Scatological Art Guest Editor Gabriel P.

Weisberg

art
Published by College Art Association
jour
Fall 1993 Vol. 52 No. 3
Published by College Art Association
Fall 1993 Vol. 52 No. 3
art journal

Guest Editor Gabriel P. Heisberg

Scatological Art
ExecutiveEditorLenoreMalen ",,1W,
SL;eSXS | I
ManagingEditorVirginiaWageman
EditorM. E.D. Laing Scatological Ejaculations, or, "Letting Loose and Hitting 'em with All
ReviewsEditorMarticaSawin We'veGot" Mary Kelly 6
Editorial
Assistant/AdvertisingRendeRamirez
Design Harakawa Sisco ?nnhmlL;il l | | 1^D RI" L
IssueDesignand ProductionRussellHassell
Scatological Art GabrielP. Weisberg 18
EditorialBoardJudithK.Brodsky,Cynthia
Carlson,LenoreMalen,GeraldSilk,RobertStorr,
PaulTucker,MarthaWilson
Teocuitlatl, "Divine Excrement":The Significance of "Holy Shit" in
ArtJournal(ISSN0004-3249) is publishedquar- Ancient Mexico Cecilia F. Klein 20
terlyby CollegeArtAssociation,Inc.,275 Seventh
Ave.,New York,NY10001.Copyright? 1993
Some PenetratingInsights: The Imagery of Enemas in Art
Laurinda S. Dixon 28
CollegeArtAssociation,Inc.Allrightsreserved.
No partof the contentsmaybe reproducedwith- In Deep Shit: The Coded Images of Travies in the July
out the writtenpermissionof the publisher. Monarchy GabrielP. Weisberg 36
Second-classpostagepaidat New York,NY,and
Scatology and the Realist Aesthetic Petra ten-DoesschateChu 41
at additionalmailingoffices.Printedby Waverly
The Ordureof Anarchy: Scatological Signs of Self and Society in the
Press,Easton,Maryland.
Art of James Ensor Susan M. Canning 47
Printedin the U.S.A.
MERDE! The Caricatural Attack against Emile Zola
POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to Art Journal, Norman L. Kleeblatt 54
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Potty-Talkin Parisian Plays: Henry Somm'sLa Berline de l'emigre and
ArtJournalis availableas a benefitof member- Alfred Jarry'sUbu roi Elizabeth K. Menon 59
shipin the CollegeArtAssociation.Subscriptions Myths and Meanings in Manzoni'sMerda d'artista GeraldSilk 65
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108
 iala Mary Kelly

Scatological Ejaculations, or,

".. LETTING LOOSE

AND HITTING 'EM
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WITH ALL WE'VE GOT."
I I

MARY KELLYis a conceptual artist who lives in New York.

Thesepages are based on her current work, Gloria Patri, which
is concernedwith the themes of masculinity and war.
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Scatological
Art
GabrielP. Weisberg
oWo Then Pere Ubu pronouncedthe word merdre(for em-
phasis)at the opening of the curtainfor AlfredJarry's
playUburoi in 1896, the effect was electric.Whathad
hithertobeen concealedwithingraphicimagesor hiddenwithinthe
literaryworksof Rabelaiswas now given startlingemphasis:center
18
stage before a live audience.The idea was to shock and overwhelm.
Butfurther,the pronouncementof the word heraldedthe arrivalof
an artisticfreedom that shatteredboundariescreatedby traditional
standardsof taste and decorum.Not immediatelyapparentto Jarry's
publicwas the long historyof scatologicalreference.Ancient cul-
tures,such as the Aztecs,' used an ambivalentscatologicaldiscourse
to suggest thatobjects and people could be eviland holyat the same
time. Thus, from the beginning, scatology had not only a negative
but also a positiveconnotation-a fact that is of considerableimpor-
tance to those currentlystudying this tendency or actively using
scatology in their art. Ubu roi, taken as a touchstone in the discus-
sion of scatological discourse, was importantfor, first, making a
subjectthat once had been privatenow public,and second, for its
demonstrationof the fact that scatologicalallusionsbroke barriers
between differentclasses of society by focusing on a subject com-
mon to all: the physicalneed to relieveoneself.
Inthe twentieth century,workscreatedout of excrementor
with an emphasistotally on the instinctual,such as those by Louise
Bourgeois,indicatejust how far artistshave come in exploringthe
self and primaryprocess. The abilityto concentrateon instinctual
material,to playwith feces, and to constructa completescatological
environmentwas only hinted at in Jarry's1896 play.No one then
could have conceived of the broad variationson the theme of
scatology that were to develop. When considered over the long
period of time since its appearance, the use of scatologicalrefer-
ences reveals shifts in societal interests and modificationsof ac-
cepted values. Thus,the developmentof scatologicaldiscourseand
its increasinglypublic nature can be seen to representand reveal
metaphoricallydeeper ills afflicting society. Another tradition in
scatologicalrepresentationaddressedby this issue of ArtJournalis
that of literature.Eversince the tales of Chaucer,the writingsof
Rabelais,the plays of WilliamShakespeare,and the satiresof Jon-
athanSwift, writershave utilizedscatologyas a means of broaden-
ing the audience response. Becauseit focuses on basicinstincts-as
a metaphorfor what is dirty or as a source for irreverenthumor-
FALL1993
scatologybecame a literarydevicethat forceda gentrifiedaudience
to acknowledge hithertoignored sections of society.
Eventually,scatologicalallusionsbecame more scabrousand
pronounced. In the nineteenth century, critics of the Naturalist
novelsof EmileZoladenounced his worksas filthyand likenedthem
to shit. Awareof the power that candid depictionsof bodilyfunc-
tions wielded, Zolaansweredhis criticsby increasingthe relianceon
scatology in his novels and escalatingthe psychologicalimpactof
such references.HisLa Terre,writtenin the late 1880s, is filledwith
open sexual imageryand scatologicalsituations.Inthe novel, Zola
drawson a startlingrange of equivalenciesbetween peasants who
use the fields as both bathroom and bedroom, and the timeless,
universalcycle of fecundity and fertilityseen in nature'scycle of
seasons. The prominenceof one character,known for the length
and breadthof hisfarts,providesthe irreverenthumorso important
to scatology'suse in the nineteenthcenturyand clearlydepicts the
lower classes as more forthright in their attitudes toward bodily
functions.Zolashowed that scatologicalreferenceswere a means by
which peasants communicatedwith each other, and at the same
time he suggested to his readingpublicthat awarenessand treat-
ment of bodilyfunctions, usuallyseen as separatingdifferentlevels
of society,could insteadbe shown as a common denominatorfor all
mankind.In the nineteenth century,whether in literatureor in the
graphicarts, scatology became a forcefultool with which to attack
those who were in powerand to deflatetheirself-importance.Itwas
the levelerthat brought differentclasses together.
Whilesome of the issuesalludedto here havebeen examined
in scholarlyarticlesthat form an expanding bibliographyon scat-
ologicalimagery,the impacton the visualartshas not yet been fully
studied.Historiansof artand culture,often with an intensepuritani-
cal streak, have steered away from themes or images regardedas
loathsomeor beneath intellectualattention. It is only when taboos
are lifted and when all aspects of creativitycan be studied without
prejudicethat the veil surroundingscatology will be removedonce
and for all. When this happens, it will be possibleto establishthe
foundationof a pervasiveinvolvementwith scatology throughout
the centuries. This, in turn, will demonstrate that scatology is a
seriousfield of study.While it necessarilycannot be comprehensive
in its scope, the collective goal of the essays in this issue of Art
Journalis to continue the processof acceptancefirstwitnessed in a
panel suggested by ProfessorRichardMartinfor the 1990 confer-
ence of the College ArtAssociation.The articlespresenta humanis-
tic discourseon the ways in which a theme once consideredtaboo
engaged the imaginationsof both creatorsand theiraudiences.
In Cecelia F Klein'sessay, "Teocuitatl,'Divine Excrement':
The Significanceof 'Holy Shit' in Ancient Mexico," the traditional
way of thinking about excrement is challenged and overturned.
Insteadof seeing dung as a visual metaphor for what was bad or
undesirable(as was often the method in Westerndiscourse),Klein
demonstratesthat in pre-HispanicMexico,where the "humanbody
and its products were not perceived as separate"from the mind,
excrementwas seen as an ambivalentsymbol. Shit was viewed as
doing as much good as evil. The essay posits that dung was never
trivial,that it was a multivalentsymbolthat drewon the significance gues that not only were Zola'swritingsregardedas "shit,"but he
of bodilyfunctionsto reinforcesocialvaluesthat also encompassed
what was held as divine. In this way the first essay in this issue
demonstrablychallengespreconceivednotionsand establishesa far
broader historical use and awareness of feces than previously
acknowledged.
LaurindaS. Dixon'sessay, "Some PenetratingInsights:The of a turd,symbolizingthe positionof the middleclass.The fact that
a way of calling attention to social ills that could only be expiated
throughanarchisticresponse. Canningposits a moderninterpreta-
tion: Ensor'sscatologicalworkswere anarchisticbombs designed to
overthrowwhat was oppressive.Heressay movestowardcombining
self-reflexiveattitudes and the larger culturalimplicationsof the
artist'srole in society.
Scatologywithinliterarysources maintainedin the late nine-
teenth and earlytwentieth centuriesis the focus of both NormanL.
Kleeblatt's"MERDE! The CaricaturalAttackagainst EmileZola"and
ElizabethK.Menon's"Potty-Talkin ParisianPlays:HenrySomm'sLa
Berlinede I'emigreand AlfredJarry'sUbu roi." Here, scatology is
used for free associationsand as a means of expandingfurtherthe
boundariesof criticaland creativedebate. Kleeblattforcefullyar-
was also unmercifullycaricaturedas slimyand beneath contemptin
the frequentattackson hischaractermade by artists.Menon'sessay
carriesfurtherthe class distinctionsof the JulyMonarchycaricatur-
ists by demonstratingthat shit and toilet patterwere linkedwith the
lowerclasses.She discussesthe characterof Ubuas a personification
19

Imageryof Enemasin Art,"exploresthe popularityof enemas inthe these revelationsoccurredwithinthe forumof the theaterpresents
seventeenth and eighteenth centuriesas a means of loosening the shit as a metaphorfor class struggle.
"blackbile"associatedwith melancholydisorders.The depictionof WithGeraldSilk's"Mythsand Meaningsin Manzoni'sMerda
enemas in art upholdsearliermultivalentinterpretivepossibilitiesby d'artista," legends of artistic production are studied. Manzoni's
suggesting that an act with scatologicalimplicationscould promote workfocuses on the creatoras a ritualisticshaman,where anything
bodilygood. Where women were concerned,the enema, linkedto producedisArt.Thiscreatoris used to linkartwiththe Surrealistand
the act of sexual intercourseby visualinnuendo, became a compo- Dadaistcircles,in which hismerdastimulatedintellectualand artistic
nent of erotic imagery. growth. Silkdevelops contemporaryscatologicalrelevanceby link-
In the nineteenth century,the use of scatologicalreferences ing Manzoni'sconcepts to Freud'stheories of anal erotism. The
reflectedchanges in society. There was a definite movement away Austrianpsychiatristassociated feces with money and creativity,
from an examinationof self on the part of many artists,especially thereby assigning a sense of power to anyone who manipulated
caricaturists,who employed scatology to point up social illsand the excrement.Thisstudy bringsscatology up to date, with excrement
failuresof those in power. In my essay, "In Deep Shit: The Coded and an artist'spersonalstamp being closelyassociated.JohnMiller's
Images of Traviesin the July Monarchy,"excrement is used to essay, "TheFig LeafWas Brown,"furtherexplorescreativeprocess
symbolize the "shit of misery" in which the poorer classes found and shit. His essay reveals scatology as an ongoing process, one
themselves. The fact that Travies,as one of the most trenchantof which highlights the emotional values and shifts of a society in
the politicalsatiristsof the day, also saw Louis-Philippeas either a transition.Finally,in "Postscript:An Anal Universe,"LenoreMalen
"crockof shit"or involvedin waste removalfurtherunderscoresthe surveysa group of contemporarypieces for evidence of scatological
irreverentways in which scatology called for change in society. reference.These workspresenta broadrangeof approaches-from
Accordingto Petraten-Doesschate Chu in "Scatologyand the Real- the fetishisticto the scabrous-further demonstratingthe continu-
ist Aesthetic,"a more penetratinguse of scatology was established ing fascinationof this discourse.
in the middle of the nineteenth century.When Gustave Courbet The variousways in which scatology has been used over the
criticizeda Salon landscapeby noting that one could not shit in the centuries bear persuasive witness to its enduring human signifi-
artist'srepresentationof a wooded glen, he emphasizedthe Realists' cance. Scatology can be seen as part of a historicalcontinuum,
preoccupationwith what was down to earth and natural.A similar where metaphorical and symbolic references imply issues that
tendency is found in the writings and paintings of Vincent van touched society and artistic creators deeply. It has served as a
Gogh, who triedto duplicatethe smellof dung in representationsof stimulusfor discussion and change in art and society, producing
hovel interiorsand the fields. In these instances, linkswith excre- images that still need to be fully decoded. Thisinterpretiveprocess
ment demonstratedthat painterswanted to create direct, honest, has begun, and undoubtedlyit will continue in subsequent articles
and concrete images with scatologicalunderpinnings. and publicationsas the veil surroundingscatology slightlylifts.-
With Susan M. Canning'sessay, "The Ordureof Anarchy:
ScatologicalSignsof Self and Society in the Artof JamesEnsor,"the GABRIEL P. WEISBERGis professor of art history at the University
multivalentnatureof scatologicalreferencescontinues. Ensorused of Minnesota.His most recentbook is BeyondImpressionism: The
excrementas a means of revealinghis own positionin society and as NaturalistImpulse(1992).

ARTJOURNAL
 "D ivine
Teocuitlatl
of "HolyShit"in AncientMexico
TheSignificance
CeceliaE Klein
n 1984 the AmericanfolkloristAlan Dundespublisheda
provocativeanalysis of Germanfolk sayings about ex-
crement. The book's title, Life Is Like a ChickenCoop
Ladder,exemplifiesthe consistently negative role played by
anal excretionsin the lore he collected, for it derives froma
popular Germanexpression: "Life is like a chicken (coop)
ladder-short and shitty."' That the word beschissen, or
"shitty,"is here a metaphorforthe hardshipsand unpleasant
20 triviathatobstructourrise to success and happinessis made
clearerin anotherversionof the same expression:"Lifeis like
a chicken (coop)ladder-A person can'tget ahead because
of all the shit [in one's way]."2
The use of dungto signify thatwhich is bad orundesir-
able is widespreadin the Euro-Americanworld, and dates
back to the entrenchmentof Christianity. In large part,
however,such symbolismhas been confined, as in Germany,
to the realm of popular,as opposed to elite, culture. In the
arenaof institutionalizedreligion, in particular,excrement,
like sex, has been traditionallytaboo. When mentionof it
does surface in Christiandiscourse, it predictablysignifies
-ii:- :~-\----_,:a~-~?~P~~~B-...
li,~~
FIG. 1 Defecatingmaneating excrement,CodexBorgia,pi. 10 (detail)After
KarlAntonNowotny,ed., CodexBorgia,BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz,
19761
FALL1993
Excrement"
the oppositeof sacred. Dante, forexample,vividly describes
the flatterershe encounteredin the eighth circle of Hell as "a
peopledipped in excrementthatseemed as it hadflowedfrom
humanprivies."3In Westernculture today,"HolyShit"func-
tions as an exclamationof surprise or dismay precisely be-
cause it has no referencebeyonditself;its poweras a profanity
derivesfromthe paradoxembeddedin it.4 Forus, excrement
is neverdivine.
This was not the case, however,in pre-Hispanic Mex-
ico, where the human body and its productswere not per-
ceived as separatefromand antitheticalto the "mind,"social
values, and the supernatural-and where metaphortended
to be replacedby metonym.5 Thereexcrementwas conceived
of as powerfuland ambivalent,capablebothof signifying and
causing not just bad, but good as well. For this reason,
excrementplayed an importantrole in certain visual and
verbaldiscourses thathelped the Mexicansto structuretheir
relationsto each otherandto the simultaneouslyphysicaland
spiritual world in which they lived. In ancient Mexico the
conceptof divine excrementwas not paradoxical,and excre-
ment could be, indeed, divine.
-t
The ambivalentnatureof humanexcrementis manifest
in some of the divinatoryalmanac scenes that formpart of
several pre-Hispanic Mexican painted screenfold manu-
scripts. In Codex Borgia (pl. 10), for example, as in the
cognate scene in the less artfullypainted CodexVaticanusB
(pl. 29), a nearly naked man not only defecates but also
seems to be eating some of his own excrement(fig. 1).6 Both
scenes are remarkablefor depicting the man'sexcrementas
passing into-in the VaticanusB case, wrappingaroundas
if containing-the cross-sectionof a neckedjar containinga
rabbit. We know that the motif of a jar with a rabbitrepre-
sented the moonin the centuries immediatelypreceding the
conquest, as according to myth a primordialgod of the
intoxicatingbeveragepulque long ago brokethe moon'sface
with a cup shaped like a rabbit.7Thus, in these almanac
scenes a figurewho is eating partof his ownwasteproductsis
apparentlyofferingthe remainderto the moon.
How do we explain such depictions? While these
manuscriptswere almost certainly painted in south Central
Mexico during the century or two before the conquest, we
knowneithertheir exact provenancenorthe language spoken
by their makers. On the basis, however,of what we know
about the Nahuatl-speakingAztecs of CentralMexico, who
by the time of the conquesthad expandedtheir controlovera
large part of Mexico, we can be fairly certain that the
divinatoryalmanacscenes qualified the auguryof the dayby
either illustrating the fate of one who transgressed in a
particular way on that day, or prescribing rites that could
offsetthatfate-or both. In the scenes beforeus, the targeted
transgressionsmay have involved drunkenness,which, ex-
cept on certain ritual occasions and for the elderly, was
proscribedby Aztec law. Violatorsof this proscriptionwere
severelypunished, being said to have"wallowedin ordure."8
Since pulque and drunkennesswere associated with rabbits
and the moon,the figureof a mandefecatingon the moonmay
augur either the inadvisabilityof drinking-or the fate of a
person born-on the day in question.
But the depictionmaywarnof sexual licentiousnessas
well. Drunkennesswas closely associated with carnal vices,
which themselveswererepresentedin the erraticwanderings
and fecundity of the rabbit.9 Aztec sexual behavior was
subject to legal restrictions,at least amongthe nobility,with
femaleadultery,abortion,incest, and sodomypunishableby
death. Most, if not all, of the numerousotherCodex Borgia
and Codex Vaticanusalmanac scenes depicting excrement
probablytargetjust such transgressions,for amongthe var-
ious vices associated with excrementin Aztec times, exces-
sive and misdirected sexual acts reigned paramount.Pro-
miscuous women, for example-especially prostitutesand
adulterers, as well as sodomites-were typically charac-
terized in terms of body waste.10Their carnal vices were all
referred to as tlaello or tlazolli, meaning filth, garbage,
refuse, orordure,with, in the wordsof AlfredoLopezAustin,
"a strongexcrementalsense."'l
Supernaturalpatronage of these asocial individuals
was affordedby exclusivelyfemale deities, all of whomwere
associated with the moon. The most importantwas the god-
dess Tlazolteotl,whose name, althoughusuallytranslatedas
"Goddessof Filth," could also read as "Divine Filth," even
"Divine Excrement."The name is based not on the Nahuatl
word for excrementper se, cuitlatl, but on tlazolli, a word
literally meaning "old, dirty, deteriorated,worn-outthing,"
which was used to connote filth, garbage, or refuse, all of
which subsumed human waste products.12 Codices
Telleriano-Remensis(pl. 20) and VaticanusA (pl. 39) show
21
FIG. 2 Goddessof filthwith excrement-curl nose ornament,CodexFejervary-
Mayer,pi. 41 (detail) AfterCottieA. Burland,ed., CodexFejervary-Mayer
12014M, Cityof LiverpoolMuseums(Graz,19711
the goddess of filth holding a vase filled with a tiny person
eating excrement,while in CodexFejervary-Mayer (pl. 41), a
manuscript believed to come from southeastern Mexico, a
related goddess wears an ocher-coloredcurl-the generic
sign for excrement-as her nose ornament(fig. 2).13
Tlazolteotlwas also addressed as Tlaelquani, which
means "Eater of Ordure"according to Thelma Sullivan.14
Sullivanaccountsforthe name by suggestingthatTlazolteotl
was a goddess of the fertile earth that "receives all organic
wastes-human and animal excrement... and so forth-
which when decomposed are transformed into humus."
Humus, she adds, was called tlazollalli ("earthfilth") and
was associated with the revitalizationof the soil.15
The Aztecs had anotherword for soil that had been
fertilized with human excrement: tlalauiyac.16 Herbert
Harveysuggests that this wordalludes to the Aztec practice
of collecting human excrement for use as fertilizer from
public privies set up along the major roads.17 It is even
possible that Tlazolteotl was a patroness of this fertilizer
industry.18Humanexcrementwas also used in salt produc-
tionas well as tanning, however,and it is thus significantthat
SullivanrelatesTlazolteotlto the salt goddess, Uixtociuatl.19
The close cognitive relationof urine to excrementis evident
in the almanacs underdiscussion where several of the defe-
cating figures are simultaneouslyurinating(fig. 3). Noting
ARTJOURNAL
 conquest, oftenforSpanishchurchpatrons,whereexcrement
is used exclusively, as it is in Christian imagery,to signify
vice. In Codex Telleriano-Remensis, a mid-sixteenth-
centuryAztec codex with a Spanish commentary,for exam-
ple, a priest performingthe piousact of letting bloodfromhis
ear bears lumps of dung on both his bone perforatorand his
incense bag (fig. 4). The accompanyingtext identifies the
priest'sactions as taking place on the day 7 Eagle, a day of
22 bad omen, when prostitutesmade sacrifices to the moon.28
F G. 3 Defecatingand urinatingmanwith deathfigure,CodexBorgia,pl. 13
(detail)AfterNowotny,ed., CodexBorgia. Excrementhere, therefore,surely representsfemale sexual
transgressions,which the picture suggests will be atonedfor
by sheddingbloodfromself-inflicted wounds.Wehaveseen,
that urine, itself a metaphorfor impurity,is salty, Sullivan however,that in the strictly indigenousscheme of things the
suggests that Uixtociuatlrepresentedurine as well.20 Since real offeringsto the moon goddess were the lumps of excre-
the state also collected urine, whichwas used as a mordantin mentembodyingthe offenses themselves. The hope was that
dyeing, it is not surprisingthat therewas a separateNahuatl she wouldcounteractthe damagethat the offenseshad effec-
word for soil that had been urinated upon (axixtlalli).21
Amongthe Mixe today myths often representurinationas a
fertilizingact, comparingit to wateror rainfall.22
The body wastes or "filth"associated with Tlazolteotl
thus representednot just transgressionsof the Aztec sexual
code, but also the meansforoffsettingthem, fortransforming
or convertingthem into something healthy and fertile. This
has to be the explanationfor the curious name Tlaelquani,
"Eaterof Ordure,"and of all almanac figures who consume
their own excrement. Support comes from Bernardinode
Sahagun'sclaim that Tlazolteotlwas called Tlaelquani be-
cause "sheheardall confessions, she removedcorruption."23
The Aztecs are well documentedas having believed that a
last-minute"confession"to Tlaelquaniof one'ssexual trans-
gressions could stave off the imminent threat of physical
danger or death.24 Such "pentitents"reportedly not only
removedtheirclothes so as to expose Tlaelquanito their"evil
odor,"but swallowedtheir own stench, their own filth, as
well.25They did this because, in Aztec thought,filth could
be used to ward off or offset filth, restoringboth moraland
physical equilibrium.26
Excrementthus not only embodied the cause of an
individual'sbad healthand potentialdemise, but also consti-
tuted the means to preventor cure them. As an anomalous
substance, it thereforehad bothnegativeand positive conno-
tations.27This must be kept in mind in viewingmanuscripts 4 Autosacrificial
FIG. priestwith lumpsof excrement,CodexTelleriano-
Remensis,pi. 21 (detail).AfterE.T.Hamy,ed., CodexTelleriano-Remensis
that were painted by acculturatednatives after the Spanish manuscritmexicain... BibliothequeNationale(Paris:Ducde Loubat,1899)

