristic of Spanish literature. It can be traced back to the Libro de buen amor, by an author who calls himself Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita (ca. 1300), especially if one compares this text to its model, the
Confessions of St. Augustine. On the Libro, see Gumbrecht, Eine Gechichte der Spanischen Literatur, vol. 1, pp. 97ff.
53. See Gerhart Schroder, Logos und List: Zur Entwicklung der Asthetik in der fruhen Neuzeit (Konigsstein, Ts. , 1985), esp. pp. 36f. , 88, 253ff.
54. See, e. g. , George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (London, 1589; rpt. Cambridge, 1970), passim.
55. In Plato's Sophistes, 253 D, the hiding place assumes the form of a law against paradox.
56. For example, the belief that the mixture of blood in afleathat had bitten the lovers would be the same as the result of a love affair. See "The Flea," John
Notes to Pages 260-62 387
Donne, The Complete English Poems (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1971). On ref- erences to Ramism and the abstraction according to species and genres, see also Michael McCanless, "Paradox in Donne," Studies in the Renaissance 13 (1966): 266-87. Characteristic of presentations of paradox is that they warn the reader-- outside of the text--not to believe in them, for example, in dedicatory prefaces. See, e. g. , Anthony Mundy, The Defence of Contraries (London, 1593; rpt. Ams- terdam, 1969), folio A 3: "Let no manne thinke then, that I or any other would be so sencelesse, as to holde direcdy any of these vaine reasons," or the counter- publication by Ortensio Lando, Confutatione del libro deparadossi nuovamente composta in tre orationi distinta (n. p, n. d. ).
57. We have already pointed out the new orientation toward a complemen- tarity of roles in the wake of the differentiation of the art system. See Chapter 6, section V, above.
58. See, e. g. , Pomponius Gauricus, De sculptura (ca. 1501; Leipzig, 1886), pp. noff. The author thinks of this work as the first scientific treatise on sculpture.
59. See John Dryden, OfDramatick Poesie: An Essay, 2d ed. (London, 1684), p. 50.
60. See Charles Hope, "Artists, Patrons, and Advisors in the Italian Renais- sance," in Guy Fitch Lytle and Stephen Orgel, eds. , Patronage in the Renaissance (Princeton, N. J. , 1981), pp. 293-343.
61. Matteo Pellegrini, IFonti Delllngenio, ridotti ad arte (Bologna, 1650), p. 61. 62. Gracian, Criticdn, p. 61.
63. For an overview of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century materials, see
Arthur O. Lovejoy, "Nature as Aesthetic Norm," Modern Language Notes 42 (1927): 444-50.
64. On the ambiguities in Plato, see Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf, Mimesis: Kultur--Kunst--Gesellschaft (Reinbek, 1992), pp. joff. These ambigui- ties are reflected in the secondary literature on Plato.
65. The eighteenth century still holds onto the notion of an imitation that in- cludes music, even though it can do so only on the basis of associationist psy- chology. See, e. g. , Francis Hutcheson, An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design, Treatise I of his Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725; 4th ed. , 1738; critical ed. The Hague, 1973), p. 81; Abbe Batteux, Les beaux arts riduits h un memeprincipe, 2d ed. (Paris, 1747), pp. 396? . , 259ff To the extent that music is attributed to internal emotional states, it becomes im- possible to distinguish between imitation and the effectuation of such states. Once one sacrifices the guiding idea of imitation, music can take on a leadership role in art--e. g. , in romanticism, where music takes its place next to poetry.
66. Sidney, The Defense of Poetry, p. 12. Gracian radicalizes this notion--dis- simulation is imitatio Christi, the imitation of a God concealed behind a human form.
388 Notes to Pages 262-65
6j. For details, see Hathaway, Marvels and Commonplaces.
68. See, e. g. , Benedetto Varchi, Lezzione nella quale se disputa della maggio- ranza delle arti. . . (1547), quoted from Barocchi, ed. , Trattati d'arte del cinque- cento, vol. 1, pp. 141-206; Pino, Dialogo di Pittura, p. 115. See also Chapter 4, n. 140, above.
69. See, e. g. , Lodovico Dolce, Dialogo dellapittura (1557), quoted from Baroc- chi, Trattati d'arte del cinquecento, vol. 1, pp. 141-206: "la pittura . . . non essere altro che imitazione della natura" (p. 152), and "Deve adunque il pittore procac- ciar non solo d'imitar, ma di superar la natura" (p. 172).
70. "Suelefaltarledeeminenciaalaimitacion,loquealcanzadefacilidad":so Gracidn describes this reserved attitude, this shift of emphasis from adequacy to artistic skill (Gracidn, Discorso LXIII, Agudezay arte de ingenio, vol. 2, p. 257).
71. "Facilesadelantarlocommenzado;arduoelinventar,ydespuesdetanto, cerca de insuperable"--this is how Gracidn begins his treatise {Agudezay arte de
one
ingenio, vol. 1, p. 47). In Zuccaro, L'idea dei Pittori, pp. 225ft". ,
finds a simi- lar view in the form of the distinction between disegno naturaleand disegno arti-
ficiale. The former operates intuitively; only the latter reaches perfection.
72. See Paolo Pino, quoted above, n. 33. As an example of the highly devel- oped literature on artistic technique, which in itself offers occasions for reflec-
tion, see, e. g. , Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Trattato dell'arte, della Pittura, Scultura et architettura, 3 vols. (Milan, 1584; Rome, 1844).
73. See Roger de Piles, Cours de peinture par principes (Paris, 1708), pp. iff. The "sociological" observation (pp. i2f. ) that the artist's reputation (Raphael in the Vatican museum) suffices to attract spectators, who then walk by other beau- ties, is remarkable. See also Chapter 1, n. 42, above.
74. See, e. g. , Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Idea del Tempio della Pittura (Milan, 1590), p. 146: "Arte non dee esser mostrata nell'arte. "
75. On painting, see de Piles, Cours depeintureparprincipes, p. 3; or Antoine Coypel, Discoursprononcez dans les conferences de I'Academie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture (Paris, 1721), pp. 35, 96, i6iff. ; on poetry, see Lodovico Antonio Mura-
tori, Delia perfetta Poesia Italiana (Modena, 1706), pp. 7if. ; on the fine arts in general, see Batteux, Les beaux arts rtduits a un memeprincipe.
76. Onthisopposition,whichwasintroducedintheseventeenthcenturyand dominated the eighteenth century, see esp. Chap. 3 ("The Creative Imagination: Imitation and Originality") in Joan Pittock, TheAscendancy of Taste: TheAchieve- ment of Joseph and Thomas Warton (London, 1973), pp. j$ff.
77. See Michelangelo Biondo, Von der hochedlen Malerei (1547; German trans. Vienna, 1873; rpt. Osnabriick, 1970), pp. iff.
78. Evenofnature,onesays:"Lanaturaimitasestessa,"Pino,DialogodiPit- tura, p.