FALL
1993
ted by literally consuming their materialmanifestationand
thus convertingthem into fertilizinghumus.
Similarly,a womannamed, accordingto the commen-
tator, Ixnextli appears in the same manuscript holding a
substance clearly labeled in Spanish as mierda, "filth"or
"excrement"(fig. 5). Ixnextli, we are told in the attendant
glosses, is portrayedhere as crying because Ixnextliliterally
means"Ashes[in the] Eyes."Herblindnesswas, accordingto
the Catholiccommentator,a punishmentforhaving"gathered
flowers," that is, for excessive sexuality. Throughoutpre-
Hispanic Mexicothe flowerwas indeed a metaphorforfemale
sexuality and genitalia;Tlazolteotl,for example, is depicted
in CodexVaticanus(pl. 74) and CodexBorgia(pl. 74) with
her naked body in frontalview and her legs widespread, a
stylized floweremanatingfromhergenitalregion. Notingthat
Ixnextliis nowhereelse mentioned,Jose CorunaNufieziden-
tifies the figure in Codex Telleriano-Remensison icono-
graphic groundswith the Aztec moon and fertility goddess
Xochiquetzal, whose name means "Precious Flower."29
Xochiquetzal, like Tlazolteotl, was a patronessof sexuality
and harlots.
Certainvarieties of flower,however,were furtherasso-
ciated in Aztec thoughtwithvenerealdisease. A womanborn
on the day 1 Flowerwhoviolatedsexual morescouldexpect to
be afflicted with piles and genital infections by Xochi-
quetzal.30Just sitting on or stepping over, as well as urinat-
ing upon, certain flowerscaused infectionof women'ssexual
organs.31Skin complaints characterizedby pustules were,
like hemorrhoids,attributedto what were regarded as im-
moral sexual acts, including sodomy, an apparently fair
assumptiongiven William Sherman'sclaim thatin the Amer-
icas venereal diseases manifested themselves as pus-filled
tumorsthat sometimes covered the entire body.32 What is
significantis that Xochiquetzalhad the powerto cure as well
as cause such diseases, and that her medicine, as we will
shortlysee, was urine orexcrement.33This ambivalentpower
attributed to body wastes was completely missed by the
codex commentator,who in his text comparesIxnextlito the
biblical Eve.34 In Judeo-Christiandiscourse the apple that
caused Eve'sfateful fall into sin had no subsequent restora-
tive powerscomparableto those of excrementforthe Aztecs.
Ixnextli's blindness was clearly itself a metaphorfor
excessive sexuality and so was cognitivelylinked to excre-
23
pi. 11
FIG. 5 Ixnextliholdingvase of excrement,CodexTelleriano-Remensis,
(detail)AfterHamy,ed., CodexTelleriano-Remensis.
ment. Sexual vice is similarly expressed in CodexLaud(pl.
18), wherethe eyes of the moongoddess of filth are covered
by a bandage (fig. 6).35 Loss of vision in these cases may
specifically signify sexual treachery,as Tlazolteotlis some-
times described as a "deceiver"whose own carnal vices
cause all worldlydeceptions.36Dirt and excrement,in turn,
are frequentlymentionedas signs of deception,and an Aztec
ruler who deceived someone was called teuhio, tlazollo,
"dirty,""filthy."37Eventoday,the Mayaof highlandChiapas
say that a local witch's sexual parts, which she exposes in
order to lure unsuspecting men into the forest, are "only
excrement."38 The association in these cases between sexu-
ality, deception, and excrementsurely relates to the Aztec
belief that diseases of the eye were caused by sexual impro-
priety, and explains why glaucomaand ectropion(a disease
of the eyelid)weretreatedwith powderedhumanfecal matter
or urine.39
It is noteworthythat the blindfoldedCodexLaudmoon
goddess also holds an ax in one hand, and that she sits atopa
clearly fallen victim. Forin anotherauguralscene in Codex
Borgia (pl. 12), a naked man who is swallowinghis own
excrementfurtherempties his bowelsontoa blindfoldeddeity
seated beneatha smokingax. This god has been identifiedas
Tezcatlipoca-Ixquimilli,a male deity of night and punish-
ment, whose name means roughly "SmokingMirrorwith
CoveredEyes."40In the cognate scene in CodexVaticanusB
(pl. 91), the defecating figure also urinates on the sightless
ART JOURNAL
 e
9?4:000000 0

24 FIG.6 Blindfoldedgoddess of filthwith ax, CodexLaud,pi. 18 (detail) AfterCottieA. Burland,ed., CodexLaud(MSLaudMisc.678, BodleianLibraryOxford
(Graz,1966)

god belowhim (fig. 7). Underthe name of Titlacauan,more-

over,Tezcatlipocawas addressed as "wretchedsodomite,"a
label thatidentifiedhim with the mostabhorredsexual crime
of all.41 The Aztecs believed that sodomycaused piles and
hemorrhoids,and the sodomitewas described as "a defile-
ment, a corruption,filth; a taster of filth, revolting, . . .
detestable."42
As we have seen, sexual crimes were not entirely
privatematters,forthey were consideredpotentiallyharmful
to society as a whole. The ax that appears in the scenes we
have been looking at is in fact a warningthat if one does not
rectify-that is, devour-his sexual errors,he can expect to
havethemforciblyexcised. This becomes clearerin cognate
scenes in the Codex Borgia(pl. 15) and CodexVaticanusB
(pls. 38-40) almanacs, where the blindfoldedTezcatlipoca-
Ixquimilli appears, as do other gods, pulling a wrinkled
yellowbandfroma hole in a naked man'slowerabdomen(fig.
8).43 Previousscholars have variouslyidentifiedthese tubu-
lar forms as strips of skin or umbilical cords, but all the
evidence indicates that they representthe lowerintestines or
the dangerouscontentsthereof.44Their yellowcolorand the
abdominalperforationsfromwhich they issue testify to this,
as does the fact thatone of the men is archedovera sacrificial
stone, a gaping bloody hole in his chest signifying that his
hearthas just been removed(fig. 8, left). In CodexVaticanus
B (pl. 41), the same amorphousocher-coloredmaterial is
being pulled from the mouth of a skeletal female, a sure
reference to the material'salimentarynature. Finally, an-
other disemboweled figure in a related series in Codex
Fejervary-Mayer (pl. 27) is held by a ropearoundthe neck, a
sign that his condition is directly related to his prisoner FIG. 7 Mandefecatingand urinatingon blindfoldedgod of punishment,
status. CodexVaticanusB, pi. 91 (detail) AfterFerdinand
Anders,ed., Codex
Vaticanus3773 (CodexVaticanusBJ BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz,
That these victims have been foundguilty of a sexual 1972X

FALL
1993
 25
FIG.8 Scenesof disembowelment:disembowelmentof sacrificedman(left);disembowelmentof manby blindfoldedgod of punishment(right) Codex
VaticanusB, pls. 38-39 (detaill AfterAnders,ed., CodexVaticanus3773 (CodexVaticanusB).

crime is stronglysuggested by the stylized flowersattached better illustrated than in the Aztec perceptionof gems and
to the tips of the offendingorgan.45I have argued at length minerals as excrement. Mica (and later lead), for example,
elsewhere that these scenes relate to several reportsthat in was identifedas the moon'sexcrement,while gold was called
some places, at least, adulterersand sodomiteswereliterally coztic teocuitlatl, "yellowsacred excrement,"and tonatiuh
disemboweled in punishment.46Tlaxcalans, for example, icuitl, "theexcrementof the sun."52Tonatiuh,the sun, was a
allegedly removedthe entrails of any man who sodomized god, and gold representedthe traces of the body wastes that
another, and then buried him in hot ashes.47 The Aztec he deposited during the night as he passed through the
penchantfor brandingenemy warriorshomosexualsmay ac- underworld.53Sahagun'sinformantsexplained that "some-
count as well forthe fact thatnumerousMesoamericanpaint- times, in some places, there appearsin the dawnsomething
ings and relief sculptures depict defeatedwarriorswiththeir like a little bit of diarrhea," which is "very yellow, very
entrails either spilling or being pulled out.48 The weapon wonderful";it is called the sun's excrementbecause it is
often used, we can infer, was an ax. The Aztecs feared a "good, fine, [and] precious."54
nocturnalapparitionof Tezcatlipoca,whose chest and belly Gold was thus the most precious metal in ancient
had been brokenopen and who made the sound of chopping Mexico, being elaboratelyworked into a variety of highly
wood. The apparition'sname, Ioaltepuztli, means "Night valued, elite items. Gold dust stored in quills, moreover,
Ax."49 servedto standardizethe currenciesused in markettransac-
Excrementwas thereforeinvested throughmetonymy tions, and was also used formedicinal purposes. In particu-
with real power;it was morethan a meremetaphorforcertain lar, gold in the formof dust or filings was literally eaten by
odious acts. This may explain why the infuriated Aztecs patients with skin pustules or hemorrhoids,which, as we
destroyedan altar fouled by excrementplaced there by their have seen, were attributed to sexual vices. Pustules were
Colhuaenemies, and why their enemies at Tlatelolcothrew called nanaoatl in Nahuatl; the large ones were tlacazol-
excrementat them in battle.50 Forexcrementwas associated nanaotl, "filthypustules," and the smallerones, tecpilnana-
withbothimmaturityand deathin Mesoamerica,and as such oatl, "noblepustules."The latter were particularlypainful
could reduce warriorsto infancy, thereby weakening and and allegedly caused a curious twisting of the hands and
even killing them. The land of the dead, which was located feet.55 The use of gold both to prevent and to cure these
deep beneath the earth's surface in the underworld,was symptomswas related to the Aztec legend of the mythical
conceived of as the bowels, the intestines of the personified figureNanauatzin,"OurDearPustules,"accordingto Selera
earth where, accordingto Sahagun, "theplace will be made god of syphilis, who is represented by figures in Codex
excrement."51 Borgia(pls. 10, 42) that have twisted hands and feet.56
But this power,as we have seen, could be positive as Nanauatzin'simportance stemmed from his humble
well as negative, forwhathad the powerto disrupthealth and actionsduring the dark days of the Creation,when the gods
harmonyalso had the powerto restorethem. This is nowhere had gatheredto find some way to light the universe. Unlike

ART JOURNAL
 the othergods, Nanauatzinhad no incense to offer;he burned
his ownscabs instead and then immolatedhimself in orderto
rise as the sun.57 Gold dust could be effective against
sexually caused diseases, then, precisely because it repre-
sented the excrement of the sun, which had been itself
created out of the pustule-riddenbody of Nanauatzin.58
Fromthe momentof the Spanish conquest, which was
motivatedby a desire for gold, the significance of the metal
became ambivalentin Mexico, for although, as Sahagun's
informantsnoted, it was "theleaderof all riches on earth, ...
thatwhich is sought, . . . thatwhich is cherished,"it had for
that very reason become an "instrumentof torment,""a
deadly thing" that was also "a deceiver."59Deception here
seems to refer to immoralmeans of acquiring wealth and
power,because the "deadlything"was furtheridentifiedas
"thepropertyof the lords, the propertyof the ruler."An Aztec
man who through "deception"grew rich, like a ruler, was
described as tlazollo, "filthy."60Thus was the Nahuatlword
forexcrement,cuitlatl, also used at times to signify excess or
26 greed, with the added connotationsof laziness and "soft
tissues."61The direct referenceappearsto be to overeating,
which would have violated Aztec codes of moderation.But
the emphasishere on the link betweengold and tormentmay
well reflect the historical realities of native experiencedur-
ing the conquest and its aftermath.62
The dialectic is clearly rooted in indigenous beliefs
about excrement, for excrement, as we have seen, could
indeed be a deadly thing symbolicof deception. Moreover,it
often served as a metaphorforpovertyand low social status.
A memberof the very lowest class among the Aztecs was
called tlacotli, fromtlaco, "tocorrupt,""tosin," "todo evil";
the name reveals that, like illness, povertyand powerless-
ness were attributedto immoralacts. Membersof the tlacotli
class werelegally and contractuallyobligedto serveothersin
debt paymentfortheir errors,and if uncooperative,could be
collaredand sold forsacrifice in the market.Theircondition,
like that of all commonersand laborers, was equated with
dung, andto be freed of slaverywas referredto as cuitlatlaza,
"to throw [away] excrement."63
Significantly,such a slave was declared legally free if
he could escape his masterin the marketplaceand, having
made it beyondits limits, manageto step on a pile of human
excrement.64 There is simply no parallel to this restorative,
positive meaning of human waste in Western institutional
social and religious practice. In ancient Mexico, dung did not
merely symbolize unpleasant and opprobrious things and
conditions in steady opposition to the good and spiritual. In
Mexico, in contrast to Euro-America, dung was never trivial.
Among the Aztecs, at least, excrement's importance may
derive in part from its role in nourishment, or from fear of the
occasional famines that plagued Central Mexico, as well as
the dysentery and diarrhea endemic at the time of the con-
quest.65 But the multivalence of the symbol, like its wide
geographic distribution and its embeddedness in an entire
FALL 1993
moralcode, furtherindicates a fundamentalcognitive func-
tion. Forthroughoutancient Mexico, excrementworkedas a
metonymof the gods, and of the sun and moon, to help to
structureand reinforcesocial values in binaryterms drawn
from the forms and processes of the human body. Social
behaviorwas thus channeledandcontrolledthroughan ideol-
ogy in which human feces articulated the undesirablityof
excess and indulgence as opposed to abstinence and self-
sacrifice;of deception-metaphorized as blindness-as op-
posed to honor,expressed as vision; of sickness and deathas
opposed to good health and long life; and of poverty and
powerlessnessversus wealth and rulership.
In Mexico, in otherwords, the expression"HolyShit"
wouldhave had no surprisevalue, because it wouldnot have
containeda paradox.In Mexico, excrement,the symbol par
excellence of immoralityand its undesirable physical and
social consequences, was ambivalent, and as such, could
also be divine. 1
Notes
1. Alan Dundes, LifeIs Like a ChickenCoopLadder(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversity
Press, 1984), 9. Mythanks to KarlTaubeforbringingthis book to my attention,and to
DonaldCosentinoforlending it to me. I am also gratefulto PeterKlein, PeterVanDer
Loo, Elizabeth Boone, and Dana Leibsohn for sharing their diverse expertises with
me. A DumbartonOaks Pre-ColumbianStudies Fellowshipin spring 1992 provided
the opportunityto complete this article, a preliminaryversionof which was presented
at the 1990 College Art Association session on scatology chaired by Gabriel
Weisberg.
2. Ibid., 10.
3. Dante Alighieri, Inferno(London:J. M. Dent, 1954), 197 (canto 18).
4. RobertL. Chapman, ed., New Dictionary of AmericanSlang (New York:Harper
and Row, 1986), 213; "holyshit: an exclamationof surprise, dismay, discovery, etc."
5. Forthe importanceof metonymyin ancient Mexico, see Louise M. Burkhart,The
SlipperyEarth: Nahua-Christian MoralDialogue in Sixteenth-CenturyMexico(Tuc-
son: Universityof Arizona Press, 1989), 99.
6. Forfacsimiles of CodexBorgia, see EduardSeler, Comentariosal C6diceBorgia, 3
vols. (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1963), vol. 3; and Karl Anton
Nowotny,ed., CodexBorgia, BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz:Akademische-und
Verlagsanstalt,1976). For a facsimile of CodexVaticanusB, see FerdinandAnders,
ed., CodexVaticanus3773 (CodexVaticanusB), BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz:
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1972).
7. PrimoFelicianoVelazquez,trans., CodiceChimalpopoca:Anales de Cuauhtitlany
leyendasde los soles (MexicoCity: Institutode Investigacionesde Hist6ricas, Univer-
sidad Nacional Aut6nomade Mexico, 1975), 122; and Louise M. Burkhart,"Moral
Deviance in Sixteenth-CenturyNahua and Christian Thought:The Rabbit and the
Deer,"Journalof LatinAmericanLore12, no. 2 (1986): 116. In anothersource a rabbit
alone is thrown in the moon's face, where it has remained. See Bernardino de
Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex:GeneralHistoryof the Things of NewSpain, trans. Arthur
J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, 13 vols. (Santa Fe: School of American
Research and Universityof Utah, 1950-82), 7:3-4.
8. Sahagun, FlorentineCodex, 4:11; 6:71.
9. Burkhart, "MoralDeviance," 116. I use the words "vice" and "transgression"
interchangeablyin this article in place of the word"sin"preferredby earlier scholars
in orderto mitigate as much as possible all Judeo-Christianovertones. The Aztec
words that colonial Spaniards translated as pecado (sin) were tlatlacolli and
tlapilchiualiztli. Tlatlacolli more literally means something that harms a thing or
causes it to deteriorate;tlapilchiualiztli, a defect or bad action.
10. Aztec prostitutes were described, for example, as "shitty";see Alfredo Lopez
Austin, Una viejahistoriade la mierda(MexicoCity:EdicionesToledo,1988), 28; and
Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 5:191; 6:74, 92.
11. Lopez Austin, Mierda, 27. According to Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 6:92, an
Aztec nobleman'sdaughterwas urged not to covet carnal experience, "as it is said, in
the excrement, the refuse."
12. The etymologyof cuitlatl is unknown, but the wordis itself the rootof a numberof
otherNahuatl words.
13. Seler, Comentarios,1:117, discusses the sign forcuitlatl. Fora facsimile of Codex
Telleriano-Remensis,see Jose CorunaNuiiez, ed., Antiguedadesde Mexicobasadas
en la recopilaci6nde LordKingsborough,4 vols. (MexicoCity:Secretariade Hacienda
y CreditoP6blico, 1964), vol. 1. For Codex VaticanusA, see CodexVaticanus3738
(Cod. hiat.A, "Cod. Rios") der Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana(Graz: Akademische
Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1979). The best facsimile of Codex Fejervary-Mayeris
Cottie A. Burland, ed., CodexFejervary-Mayer 1214 M, City of LiverpoolMuseums
(Graz:Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1971).
14. ThelmaD. Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina:The GreatSpinnerand Weaver,"in The
Art and iconographyof Late Post-Classic CentralMexico, ed. Elizabeth Hill Boone
(Washington,D.C.: DumbartonOaks, 1982), 15.
15. Ibid.
16. H. R. Harvey,"PublicHealth in Aztec Society,"Bulletin of theNewYorkAcademy
of Medicine57 (1981): 158; and Sahagin, FlorentineCodex, 6:124; 11:255.
17. Harvey."Public Health," 158.
18. The job of collecting body wastes forfertilizermaynot havebeen as unpleasantas
we might think, since the Aztec diet, based largely on corn and amaranth, did not
contain high quantities of the amino acids that cause fecal odor;see Harvey,"Public
Health," 164, 165 n. 6. Excrementmay also have been burnedas fuel, at least on the
battlefield. Younggirls taunted young men who had never been to war with the cry,
"Artthou notjust a woman, like me? Nowherehath thy excrementbeen burned";see
Sahagin, FlorentineCodex, 2:63-64.
19. Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano,Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition (New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 128; and Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-
Ixcuina," 23.
20. Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina,"23.
21. Harvey,"Public Health," 158.
22. Frank J. Lipp, The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual and Healing (Austin:
Universityof Texas Press, 1991), 76.
23. Sahagun, FlorentineCodex, 1:23-24.
24. Alfredo L6pez Austin, The Human Body and Ideology: Conceptsof the Ancient
Nahuas, trans. ThelmaOrtizde Montellanoand BernardOrtizde Montellano,2 vols.
(Salt Lake City: Universityof Utah Press, 1988), 1:269.
25. Sahagun, FlorentineCodex, 1:25; 6:31.
26. Burkhart. The SlipperyEarth, 121, 209 n. 15; and L6pez Austin, Mierda, 27.
27. L6pezAustin, Mierda, 32. See also SarahC. Blaffer,TheBlack-ManofZinacan-
tan: A CentralAmericanLegend (Austin: Universityof TexasPress, 1972), 115-16,
and L6pez Austin, Mierda, 26.
28. CorunaNuiiez, Antiguedadesde Mexico, 1:230. (This commentaryaccompanies
the facsimile of Codex Telleriano-Remensis.
29. CoronaNuiez, Antiguedades de M6xico, 1:190.
30. Ortizde Montellano,AztecMedicine,133-34. See also Doris Heyden,Mitologiay
simbolismode la flora en el Mexicoprehispdnico(Mexico City: UniversidadNacional
Aut6nomade Mexico, 1983), 105, 107-8, regardingthe identificationof flowerswith
female sexual organs and sex itself.
31. Ortizde Montellano,AztecMedicine,141; and Sahagfn, FlorentineCodex,5:183.
32. William L. Sherman,ForcedNative Laborin Sixteenth-CenturyCentralAmerica
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 306. See also Sahagfn, Florentine
Codex, 1:31. where the male "pleasure" deities Macuilxochitl (Five Flower) and
Xochipilli (FlowerPrince) are blamed for piles, hemorrhoids,suppuratinggenitals,
and all diseases of the groin.
33. See, e.g., HernandoRuiz de Alarc6n, Treatiseon the HeathenSuperstitionsThat
TodayLive among the Indians Native to This New Spain, trans. and ed. J. Richards
Andrewsand Ross Hassig (Norman:Universityof OklahomaPress, 1984), 30; and
Lipp, TheMixe of Oaxaca, 185.
34. CorunaNufiez, Antiguedades de Mexico, 1:190.
35. Cottie A. Burland, ed., Codex Laud (MS Laud Misc. 678), Bodleian Library
Oxford(Graz:Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1966).
36. CorunaNufiez, Antiguedades de Mexico, 1:216.
37. Sahagfn, FlorentineCodex, 6:243. Lipp, TheMixe of Oaxaca, 76, mentionsthat
the Mixtec say that to dream of feces portendsconcealed backbiting, falseness, and
impending social discord.
38. Blaffer, The Black-Man, 14, 115. This witch also stops drunks and makes them
urinate (ibid., 101).
39. L6pez Austin, The Human Body, 1:179; and idem, Mierda, 63. L6pez Austin
indicates that urine was morecommonlyused medicinally than excrement,and that it
was often drunk, but thinks that its use may derive from Spanish medicine. I doubt
this given the consistent role that urine played in native discourse.
40. Seler, Comentarios,1:200.
41. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 3:12; and Juan Bautista Pomar,Relacion de Tezcoco
(Siglo XVI), ed. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta (MexicoCity: Biblioteca Enciclopedica
del Estado de Mexico, 1975), 32.
42. Sahaguin,FlorentineCodex, 10:37-38.
43. Seler, Comentarios,1:200.
44. See, e.g., ibid., 1:198, 200, for reference to these bands as "strips."
45. Ibid., 1:198.
46. Cecelia F Klein, "Snares and Entrails: Mesoamerican Symbols of Sin and
Punishment,"Res 19-20 (1990-91): 81-103.
47. Fernandode Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Obrashist6ricas, 2 vols. (MexicoCity: Secretaria
de Fomento,1891-92), 1:324-25. See Klein, "Snares and Entrails," for discussion
and illustrationof these disembowelments.
48. Klein, "Snares and Entrails." See also Cecelia F Klein, "Fighting with Femi-
ninity: Gender and War in Aztec Mexico," in GenderingRhetorics: Postures of
Dominanceand Submissionin Human History, ed. Richard C. Trexler(Binghamton:
State Universityof New Yorkat Binghamton, Centerfor Medievaland Early Renais-
sance Studies, in press).
49. Sahagfn, FlorentineCodex, 5:157-59. The Aztecs were also hauntedby a spook
called Cuitlapanton,"Little Shit," who appeared at night at "the latrines and dung
heaps."An omenof death who mockedmen, Cuitlapantontookthe formof a verysmall
girl "pressed down like dung." In Acolhuacan she was called "little squashed one";
see ibid., 5:179-80.
50. D. HernandoAlvarado Tezozomoc, Crdnica mexicana/C6diceRamirez, ed. D.
Manuel Orozco y Berra, 2nd ed. (Mexico City: Editorial Porria, 1975), 392; and
Burkhart,The SlipperyEarth, 89.
51. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 6:29, 33. See also Klein, "Snaresand Entrails";and
L6pezAustin, Mierda, 48-49, 69. Accordingto Sahagun,FlorentineCodex,6:32, an
Aztec commonerwho had transgressedwas told, "thoucasteth thyself into excrement,
into filth . . . even as if thou wert a baby, a child, who playeth with the dung, the
excrement."This may explain why the two yellow stripes that characterizedthe face
paintingof the Aztec nationalpatronand wargod Huitzilopochtliwerereputedlyof an
infant'sexcrement;see Seler, Comentarios,1:117.The materialwouldhave threatened
the enemy with infantile weakness or with death.
52. Sahagfn, Florentine Codex, 11:233. The Aztec name for silver, which was
regarded as a variant of gold, was iztac teocuitlatl, "white sacred excrement."
Sahagun, ibid., 9:75-76, says that before the Spaniards arrived, silver was little
used. Mica was metzli cuitlatl, the "excrementof the moon," and lead, which has
neverbeen foundin excavationsin Mexico, in the colonial periodwas temetzli,"moon
stone." See Alonso de Zorita, Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and
SummaryRelationof the Lordsof NewSpain, trans. BenjaminKeen (NewBrunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers UniversityPress, 1963), 301 n. 42. The association of excrementwith
27
stones also appears in the Aztec riddle, "What is a tiny colored stone sitting on the
road? Dog excrement";see Sahagun, FlorentineCodex, 6:240. The Huichol say that
the stars are "brilliantstones"that were scattered over the night sky when the moon
defecated; see L6pez-Austin, Mierda, 77. The Mayaand Tarascans seem to have
sharedwith the Aztecs the idea that gold was the sun'sexcrement;see L6pez-Austin,
Mierda, 69.
53. The modernMazatecsay that the sun showersgold (thatis, defecates) on the dead
as he passes at night throughthe underworld;see L6pez Austin, Mierda, 71.
54. Sahagun,FlorentineCodex,11:33. This passage also refersto the "mother"of gold
who "appearswhere she has 'rained her water,'" and adds that "her urine stains
deeply." In Codex Borgia (pls. 54, 69) stylized streams of black liquid that may
representurine are edged with the ocher-coloredcurls that usually representexcre-
ment. Lipp, TheMixe of Oaxaca, 152-53, has linked these images to a modernMixe
belief thatthe dead in the underworldare forcedto defecate on the banks of a scalding
river of urine and then eat and drink the ordurein orderto "washthe earth."
55. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 10:157.
56. Seler, Comentarios,1:148; 2:77-79.
57. Sahagfn, FlorentineCodex, 7:4-7.
58. "Forthis reason pustule medicine, his excrement,sometimesappearedon earth";
ibid., 7:234. Pustules that throbbed, in turn, were called cuitlachapan, "pounding
excrement."
59. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 11:234.
60. Ibid., 11:243.
61. L6pezAustin, TheHumanBody, 1:198. Comparethis use of excrementto allude to
overeatingand abundanceto Levi-Strauss'sassumptionthatexcrementis "thereverse
of food"; see Claude Levi-Strauss, "The ProperUse of Excrement,"in The Naked
Man, trans. John and Doreen Weightman(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1981), 329.
62. In recent times people in manyparts of rural Mexicohave told of a man or woman
who became rich by finding a load of excrementthat later turned into gold or money;
see L6pezAustin, Mierda,69, 75, 78-79. This mayreflect the postconquesttransfer
to the Americas of the European association of feces with moneythat was noted by
Freud, although in some Mexican tales the dung is discovered in the underworld.
63. When a ruler was installed, he addressed Tezcatlipoca for help as follows:
"Perhapsthouhast mistakenme foranother,I whoam a commoner;I whoam a laborer.
In excrement, in filth hath my lifetime been";see Sahagfn, FlorentineCodex, 6:41.
64. Diego Duran, Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar, trans.
FernandoHorcasitas and Doris Heyden (Norman: University of OklahomaPress,
1971), 284-85. See also L6pez Austin, The Human Body, 1:401-2; and idem,
Mierda,27.
65. Harvey, "Public Health," 159-60. Karl Anton Nowotny,Tlacuilolli: Die Mex-
ikanischenBilderhandschriften(Berlin: VerlagGebr. Mann, 1961), 26, suggests that
the man in Codex Borgia(pl. 13) who is both defecating and urinatingonto a skeletal
figure while confrontinga bundled corpse is very sick (seefig. 3).
C E C E L I A F. K L E I N is professor of pre-Columbian art history
at the Universityof California, Los Angeles. She has been
writing on gender and body symbolism in Aztec art.
ART JOURNAL
 Some Penetrating
Insights
TheImageryof Enemasin Art
Laurinda S. Dixon
lyster syringes, used to administerenemas, appear
with considerable frequency in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-centurypainting and caricature, where
they supportan unmistakablescatologicalcontext.1Artists
at this time wereespecially responsiveto the satiricalpossi-
bilities inherent in Louis XIV's passion for enemas, as a
particularlyexplicit political cartoonby Romeynde Hooghe
shows (fig. 1). The scene depicts the Frenchroi de soleil,
28 identified by a sun-burst on his head, sitting atop a terres-
trial globe, impaledupona largeclystersyringe. Lackingthe
necessary commode, the contents of the royal bowel, suc-
cessfully loosened by the procedure, spill over the world.
Holland seems to get the worst of it, with various German
cities (Heidelberg, Offenburg,etc.) also receiving the ex-
alted anal effluvia. The backgroundof the scene alludes to
the chaoticevents of the year 1674 (the date inscribed on the
clyster syringe), as rampagingProtestantsburn and pillage
the landscape. A representativeof Spain, allied with France,
appearsat the left, seated upon a unicornwith ass's ears. In
the eyes of a Dutch satirist, the military, religious, and
territorialpolicies of Louis XIV, embodied in the enema
syringe and the incontinence resulting from its use, have
befouledthe earth.
Most modernviewers would perceive the sovereign's
calamitous ordeal as nothing more than an uncomfortable
reminderof a childhoodritual applied by solicitousmothers
as a hygienicmeans of loosening impactedbowels, relieving
flatulence, and instigating the proper flow of excrement.
Enemasare not as popularas they once were,forpharmacies
readily supply peppermint-flavoredremedies in pill form
which accomplishthe same thing. However,enemasenjoyed
a much larger frame of reference in the seventeenth and
eighteenthcenturies, whenthey wereperceivednotonly as a
hygienic measure, but also as a medical cure and even a
necessity of fashion.2Early physicians employedclysters to
cure the now-extinctdisease of "hypochondriacalmelan-
choly."The uncomfortablephysical symptomsof the disorder
were instigated by an overabundanceof "black bile" that
accumulatedand became impacted in the lowerabdominal
organs, called the "hypochondries."Beginning with Aris-
totle, generationsof physicians and philosophersperceived
this type of melancholiaas a venerabledisease thatbestowed
upon sufferersan aura of privilege and intellect. The distin-
FALL1993
guished history of the disorderencouragedappropriationof
the symptomsof hypochondriacalmelancholyby the nobility,
whoproceededto championthe enemazealouslyas a cure for
the intestinalgas and constipationcaused by overindulgence
in the "good life."3
By satirizingLouisXIV's extravagantchampionshipof
the enema cure, de Hooghe'sprint alludes to the elevated
connotationsimplied by the procedure. Like the ancient
philosopher-kings,Louis made frequent use of clysters to
alleviatethe excesses of the royaltable, sometimesreceiving
four enemas daily.4 It was during this time that Moliere
producedhis playsMonsieurdePourceaugnacandLeMalade
imaginaire, which lampooned society's craze for the cele-
brated"remedy,"as the clysterwas euphemisticallycalled.5
The enemawas satirized in manyotherwritingsof the time,
amongthem Cervantes'sTheAdventuresof Don Quixotede la
Manchaand ClaudeVilliers'sLApoticairede qualite (1670).
In deferenceto the exalted example of the Frenchking, the
mania for enemas among members of the nobility and the
aspiring upper middle class became so widespreadthat the
seventeenthcenturyis distinguished in the historyof medi-
cine as the "centuryof clysters."6
Early medical treatises describe and picture clyster
syringes designed to fit every bodily orifice, but the most
commonwas the rectal enema, which had a wide variety of
applications.7"Nutrient"enemas were administeredanally
in cases where sustenance could not be taken orally, and
curative medicines were similarly administered. "Vapor"
clysters, which dispensed tobacco smoke, were used until
the mid-nineteenthcenturyto revivethose whohadfaintedor
succumbedto asphyxiation.Thereare also documentedref-
erences to poison administeredin enemas, a practicewhich
LouisXIV of Franceespecially feared. The churcheventook
up clysters, using syringes filled with holy waterto perform
intrauterinebaptisms in cases of the threatenedor imminent
death of unborn infants. Priests also performedexorcisms
with holy-waterclysters designed to drive the devil fromthe
body. Clysterswere employedin the cleansing of both body
and soul, and the termlavement(washing)became a popular
euphemismfor the practice.8
Physicians throughouthistory improvedupon the an-
cient methodof administeringenemasby alteringthe design
of clysterapparatus.Historiansargueaboutwhoinventedthe

FIG. 1 Romeynde Hooghe,LesMonarchestombants(Thefallingmonarchs),after1689, engraving.WellcomeInstituteLibrary,
pistonsyringe, thoughthe ItalianphysicianMarcoGatinaria
(d. 1496) is usually credited with popularizingthe instru-
ment.9Until the sixteenth century,clysters were considered
too "common" forphysicians'use, and wereusually adminis-
teredby lower-castesurgeonsand apothecaries.Apparently,
modestywas a problem,especially amongfemalepatientsfor,
as the physician AmbrosePar6noted, "Thereare manywho
cannotby any reason be persuadedto showtheir buttocksto
him that should administerthe clyster, a foolish shamefast-
ness hinderingthem."'0In response to this complaint, sev-
eral physicians proposed designs for clysters that could be
administeredwithoutthe aid of a second person, the most
successful of which was Regnier de Graafs "self-service"
syringe invented in 1668.n From this point onward, the
clyster became the provinceof the generalpublic, who em-
braced it so completelythat the practice became a fashion
mania.
29
London.
The history of art is replete with worksdepicting the
administeringof enemas. However,the interpretationof these
scenes in a medical context is dependentupon several fac-
tors, one of which is the sex of the recipient. Hypochondria-
cal melancholy was a male disease, associated with the
exalted masculine preserves of genius, sensibility, and so-
cial status. Womenwere not allowed into the Aristotelian
realm of the melancholic, though they did suffer similar
symptoms.Instead, they were labeled "hysteric,"and their
discomfortwas blamed upon the uterus, not the abdominal
organs. Like the word "hypochondria,"the word"hysteria"
was not applied to a psychiatric condition until the late
nineteenthcentury. Derived fromthe Greek ustera(uterus),
hysteriaonce referredto a disorderof the womb.The condi-
tion was thoughtto occur when the uterus became detached
or inflamed and roamed throughoutthe body looking for
fulfillment,heatingand violentlycompressingvital organsin
ART JOURNAL
 conversely, applying foul-smelling substances in cases of
uterineprolapse.In additionto being totallyautonomousand
mobile, the wombwas believed to require sustenance in the
formof "nourishment." The Egyptians ascribed manyof the
symptomssufferedby women-depression, fainting, hallu-
cinations, and pain in variousparts of the body-to "starva-
tion"of the organ. Accordingly, a slightly later Egyptian
treatise recommends"fumigating"the vagina with "dryex-
crementof men," in an effortto gratify the womb'sravenous
appetite. 15
The Egyptian belief in the "wanderingwomb"was
perpetuatedby the ancientGreeksand Romans,whoseworks
30
wererevived in the Renaissance and used as primarymedi-
FIG. 2 Administration
of a Clyster,15th century,wood relief.Mus6e
cal texts in the seventeenthcentury. Cures for the condition
Arch6ologique,
Bruges. AfterL. Maeterlinck, Le Genresatirique... (Paris: were similar to those attemptedby the Egyptians. Hippo-
JeanSchmeitLibraire,
1910),frontispiece.
crates suggested, for example, that the uterus be lured
a "fit"or "paroxysm."Some medical authoritiesdenied uter- downwardto the netherregionsby applyinga liquid potionof
ine mobility,but blamedthe symptomsnonethelessuponthe "perfumeof roses"by means of a protosyringe.The contriv-
uterus, which polluted the female body with putridfumes.12 ance consisted of a prepared animal bladder, its aperture
Female victims suffered physical and psychologicalsymp- firmlysecured arounda hollowreed. The bladderwas filled
toms verysimilar to those enduredby male hypochondriacal with liquid fromabove, and when compressed, it forced the
melancholics. solution throughthe attached pipe into the body.l6 Hippo-
Physicians cited this vagary of female physiology as crates noted, however,that marriagewas the most effective
justificationfor their perceptionof womenas innately frail cure foruterinehysteria,and he recommendedit forall single
and unstable. Though all women were endangered, those women. 17
withoutbenefit of marriage-virgins, nuns, and widows- The knowledgeof the ancientGreeks, cloakedin medi-
were especially proneto illness. Doctorscautioned that the eval Christianguise, survives in the thirteenth-centurygy-
fickle uterus could be exacerbated by certain activities or necological treatises of Trotulaof Salerno,which were pub-
behavior,such as reading too much, workingon mathemati- lished many times in the sixteenth and seventeenth
cal problems,eschewing marriage,or otherwiseengagingin centuries. These texts describe "suffocationof the womb,"
"unfeminine"conduct. Womenwere instructed that avoid- and recommendtraditional cures and therapies. Echoing
ance of matrimonyand the pursuit of traditional "male" Galen, Trotulanoted that "especially does this happen to
intellectual activities were against nature and contraryto those who haveno husbands, widowsin particularand those
theirbest interests. Thus, the subservienceof womento men who previouslyhave been accustomedto make use of carnal
in marriageand the general lack of supportfor intellectual intercourse."18Like Hippocrates, Trotula recommended
accomplishmentamongwomenwerechampionedby science, driving a prolapsed womb upward by means of a vaginal
echoed in the dictates of society, and ultimatelyreflected syringe, or embotum,containing repellentsubstances. The
in art.13 text also advocates sexual intercourse (within the lawful
The concept of the "wanderingwomb"is as old as bounds of matrimony)as a cure for uterine suffocation.19
medicine itself, and persisted until the eighteenth century. By the seventeenthcentury,uterinehysteriahad come
In fact, the earliest extant medical treatise on any topic, an to be defined as a disease commonto all of the female sex,
Egyptian papyrus dated about 1900 B.C., describes the and women'scomplaints were universally blamed on the
syndrome.14It recommendscures consisting of attemptsto womb.It became fashionableto link the afflicteduteruswith
lure the uterus back into the abdomenas if it were a living, unsatisfied "love,"and to perceive celibate womenas more
independentorganism.This was accomplishedby fumigating threatenedthanothers.Clysterswerea specified treatmentin
the lower body with sweet-smelling vapors to attract the such cases. When used as purges, they voided corrupthu-
wombback to its properplace if it had wanderedupwardor, mors and irrigated the inner body.20 Applied vaginally to

FALL 1993
 ,

31

Zi,
I,,/ n' .
./iet#t/mfi,d
*' r./te're sa,rbr t.' Aat,r
l4nt 3 t 'm,:k
,t ktstt /t
mt;s A M-
rr 4 mM' / A X**^ Wd he6tA
7 h k(t -
.?r, tt
W
.. h...._sSf e
k/A'r ks tJ JV
fc/+i" ( fAvr
Un t te m ton
yf rewut Jk XmvtAi v i.v p- t'

FIG. Washington,D.C.
3 ComelisDankertzafterAbrahamBosse, Womanaboutto Receivea Clyster,ca. 1660, engraving.FolgerShakespeareLibrary,

cool and moisten the heated womb, clysters contained "re- apothecaryusing a "modern"Gatinariapiston syringe ap-
frigerative"herbssuch as endive, plantain, orpoppy.21 Clys- pears on a fifteenth-centurycarved wooden plaque in the
ters designed as uterine lures were often made of sweet- MuseeArcheologiqueof Bruges(fg. 2).24 The plaque,which
smelling rose wateror oil of violet.22 Physicians suggested possibly served as an apothecary'ssign, depicts a scene
that clysters be administeredfrequently-at least daily- laden with quasicomical, erotic overtones. The suffering
and continueforseveralweeks or months.23In all cases, the woman, constrained by modesty, allows the clyster to be
treatmentwas designed to relieve the symptomseither indi- administeredvia an open windowthroughwhich she displays
rectly, by ridding the body of putrefyingwaste, or directly, herbuttockswhile a physiciandirects the procedureand two
by cooling and enticing the uterus. femalefriends look on.
Clearly,then, enema apparatus was associated with the Erotic clyster scenes entered the realm of popularart
female generative system from the earliest times, which in the seventeenthcentury.AbrahamBosse's illustrationof a
accounts for the unmistakableelement of eroticismthat ac- clyster about to be administered shows a pale, suffering
companiesthe excrementalassociationsof enemas in clyster womanlying weakly in bed (fig. 3). She lookswide-eyedand
scenes. It follows that paintings and caricatures depicting expectantly at a dashing young barber-surgeon who ap-
clysters favorwomenas the recipients, since the likelihood proachesher holding a large clyster suggestively positioned
that their medicationwould be administeredanally or vag- at a salacious angle. The sick girl's mother coaxes him
inally was too suggestive a possibility to be ignored. Such onward,and a young maid follows, carrying the commode
depictionsthereforesuggest two standard"cures"foruterine that the patientwill need upon successful completionof the
disorders-clysters and, by innuendo,sexual intercourse- procedure.The verses that accompanythe print identifythe
conflated in a single image. One of the earliest anal-erotic patientas a "bride"and referto the "mysteriousmalady"from
portrayalsof a clyster being administeredto a womanby an whichshe suffers, and to herdesire to be rid of it by meansof

ART JOURNAL
 effectivenessof clysters, and also suggest illness broughton
by chastity as a primarycause of women'scomplaints. One
such picture (fig. 4) showsa bedriddenmaidenwhose physi-
cian is writinga prescriptionwhile a small boy holdsa clyster
syringe at the ready. The cavortingcupid perchedabovethe
doorwayand the paintingon the wall, which illustrateslovers
embracing in a bucolic setting, suggest that the cause of
the girl's malady is probably prolonged virginity. The
seventeenth-century Dutch medical establishment was
greatly concernedwith the illness of uterine hysteria, espe-
cially at Leiden University, which pioneered many gyne-
32 I cological advances.27In fact, therewere thirty-twodisserta-
tions writtenon the subject by Leiden M.D.'sbetween 1650
and 1700.28 The numberof physicians who made a medical
specialty of women'sillnesses was probablymuchlarger,as
degree candidateswere often allowedto substitutea written
FIG. 4 JanSteen, TheDoctor'sVisit,ca. 1660, oil on wood. MuseumBoymans examinationfor the dissertationrequirement.29
van-Beuningen,
Rotterdam. By the eighteenthcentury,physiciansrealized thatthe

the barber's"cure."In the seventeenth-centurymedical con-

text, the scene is easily read as a double allusion to both
clystersand sexual intercourseas antidotesto uterinefuries.
The Bosse print, however,has sufferedfrominterpretations
that owe more to modernassumptionsthan to seventeenth-
centuryreality. It has been suggested, forexample, that the
barberholding the clyster is about to performan abortion,
thoughthere is nothingabout his costume or demeanorthat
supports this conclusion.25 The supposition that the sick
womanis about to be relieved of an unwantedpregnancyis
refutedby knowledgeof the properuse of clysters in women's
illnesses and furthermoreby the secondary images that
Bosse includes in the backgroundof his scene. In the right
uppercornerof the print, the wall of the bedroomis hungwith
a tapestry illustrating a wounded stag hunted by men on
horseback, an image which contemporaryemblem books
associated with unfulfilled desire.26 This picture-within-
a-picture suggests that the mysterious, unnamed malady
fromwhich the bedriddenwomansuffers is not pregnancy,
but celibacy. The implication is furtherreinforced by the
wordsof the young man holdingthe syringe, who reassures
the ailing womanthat she will be "refreshed"by his remedy, .
forshe is "onfire,"and his instrumentis designedto enterher . .. .
gently.
Likewise, the syringes held at the same lewd angle by ': . .
grinning crones and mischievous little boys in the paintings FIG. 5 Fran;oisAliamet
afterJourat,LeRemade(Theremedy),18thcentury,
engraving.AfterEduardFuchs,Die Frauin der Karikatur
(Munich:Albert
of the LeidenartistJan Steen illustratethe practicalmedical Lange,1928) 85.

FALL1993
 betterto heed the lessons of hermotherand marry.The erotic
implicationof the scene is furthersupportedby the wordmnre
mb(mother), which was universal commonslang for the uterus.
The moral is similar to that suggested by the Steen
painting-that marriageis the best medicine.
Manyeighteenth-centuryclyster caricaturescombine
social and medical commentary,especially wherewomenare
concerned.An engraving by Dicueltentitled
Le4grenent aux
dames(fig. 6) showsa listless womanlying in bed preparing
to receive a clyster from a well-dressed young man. The
accompanying legend advises that a lavement, called an
amusement"in polite terms, shouldbe takenbefore attend- 33
ing a ball or play. A caricature by MatthewDarly entitled
Mon.rle Mdicin (fig. 7) showsa doctordressed as a foppish
macaronicarryinga Chinese umbrellatuckedunderhis arm
and taking a pinch of snuff from a large container. In his
pocketis a small clyster syringe labeled UnneLavementpour

FIG. 6 Dicuelt,L'Agrementaux dames(Theladies'amusementh18th

engraving.WellcomeI
century, nstitute L ondon.
Library,

wombwas not capable of spontaneousmovement,but was a

stationeryabdominalorgan bound to the body by muscles,
bloodvessels, and skeletalstructure.30 Thoughousted as the
primevillain in hysteria,however,the uterusremainedguilty
by association. According to iatrochemicaltheory, which
viewed bodily functionsin chemical terms, vaporsoriginat-
ing from "fermented"menses could affect the nerves and
circulatory system in much the same way as compacted
excrementaffected hypochondriacalmen. Thus, beginning
in the late seventeenthcentury, both men and womenwere
said to suffer attacks of "vapors"or "nerves."A different
explanationwas offeredby Cartesianism, which viewed the
humanbody as a vastlycomplicatedhydrauliccomplex,with
the abdominal region acting as an intricate sewer system.
Everybodily functionwas understoodin mechanical terms,
and blockageof the uterinevessels or the hypochondrieswas
treated in much the same way as a clog in a plumbingpipe.
Both schools of thought held to the ancient belief that the
delicate balance of the femaleconstitutioncould be upset by
sexual abstinence, as an engraving after a work by Jourat
suggests (fig. 5). Here, a youngwomanpreparesto receive a
lavement fromher chambermaid,who admonishesher in the
accompanyingverse, saying that all the palliatives in the
worldcan never calm the girl's intermal fires. She would do WellcomeInstituteLibrary,
London.

ART JOURNAL
34

FIG. 8 Pierre-Laurent
AuvrayafterJean-Honor6Fragonard,
LesJets d'eau(Thejets of water)late 18thcentury,engraving. elilcomeInstituteLibrary,
London.

MademoiselleMimi. Doubtless he intends to administerthe

remedy accordingto the directions given by a seventeenth-
century physician: "Youmust bring up the instrumentwith
the left handand, withoutunduehaste oreagerness, lowerthe
pressure pump amoroso."31The cooling effect of clysters
upon internalfemale fires is satirized in yet anothercarica-
ture, LesJetsd'eau by Pierre-LaurentAuvrayafterFragonard
(fg. 8). The image depicts three voluptuousnude womenin
bed being drenched with cooling lavementsfrom syringes
placed beneath the floorboards. The legend explains that
when modest young beauties put a curtain before "this
charminginvention,"the fire in their eyes mustbe quenched
by "other"jets of water.This caricaturerecalls the fact that,
priorto the seventeenthcentury, syringes were also used as iWe..v.
/-'.
"///
w/" / // /w/Ao, . '''W't
/v / if W/ fytw.n
yf
fire-extinguishingapparatus.32Anothereighteenth-century ,t;"
-v ;0 I -
satirical print, Duo de seringues a baton mwcaniqueentre
deux epouxdu marai[s]lampoons the erotic connotationsof FIG. 9 Attributedto G. de Cari,Duo de seringuesAbatonm6caniqueentre
the clyster (fg. 9). The etching depicts a marriedcouple on deuxepouxdu marails](Duetof syringeswith mechanicalbatonsbetween
two spouses of the Marais)18th century,etching.WellcomeInstituteLibrary,
either side of a large double bed, each operatinga type of London.

1993
FALL
self-service clyster which appeared in the eighteenth cen-
tury, consisting of a chairlike platform with the piston
mountedat the front. Tojudge from the rapturouslooks on
theirfaces, the twoare enjoyinga mutualpleasuresimilarto,
or perhapssubstitutingfor,thatsuggested by theirprominent
marriagebed.
The clysters pictured so often in the art and caricature
of the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries thereforesignify
more than just a fashionable hygienic procedure. When
shownwith men, enemas allude, sometimessarcastically,to
wit, refinement,and social standingas the salutaryqualities
associated with the disease of hypochondriacalmelancholy.
However,female clyster scenes tend to personify womenin
termsof their "peculiar"physiologyas frail and debilitated.
The belief that womencould become ill as a result of pursu-
ing an education, delaying marriage, or engaging in other
"unfeminine"activities was especially prevalentduring the
seventeenthand eighteenth centuries, when the dictates of
society tended to sponsor a passive, homeboundimage of
womanhood.33 The commonlyheldpre-Enlightenmentnotion
thatthe uteruswas to blameforall women'sillnesses therefore
places femaleclyster scenes withina long-standingmedical,
moral, and masturbatorytradition. By presenting clysters
and, by insinuation, sexual intercourseas cures for uterine
disorders,artistsreinforcedthe largeraims of society, imply-
ing that marriage,with all its connotationsof female subser-
vience, was woman'sbest remedy. The scatological-erotic
metaphorinherentin female enema scenes derives its mean-
ing as muchfromprevalentviews of properfemalebehavioras
fromthe "penetrating"nature of the enema itself.
Notes
1. Forillustrationsof clyster pictures by Lawrence,Beaudouin,Schall, Watteau,and
others, see esp. Augustin Cabanes and GeorgWitkowski,JoyeuxProposd'Esculape
(Paris:E. Le Francois, 1923); and DonaldPosner,"Watteau's Reclining Nude and the
'Remedy'Theme,"Art Bulletin 54 (1972): 383-89.
2. The words"clyster"and "enema"come fromthe Greekwordsmeaningto "washout"
and to "throwin." The proceduredates fromthe time of the ancient Egyptians. Forthe
medical history of the clyster, see Julius Friedenwaldand Samuel Morrison,"The
Historyof the Enemawith Some Notes on Related Procedures,"Bulletin of the History
of Medicine 8 (1940): 68-114, 239-76; William Lieberman, "The Enema," The
Revueof Gastroenterology13 (1946): 215-29; Piero Lorenzoni, La guiliva siringa
(Storia universaledel clistere) (Milan: Edizioni del Borghese, 1969); J. E Montague,
"Historyand Appraisalof the Enema,"MedicalRecord139 (1934): 91-93, 243-47,
297-99, 458-60; A. Rabino, "Paraboladi un prezioso alleato della vecchia medi-
cina," MinervaMedica 63 (1972): 459-66; and H. C. Winchester,All aboutEnemas
(Washington,D.C., 1966).
3. Aristotle, Problem30, 1, quotedin RaymondKlibansky,ErwinPanofsky,and Fritz
Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy:Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy,Religion,
and Art (New York:Basic Books, 1964), 18-29. Fora recent scholarlysurvey of the
origins of hypochondriain the worksof Aristotle and the evolutionof the conditionas a
disease of social and intellectual privilege in the Renaissance and beyond, see
Stanley W. Jackson, Melancholiaand Depressionfrom HippocraticTimes to Modern
Times(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1986).
4. The clyster had been favoredby previousFrenchkings, amongthem Louis XI, who
was so convinced of its efficacy that he treated his pet dogs with a miniaturecopper
syringe. Louis XIII also possessed a large and beautiful collection of clyster appa-
ratus. See Friedenwaldand Morrison,"The History of the Enema," 96-99.
5. Jean-Baptiste Moliere, Monsieurde Pourceaugnac (1668-69), in The Plays of
Molierein Frenchand English, ed. and trans. Alfred Rayney Waller,6 (Edinburgh:
J. Grant, 1926), act 1, sc. 2, 289; act 2, sc. 4, 299; and idem, LeMalade imaginaire
(1673), ibid., act 1, sc. 1, 183.
6. Lieberman, "The Enema," 224.
7. For photographsof existing clyster apparatus, see Paul Bidault and Jean Lepart,
Etains nmdicauxetpharmaceutiques(Paris: Editions Charles Massin, n.d.), 67-86.
8. Rabino, "Paraboladi un prezioso alleato," 460-61.
9. Friedenwaldand Morrison,"The History of the Enema," 81-82.
10. Ambrose Par6, Works,trans. ThomasJohnson(London,1634), 1053.
11. See William Brockbank and 0. R. Corbett, "De Graafs 'Tractatusde Clys-
teribus,'" Journal of Medicineand Allied Sciences 9 (1954): 174-90.
12. The noun "hysteria"is probablya nineteenth-centuryinvention,though "hyster-
ica," an adjective meaning "ofthe womb,"occurs in manyearlier treatises. Textsalso
referto the conditionasfuror uterinus,chlorosis,suffocationeuterina, morbovirgineo,
"vapors,"and the like. Fora historyof the uterine origins of hysteria, see Ilza Veith,
Hysteria:The Historyof a Disease (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1965); and
Glafira Abricossoff, L'Hysterieaux XVIIeet XVIIe siecles (Paris: Steinheil, 1897).
13. An examinationof depictionsin artof the "wanderingwomb"syndromeis the topic
of the author'sbook in progress.
14. Veith, Hysteria, 3-7.
15. See ThePapyrusEbers:The GreatestEgyptian MedicalDocument,trans. Bendix
Ebell (Copenhagen:Levin & Munksgaard,1937).
16. Hippocrates, Des Maladies desfemmes, vol. 8 of Oeuvrescompletesd'Hippocrate,
trans. and ed. Emile Littre(Paris:J.-B. Bailliere, 1851), book 1, par. 7, 32; book 101,
pars. 123-27.
17. Ibid., book 1, par. 7, 73-75.
18. Trotulaof Salerno,PassionibusMulierumCurandorum(The Diseases of Women),
trans. Elizabeth Mason-Hol(Los Angeles: WardRitchie Press, 1940), 2.
19. MedievalWoman's Guideto Health:An English TrotulaManuscript(Sloane 2463),
ed. Beryl Rowland(Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1981), 103.
20. See Richard Blackmore,A Treatiseof the Spleenand Vapours,or Hypocondriacal
and HystericalAffections(London,1725), 126; Timothie Bright, A Treatiseof Melan-
cholie(London,1586), 277; Jacques Ferrand,Erotomania,ora TreatiseDiscoursingof 35
the Essence, Causes, Symptoms,Prognosticsand Cureof Loveor ErotiqueMelancholy
(Oxford,1640), 264; and Francois Mauriceau, TheDiseases of Womenwith Child in
Child Bed (London,1710), 60.
21. Jean Astruc, A Treatiseon the Diseases of Women(London, 1762); Ferrand,
Erotomania, 264; and John Purcell, A Treatiseof the Vapours,or HysterickFits
(London,1707), 190.
22. Blackmore, A Treatiseof the Spleen, 127; Ferrand,Erotomania, 264; and S.
Harward,Phlebotomy(London,1602; reprint, New York:Da Capo Press, 1972), 20.
23. Bright, A TreatiseofMelancolie, 176; and ThomasSydenham, "Ofthe Epidemick
Diseases from the Year 1675 to the Year 1680," in The Whole Worksof Thomas
Sydenham(London, 1729), 327.
24. Illustrated and discussed in L. Maeterlinck, Le Genresatiriquefantastique et
licencieuxdans la sculptureflamande et wallonne:Les Mis6ricordesde stalles (Paris:
Jean Schmeit Libraire, 1910), 120-23.
25. Simon Schama, "Wives and Wantons:Versionsof Womanhoodin 17th-Century
Dutch Art," OxfordArt Journal 3 (1980): 5-13.
26. See similar emblem images associating the woundedstag with painful love and
unfulfilled passion in Gilles Corrozet, Hecaton-Graphi (Paris, 1543); Gabriel
Rolenhagen, SelectorumEmblematum(Arnhem, 1613); and Daniel Heinsius, Het
Ambachtvan Cupido(Leiden, 1615).
27. The beginning of the Dutch fascinationwith hysteriahas been linked to a treatise
by Johannes Lange, Medicinalium EpistolariumMiscellanea Variaet Rara (1554),
directed at mothersof younggirls in Brabant,and cited by Emil Schwarz,Chlorosis-
A RetrospectiveInvestigation(Brussels: Acta Medica Belgica, Supplementum,1951).
28. Morethan a hundred doctoral dissertations were writtenon gynecological sub-
jects in the seventeenth century, the majorityoriginating from Dutch universities.
29. See Maurice Raynaud, Les Medecinsau tempsde Moliere(Paris: Didier, 1863).
30. Someof the moreimportanttreatises that express this opinionare: Jan Swammer-
dam, MiraculuumNaturae(Leiden, 1672); Gerardvan Swieten, Maladies desfemmes
et des enfans(Paris, 1769); and ThomasWillis, Dr. Willis'sPracticeofPhysick, trans.
S. Pordage(London, 1684). See E. Frey, "Early Eighteenth-CenturyFrench Medi-
cine: Setting the Stage for Revolution," Clio Medica 17 (1982): 1-13; and Veith,
Hysteria, 146-56.
31. Winchester,All about Enemas, 1, quoting Bardanus.
32. Friedenwaldand Morrison,"The History of the Enema," 113.
33. See, for example, Carol Duncan, "Happy Mothersand Other New Ideas in
Eighteenth-CenturyFrench Art," Art Bulletin 55 (1973): 570-83; WayneFranits,
Paragons of Virtue:Womenand Domesticityin Seventeenth-Century DutchArt (Cam-
bridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1993); E. de Jongh,Portrettenvan echten trouw,
huwelijken gezin in de Nederlandskunst van de zeventiendeeeuw, exh. cat. (Zwolle/
Haarlem: Waanders, 1986); Simon Schama, Embarrassmentof Riches (New York:
Knopf,1987), 375-480; and Ella Snoep-Reitsma,"Chardinand the BourgeoisIdeals
of His Time," NederlandsKunsthistorischJaarboek 24 (1973): 147-243.
LAURINDA S. DIXON teaches in the Fine Arts Department
at Syracuse University.Since her book on Bosch and alchemy,
she has continued to explorethe relationshipbetween art and
science.
ART JOURNAL
 In Deep Shit
TheCodedImagesof Traviesin the JulyMonarchy
GabrielP Weisberg
rom the opening days of the July Monarchy,the re-
gime of Louis-Philippewas foundto be deeply offen-
sive both to the lowerclasses and to those who were
outragedby his assumptionof royalpowerwithoutlegitimacy
or concern for the rights of others.' Severalidealistic print-
makersexpressed their outragein a very specific way:they
concentratedon readily accessible emblems that contained
coded referencesto the corruptand often petty natureof the
36 king and government appointees. They depicted Louis-
Philippe as a poire (pear)-a slang expressionfora simple-
ton-often amusingly placed atop public monumentsor in
crucial public squares as a sign that his presence was both
felt and self-perpetuating.2Despite the layered meanings
associated with the poire as a representation of Louis-
Philippe, artists in the circle of Philipon, the primaryadvo-
cate of scathing caricature, were determinedto create other
icons thatnotonly containedpopulistovertonesbut werealso
connected with the most mundaneof daily bodily functions.
Focus on the anal and oral, the secretion of fecal
matter, the stagnationof waste material, and the eventual
disposal of excrementbecame the thematiccontentof biting
printsin Philipon'sjournal, La Caricature.While Daumier's
Gargantua (fig. 1) remains the best known of this type of
scatological image, others by Charles-Joseph Travies,
Daumier'slittle studied and exceedingly liberal colleague,
deserve critical attention.3His prints enlarge the nature of
scatologicalinferences by suggesting that such workscould
be understoodby the broadestpublic. They also imply that
the July Monarchywas mired in "deep shit," with policies
that did not take into account the needs of the populace.
Interpretingsome of these images shows the complexityof
such scatological references, many of which relate to the
actual ways in which excrementwas collected, as a means of
creatingvisual puns that subtly criticized class and the role
of the king in society.
Within the Philipon circle, defecation and the site
whereit occurredcame to underscorethe rapaciousappetites
of the king, his ability to unload his waste, and his use of the
throne,in popularslang, as a toilet. The existence of extrava-
ganttoilet seats in the homesof the wealthywouldhave been
a source of inspirationto Daumierin his concentrationon the
act of seated defecation. Because it sullied the king, Gar-
gantua led to Daumier'simprisonment,4but the image also
FALL
1993
FIG. 1 Honor6Daumier,Gargantua,
1831, lithograph.BenjaminA. and Julia
M. Trustman
Collection,BrandeisUniversityLibraries.
markedsomethingmoresignificant:the full utilizationof an
intense range of scatologicalreferencesand associationsthat
emergedthroughartists in the Philipon circle and the cre-
ationof images that containedseverallevels of coded mean-
ing. Printsby Travieswill be exploredfromseveralangles to
reveal how this artist employedslang expression and con-
structedimages based on methodsused to collect excrement
in Paris. In this way,Travies'sprintswill be seen as attempts
to destabilize the regime of Louis-Philippe.
Daumier'simprisonmentfor creating an offensiveim-
age, combined with the attemptedcensorshipof the liberal
press, led Travies to create a caustic visual denunciationof
Louis-Philippeas a Pot de melasse,or"Crockof Shit"(fig. 2).
The gigantic container at the center of this print, with its
beribbonedfront carryingthe wordMELASSE, has been sur-
mountedby a pear-this one with a face-thus implying
that the crock was actually a personificationof the king and
that the ruler was a representationof the July Monarchy.
Since mnlassecan referto a personwho is in severedifficulty,
much like the slang expressions "in the soup" or "in deep
shit," the ribbon furtheralludes to the problemsof the re-
gime. The pear and the pot are also surroundedby a cross-
section of society, but they remainprotectedby a cordonof
nervously saluting soldiers who recognize their leader.
Amusingly,the roundvat, bedecked with a celebratoryrib-
bon, has in turn become the body of the king, with the pear
representinghis head and the wicker chair serving as legs
that cleverly have feet and shoes. In this visualization,
Traviessuggests thatLouis-Philippe(andby implication,his
support of the policy of the juste milieu) was in the soup.
Since the king could expect little respect (or support)from
the poor, his melasse was seen as the generalstate of misery
fromwhich they could not extricatethemselvesand to which
they respondedby deriding and ridiculing those in power.5
Hence, the gesture of the figure to the right of the vat, in
derisive imitationof a military salute, actually emphasizes
disdain and mockery.Toheightenthe insulting natureof the
image, the street beggar's salute amountsto a statementof
personalrevolt.
On another scatological level, the use of the word
melasse sharpenedthe excrementalmeaning of the image,
pointing out that the king was a "crock of shit" that was
beginning to stink in public. The use of a visual representa-
tion of a slang expression and the assurance that such an
image would be generally understoodby a wide audience
37
signify that the print contains a coded reference to other
scatologicalmeanings that were linked to class awareness.6
Otherreferences to excrementare also associated with the
historyof waste collection and disposal.
Throughoutthe eighteenth century, Paris remaineda
city reeking with excrement. Human waste was found in
everyconceivablelocation.7 The Seine was fouledwithit, the FIG. 3 Tinette(soil tub) In GrandDictionnaire
interiorof the Louvrewas knee-deep in it, and the streets encyclopddique Larousse(Paris,1982L

gave off an overpoweringodor.At the beginning of the nine-

teenth century, concern grew that Paris should be cleaned
up. Peoplewere awarethat such poorhygieneled to disease,
plague, and ultimately death. City inhabitantswere urged
and, in time, forcedto collect their waste. Police wereput in
charge of seeing that it was properlycollected and that raw
sewage was dumped in set locations aroundParis.8 Water
closets came intouse in the early 1800s, but at the time of the
July Monarchy,soiled waters and solid waste were still not
Travies,Potde m6lasse(Crockof Shit),1832,
FIG. 2 Charles-Joseph
lithograph.MuseeCamavalet,Paris.
carried through a unified sewer system to a centralized
collection center, despite growingawarenessof healthy hy-
gienic practices and increasing pressure to assure proper
wastedisposal. Governmentlaws enforcingthe installationof
waterclosets connected to cesspools that were attached to
individualbuildings did not become part of Frenchlaw until
the SecondEmpire. Eventhen, noteveryresidencewas fitted
with a toilet. Cases of serious illness caused by stagnating
and festeringpools of waste continuedto be reported.At the
lowestend of the social spectrum, amongthe miserablepoor,
people were still subject to unhealthyconditions.
Duringthis period, however,attentionwas increasingly
focused on the ways these private cesspools were emptied
and on the presence and use of portabletinettes,or soil tubs
(fig. 3), receptacles fortransportingfecal matterfromprivate
dwellings to a central collection point. This process was
usually conductedby a team of workerscalled vidangeurs,
cesspool cleaners, or night-soil transporters.9Liquids were
poured into the funnel at the top of the metal tinette, which
was fitted with handles to alloweasy portability.Oncefilled,
the tinette was emptied into a larger container pulled by
horses, and the waste matterwas transportedto dumpsites on
the city'soutskirts.While it has notbeen determinedwhether
tinetteswereused to emptycesspools in individualbuildings
orwhethereach residentbroughthis ownwaste to the vidan-

ART JOURNAL

ltl .a iili e w
38
FI . 4 Charles-Joseph Travies,LeJusteMilieuse crotte(Thejuste milieu
dirtiesitself),1832, lithograph.Mus6eCarnavalet,Paris.
geur for disposal, the daily-or more precisely, nightly-
appearance of the waste collectors in the streets of Paris
made the practice a familiar urban icon and an image ripe
with political and social associations. Indeed, the tinette
developeda long traditionin urban areas, especially in the
poorerdistricts before sewer systems were installed, where
owning a private water closet remained a dream to most
people.
Traviesincorporatedthe image of the tinette into his
scatological references. The "crock of shit" had become a
fixture of daily life, and many parallels could be made
betweenit andthose in power,in this case the king of France.
The inclusion of the tinettenot only focused attentionon the
stagnating policies of the regime but also indicated that
artists, who were quick to express the feelings of the popu-
lace, placed little value on Louis-Philippe'srole. At the same
time, Travies'sability to link his constructed image with
popularhistoryand scatologicalreferencesreinforcedone of
the primarystrengths of caricature: it shaped opinion and
enflamedpassions throughthe image itself.
By the middle of July 1832, Travieshad prepareda
second image for La Caricature,this one entitled Le Juste
Milieu se crotte (The juste milieu dirties itself), which en-
larged on scatologicalreferencesdrawnfromthe collecting,
transporting,and disposing of waste (fig. 4). In this litho-
graph, two vidangeurscarrying fecal matterare dressed in
the costumes of Harlequin and Pierrot. Their tinette, how-
ever, is actually an oversizedpear with the featuresof Louis-
FALL1993
Philippe. The way in which they transporttheir burdenon a
pole, as if it were so muchdead weight, and the fact thatthey
are ankle-deep in what appears to be the effluent from an
open sewerare a sufficientcommentboth on the king and his
policies and on the ministers appointedto carry themout. ?
What is also amusing about this print are the small suppor-
tive feet at the tinette'sbase, which suggest thatthe container
could easily be placed on the groundwhen the vidangeurs
entered a building to add more waste to an already heavy
receptacle.
Since the job of the vidangeurs,or as they were known
in England, the nightmen,was to empty cesspools andwaste
receptacles stealthily while others slept, they often went
unseen and unnoticed by those living in the cities.11 In
England during the 1830s, nightmen emptied the cesspit,
which might be located within the house below the living-
roomfloor.They did this by carryingbuckets of waste, often
directly through the house, to a wagon waiting outside.12
They slung the soil tub on a long pole or rod so that the load
could be moreeasily conveyedacross their shoulders,much
as Traviesshows his figures transportingthe large pear. In
both England and France, it was recognized that nightmen
were performinga vital function necessary for the health of
the householdand the well-being of the neighborhood.One
HenryHastings of Southwarkeven preparedan eleganttrade
card to advertisethat he "Decentlyperformswhat He under-
takes being always at the workhimself. Empties Vaults &
Cesspools, unstops Tunnels & Cleans Drains, at the very
LowestPrices"(fig. 5).
As the networkof sewersand cesspools grew in urban
areas, therewas considerablymoreworkforthese nightmen.
Theirnumbersincreased, and they became professionals,as
Mr. Hastings's advertisementsuggests. His card actually
showstwo"polemen" carryinga receptacleto a waitinghorse-
drawncart, therebyrecordingthe methodused to transport
waste once it left the house. The relationshipof this vignette
to Travies'sprint, even though the reference comes from
England, is quite telling. A similar system of waste removal
was evidentlyin place on both sides of the Channel.
On anotherlevel, the reference to transportingfecal
matterpoints up the fact that othergroups, particularlythe
egoutiers, were involved in the slightly larger project of
cleaning the entire Parisian sewer system.l3 Recorded in
volumes published during the July Monarchy,these sewer
cleanerswere part of a professionalforce that was spreading
throughoutthe city. At that time, eighty-fourmen were di-
vided into teams of fourteenor fifteen members.Their uni-
forms,furnishedby the city administration,werea shortblue
blouse and thigh-high fisherman'sboots. They were also
equipped with very long poles resembling paddles, as evi-
denced in an image from 1842 (fig. 6), with which they
scraped the sides of the sewers. What is most significant is
thatthese workersworean official uniformthat was recogni-
zable to all in Paris. While vidangeursalso woresome sortof
 The presence of the sad clown Pierrotat the left could
have been seen as a token of endurance in the face of
adversity.17 "Pierrot"was also an epithet, a term of active
insult frequentlyemployedby workersto starta fight. Calling
someonea Pierrotwas to insult his intelligence, to question
his strength, and to infer that ultimately he was not very
articulate. Thus, when linked with street slang, the use of
both these commontheatricalfigures adds a popularinter-
pretationto the image and revealsthatthe July Monarchywas
unmindfulof those living in misery.
Beyond this level of interpretation,the more estab-
lished evaluationsof Pierrotneed to be investigated. During
the nineteenthcentury,Pierrothad numerousguises andjobs
that derived from literary, theatrical, and artistic sources.
Essentially, he remainedthe embodimentof the sad clown, a
fool who was supposed to be a representationof the people
amongthe people.'8 In this incarnation,the figure was seen
as vacillating, or at least notmaintaininga strongposition(a
point underscoredby street slang), in muchthe way that the
governmentwas then operating. 39
Whateverthe ultimateinterpretationof Travies'suse of
these two well-knowncharacters,the fact remainsthat Pier-
rotwas presentedto embodythe lowerclass. He was a figure
that the masses understood,a pitiful clown who could spark
humorina crowd. Couldit be that Pierrotwas intendedhere
from
5 Nightmanand Poleman,HenryHastings'stradecard.Reproduced
FIC. to generate laughter?If so, then he and his cohortHarlequin
LawrenceMight,Cleanand Decent:TheHistoryof the Bathand Loo
(London,1960)

uniform, Traviesdid not dress the two figures in his litho-

graph realistically. Rather, he seized on the incongruous
concept of a uniformper se as one that related to the city's
long historyof vaudevilleperformances.His use of costumes
wornby Harlequin and Pierrot, however,requires explana-
tion within the scatologicalreferencesof this image.'4
While it may seem incongruousthat the heavy "poire-
tinette"should be carried by two charactersfrom the com-
media dell'arte, the garmentsare noteworthy.First, they can
be approachedon the level of street argot. In slang, the
harlequin at the right could be a referenceto the dishes of
leftoverspreparedforthe poorestfromthe tables of the rich.'5
Such dishes offered a wide variety of foods, from meat to
dessert, since they were composed of remnants commonly
sold to the poor by those who worked in the kitchens of
restaurants. This food can also be categorized as waste,
which succinctly parallelsthe main theme of the print-the ;
disposal and nowdispersal of waste. The fact that Harlequin
is shownas one of the vidangeursfurtherlinks the scatologi-
cal implicationto the derivationof a popularterm. It encap-
sulates in visual formwhat the poorcould expect to receive
as nourishmentor supportfromthe July Monarchy.Indeed,
Harlequin'svery costume can be seen to have been created
out of need. Originally made of numerouspieces of multi-
material, much like a primitivequilt, it forges an-
coloredcolored 1842, lithograph.In E.de la Bedolliere,Les
FIG. 6 Montigneul,L'Egoutier,
other link with the lowerlevels of society.16 Industriels(Paris,
1842)

ART JOURNAL
 point up the comic ludicrousnessof having to transportthe
shit producedby the July Monarchyand, by implication,the
king himself to a convenientwaste site. This then could be
one specific way in which Travies was playing to a wide
audience-by aiminghis message at the level of a carnivalor
burlesque, wherethe essence of grotesquerealism was deg-
radationand the muck into which the entire July Monarchy
had fallen.
With this we return to the legend at the base of the
lithograph-Le juste milieu se crotte-and to the realization
thatTravieshad once again created a multileveledimage in
which the July Monarchyis depicted as a massive comedy,a
farcethatinvolvedplayersof all types. Here, the scatological
became one way by which Travies could both agitate the
regime in power and persuade the audience to look more
closely at the print. By having his waste collectors walk
throughan open sewerand actually stand in excrement,the
artist demonstratedthat the July Monarchywas in deep
40
trouble.
Behind Harlequinand Pierrotis a small street urchin
whoruns afterthe pair, ostensiblyshouting.This child is not
insignificant. He sums up muchof whatis containedin both
of the scatologicalimages thathavebeen examinedhere. His
embodimentof a street cry reiteratesthe need to call atten-
tion to the king as being nothing more than fecal matter.
Thus, throughan elaborateand often unconventionaluse of
familiar symbols, Traviiesimbued scatological references
with a pointed political importanceappropriatefor the early
days of the July Monarchy.No one could miss the social
implicationsinherent in this type of popular image, espe-
cially when they had such strong comedic and burlesque
overtones.
Notes
1. Fora discussion of the attitudesof Louis-Philippeand his impacton the visual arts,
see The Art of the July Monarchy:France, 1830 to 1848, exh. cat. (Columbia:
Universityof Missouri Press, 1990), esp. Gabriel P. Weisberg, "The Coded Image:
Agitationin Aspects of Political and Social Caricature,"148-91. General attitudes
towardcensorship are discussed in RobertJustin Goldstein, Censorshipof Political
Caricaturein Nineteenth-CenturyFrance (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press,
1989).
2. Forthe prevalenceand interpretationof the pear as an emblem, see Elise Kenney
and JohnMerriman,The Pear: FrenchGraphicArts in the GoldenAge of Caricature,
exh. cat. (SouthHadley, Mass.: MountHolyokeCollege Art Museum, 1991). See also
Sandy Petry, "Pearsin History,"Representations35 (Summer1991): 52-71.
3. Forfurtherreference to Gargantua and its significance in the graphic arts of the
July Monarchy,see Elizabeth C. Childs, "BigTrouble,Daumier,Gargantua, and the
Censorshipof Political Caricature,"Art Journal 51 (Spring 1992): 26-37. For an
initial examinationof the role of Travies, see Weisberg, "TheCoded Image."Travies
has received little attentionin art-historyliterature.The majorityof his early charcoal
drawings, which are closely linked with the emergence of a realist style, are un-
catalogued, and some are presumed lost. Forfurtherreferenceto Travies,see Judith
Wechsler,The Human Comedy:Physiognomyand Caricaturein Nineteenth-Century
France (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1982).
4. Gargantua belonged to a long tradition in French printmaking. Early use of
scatologicalreferences in Frenchgraphic arts is discussed in FrenchCaricatureand
the FrenchRevolution,1789-1799, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: GrunwaldCenterfor the
GraphicArts, Universityof California, 1988).
5. Traviesbased his imageryon a popularand nonconventionalinterpretationof word
and image. M6lasse was generally seen as a metaphorical reference for a sticky
substance; see Jacques Cellardand Alain Rey, Dictionnairedu Francais non conven-
tionnel (Paris: Hachette, 1980), 522. The poor often found themselves "in a fix" or
"living in misery," as suggested by melasse. For further reference to this type of
FALL 1993
interpretation,see Georgette A. Marks and Charles B. Johnson, Harraps Slang
Dictionary(London:Harrap, 1984). Furtheranalogies between melasse and misery
were drawn when melasse was identified as a brownish, sticky substance closely
resemblingdiarrhea, a connection that reinforcedthe anxiety of the "shit of misery"
as a basic theme for graphic artists. For further reference, see Cellard and Rey,
Dictionnairedu Francais non conventionnel,551, 672-74. A print by Daumier,Ils ne
font qu'unsaut (1831), used a compote pot as a verbal/visual word/imageplay on the
nature of compost. It suggests the same parallel used by Travies, at the same
historical moment, for the melasse container. For Daumier'sprint, see Childs, "Big
Trouble,"33.
6. The emphasis on a nmlassecontainerunderscoresthe value of tryingto explain the
connectionwith pur6e. In coded imagery, "to be in the pur6e"alludes to the state in
which the poorest social class-those withoutresources-found themselves, and it
implies that they are standing in excrement. Forreference to class distinctions, see
Cellardand Rey, Dictionnairedu Francais non conventionnel,673-74. In her article
"BigTrouble,"Childs has notedthat containersof excrementwere incorporatedinto at
least one Daumierprint in 1831.
7. On the history and collection of waste, see A. J. B. Parent-Duchatelet,Hygiene
publiqueou memoiressur les questionsles plus importantesde l'hygieneappliqueeaux
professionset aux travauxd'utilite'publique,2 vols. (Paris:Chez Bouilliere, 1836). The
realizationthat waste collection had become of paramountimportance to the well-
being of the people of Paris led to the creationand maintenanceof an elaboratesewer
system, but it took manygenerationsand manynew laws beforea modernsystem, such
as is known today, was finally put into place.
8. Ibid., 2:156-307.
9. Ibid. See also Roger-HenriGuerrand,Les Lieux:Histoiredes commodit6s(Paris:
Editions La D6couverte, 1985). On tinettes, see Le Grand Robert de la langue
francaise: Dictionnairealphabetiqueet analogique de la languefranqaise (Paris: Le
Robert, 1985), 309-10.
10. The relationshipof the two carrierswithin the July Monarchyhas been previously
noted. See Nicole Villa, Un Siecle d'histoire de Francepar l'estampe, 1770-1871.
Collectionde Vinck,inventaireanalytique:6. La Revolutionde 1830 et la Monarchiede
juillet (Paris: Bibliotheque National, 1979); and Michael Marrinan, "Exhibition
Reviews: The July Monarchy,"Art Journal 49 (Fall 1990): 303. According to
Marrinan,Pierrotrepresents Casimir Perierand Harlequin Louis-Philippe.
11. Forthe role of nightmen, see LawrenceWright,Clean and Decent:The Historyof
the Bath and Loo (London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960), 103-5. Althoughthis
discussion is tied to England, the same process of excrementremovalwas in place in
France at roughlythe same time.
12. The role of workerson sewage and drainage systems increased throughoutthe
nineteenth century as both Paris and Londonbecame obsessed with getting rid of
waste withoutperil of plague and naturaldisaster. Forfurtherreference, see Charles
Singeret al., eds., A Historyof Technology:4. TheIndustrialRevolution,c. 1780 to c.
1850 (Oxford:ClarendonPress, 1958), esp. "SanitaryEngineering," 504-19. Even
as late as 1936, the writerLouis Aragonmentionedthe vidangeurs:"ceux qui vident
les poubelles et ceux qui promenentdans la nuit nauseabondeles 6normestinettes ou
la pompequi souffle a la canule des maisons";see Louis Aragon,LesBeaux-quartiers
(Paris: Gallimard, 1970), 178.
13. Singer et al., eds., The IndustrialRevolution,512-14, with specific referenceto
the drainageand cleaning of sewers in Paris by membersof a specially identifiedlabor
force. Forfurtherreferenceto the role of egoutiers,see Alfred Franklin, Dictionnaire
historiquedes arts, metierset professions(Paris: H. WelterEditor, 1906), 296-97.
14. Showingexcrementcarriers in costume was a new use of a populartheme. The
costumed street performercould be linked with these waste collectors, albeit the
costumes were different.It was, nevertheless, an innovativewayof creating a series of
visual puns. On the role of Pierrot, see Louisa E. Jones, Pierrot-Watteau:A
Nineteenth-CenturyMyth (Tuibingen:Gunter Narr Verlag;and Paris: Editions Jean-
Michel Place, 1984).
15. For reference to the use of a slang expression in the interpretationof icons, see
GrandDictionnaireencyclopediqueLarousse(Paris: Larousse, 1982), 1:671. The fact
that Harlequin carries waste material in the Travies print visualizes the slang
implicationslinked with the lowest level of society.
16. See ibid. for commenton the disparate pieces of Harlequin'scostume and how it
was sewn together.
17. Therewere manyfaces to Pierrot;see RobertF. Storey,Pierrot:A CriticalHistory
of a Mask(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979). On Pierrotbeing an
interpretationof many types of human activity, see Kay Dick, Pierrot (London:
Hutchinsonand Co., 1960), 174-75. The fact that Traviesdepicted Pierrotas a waste
carrier refers to the figure's ability to survive misery even at its lowest level. His
partnerswere Columbineand Harlequin.
18. Dick, Pierrot, 174-81. See also FrancisHaskell, "TheSad Clown:SomeNoteson
a Nineteenth-CenturyMyth," in FrenchNineteenth-CenturyArt and Literature,ed.
Ulrich Finke (Manchester:ManchesterUniversity Press, 1972), 101-7.
GABRIEL P. WEISBERG is guest editor of this issue of Art
Journal.
 and
Scatology
the Realist Aesthetic
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
catology in Westernart of the post-Renaissance pe-
riod has generallybeen discussed within the context
of two related aesthetic categories, the comic and the
grotesque.' Otherwiseput, students of scatological imagery
havefocused primarilyon its powerto arouselaughterand its
capacity to shock, repulse, and alienate. These two distinct
approachesto scatology correspondto prevailingnormative
attitudestowardbodily eliminationand excrementheld in the
Westernworldsince the Renaissance.2They also, inasmuch
as can be assessed, correspondto the intentionsof the artists
who have made scatologicalimageryan integralpartof their
work.These include, in the first instance, humoristicdrafts-
men-Pieter Bruegel, Honore Daumier, Wilhelm Busch,
and GeorgeGrosz, to name only a few-artists who made a
living by satisfying the human desire forlaughter.Forsome
of these, scatologicalimagerylent itself to burlesque humor
that owed its effect solely to the exhilarating powerof the
excremental.3 Others, following Horace's precept ridendo
dicereverum,4used scatologicalimages in a satiric mode, as
a means to deliver political and social critique or moral
lessons of variouskinds.5 Since examplesof the satirical use
of scatology are discussed in two articles in this issue, no
moreneed be said about them in the present context.
Besides the scatological humorists, there is a second
groupof artists-mostly of the late nineteenth century and
the twentieth-for whom scatologyoffersthe opportunityto
shock the public by confrontingit, often in a grossly explicit
or hyperbolic way, with an aspect of human life that in
Westernculture has long been and continues to be taboo.
Their shock tactics frequentlyhave the dual and seemingly
contradictorypurposes of attracting attentionand causing
alienation.Dadaists, Surrealists, and their artistic offspring
are the most importantrepresentativesof this use of the
scatological in (or as) art.6 Beginning with such "mild"
manifestations as the urinal that forms Marcel Duchamp's
Fountain or the bottle of urine in Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau,7
artistic recourse to the scatological for the purpose of gro-
tesque effects has found its most extreme form in the happen-
ings organized by some German and Austrian performance
artists of the 1960s and early seventies. In an article in the
underground newspaper twen,8 Marieluise Jurreit relates sev-
eral of these performances, such as the one by the Austrian
artist GiinterBusch who, on the stage of an auditoriumof the
Universityof Vienna, undressed, urinated, drankhis urine
from his cupped hand, and vomited. He ended his perfor-
mance by defecating with his back to the audience, then
smearing his feces on his naked body while singing the
Austriannationalanthem.Similarexhibitionistcoprophilous
performancestook place in other German-speakingcities
around1970, nearlyall involvingthe ingestionof excremen- 41
tal matter.The motivationof these artists to express them-
selves in such extremeways was elucidated by the German
poet GerhardRuhmwho, when asked why the wordScheisse
occurredso frequentlyin his poems, said that "shithas the
lure of the unaccustomed.It producesan immensealienation
effect in literatureand it causes insecurity in the reader.
Furthermore,the releasing of taboos has always been an
expression of freedom."9 Jurreits offers a slightly different,
Freudian analysis of this form of scatological rebellion when
she writes, "There is a direct connection between the bed-
wetter, who protests against parental treatment . . . [and
artists'] anal rebellion.... Shit has always been the weapon
of the unarmed and repressed, a means of non-violent
resistance."10
The prevailing tendency in modern Western culture
either to laugh or to turn away in shock and disgust at the
sight, smell, or even reference to the processes of bodily
elimination and their products has largely overwhelmed all
attempts in the direction of a more unqualified, sober attitude
toward the excremental, particularly in the aesthetic realm.
Indeed, while since the Renaissance and especially after the
rise of positivism in the eighteenth century, scientists, in-
cluding physicians, medical scientists, biologists, and an-
thropologists, have developed an increasingly rational atti-
tude toward urine and feces (as foodstuffs, i.e., organic
matter, that have undergone a complex chemical transforma-
tion) and to the elimination processes (as natural biological
functions to which various culture-bound rituals are at-
tached),1 artists and writers have generally not followed their
lead. That being said, it must be acknowledged that a more
sober and positive attitude to scatology does have a small and
not altogether unimportant part in art theory and criticism,
as well as the aesthetic thought of the modern period that was
expressed first and most explicitly in the context of the
ART JOURNAL

Francais,IdyllicLandscape,1864, oil on canvas,427/8x
FIG.1 Fran(ois-Louis
57?4inches.Mus6edes Beaux-Arts,Lille.
42
FIG. 2 GustaveCourbet,TheStreamof the PuitsNoirnearOrnans,1868, oil
on canvas,39 x 59 inches.TheNortonSimonArtFoundation,Pasadena.
nineteenth-centuryRealist and Naturalistmovements.It is
the scatologicalelementin modern,morespecifically realist
aesthetics and criticism, that is the focus of this paper.12
A brief, seemingly insignificant line by the French
Realist painterGustaveCourbetserves as point of departure
of the discussion. In his 1948 biographyof Courbet,Charles
Leger,citing severalexamplesof the artist'sfamousbonmots,
recounts the followinganecdote:"Atan exhibition, one day,
Courbetis led to a tidy, finicky landscape by Louis Frangais.
'Whatdo you think of it?' 'Youcannot sh.. in it!' answersthe
Realist."13
It is all too easy to dismiss Courbet'salleged remarkas
merelyanotherexampleof his flippancy, his love to shockor
poke fun at the status quo. Certainly,it contains elementsof
the comic and the grotesque,but it also has a moreprofound
substratum.Leger'sanecdote, both directly and by implica-
tion, sets up a series of interestingcontrastsand connections.
To begin with, it confronts Courbet, realist and noncon-
formist, with Louis Frangais, fashionable painter of ideal
landscapes, winner of five Salon medals and two Legion of
Honorcrosses, and memberof the Institutde France.14 Tothe
FALL 1993
readers of Leger's biography,who thirty pages earlier have
been given a lengthydescriptionof Courbet'sunorthodoxway
of producinglandscapes, the passage suggests, moreover,a
contrastbetween Francais's"tidy, finicky"landscape tech-
nique (seefig. 1) and Courbet'sown bold manner(seefig. 2),
in which the paint (contained in jars ratherthan tubes) is
"smeared"onto the canvas with a palette knife. Indeed, by
page 125, Leger's readers are conditioned to understand
Courbet'squip as a devastatingput-downof Francaisand the
classical tradition he represents: one cannot conceive of
anyone"shitting"in ideal landscapes-landscapes that are
figments of an exalted imagination;such a natural bodily
functioncan be envisaged only in the suggested physicality
of a realist landscape. Indeed, how could one possibly de-
posit one's excrementin Francais'sfreshly colored, neatly
brushed, and smoothly polished scenes? Courbet'srough-
textured, dark-coloredearthy landscapes seem a morecon-
genial locus for fecal matter.In them excrementand dung
would not be a taint (as in the classical landscapes of
Francaisand others)but wouldepitomizethe naturalcycle of
death, decay, fertilization,and rebirth.
Courbet'sremark, by implication, sets up a direct
connectionbetween realism and the excremental.The real-
ists' preoccupationwith truth to nature, artlessness, and
naivete;their preferenceforordinary,down-to-earthsubject
matter;and their firm attachmentto the "low"ratherthan the
"high," to the "ugly" rather than the "beautiful," to the
concrete (sensual) ratherthan the abstract (intellectual),15
could all be satisfied by a heap of ordure.
Courbetwas not alone in linking the excrementalwith
the realist mode in art. A similar connectionbetween excre-
mentand realism is foundin the lettersof Vincentvan Gogh.
Defendinghis Potato Eaters(fig. 3), as a workthat is "real
and honest"(the adjectives are underlinedin the original),
van Gogh writes to his brotherTheo:
It wouldbe wrong,I think, to give a peasantpicturea certain
conventionalsmoothness.If a peasantpicturesmellsof bacon,
smoke,potato steam-all right, that's not unhealthy; if a
stablesmellsof dung-all right, that belongsto a stable;if the
field has an odor of ripe corn or potatoes or of guano or
manure-that's healthy, especiallyfor city people.Suchpic-
turesmay teach themsomething.Tobeperfumedis notwhat a
peasantpictureneeds.16
Van Gogh transfersthe connectionbetween realism and the
excrementalfromthe visual and tactile to the olfactoryrealm.
Tohim realism carries associations of the natural smells of
plants growingin the field, of simple foods-potatoes and
bacon-prepared in a farmer'scottage, and of manure(hu-
manand/oranimal)spreadout on the fields.17Suchodorsare
real, as opposedto the artificialfragranceof perfume,which
conceals the naturalsmells of earth, food, and body. Tovan
Gogh, the Potato Eatersis "a real peasant picture,"a paint-
ing that may remind city folks of the essence of life-a
FIG. 3 Vincentvan Gogh, ThePotatoEaters,1885, oil on canvas,32 x 45 inches.Vincentvan Gogh
GoghMuseum,Amsterdam.
Foundation/Van
circular process of sowing and harvesting, of labor and
consumption,18of consumption and excretion, of life and
death.19The likelihoodthat city people might not appreciate
this lesson in real life occurs to him and he speculates that
the critics may well call his work "dirty, gross, muddy,
stinking"("sale, grossier, boueux, puant").20
While linking realism with the excremental,neither
Courbetnorvan Gogh advocatedintroducingdefecatingfig-
ures or heaps of manureas subject matterinto art.21Indeed,
with the possible exceptionof a small drawingof a urinating
woman (fig. 4), dubiously attributed to van Gogh, such
subjects are absent fromeitherartist'soeuvre.22Theirscat-
ological references were theoretical (verbal) and served as
metaphorsof their preoccupationwith artlessness and truth
to nature, and of their convictionthat nothingwas too low or
too ugly for the painter'sbrush. "Thereis only one kind of
ugliness which cannot be represented in accordance with
naturewithoutdestroyingall aesthetic satisfaction,. . . that
which excites disgust."Thus EmmanuelKanthad writtenin
1781.23 One hundredyears later, van Gogh clearly felt that
the disgusting could be imbued with moralbeauty. A stable
smelling of dung, a field reeking with fresh manure"teaches
people something,"namelythat in naturethere is an intrin-
sic link between decay and growth,between death and life;
indeed, that impermanenceis the essence of nature.24
Concernedwithtruthand concreteness,the truerealist
is necessarily preoccupiedwiththe impermanenceof nature,
and his challenge is howto representnaturein the fixed form
of a painting or sculpture. Clearly,the classical vocabulary
aimed at expressing a permanentand everlasting ideal-a
vocabularyof closed, flowingcontours,self-containedforms,
harmoniouscolor schemes, and smooth surfaces-will not
serve his purpose. Instead, the realist's contoursare broken
FIG.4 Attributedto Vincentvan Gogh,Nude
WomanSquatting,1886, drawing,8/4 x 5Y4 43
inches.Vincentvan Gogh Foundation/Van
GoghMuseum,Amsterdam.
or nonexistent;formsare open (i.e., with apertures),irregu-
lar, bulbous, as in van Gogh'sPotatoEaters(seefig. 3) or his
TwoBasketsof Potatoes (fig. 5), suggesting the potentialof
sproutsand buds;25palettes are tonal, with a preferencefor
earth colors;and surfaces are irregular,the paint applied to
the canvas with a loaded brush, a palette knife, a rag, or
fingers. Courbetdefends his use of the palette knife in his
FrancheComte landscapes as a way to suggest the erosive
forces of wind and rain beating down on the rocks.26 Van
Gogh's talks about his studies for the Potato Eaters as
"painted with earth" ("peint avec de la terre"),27and he
repeatedlyand admiringlyquotes a line used in referenceto
Millet: "His peasants appear to be painted with the very
earth they sow"("Ses paysans semblentpeints avec la terre
qu'ils ensemencent").28
While to the realists dark, muddy, fecal colors and
roughly textured surfaces epitomize "natural" painting,
these same qualities are anathemato their academicclassic-
minded critics. Referringto Courbet'sRealist triad at the
1850-51 Salon(Burial at Ornans,Stonebreakers, andReturn
from the Fair), the critic Claude Vignon, example, wrote
for
that these paintings depicted in the "grossest possible way
whateveris grossest and most unclean,"29and P. Hussard,
writing in Le National of February20, 1851, commented,
"Thepainterhas lapsed into brutality... and he has soiled
himself in the process."30We come full circle when such
criticismis explicitlycouchedin excrementallanguage-the
verylanguage the realists use to attacktheir idealist critics
and to defend their own work. George Grosz, in his auto-
biography,recalls an incident from his student days at the
Dresden academy, sometimebetween 1909 and 1911, when
ProfessorRichard Miller inveighed against the workof van
Gogh:31"That[van] Gogh-what a shit-plasters a sunset
ARTJOURNAL
FIG. 5 Vincentvan Gogh, TwoBasketsof Potatoes,1885, oil on canvas,26 x 31 inches.Vincentvan GoghFoundation/Van
Gogh
Museum,Amsterdam.

FIG. 6 EmilNolde,AutumnBeachII,1910,oil on canvas,7 x 9Y2inches.StiftungSeebullAdaund EmilNolde,Seebull.


FIG. 7 JeanDubuffet,Le Crapaudeur, and oil, 10 inches
1959, papier-mach6
high. OeffentlicheKunstsammlung, Basel.
Kunstmuseum,
onto a canvas in one afternoon,what'sthe good of that? It
takes me two years to paint a picture and that [van] Gogh
smearshis shit in half an hourand sells it for15,000 marks-
that crap."32Accordingto Grosz, Miillerbecame even more
vehementwhen talking about Emil Nolde: "What?What's
that?Fellowsticks his fingerup his arse and smears it on the
paper! . . . What a lummox!sketching like a drunkensow
with a dungfork!"33Tothe academicMiiller,raised on a diet
of Kantianaesthetics, Nolde'spictures (seefig. 6) inspired a
sense of physical disgust not unlike an encounterwith excre-
mentalmatter.And it is clear, fromGrosz'smemoirs,thatthis
was due not to Nolde's subject matterbut to the formless,
roughlytextured, muddy-coloredaspect of his paintings.
In the idealist aesthetics of Kant, line and form are
more importantthan color and texture. The latter are what
Kant calls "parerga,""things which do not belong to the
completerepresentationof the object internallyas elements,
but only externally as complements."34In the realist aes-
thetics of a Courbet, a van Gogh, or a Nolde, it is instead
matter-color and texture-that expresses the essential
qualities of the subject. This explicitpreferenceof the mate-
rial overthe formalaspects of artis an importantcontribution
of realist aesthetics that has crucial implicationsfor later
nineteenth-and twentieth-centuryart movements,including
Symbolism (especially in the workof Paul Cezanne, James
Ensor,35and van Gogh),Expressionism,art informel,36and
AbstractExpressionism.The ultimate realization, however,
of the foregroundingof the materialis foundin the art of Jean
Dubuffet. To Dubuffet it was imperativethat the material
(matiere)be made to assert its predominancein the struggle
between matterand form. Formwas equated with culture,
matterwas the carrierof Dubuffet'sownanticulturalposition,
which he considered as a concrete parallel to creation
itself.37
It is noteworthythat Dubuffet'sworks,particularlyhis
paintings and sculptures of the late fifties and early sixties,
have an unmistakableexcrementalcharacter.38Sculptures
such as Le Crapaudeur(fig. 7), fromhis series Materiologies,
arereminiscentof feces in form,texture,and sometimeseven
title.39Dubuffets workmay be seen as the realist paradigm
carried to its ultimate consquences:an art that is concrete,
materialist,sensual (i.e., appealingto the senses ratherthan
the intellect), "artless," and naive. Indeed, if, with Erich
Fromm,we see defecation as the first and most elemental
formof creation,40Dubuffet'sart epitomizes the notionsof
artlessnessand naivete thatweresuch crucial elementsof the
'
realist aesthetic.41
Notes 45
1. The term "grotesque" is used here not in the broad sense of Mikhail Bakhtin, whose
definition of "grotesque Realism" essentially includes the entire anti-idealist tradi-
tion in art and literature, but in the narrower, specifically modem sense of W. Kayser,
who defines the grotesque as alien and alienating, hostile and inhuman. For a
discussion of Kaiser's concept of the grotesque, as well as his own, see Mikhail
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984),
18-58.
2. On attitudes toward the excremental, see Theodor Rosebury, Life on Man (New
York: Viking Press, 1969); and, for a more philosophical approach, Dominique
Laporte, Histoire de la merde (Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1978).
3. This is especially true of Wilhelm Busch. For a discussion of scatological elements
in his work, see Dieter and Jacqueline Rollfinke, The Call of Human Nature: The Role
of Scatology in Modern German Literature (Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1986), chap. 2.
4. "To tell the truth with laughter" (Satirae 1.1.24ff). Though Horace's line reads
"Ridentem dicere verum, quid vetat," it is usually cited as in the text.
5. The literature on this subject has considerably increased in recent years, partic-
ularly with regard to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. See, e.g., Albert
Boime, "Jacques Louis David: Scatological Discourse in the French Revolution and
the Art of Caricature," Arts Magazine 62 (February 1988): 72-81; James Cuno, The
Business and Politics of Caricature: Charles Philipon and La Maison Aubert," Gazette
des Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 106 (1985): 95-112; Gabriel P. Weisberg, "The Coded Image:
Agitation in Aspects of Political and Social Caricature," in The Art of the July
Monarchy: France, 1830 to 1848, exh. cat. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press,
1990): 157-60; and Elizabeth C. Childs, "Big Trouble: Daumier, Gargantua, and the
Censorship of Political Caricature," Art Journal 51, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 26-37.
6. In the case of the Surrealists, though they were by no means indifferent to
scatology's potential to alienate and to attract attention to themselves, it seems that
additional, more profound motivations caused them to introduce excremental imagery
in their works. In a series of articles written in 1930, the Spanish Surrealist Salvador
Dali elaborates how scatological and other repugnant imagery, such as severed limbs
and putrefied flesh, serve as simulacra for desire, be it "desir de mort" or "desir
erotique." Dali explains how images may veil their opposite meaning, so that, for
example, "the foul putrefaction of the donkey" may serve as simulacrum for "the
blinding flash of precious stones." At the same time, the repugnance evoked by images
of excrement and putrefaction could serve as an effective defense against desire (for
example, "the vertiginous fits of death-wish") or, alternatively, total surrender to
desire ("one loves wholly when one is ready to eat the shit of the beloved woman"). On
Dali's use of excremental imagery, see Haim Finkelstein, "Salvador Dali's Soft Forms,
1927-1940," in Norms and Variations in Art: Essays in Honour of Moshe Barasch
(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1983), 241-42. On Surrealism
and scatology, see also Gerald Silk's article in this issue.
7. See Kate Trauman Steinitz, Kurt Schwitters: A Portrait from Life (Berkeley/Los
Angeles: University of California Press), 90.
8. Marieluise Jurreit, "Alles iiber Scheisse," twen (December 1969): 118-23. Par-
tially translated and quoted in Rollfinke, The Call of Human Nature, 7-8.
9. Rollfinke, The Call ofHuman Nature, 8.
10. As quoted in ibid., Jurreit did not investigate if or to what extent German
performanceartists may have been awareof and influenced by scatological practices
amongprimitivepeoples, such as those described in JohnG. Bourke'sScatologicRites
ART JOURNAL
 of All Nations (Washington, D.C.: W. H. Loudermilkand Co., 1891), which was
translated into German in 1913 with an introductionby Sigmund Freud; or by
documented scatological practices of the insane.
11. In his introductionto the 1913 Germantranslationof Bourke'sScatologicRites, one
of the first anthropologicalstudies to treathumancoprophilicinterests in an objective
way,Freudpraises Bourkefor"dealingwith these proscribedaspects of humanlife,"
and points to the parallels between Bourke'sworkand his own attempts to confront
excrementalmatters in an objective, scientific manner.
12. The terms"realism"and "realist"are used here in the broadsense given to them
by Linda Nochlin in her two-part article, "The Realist Criminal and the Abstract
Law,"Art in America61 (1973): no. 5, 54-61; and no. 6, 97-103. Nochlin posits as
one of the crucial qualities of realism a taste for ordinaryexperience and a sense of
concreteness. When the term "Realism(t)"is capitalized, it refers spefically to the
mid-nineteenth-centurymovementspearheaded in painting by Gustave Courbet.
When lowercased, it refers to the broaderartistic discourse defined above.
13. "Dans une exposition, tel jour, on amene Courbetdevant un paysage propret,
fignolede Louis Francais:'Qu'endis-tu? - On ne peut pas ch ... la dedans!'r6pond
le realiste"; see Charles Leger, Courbetet son temps (Paris: Editions Universelles,
1948), 125. The conservativemoralclimate of the postwaryears preventedLegerfrom
printing in full the verb chier that Courbetis supposed to have used.
14. Bornin Plombieres, Francois-LouisFrancais (1814-1897) studied in Paris with
Jean Gigouxand Camille Corot.After a four-yearstay in Italy (1845-49) he returned
to Paris to become one of the most successful landscape painters of the Second
Empire. Though not untouched by the new naturalism of Corotand the Barbizon
school, Francais'sworkwas essentially conservativeas it continuedto be rootedin the
academic landscape traditiondeveloped during the neoclassical period.
15. Forthese characteristicsof realism, I am muchindebtedto Nochlin'sarticle, "The
46 Realist Criminal," esp. 54. For the important connection between realism and
a'ivete, see the seminal article by MeyerSchapiro, "Courbetand PopularImagery:
AnEssay on Realism and Naivete," Journalofthe Warburgand CourtauldlInstitutes
(1941): 164-91.
16. The CompleteLettersof Vincentvan Gogh, 3 vols. (Greenwich,Conn.: New York
GraphicSociety, 1959), 2:370.
17. The connectionbetween dung and its smell on the one handand realism, honesty,
and naivete on the otheris also foundin the writingsof CharlesBlanc, a critic whowas
much admired by van Gogh. In the volume on Dutch painting of his monumental
Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoess (11. Ecole hollandaise [Paris, 1861]), Blanc
makes repeated references to animal dung and "country smells" to express the
heightenedsense of reality of Dutch landscape painting, notablyin the worksof Paul
Potter,which fascinate him. Describing the sheep in such worksas Potter'sfamous
YoungBull (The Hague, Mauritshuis),he praises the Dutch artist for such realistic
details as the "dungmixed with straw"(ibid., vol. 2, "PaulPotter,"10) that sticks to
the animals'wool, and in discussing Potter'sHorsesat the Trough,Blanc suggests that
only those who have smelled countryodorscan "sense the unspeakablecharmof this
so naive and so Dutch painting"(ibid., 12-13). It is perhapscharacteristicof Blanc's
juste-milieu aesthetics that he remains silent about the large piles of fresh dung that
are prominentlydisplayed in both pictures. Painted thickly and in dark colors, they
mayhave been too suggestive of the texture, consistency, and stenchof real dungto fit
within Blanc's notionof beautiful art. To Blanc, apparently,the beautiful could be
mildly odorous(like dried-up manure on a distant field), but it was not allowed to
stink.
18. Van Gogh writes, "I have tried to emphasize that those people, eating their
potatoes in the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the
dish, and so it speaks of manuallabor,and howthey have honestlyearned their food";
Letters,2:370.
19. Van Gogh poignantly expresses that notion in a letter (writtennot long after he
completed the Potato Eaters) in which he writes about a painting that he calls
"Cimetierede paysans"(Amsterdam,RijksmuseumVincentvan Gogh;nowtitled Old
ChurchTowerat Nuenen):"I wantedto express howthose ruins showthat forages the
peasants have been laid to rest in the very fields which they dug up when alive-I
wantedto express whata simple thing death and burial is, just as simple as the falling
of an autumnleaf ... the life and the death of the peasants remainforeverthe same,
budding and witheringregularly, like the grass and the flowersgrowingthere in that
churchyard";ibid., 2:386.
20. Ibid., 2:371.
21. Scatological subject matter is generally rare in nineteenth-centuryrealist and
naturalist art. One of the notable exceptions is Adriano Cecioni's Defecating Dog
(Florence, Aldo Gonelli coll.); see Robert Rosenblum and H. W. Janson, 19th-
CenturyArt(NewYork:HarryN. Abrams, 1984), 485, fig. 385. Executed in the early
1880s, this workmaybe seen in the contextof Cecioni'sessay "Artemodernae arte di
moda,"in which he discusses the relationbetween reality and the beautiful. Oppos-
ing the viewpoint of those fashionableartists who, respondingto the exigencies of a
bourgeoismarket, want to show only the beautiful side of reality, Cecioni advocates
that it is the artist's role to turn the ugly into the beautiful by the sheer powerof his
execution. Artfully poised and smoothly finished, Cecioni's Defecating Dog seems
intendedto demonstratejust that point. With all his lip service to realism in art, it is
clear thatCecioni'sideas are closer to the classical aesthetics of Kantand Hegel than
to realist thinking. Indeed, his view of the artist's role is quite close to Kant's
FALL1993
"Beautifulart ... describes as beautiful things which maybe in natureugly or even
displeasing" (quoted in Albert Hofstadterand Richard Kuhns, eds., Philosophiesof
Art and Beauty [New York:RandomHouse, 1964], 316).
22. The drawing, done on the back of the menu of a Paris restaurant,was originally
accepted by the authorof van Gogh's oeuvre catalogue, J.-B. de la Faille, but later
rejected by him and attributed to Emile Bernard. However,it was accepted by the
committeeof scholars that edited that catalogue for the revised edition of 1970; see
J.-B. de la Faille, The Worksof Vincentvan Gogh (Amsterdam:Meulenhoff,1970),
484, no. E 1376. The scene in the recent movie Vincentand Theo in which van Gogh
sketches Sien while she is urinating in a chamber pot, perhaps inspired by this
drawing, seems nonetheless anachronistic in the way it shows an abandoningof a
sense of proprietythat seems unthinkable in the Victorian age.
23. In his "Critiqueof Aesthetic Judgment";Hofstadterand Kuhns, eds., Philosophies
of Art and Beauty, 316.
24. Van Gogh's letters are filled with passages that express this notion of death,
decay, and rebirth(see, e.g., note 19 above), which is a majorunderlyingthemeof his
works.
25. For this discussion of the contrast between classicism and realism I am much
indebted to the workof Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World,28-29.
26. See Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, "It Took Millions of Years to Compose That
Picture," in Sarah Faunce and Linda Nochlin, CourbetReconsidered,exh. cat.
(Brooklyn:BrooklynMuseum, 1988), 61.
27. Letters,2:382.
28. Ibid., 2:367, 372.
29. Quotedin JackLindsay,GustaveCourbet:His LifeandArt (NewYork:Harperand
Row), 76.
30. Quotedin Georges Riat, GustaveCourbet,peintre (Paris:1906), 88.
31. Richard Miiller (1874-1930) studied at the Dresden academy, where he later
became a teacher.
4 32. George Grosz, An Autobiography,trans. Nora Hodges (New York:Macmillan,
1983), 63.
33. Ibid., 62.
34. Hofstadterand Kuhns, eds., Philosophiesof Art and Beauty, 297-98.
35. On the peculiar relationbetween scatologyand Ensor'srich paint texture, notably
in his Tribulationsof Saint Anthony,see MarshallNeal Myers,"JamersEnsor's'The
Tribulationsof Saint Anthony':Permutationsof the ExcrementalVision," ArtsMaga-
zine 54, no. 4 (December 1979): 84-89. See also the article by Susan M. Canningin
this issue.
36. On the connectionbetween art informeland nineteenth-centuryRealism, notably
Courbet's,see GiovanniTestori,Courbete l'informale(Milan:Fabbro,1988). See also
the anonymousreview of this book (which originated as an exhibition catalogue) in
FMR 67 (December 1988): 19.
37. See ThomasM. Messer'sintroductionto Jean Dubuffet:A Retrospective,exh. cat.
(New York:SolomonGuggenheim Foundation,1973), 12.
38. At the end of volume 17 of MaxLoreau'sCatalogue des travauxde Jean Dubuffet,
entirely devotedto the Materiologiesof 1959 and 1960, one finds a series of extracts
from press reviews of Dubuffet'swork in those years. Though several of them wax
lyrical over it, others express a sense of disgust and discomfort that suggests a
subconscious or even conscious awarenessof its excrementalcharacter:forexample,
"Lourdeinfamie"(Etudes);"L'oeuvrela plus troublanteet la plus scandaleuse de ce
temps"(J.-L. Leveque in L'Information); "Le caca consider6e la fois comme matiere
plastique et comme un des Beaux-Arts"(Pierre Imbourg in Journal de l'amateur
d'art).
39. The wordCrapaudeurwas made up by Dubuffet. It is related to crapaud(toad),
crapaudiere(a low, swampyplace), crapule(low,vulgar), and odeur(odor).Dubuffet's
nonobjective"excremental"workshave a counterpartin the artist's representational
workson scatological themes. I am referringin particularto the so-called "Pisseur"
series but tangentially,as well, to such worksas Childbirth(privatecoll.) of 1944 and
GreatSolitary Milking (Paris, Charles Ratton coll.) of 1943, which deal with the
excrementalin a broadersense.
40. Erich Fromm,"Die psychoanalytischeCharakterologieund ihre Bedeutung fur
die Sozialpsychologie,"ZeitschriftfiifurSozialforschung1, no. 3 (1932): 260.
41. Unlike other artists preoccupied with artlessness and naivete, Dubuffet goes
beyond folk and primitive art to find the roots of art-a kind of ur-art-in the
creationsof childrenand the insane. It is not knownto whatextenthe was awareof the
most elementary form of insane (and, for that matter, children's) creativity, the
smearing of feces and otherformsof excrement(nasal, oral, etc.) on walls and other
surfaces. It is perhapscharacteristicof the manytaboos that still attachthemselvesto
scatologythat this is a phenomenonthat few psychiatristshave dealt with, in spite of
its commonoccurrence.
PETRA TEN-DOESSCHATE CHU, professor at Seton Hall
University, has published widely in thefield of realist art. Her
most recentpublication is The Letters of Gustave Courbet
(Chicago, 1992).
The Ordure of
ScatologicalSignsof SelfandSocietyin the Artof JamesEnsor
Susan M. Canning
s evidenced by the controversysurroundingAndres
Serrano's1987 photographPiss Christ, scatological
imagery,especially when combinedwith the sacred
emblems of religion, can still provoke and offend. Even
thoughSerrano'sjuxtapositionof crucifix and urine referred
to the artist'spersonalexaminationof his religiousbeliefs and
was intended as a critique of the commercializationof reli-
gion, this immersionof the sacred in the profaneonly con-
firmedthe belief amongsome fundamentalistgroupsthatthe
contemporaryartistic avant-gardewas corruptand obscene.
One hundredyears before Serrano,the Belgian artist
James Ensor also utilized scatological imagery to defy the
values and belief systems of his contemporaries.Onlymildly
offensiveat first and cloaked in the earthysatirical tradition
of Northernart, Ensor'sscatological images graduallygrew
more political. Several of the artist's most confrontational
works,executed at the height of his political activism, allude
FIG. 1 JamesEnsor,ThePisser,1887, etching,5?4 x 4Y1inches.Cabinetdes
Estampes,BibliothequeRoyale,Brussels.
Anarchy
to Ensor's private revolt against the values and mores of
Belgian society and to his alliance with anarchist ideology.
In one of his earliest scatologicalworks,the 1887 print
The Pisser (fig. 1), Ensor portrays a man dressed in the
striped pants, dark coat, and top hat of the bourgeoisie,
relievinghimself in frontof a stone wall. Althoughthe man's
identityis hidden by his turnedback, he is undoubtedlythe
artist, as indicated by the prominentupturnedmustache, a
distinguishing feature found in numerousself-portraitsthat
Ensor made during this time.1 Although reminiscent of 47
Jacques Callots drawing of the same subject (The Pisser,
n.d., Florence,Uffizi), Ensor'simmediatesource is an illus-
tration by Amedee Lynen for the title page of Theodore
Hannon's book Au pays de Manneken-Pis, published in
Brusselsin 1883, wherea manurinatesagainsta wall while a
womanlooks on froma windowabove (fig. 2). Comparisonof
Ensor'setching with both Callot'sdrawingand Lynen'sprint
FIG. 2 Amed6eLynen,title-pageillustrationforTheodoreHannon'sAu pays
de Manneken-Pis,1883, photogravure,
8 x 5 inches.BibliothequeRoyale,Brussels.
ARTJOURNAL

48
FIG. 3 JamesEnsor,Iston,Pouffamatus, Cracozie,and Transmouff,
Celebrated
PersianPhysicians,Examiningthe Stoolsof KingDariusafterthe Battleof
Arbela,1886, etching,9V2 x 7s inches.Cabinetdes Estampes,Bibliotheque
Royale,Brussels.
underlinesthe differenceof Ensor'sapproach.WhereasCal-
lot's man is a jester and Lynen'sis a worker,Ensor's is
obviouslymiddle-class. By exchangingthe jester's costume
or the worker'sclothes for the trappingsof the bourgeoisie,
Ensor implies that, in its naturalness, eliminationacts as a
social leveler.After all, even the middle-classes have to go!
Moreover,despite his clothing, Ensor's pisser occupies a
marginal position in his class as the patches on his coat
jacket indicate. Indeed, his act of urinationagainst a wall
covered with graffiti suggests that the man-Ensor-
remainsan outsiderto the conventionsof his class.
Onthe wall abovethe pissing manthe artisthas written
the statement"Ensorest un fou"(Ensoris a fool). Belowthis
inscription he has drawn two scratchy, childish images of
figures, one smoking,the otherholdinga pipe. Onthe ground
to the right is a pile of turds. Using these elements as
markers,Ensorcreates a circulararrangementthat connects
urinationand defecationwith infantilism, foolish behavior,
and the naturaldischarge of the artist.
The graffitiand drawingsallude to the artist'scontempt
for the public who ignored his art and for the critics who
ridiculed his poor drawing skills. In fact, these naively
renderedfigures could representthe critics, whose authority
is both pissed upon and deflated by the stick figures of
child's play. Althoughintendedto affrontthose whose com-
FALL
1993
ments so offendedhim, Ensor'sact of urinationalso stakes
out the territoryof his artistic activity.
Like Lynen'sprint, Ensor'sThePisser, with its allusion
to the Manneken-Pis,the street urchinwhoused his urine to
put out a fire that threatened Brussels, and to Tyl Eulen-
spiegel, the roguishFlemish heroof Charlesde Coster'sepic
storywhopisses on his enemies, the artistlinks this image to
the scatologicallegacy of his Belgian heritage. In addition,
by associating urination with foolish behavior, Ensor also
aligns himself with the legend of the naturalfool oftenfound
in Northernart and literature. In this traditionof folly, as
elucidatedby Erasmusand illustratedby Bruegel, the abnor-
mal or socially unacceptablebehaviorof the fool functionsas
both a social critique and a statementof the commonalityof
the humancondition.Throughthese conventionsof satireand
folly, ThePisser states the personaland public rolethatEnsor
conceived for himself as an artist-that of the fool whose
marginalactivity could be socially beneficial to all.
The Pisser is also one of several works that Ensor
executed in which the vulgarand raunchyhold sway.In fact,
this type of imagery abounds in Ensor's art, particularly
between1886 and 1890, a periodwhenthe artistclarifies his
peculiar expressivevision, producingin the process some of
his best-knownand most socially critical work.While Ensor
often includes references to defecation or vomiting in his
paintings, drawings,and prints to underscoretheir satirical
and moralizingpurpose, this paperwill concentrateonly on
those artworksin which scatological imagery is the direct
referent.
One of the earliest images in which Ensor highlights
scatological subject matter is his 1886 print Iston, Pouf-
famatus, Cracozie,and Transmouff, CelebratedPersianPhysi-
cians, Examining theStoolsof King Darius aftertheBattleof
Arbela (fig. 3). In this scene, which has no historical or
literary source, Darius's doctors examine the contents of
several chamberpots in orderto explain the Persianking's
loss to Alexanderthe Great at the Battle of Arbela (or Gari-
gamela)in 331 B.C. In Ensor'streatmentof the scene, King
Dariusis relegatedto the rightbackgroundwherehe sits on a
chamberpot anxiously awaitingthe doctors'analysis while
straining to produce new specimens for their examination.
The ornate costumes, exaggerated expressions, and
informalarrangementof the fourdoctorsare all reminiscent
of Rembrandt'sprints, as is Ensor's use of a crosshatched
technique and chiaroscuro to enhance the scene's theat-
ricality and drama. Rembrandt'sinfluence on Ensor is most

of SaintAnthony,1887, oil on canvas,46?8 x 66 inches.Museumof ModernArt,New York,Purchase.
FIG. 4 JamesEnsor,Tribulations
evident in his etchings, which the Belgian artist began
making in 1886, the year he executed this print. Like Rem-
brandt, Ensor combines the lofty with the base. The physi-
cians go abouttheirdivinationswithgreatpompand circum-
stance, but the object of their attentionis nasty and foul-
smelling and their mannerof interpretinghistoricaleventsis
far fromscientific.
Quiteevidentin Ensor'sprintis the diminishedstature
of the king, whose bowel movementrules the day. While
poking fun at the conventionof historypainting in which he
was trainedat the BrusselsAcademy,Ensorsends a sarcastic
message to his contemporaryaudience. The fourphysicians
are arrangedin a circle with an opening for the viewerand
theyholdthe pot so thatthe observer,too, can lookin and give
an opinion. With its sly allusion to the shortcomingsof
conquest and power, this print may very well be a rude
reference to the Belgian King Leopold'srecent forays into
empire-buildingin the Congoand a warningaboutthe conse-
quences of imperialism.
Ensor, however, was not content with divining the
meaningof excrement.In otherworks,he preferredto spread
it around.Severalcommentatorshave notedthe fecal quality
of some of Ensor's canvases, a result of the artist's loose
gestural stroke and his preference for bloody and bilious
49
colors.As MarshallMyershas pointedout, the entire surface
of Tribulationsof Saint Anthony,1887 (fig. 4), now in the
collection of the Museumof ModernArt, resembles piles of
manure.2Saint Anthony,himself a hook-nosed,pockmarked
lump of decaying flesh, sits on a heap of dung surroundedby
defecation, decay, and decadence. To the right, two devils
add their contributionto the pile, while on the far right a
large-eared man holds a syringe ready to administer an
enema. Included in the garbage and debris to the left are
several naked, fleshy women, whose presence, Meyershas
shown, embodies not only the polluted environmentthat
surroundsthe saintly hermitbut also Ensor'sviews of women
as later described in his poem entitled "OnWomen":
Mirypool crawling with bad beasts
Liquidmanure,stickyand oozing with vermin
Sneakyand hostile morass
Horriblecesspoolteeming with leeches.3
Tothis compilationof sexual references,oozing orifices, and
moundsof shit, Ensoradds the almostpalpablestenchof hell
where, across the lake from Saint Anthony,fires consume
hapless souls dropped there by grotesque demons flying
throughthe sky.
The disgusting, even repellent, yet viscerally tactile
ART JOURNAL

FIc. 5 James Ensor, The Sad and the Broken: Satan and His Fantastic Legions
Tormentingthe Crucified Christ, 1886, charcoal and conte crayon on paper,
23Ys x 29/4 inches. Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
surfaceof TribulationsofSaint Anthonycreates an aggressive
and confrontationalmode. It is almost as if the artist intends
50 to rub this putrid slime in the face of the observer.Once
again, as in ThePisser, Ensor combines the puerilewith the
scatological, an association fraught with psychoanalytical
overtones.Interpretedfroma Freudianperspective,the fecal
references in the subject and the treatmentof the surface
gain symbolicmeaning, becomingbothplayandweapon.As
well, the associationthat Ensormakes betweenfemalesexu-
ality and defecation in this painting and the poem "On
Women"illustrates-as Freud would put it-the trans-
ference of the anal into the sexual.4
FIG. 6 James Ensor,The Entryof Christ into Brussels in 1889, 1888, oil on canvas, 10112 x 169Y2inches. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu.
FALL1993
While a sign of Ensor'srepressed sexuality, Tribula-
tions of Saint Anthonyalso states the artist'sbelief that the
materialistvalues of Belgian society had led to the decline of
spiritualityand the loss of individualism. This point of view
was already visualized in his 1886 drawingTheSad and the
Broken:Satan and His Fantastic Legions Tormentingthe
CrucifiedChrist(fig. 5). Again we see a worldof pestilence
and death, populatedby skeletonsand demonswho rise from
the earth to tormentChrist. Referringonce again to Rem-
brandt, this time to his print The Three Crosses, Ensor
suggests that Christ'scrucifixionled not to salvationbut to
the returnof evil, as personifiedby vile demonswhocavortin
the right foreground,claw at Christ'shead, and defecate on
his openwoundas he hangs helplesslyon the cross. Although
Ensordoes not yet give Christ his own features, it is obvious
by the manner in which he represents this scene that the
artistalreadyidentifieswith the public tortureand ridiculeof
this religiousfigure.
As I have writtenelsewhere, throughhis identification
with Christ, Ensor representedhis alienationfrom his con-
temporarymilieu and from the Belgian avant-gardegroup
Les Vingt (Les XX) of which he was a foundingmember.5
This disaffectionincreased in 1888, when none of his works
was hung at Les XX until two weeks afterthe openingof the
group'sannualsalon. Comingat the same time thatthe group
championedGeorges Seurat'sNeo-Impressionistmanifesto,
Sunday Afternoonon the Isle of La GrandeJatte (1886,
Chicago, The Art Institute), this "rejection"by his col-
leagues provokedEnsor to begin his monumentalEntry of
ChristintoBrusselsin 1889 (fig. 6). In this painting, Ensoras
Christ triumphantlyenters Brussels in the midst of a Mardi
Gras celebration, while on a balcony in the background
revelersvomitand defecate on a bannerbearing the Vingtist
emblem.
Withthis painting, Ensorallied himself withthe tradi-
tion of moral satire found in Northernart. After 1888 he
employedexaggeration,distortion,and caricatureas well as
scatologicalreferencesto commentupon a society which he
saw as conformist,conservative,and hypocritical. As these
images grew more political, Ensor's individualist ideology
assumed a more anarchistic tone.
Like manyof his contemporaries,Ensorneverpublicly
proclaimedhis political views, but he associated with anar-
chists fromthe beginning of his career.Ensorfirst learnedof
the theories of Elisee Reclus, the geographerand anarcho-
communist, in the late 1870s when he came to Brussels to
studyat the Academy.6 Later,in 1886, Ensorreadexcerptsof
Prince Kropotkin'sWordsof a Revolutionaryin the Brussels
avant-gardejournallArt moderne.While these contactsedu-
cated Ensoron the fundamentalsof anarcho-communistthe-
ory, at Les XX he learned the strategiesof anarchistaction.
Les XX had declared themselves an anarchist group when
they formedin 1884, and throughouttheir ten salons they
utilized a variety of tactics, including hanging red flags
outsidetheirsalon and printingthe coverof theircataloguein
red to represent their activities to the Belgian public as
radicaland revolutionary.Like the anarcho-communisttheo-
rists, Les XX did not outline a specific way for artists to
visualize their political beliefs. Instead, the group pro-
claimed the freedomof individualexpressionwhile actively
promotingthe social role of art.
Althoughin agreementwiththe socialist goals forclass
equalityand the collective ownershipof the meansof produc-
tion, anarcho-communisttheoryrejected the socialist model
of collectivity. Instead, they called for small associationsof
individualsto forminto harmoniousfederations.In anarchist
theory, the free individual became an agent for social
change. The anarchist sought an ideal orderwhich would
result in a naturalworldfoundedupon the harmonybetween
the individualand society, a "lifewithoutmasters"as Reclus
termedit, where a social accord wouldarise "fromthe free
association of individuals and groups, conformingto the
needs and interestsof each and all."7In the anarchist'sview,
until this ideal order was created, each individual must
continueto struggleagainst all formsof political, economic,
and personalauthorityby means of direct action or "propa-
ganda by the deed."
Ensor'sindividualismand personalrevoltagainst au-
thorityis first visualized via his idiosyncraticstyle and later
throughhis identificationwithChrist. By the late eighties the
artist'sanarchisticanti-authoritarianism and his criticism of
contemporaryBelgian society is embodied in scatological
imagery.Designed to affrontboth his colleagues at Les XX
FIG.7 JamesEnsor,Pestedessous, peste dessus,peste partout(Plaguebelow,
plagueabove,plagueall around),1888, coloredpencil,8Y4x 12 inches.
MuseumvoorSchoneKunsten,Antwerp.
Koninklijk
andthe middle-class public who attendedthe group'ssalons,
these works can be seen as Ensor's anarchist bombs, his
51
"propaganda by the deed"intendedto disruptand undermine
the status quo.
In Peste dessous, peste dessus, peste partout (Plague
below, plague above, plague all around)of 1888 (fig. 7),
Ensorsatirizes middle-class decorum. Based upon a photo-
graphtaken on a groupouting to Bruges, Ensorportrayshis
sister Mitcheand his friends Willy Finch and Marietteand
Ernest Rousseau seated on a bench by the sea. Their enjoy-
mentof the sun andfresh sea air is interruptedby the billious
fumes that emanatefromthe bodies and feet of the fishermen
on the left and the ragged motherand child on the right.
Addingto these noxiousodorsare puddlesof urine and a pile
of feces on the ground beneath the bench. The properly
disposed representativesof the middle class appear obliv-
ious, however,to the polluted atmospherethat surrounds
them, as well as to the povertyand wretchedconditionsof the
less fortunate whose presence so clouds their pursuit of
leisure.
As Alain Corbinhas pointed out in his study of the
social significance of odor, in the nineteenth century smell
differentiatedstatus and living space. While the secretions
of the poorwereoftenassociated withexcrement,the absence
of odorpresupposedthe wealth and educationof the middle
class. As Corbinshows, the movementtowarddeodorization
and sanitation(in which Belgiumplayeda leading roleduring
this period) was also a repressive campaign designed to
controlbehaviorand perpetuateintolerance.8Yeteven as the
bourgeoisiesought olfactorylimitationson contacts between
classes, the lowerclasses asserted the benefitsof their fetid
position. Not only was excrementa valuablecommoditythat
the poorgatheredand sold for profit,but also, as evidenced
by the Shrovetidepractice of throwingwaste and excrement
and farting audibly, the masses used odor to declare their
revoltagainstthe repressionof middle-class propriety.Given
these associations with odor, the legend "Plague below,
ART JOURNAL
52
FIG. 8 JamesEnsor,TheStrike,1888, coloredpencil,13% x 27 inches.Koninklijk
MuseumvoorSchoneKunsten,Antwerp.

plague above, plague all around,"writtenat the top of this In additionto commentingupon social differenceand
drawing,takes on an ironicdoublemeaning, witheach group oppression, Ensor also uses scatologicalreferencesto criti-
viewing the other as pestilence.9 cize the conformityof Belgian society. In DestroyingAngel
In The Strike, or Massacreof the Fishermenof Ostend (fig. 9), a printof 1889, Ensortakes on the Catholicchurch.
(fig. 8), also of 1888, Ensor turns his attention to contempo- Here the miter and flowing beard position the angel as a
rary events. This large composite drawing refers to the Au- cipher of Catholic patriarchalauthority.Below this eques-
gust 1887 strike called by Ostend fishermen to protest the use trian figure a crowd of people raise their hands in appeal
of their fishing areas by the British. In the course of the while simultaneously baring their bottoms to defecate en
strike, several fishermen were killed. In his drawing, Ensor masse. In this mannerEnsorviscerally describes the acqui-
merges reality with fantasy as he juxtaposes the bloody escence and fear that in his view resulted fromthe church's
repression by the police with the imagined revenge of the authoritarianapproachto spirituality, a demandfor compli-
townspeople, who defecate or vomit fish on the invaders. ance that led to the loss of individualism so essential to
Whereas the men and women of Ostend are given heroic Ensor'sartistic, spiritual, and political vision.
poses, the police are shown as brutal agents of state authority Alimentationdoctrinaire (Doctrinal feeding) of 1889
who surround and overwhelm the small group of protesters, (fig. 10) is even more explicit in its assessment of social,
slaughtering all who stand in their way. political, and religious deceit. As indicated by the title
Once again, Ensor illustrates the victorious and liber-
ating qualities of waste matter. Whether as an aspect em-
ployed to ridicule the pretensions of the middle class as in
Peste dessous . . . or as a means of exacting revenge on
oppressive state authority as in The Strike, the scatological
acts as an equalizing element, raising or lowering all to the
same level. At the same time, Ensor associates the vulgar
aspects of defecation, elimination, and vomit with an instinc-
tual, unrefined state, a way of living, which in the artist's
view appears more in tune with the natural order of things
than the artificial leisure of the bourgeoisie or the violent
actions of a repressive state. Like the anarchists whose
beliefs he shared, Ensor sought in these works to replace the
values of the old social order with representations of a new,
more elemental society based on natural law and on a har-
FIG. 9 JamesEnsor,TheDestroyingAngel,1889, etching,4% x 6? inches.
mony among classes. Cabinetdes Estampes,BibliothequeRoyale,Brussels.

FALL1993
 disenfranchisedlowerclass, excrementbecomes a symbolof
the foul-smelling,anal processes of the rulingorder.Here, as
the Flemish say, "zij schijten in een pot"(they all shit in the
same pot).
Alimentationdoctrinaireis Ensor'smost overtpolitical
statementand his most direct use of scatologicalimagery.By
the mid-1890s, whenhis artbegan to sell and he gained some
critical and public acceptance, Ensor's use of scatological
imagerydeclined.10While he continuedto make scatological
referencesin later works, they are not as confrontationalas
the images discussed here. Just as the anarchiststurned in
the 1890s to a moreconstructiveand less destructivemodel
for social change, so too does Ensor's criticism of society
growmoregeneraland less abusive. Yeteven with the artist's
FIG. 10 JamesEnsor,Alimentationdoctrinaire
(Doctrinalfeeding) 1889, mellowing,the ordureof anarchythat acts as a sign for his
etching,7 x 934 inches.Cabinetdes Estampes,BibliothequeRoyale,Brussels. sexually repressed, alienated, and foolish self and for his
personal revolt against social and political repression re-
writtenat the top right, this etching, like TheStrike,refersto mains fresh even today.
specific social issues facing Belgiumin 1889. On the edge of Notes
53
a bowl, the artist has broughttogetherrepresentativesof the 1. See, e.g., Self-Portrait in FloweredHat (1883, Ostend, Museum voor Schone
Kunsten)and MyPortrait(1884, Brussels, Musees royauxdes Beaux-Arts),as well as
politicalstatusquo:the Liberalparty,the Catholicparty,and an 1888 photograph of the artist in a top hat standing in a crowd, reproducedby Diane
the king, LeopoldII. Three figures hold cards which allude Lesko in James Ensor, The Creative Years(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
to prominenttopics of the period. On the left, a generalhas a Press, 1985), 29, fig. 25.
2. MarshallNeal Myers,"JamesEnsor's'The Tribulationsof Saint Anthony':Permuta-
sign that reads "Service personnel" (personal service), a tions of the ExcrementalVision," ArtsMagazine 54, no. 4 (December 1979): 84.
referenceto the practiceof wealthyfamilies paying the lower 3. As quotedin ibid., 85. In his conclusion, Myersconnects the poem to the subject of
Saint tribulation,suggesting that the environmentdescribed by the surface
classes to servemilitaryterms. Boththe Liberaland Catholic of theAnthony's
painting might be an allegory of female pudenda(ibid., 89). The entire poem
parties supportedthis privilege, as extendingthe draftwould can be found in Paul Haessaerts, James Ensor (New York:Abrams, 1959), 360.
4. In linking womenwithfecal matter,this 1887 painting, as well as the poem, written
have resulted forthe Liberals in a loss of supportamongthe in 1925, makes overt the artist's problematicrelationship with women. Although
propertiedclass, which alone could vote, while forthe Catho- individual women, including his immediate family, Mme Rousseau, and later Au-
Boogaerts, Emma Lambotte,and Blanche Hertoghe,played importantroles in
lics, paid substitutionwas a wayof subsidizingthe poor.Next gusta
his career, Ensor often represented women as a subject in a covert, sadistic, or
to the general Ensor has drawna bourgeois gentlemanwho voyeuristic manner. Indicative of his own troubledsexuality and sense of isolation,
Ensor's of women is of central importanceto an understandingof the
grasps a card labeled "Suffrageuniversel" (universal suf- artist's representation
perspective on contemporarysocial values.
frage). Extensionof the franchise was a key platformof the 5. Susan M. Canning, "Vervreemdingen expressionistische visie: Ensor, Les Vingt
socialist Belgian WorkersParty (Parti Ouvrier Belge, or en de kritiek," in James Ensor, exh. cat. (Antwerp:KoninklijkMuseumvoorSchone
Kunsten, 1983), 31-56. Ensor first visualized his estrangementfrom Les XX in his
P.O.B.). The Catholicparty generallyopposed extendingthe drawingCalvary(1886, Belgium, privatecollection), when he included the Vingtist
voteon the groundsthat it wouldstrengthenthe socialists and logo on the back of one of the foregroundfigures. Ensor believed that owing to their
lack of critical support, the grouphad led conservativecommentators-most notably
underminechurch authority.For the conservativeLiberals, Fetis, whose lance
pierces Christ/Ensor'sside-to attack him in the press.
universal suffrage was tantamountto anarchismas it would 6. Ensor came in contact with Reclus's writings throughhis friendship with Ernest
and MarietteRousseau, whomhe met throughthe artistand writerTheodoreHannon.
give economic control and thereforepolitical power to the The Rousseaus taught at the Free University in Brussels and frequented anarchist
lowerclasses. Onthe right, Ensorhas placed the representa- circles. Reclus often stayed with them when he visited Brussels, althoughin the late
tives of the Catholicchurch, a bishopand a universityrector. 1870s, when Ensorwas a frequentguest at the Rousseauhome, Reclus was in exile in
Switzerland,and the two probablynever met.
The rector holds a sign reading "Instructionobligatoire" 7. "Lavie sans les maltres, pourla societe ainsi que l'individu... l'accordsocial...
... de l'association libre des individus et des groupes, se conformantaux
(compulsoryeducation),an allusion to the struggle between resultant
besoins et interets de chacun et de tous";Elisee Reclus, Correspondance:3. Sep-
the Catholicand Liberalparties for controlover the funding tembre1889-Juillet 1905, ed. Paul Reclus (Paris: Alfred Coste, 1925), 122.
and orientationof public education. In the center of this 8. Alain Corbin, TheFoul and theFragrant:Odorand theFrenchSocial Imagination
(Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniversityPress, 1986), 139-60.
group, Ensor has drawn Leopold II, who, as the head of 9. Althoughpeste is most commonlytranslated as "plague,"or "pestilence," in this
government,leads these representativesof the rulingclass in drawingEnsor implies as well a colloquial meaning. In spoken language, peste refers
to childrenor annoying individuals, in the sense of "pests," or "nuisances."Thus in
defecatingon the eager crowdthat has assembled below. Peste dessous ... Ensor playfully alludes both to fears of contagionand the irritating
In this print, Ensor addresses the beholder in an interruptionof pleasure broughton by the mixing of social classes.
10. Interestingly,when he was made a baron in 1929, Ensor attemptedto buy back
aggressive, inflammatoryway. He bares the buttocksof the Alimentation doctrinaireand withdrawall proofsof this print from circulation.
political, military,and religious leaders of the Belgian state
while titling the scene with a plaque and subtitling it with SUSAN M. C A N N I NG is an associate professor in the
cards to underscorehis point. He also invertsthe scatological Departmentof Art at the College of New Rochelle, New York.
referent. Rather than a sign of the natural power of the She is currently researching a book on James Ensor.

ARTJOURNAL
 MERDE! The Caricatural
Attack against Emile Zola
Norman L. Kleeblatt
ola's frankness and political engagementcontrasted
sharplywiththe rarefiedproseand alienatedspiritof
the younger generationof Symbolist writers. The
eminentNaturalistauthorcounseledthese writersagainstthe
meandering, elegant lines that disguised their skepticism
and urgedthemto express directly their indignationwith the
age: just "say shit to the century."'The most notoriously
54 maligned but neverthelessmost popular writer of his day,
Zolacertainlyknewof whathe spoke. Notonlywas his fiction
steeped in intimatephysiologicaland salacioussexual detail,
but his own public image, especially that established in
popular caricature, had itself become synonymous with
scatology.
Indeed, afterSarahBernhardt,the well-knownactress
of the period, Zola held the dubiousdistinctionof being the
most caricaturedperson in late nineteenth-centuryFrance.
He actually relished the mockingattacksmade on him.2 In
fact, Zola'sown commentabouthis addictionto insults from
the press is peppered throughoutthe critical writing about
him.3 From the appearance of his first successful novel
LAssommoirin 1876 through his journalistic campaign in
defense of Alfred Dreyfus,Zola'sdistinctiveface and corpu-
lentbody had becomethe continualbruntof the caricaturist's
crayon. And a sizable portionof these images specifically
associated Zola with sex, dirt, and excrement.
The aggravatedvehemenceand vulgarityof an already
bombasticpress resulted directly fromthe radicallyrevised
1881 laws governing France'sfourth estate. A reaction to
years of restrictions and censorship, the new journalistic
freedomsmade litigationfor libel nearly impossible for vir-
tually any spuriousjournalism either writtenor drawn.4In
fact, the French press during the last two decades of the
nineteenth century may have been the most open and the
most sensational of any Westernnation during the modern
era. It was only its libelous manipulationsduringthe Dreyfus
Affairthat caused a returnto greatergovernmentalcontrol.
Followingthe lead of remarkablyinaccurateand often scan-
dalous journalism, much of the caricatural imagery that
flourished then seems repugnant even by today's relaxed
standards.
The scatologicalcaricaturesof Zola correspondto the
alreadyreckless verbaldiatribes against a writer"forwhom
FALL1993
flowingblood and flying shit seemed as naturalas the straw
on the earth."5His workswere condemnedby both intellec-
tuals and ordinaryreaders. "Depraved,""obscene,""lewd,"
"filthy,""pornographic,"and "immoral"are just a sampling
of the adjectives used to describe his writing.
The graphic language of his literature,a hallmarkof
Naturaliststyle, was cited frequentlyas the reasonforZola's
continued rejection from the French Academy.6Although
popularinternationally,his workswere condemnedoutside
Franceas well; they were listed in the Vatican'sIndexLibro-
rumProhibitorum,7 and denouncedbeforethe BritishParlia-
ment.8 The tone for all this Zola-bashingwas set by Louis
Ulbachin his 1868 reviewof Threse Raquinandthe Natural-
ist schoolin the historicarticlein LeFigaro pertinentlytitled
"PutridLiterature."Ulbach, writing under the pseudonym
Ferragus,called Naturalistliteraturemonstrousand claimed
that Zola's prose manifested the "eloquence of a charnel
house."9
From Anatole France and Henry James to the lowest-
common-denominator gutter presses, Zola's work provoked
persistent displeasure. This irritation is clearly mirrored in
the reams of caricatural rhetoric, from amusing satire to
scatological imagery of various degrees. These visual arti-
facts encompass a broad spectrum later examined in the
writings of Georges Bataille. They range from general notions
of waste and excess to more specific categories, including
utilitarian objects associated with bodily waste, a body of
imagery pertaining to pigs, and finally excrement itself. This
article examines only a few illustrations drawn from each
category.
The possibilities for criticism of Zola seemed limitless,
and obviously attacking him by word and image was a highly
profitable endeavor. The minor writer Antoine Laporte, a
defrocked priest and secondhand book dealer, actually pub-
lished arguments against Zola and his school in book form.
Le Naturalisme, ou L'immoralite litteraire: Emile Zola,
l'homme et l'oeuvre appeared in 1894. Laporte produced
another book two years later titled Zola contre Zola, once
again chastising the Naturalist author. E. Grenieux, the
designer of the book's cover, took pains to illustrate plainly
the all-too-common arguments associating Zola's works with
filth and, by extension, the reasons for his continued rejec-
 COUR D'ASSISES POLICE CORRECTIONNELLE

i Emile ZOLAet les DREYFUS

o LA DEBACLEDES TRAITRES
LE7I'TIIE OUJVETE
a iltalien ZOLA,dit l1e IereLa Trouifle, le papa LiaMloquelte, t
le, Ptomane, ec.,
X Of/ifcierde la Ligion d'honneur, Candidat perpituel at lAcafdmie franfaise
. ex-president de la Socie de d (eas d e Lettrees, pornographe S. D.D.
L en titre edu atl.raisme, etc. - Ptr 'Ati er aoquitt de ZOLA contre ZOLA.

~fi.i
,i _:~
-,
.. IB1.,...Q. 3
YET raePea t? 'r -. r8
B . i

tionfromthe FrenchAcademy(fig. 1).10While this imagehas

notyet descendedintothe extremescatologicalunderworld,it
is one of the few examplesof the direct illustrationof literary
criticism. Cleverly linked to human or animal excrement,
.~ _. :
Grenieux's cover depicts Zola overseeing the sewage con-
tainers, or tinettes, described by Gabriel Weisbergin this
issue (see p. 37,fig. 3). Here Zola is shownas the two-sided
55
personality so frequently mentioned in discussions of his
character.1 The bourgeois, well-tailored aspirant to the
FrenchAcademy,crownedwith a laurel wreathand sporting
a dignified cane, is stoppednearthe entranceto the Pantheon
by his alter-ego-the apron-clad, broom-wieldingsludge
collector. This Zola, the sanitationworker,presides over a
virtualblockadeof tinettes.Labeledwith the names of Zola's
variousnovels, these metal receptacles are emblems of the
foul excess and worthlessnessof the Naturalistwriter'sliter-
ary output.12 N E'
As opposed to the subtly contained scatologicalrefer-
ence of the virtually unknownillustratorGrenieux, manyof
the morenoted late nineteenth-centuryFrenchcaricaturists I E. Grenieux, book cover of Antoine Laporte, Zola contre Zola, 1896,
F IG.
such as Albert Robida, Andre Gill, Jean Veber, Charles photomechanical print. Mus6e Camavalet, Paris.

Gilbert-Martin,and Charles-LucienLeandreare said to have

concentratedon satirizing Zola withoutever succumbing to
scatologicalimagery.13It mayactuallybe theirtasteful satire
that has made them more appealing to twentieth-century
historians and amateurs. Nevertheless, such clear-cut dis-
tinctionsaboutthe extentto which these caricaturists'imag-
ery is considered more acceptable or not might be mincing
wordsin the definitionof scatology.As with Grenieux-and
as will soon become evident at least where Andre Gill is
concerned-some of the images allude to sordid elements
connectedwith scatologicalissues withoutdirectly depicting
them.
On the other hand, an artist such as Alfred Le Petit
(1841-1909), hardly a householdwordto today'sstudentsof
the era, is an illustrator who allowed himself to plunge
headlonginto baser representationalinstincts. His drawing
publishedin Le Greloton August22, 1880, is entitledBureau
de r6dactiond'un journal a la mode (Editorial office of a
stylish magazine) and depicts one of the mainstays of anti-
Zola scatological imagery:swine.14Seen here is an Animal
Farmof bourgeoispigs seated arounda table in the corporate
headquartersof a fashionablejournal.The animalschurnout
filthy prose and add it to the heap of Naturalist literature
already on the table. Meanwhile, a messenger pig enters
carryinga rejected editionclearly marked"pasassezcochon'
(notenoughfilth). As in most caricatures, the message here
reads clearly. Now that the public has acquired a taste for
Naturalistvulgarity,even these porcinewriterscannotcom-
pose prose indecent enough to satisfy populardemand.
This type of swine imagery, cochonnerieas it was
called, was common in both visual and verbal arguments
againstZola'swriting. The somewhatarchaicword,foundin
Zola'swritingsas well, alludes to filth whenused with regard
to childrenand animals and to sexual behaviorwhen refer-
ring to adults. The latter,highly pejorativesense is employed
only in crude parlance.l5 By associating the authorwith a
term that is age-, species-, and class-specific, the remark
here insinuates Zola's immaturity,crassness, and lack of
refinement.Pigs, as visual metaphors,have been associated
frequentlywith individuals or marginalizedgroups to make
them seem filthy and unsuitable. Such imageryhas sources

ART JOURNAL
56
FI . 2 AlfredLePetit,Ah! Ah!MonsieurZola,C'estvilaince que tu fais lA(Ah!Ah! Mr.Zola,whatyou aredoingthereis repulsive),text and illustrationin
print.BibliothequeNationale,Paris.
ca. 1898, letterpressand photomechanical
L'Etrille,
dating back to the Middle Ages. One of the best-known
examples is perhaps that of the Judensau, or Jewishsow, of
the late fifteenth century. The classic image of this type
printed in Frankfurtin 1628 depicts Jewish childrenbeing
suckled by their porkypet as their elders poke their fingers
into virtually every orifice of this forbiddenanimal.16Such
images certainly aimed to humiliate Jews and to concretize
the church'scensure of their religion in much the same way
that cochonneriewas meant to discredit Zola, the man, his
writings, and the entire Naturalistenterprise.
Le Petit, the vicious caricaturist and enemy of Zola,
also ranked amongthe staunch anti-Dreyfusardillustrators
when Zola made his daring charges against the Frenchgov-
ernmentin 1898. Le Petit's illustrationin L'Etrille(fig. 2)
leaves behind all limits of proprietyin linking Zola to estab-
lished associations with cochonnerie-sodomy and merde.
The previous rendering of executive pigs seems mild-
manneredby comparisonwith the sexual and excretoryas-
pects of this image. One might rememberthat the earlier
drawingwas created beforethe laws regulatingpresses were
relaxed. Here, a radicallyforeshortenedpig has mountedthe
bespectacled Naturalistfrom behind; both man and beast
stand astride the French tricolor in an affront to French
FALL
1993
Abet LB PZT1T
patriotism,while the residue of this unnaturalunion is an
all-too-visible globule of dung. The reference to Alfred
Dreyfusin the accompanyinglyrics situates this illustration
between Zola's article "J'accuse"of January13, 1898, and
the generalamnesty declared to all involvedin the Dreyfus
Affairon November17, 1899.
At least as visually repugnantis Zola's caricature in
the series of postersentitledMuseedes horreurs.This showsa
caricaturalyet naturalisticrenderingof Zola'sface, his body
transformedinto thatof a pig (fig. 3). In this suite of overfifty
posters, Zola's porcine representationkeeps good company
with otherwell-knownDreyfusardswho, followingthe com-
promise after Alfred Dreyfus's second trial, had become
prominentin the ThirdRepublic.The posters, offeredweekly
by subscription beginning in 1899, used characterassas-
sination in an attemptto discredit the new Frenchpolitical
structure.Included in the standardformulaof clearly delin-
eated faces with the bodies of mammals, serpents, and fish
were such luminaries as PremierRene Waldeck-Rousseau,
the author, collector, and politician Joseph Reinach, the
editorand future presidentof France Georges Clemenceau,
and the socialist leader Jean Jaures amongothers. Lavishly
produced,these hand-coloredlithographscreated by an art-
ist under the pseudonymof Lenepveuprovedso incendiary
thatthey were eventuallyconfiscated by the police, who also
stopped their production.Nevertheless, the posters served
their nasty ends. They circulated for over a year prior to
foreclosureof this inflammatoryenterprise.17
TheKing of Pigs, as the Zola poster is entitled, intro-
duces one of the most popular utilitarian articles in the
repertoireof scatological Naturalistcaricature-the cham-
ber pot. Here Lenepveuhas turnedZola, seated on a bin of
his "trashy"books, into a painter.The image of the literary
artist may refer to the author's earlier championing of
EdouardManet and Paul Cezanne and more specifically to
Zola's novel L'Oeuvre,in which the protagonistis partially
modeledon his old friend Cezanne. Lenepveusubstitutes a
chamberpot forthe artist'spalette and the map of Francefor
his canvas, the formerproudlymarked"CacaInternational,"
a referencethat once again mixes childish associationswith
smut. For his depiction of Zola, Lenepveu obviously took
inspirationfrom one of the caricatures in a suite published
the previousJuly by Bernardet Cie, Paris (CoussotCollec-
tion, Paris).TitledLeRomanexperimental(The experimental
novel),it showsa full-lengthfigure of Zola as a painterbefore
his easel. The author wields a chamber pot as he flings
excrementalpigment at his canvas.
Zola was certainly not the first authorto be associated
with filth and excess, nor was Naturalismthe first literary
movementto be so ridiculed. Thirtyyearsearlier,AndreGill
had portrayedChampfleury(1821-1889), the championof
Realism and coincidentally an importantearly author on
caricature, soaking his feet in an unappealing, soupy mess
thatdrips froman overflowingcauldron.18 The inscriptionon
Lenepveu'schamber-potpalette, especially when associated
with Zola, was immediately recognizable to contemporary
audiences as referringto Naturalism. By contrast, Champ-
fleury'smoregeneralizedvessel and its less specific contents
needed to be clearly marked with the name of the then
offendingliteraryand artistic movement-Realisme-to be
properlyunderstood.
One of the most famous vehicles for images against
Zola, and perhaps the one that reached the highest artistic
watermark,was the short-livedjournal Psst . . . !19 This
illustrated magazine was foundedby two artist friends, the
painterJean-LouisForainand the illustratorCarand'Ache(a
pseudonymfor EmmanuelPoire), only five days after Zola's
57
FIG. 3 V.Lenepveu,Mus6e des horreurs(Museumof horrors)-no. 4, LeRoi
des porcs(Thekingof pigs),1900, hand-coloredlithograph.JewishMuseum,
NewYork.
inflammatoryarticle "J'accuse"appearedin the newspaper
L1urore.A weekly, it served as part of a direct attackon the
intensified politicization of the Dreyfus Affair that Zola's
article had unleashed. While Forain'ssatiric illustration
steers clear of vulgarity and for that mattereven humor,20
Carand'Achewas the morescatologicallyorientedof the pair.
He frequently depicted Zola mired in his own feces. One
example is an illustrationtitled Le Maitre interviewein the
issue of June 24, 1899. Here Zola is shown with dabs of
excrementflying in every direction as the author himself
seems undulyperplexed. Anotherexcrement-specificimage
appearedon July 1, 1899, titled Les ImpressionsdAngleterre
with a captionreferringto "dirtyingtheir toilets."
Oneof the best-knownscatologicalcaricaturesand one
that flirts with humor and charm is the multivalentimage
titled Coucou,le voild! (fig. 4). Publishedon June 10, 1899,
shortly after the Court of Appeals had revoked the 1894
verdict against Alfred Dreyfus and ordered a new court-
martial,the drawingmixes allegoricalreferencewith images
of popular children'stoys, cleaning implements,and bath-
room fixtures. In this inventive mixed metaphor, Caran
d'Achehas placed the Naturalistauthorin one of the locations
that Zola'scaricaturalimage frequented-the latrine. Zola
here is turned into a jack-in-the-boxpopping out of a toilet
bowland holdinga puppetlikefigure of Alfred Dreyfus.Near
ART JOURNAL

58
FIG. 4 Carand'Ache,Coucou,le voil!A(Cuckoo,therehe is!Xfromthe journal
Psst... 1,1899,photomechanicalprint.JewishMuseum,NewYork.
Zola are a broomand a toilet brushand holder,as strokesof
Caran dAche's "crayon"around Zola indicate the spray of
sullied waterthat the author'sforcedejection has splattered.
In his effort to make Zola a laughing stock, Caran dAche
cleverly turns the classic image of Truthemergingfrom a
well-an iconographicmainstay in the visual struggle on
both sides of the DreyfusAffair-into a referenceto a baser
recent invention.The image shows the technologicalheir of
the chamberpot, the rathernewand then still rareappliance,
the indoortoilet.21
Throughoutthese caricatures there exists the curious
paradoxthat vulgar images and prose are used to reinforce
precisely the accusationsof indecency and immoralitymade
against Zola's literatureand journalism. These were major
concerns for "rightist"critics in whom the novelist'swork
promptedreactionaryfears that it would subvert bourgeois
mythsbased uponthe repressionof boththe humanbodyand
the lowerclasses.22 The obsession with excrementmight be
explainedsimply as an expressionof bad taste commonin the
late nineteenth century.23However,it seems more complex
than that. Scatology,in its skillful deploymentagainst Zola,
actually extends the assertion proposedby GeorgesBataille
which associates cleanliness and issues aboutsexualityand
the body with social repressionand colonialist attitudes,24
precisely the notionsthat Zola strove to debunk. _,
FALL1993
Notes
I wouldlike to thank Anita Friedman, formersenior research associate at the Jewish
Museum, and Irene Z. Schenck, research associate at the Jewish Museum, who both
providedinvaluable assistance with the research forthis paper. StephenBrown,who
is currentlycompleting his doctoraldissertationon MaximilienLuce, offeredseveral
interestingpieces of informationfromwhich the article has benefited. Thanksalso for
their help to Jean-PierreLeduc-Adineand Danielle Coussotat the CentreNationalede
Recherche Scientifique, Centre d'Etudes sur Zola et le Naturalisme, in Paris. I
acknowledge with appreciationthe help given by Emily Whittemoreand Elizabeth
Kihara.
1. "Ils ont ... tout contre eux: le progres, puisqu'ils pretendentreculer; la bour-
geoisie, la democratie,puisqu'ils sonts obscurs. Si encore, malgre cela, ils avaientle
courage, eux qui n'aimentpas leur sieole, de dire merdeau siecle, mais de lui dire
carrement";Emile Zola, "Enquete sur l'evolutionlitteraire,"L'Echode Paris, March
31, 1891, in Henri Mitterand, ed., Emile Zola, oeuvres completes:12, Oeuvres
critiques:3. Salons et etudes de critique d'art, 1866-1896 (Paris: Cercle de livre
precieux, 1969), 652-55.
2. David Baguley, Critical Essays on Emile Zola (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986), 3.
3. Baguley, Critical Essays, 1; and Pierre Baudson, "Les Romans de Zola et la
Caricaturede leur temps," Gazettedes Beaux-Arts, series 6, 94 (September1979):
69, are two works in which the authorbegins his analysis by using Zola'scomment
"avalerle crapaud,"which loosely translates as "swallowinginsults."
4. Jacques Lethevre, La Caricature et la presse sous la IIIeme Republique(Paris:
Armand Colin, 1961), 77-78. For a discussion of the situation prior to 1881, see
RobertJustin Goldstein, "The Debate over Censorshipof Caricaturein Nineteenth-
CenturyFrance,"Art Journal 48 (Spring 1989), 9-15.
5. Graham King, Gardenof Zola: Emile Zola and His Novelsfor English Readers
(London:Barrie and Jenkins, 1978), 222.
6. Alan Schom, A Biographyof Emile Zola (New York:Henry Holt, 1987), 132.
7. Ibid., 155.
8. Ibid., 114-15.
9. Baguley, Critical Essays, 3, 25-30; and Schom, A Biography,44.
10. John Grand-Carteret,Zola en images (Paris: Societe d'Edition et Publications,
1908), 85.
11. Zola's personality has frequently come under scrutiny for the curious double
standard of his personal life-style and bourgeois ethics on the one hand, and the
bluntness of both his themes and prose on the other. His life-style with its proper
materialaccoutrements,including a graciousParisian apartmentand a countryestate
in Medan, made him seem ratherbourgeois on the surface, especially as a one-time
starving writer. Even the difficult reconciliation of the existence of his mistress,
Jeanne Rozerot, and their childrenwith his steadfast obligationsto his wife has been
interpretedas a commonbourgeoisquandaryof the last century.The otherside of this
psychologicalequationrelates to his political engagementwith the social problemsof
urban life and of the workingclasses and peasants, his need to do extensive on-site
research in the areas concerned, and his very blunt writings about sexual and power
issues. For a furtherdiscussion of this question, see Schom, A Biography,98-106,
139-45.
12. Grand-Carteret,Zola en images, 114.
13. Baudson, "Les Romans de Zola," 70.
14. Grand-Carteret,Zola en images, 85.
15. I thank Danielle Coussot at the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique,
Centred'Etudes sur Zola et le Naturalisme,Paris, fordiscussing with me the nuances
of the term cochonnerie.
16. EduardFuchs, Die Judenin derKarikatur(Munich:Albert Langen, 1921), 8-10.
17. RuthMalhotra,Horror-Galerie: Ein Bestiarium derdrittenFranz6sischenRepublik
(Dortmund:HarenbergKommunikation,1980), 7-26, 34-35.
18. L'Eclipse,March29, 1868, cover illustration.
19. An aesthetic evaluationof Forains drawingsforPsst . .. is given in GordonN.
Ray, TheArtof the FrenchIllustratedBook, 1700 to 1914, exh. cat., 2 vols. (NewYork:
PierpontMorganLibrary,1982), 2:437-39.
20. James Sherrycategorizes differenttypes of caricature in "FourModesof Carica-
ture: Reflections upon a Genre," Bulletin of Research in the Humanities 87, no. 1
(1986-87). One of his fourtypes, satirical caricature, might be considered a fitting
characterizationof Foraids imagery in Psst . . .!
21. Eugen Weber,France, Fin de Siscle (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1986),
58-59. Weberdiscusses here the rarityof indoorlavatories.
22. Baguley, Critical Essays, 5.
23. Baudson, "Les Romans de Zola," 70.
24. Georges Bataille, The AccursedShare: An Essay on GeneralEconomy, trans.
RobertHurley (New York:Zone Books, 1991), 67-78.
NORMAN L. KLEEBLATT is curatorof collectionsat the
JewishMuseum in New York. He organizedthe 1987 exhibition
"TheDreyfusAffair:Art, Truth,and Justice."
Potty- Talk in Parisian Plays
HenrySomm'sLaBerlinede I'emigreandAlfredJarry'sUburoi
Elizabeth K. Menon
W HenrySommand Alfred Jarrydied in Paris
~~hen
in 1907, theywerepenniless andforgottenby all
but their closest friends. However,the contrast
between the life and workof these two artist/playwrightsis
graphicallydemonstratedby the conditionsunderwhich they
passed away. Henry Somm, best known as a lesser-known
Impressionist, was sixty-three years old when he died "of
natural causes" in his atelier at 27 boulevardde Roche-
chouart.Alfred Jarry,friend of Picasso and a memberof the
avant-garde,died at thirty-fourin indescribablefilth withina
closet-sized space betweentwofloorsin an apartmenthouse.
Since he was paralyzedfromthe waist down(the exact cause
of which is not clear), he had lost controlof his bowels. After
notbeing seen forseveraldays, Jarry,whenfoundby friends,
was covered in his own feces. This was a sad, albeit fitting
ending to "Pere Ubu," who had shocked the theater-going
public in 1896 with the wordmerdre(withan extra"r"added
foremphasis),when it was pronouncedat the openingcurtain
forJarry'splay Ubu roi.
This study will consider Somm and Jarrytogetheras
contrasts in the use of scatological references in theatrical
productionsat the end of the nineteenthcentury.The purpose
forconsideringboth is twofold.First, the play La Berlinede
l'e'migre(and indeed Henry Somm himself) is worthy of
examination.While the ChatNoircabaret, whereLa Berline
was performed,has received some recent critical attention,
the actual plays producedthere and their significance to the
developmentof the avant-gardetheaterhavenot.1The second
reason to look at La Berline is to reinstate the contextfor
Jarry'sthree plays featuring the scatological virtuoso Ubu.
Overtime, these once avant-gardedramashave grownless
bizarreas they have been viewed within contemporarysoci-
etal contexts. Henry Somm's play, by contrast, shows a
different, more lyrical use of lavatoryideas as presentedin
the theaterten years priorto Jarry'sviolentarrival.While the
style and tone of the two plays are diametrical opposites,
there are points of similarity that need to be identified.
Little research has been done on HenrySomm-if he
is known at all it is for his graphics and watercolors.2Al-
though he wrote stories for the journal Le Chat Noir and
completedplays for the cabaret of the same name, Somm's
literarycontributionshave not been studied. While the life
and workof Alfred Jarryhave been examinedin detail, and
the Ubu plays have been analyzed by no fewer than six
individuals,3the role of the "excrementalreferences"has not
been adequatelyanalyzed.4 This essay addresses the use of
scatology in Somm'splay La Berline de l'emigre (The Em-
igrant'sTravelingCoach)andJarry'sUburoi (KingUbu),Ubu
cocu (UbuCuckolded),and Ubuenchatne(Ubuin Chains).In
the course of discussion the significance of scatological
referencesduringthe period1885-1900 will be probed,and
59
the reasonswhy these artists chose the mediumof the theater
to presenttheir ideas will be clarified.
Henry Somm'splay (which appears to be a musical),
subtitled Jamais troptard pour bienfaire (Nevertoo late to
make good), was presented for the first time in Paris at the
Chat Noir cabaret on Christmas 1885. While Sommhad a
fond interest in the ombreschinoises, or shadowplays, that
were a commonoccurence at the Chat Noir (he wrotefouror
five of these), it is possible that this particularplay was not
destinedforproductionin silhouette.5 The actiontakes place
in a pay toilet (etablissementde water-closets)run by a widow,
Mme Gardetout, and her eighteen-year-old daughter,
Leocadie. As customers enter, Mme Gardetoutcalls out
"Left"or "Right"to guide them to their respective stalls.
Stage directions tell us that sound effects in the form of
"intestinalnoises"(bruitsintestinaux)wereutilized as partof
the production.In addition, a brief scene tells us that in this
establishmentit costs the same to shit as to pee-but this is
dealtwithdelicatelyby stage instructions:"Thesecondclient
begins to leave, but reconsiders and, approachingMme
Gardetout,says a few words in her ear." Mme Gardetout
replies politely:"'It's the same price, monsieur.'"6
Earlyon it is establishedthatwhile the Gardetoutsare
froma lowersocial class than their patrons,the two women
exercise considerablecontroloverthose patrons'movements.
Twice in the opening scene widow Gardetoutdemonstrates
herauthority.She begins by withholdingtoilet paperfromthe
firstclient. She is readinga noveland ignoreshis screamsfor
"THEpaper!"repeatedthree times; the fourthtime he begs:
"Ifyoudon'thaveTHE paper,then give me some newspaper"
(perhaps also a wry comment on the quality of periodical
literature)and then "or a man'shandkerchief."7When this
client comes to pay, she demandsfourtimes the normalrateof
15 centimes. The client arguesbut is toldthathe mustpay by
the numberof times the bell has soundedon his toilet door.
ART JOURNAL
 Wheneverthis is opened a bell rings and because he has membersof differentclasses in society-providing Somm
opened it four times he must pay quadruple,according to with a symbolic referencesystem.
Madame, for "l'administration."The customer then calls It is in the thirdscene thatwe first meet the emigre-a
MmeGardetouta shepherdessbecause she is controllingthe chic client by the name of Waldemarwho appears with his
movementof the "flock"to and fromthe toilet. young negro servant, Bakouk. It appears that the latter
The situation is resolved with the entrance of Jules functionsas a good luck charm against constipation.Each
Cantoisel. He is a youngman who wishes to marryLeocadie time his master enters a toilet to take care of business,
and hopes to make a good impressionon MmeGardetoutby Bakoukchants in a gibberishsuggestive of laterDadaprose:
forcingthe first client to pay up. The heated exchangethat He whopoops
ensues is brokenup by the entranceof Leocadie (whosejob it
is to clean the stalls). Turning his attention to the girl, Having said indifferently
Returnsto France
Cantoisel begins to sing; it becomes clear that love has
blossomedamongthe toilets: Country[of] Hope
He whopoops
[But if I werea client]Leocadiemy love, He whopoops
Oh, you who knowsmy heart beatsfor you; He is a good master
Thesetoilets wouldno longerbe the same,-
But you do not know
Flowersandfragrance, everywhere fragrance andflowers.8 He who poops
The next scene opens with Cantoiselasking Mme Gardetout
60 He whopoops
for Leocadie's hand in marriage. While Mme Gardetout
Having said indifferently
admitsthatCantoiselis a good man, she cannotallowthe two
He who has his vacation
to marrybecause of a horriblesecret: ironyof ironies-the
He who has traveled
womanwho runs the pay toilet is plagued with constipation.
He who is in a hurry
MmeGardetoutexpresses her suffering, which is increased
He whopoops.1
by herconstantawarenessof the successful bowelmovements
of others.This confessionpromptsCantoiselto inquireabout In a twist not unlike that of a Shakespeareancomedy, Wal-
his beloved, to which Madamereplies that Leocadie func- demarturns out to be the long-lostbest friend of Cantoisel's
tionswell.9 Cantoiselis relieved, but is soon confrontedwith father. When Cantoisel tells the emigre of his love for
a further complication. To save face with Leocadie, Mme Leocadie and the reason that they cannot marry, the two
Gardetouthas alwaysimpressed on her that it is betterto be hatch a plan to change Mme Gardetout'smind by having
constipated;althoughnot constipatedherself, the girl must Bakouk propose to Leoc die. Thus Waldemarforces the
thereforemarrya man who is. Cantoisel feels sure that the widowto choose between Cantoisel and the negro, with the
womanis joking and wants to ask Leocadie himself, but is formerbeing selected. All ends happily when Waldemar
met with the followingreply: producesa powderthat cures MmeGardetout'sconstipation.
Bakoukhas the last line in the play: "Ah!ah! ah! Li qu'afait
It's useless, sir. Be that as it may, my mind is made up. A
caca!" (Ah! Ah! Ah! He who has pooped!).12
constipatedman, in everyrespect,appearsto me to be the son- As with mostof the plays at Le ChatNoir,the "reviews"
in-law of my dreams.Leocadiewill only marrya constipated
of La Berline de l'emigre were really advertisementsrun in
man, with whom no unwantednoises will troublethe inti- the
macies of our house. Because, outside of our commercial accompanyingjournal-but one really has to wonderhow
many people would come to an opening night on Christmas
relationship,we will seefew people;it is among ourselvesthat and further,how a play of this nature wouldhave been
we wish to live! Whatwe knowof society inspiresin us only day
received within the contextof the holidayseason. Certainly,
repugnanceand contempt.I answerfor Leocadie:you are, standardsthe scatologicalcontentof Somm'swork
it is true, handsome, young, brilliant, but you are not by today's
seems relativelybenign. In 1885, however,the public perfor-
constipated!0l mance of a play set in and based upon the lavatorywould
It is clear that this family preferslife in a pay toilet to the certainlyhave been shocking-even consideringthe exclu-
increasinglyindustrializedand bourgeois-riddenworldout- sive clientele served by the Chat Noir cabaret.
side. Since "intestinalnoises" are morelikely with the rich Jarry'splays opened to an avant-gardeaudience. The
andfatteningfoodsof the upperand uppermiddleclasses, by first, Uburoi, was performedfortwo nights at the Theatrede
insisting that Leocadie marry a constipated man Mme l'Oeuvreand received mixed reviews. Severalscholarshave
Gardetoutessentially insists that she marrywithin her own discussed the reaction of the crowd to the opening cry
social stratum. In addition, Gardetoutensures that the girl, "Merdre!"(roughlyequivalent to a prolonged"Pschitt!"in
her only child, will remain in the family "business."Here, English).13While Somm'splay had a traditionalstructure,
then, the emphasis on defecationis being used to separate setting, and use of language, Jarry'swas the exact opposite.

FALL 1993

figs. 1, 2) to comment upon Louis-Philippe's administra-
Uburoi,ca. 1896, woodcut.BibliothequeNationale,Pars.
FIG. 1 AlfredJarry,
Here, "shit"served neitheras a componentof the setting nor
as the majorsubject of the play;rather,scatologicalsituations
andlanguagewereused to spice simple plotsandto shockthe
audience. In Ubu roi (1896) the main character,Ubu, runs
amokin quest of land and riches.14 In the process he assassi-
nates King Wensceslasof Polandand takes his place. In Ubu fig. 1)
cocu (1900) the herois cuckolded,althoughnotonstage. The
thirdplay, Ubuenchatne(exactdateunknown,ca. 1900), is a
reversalof the first in that Ubu desires to become a slave as
much as he had previously wanted to become king. The Jarry's
underlyingtheme in all these plays is Ubu'splace in society which was
as seen by Jarry.
Jarry'splays, like Henry Somm'sLa Berline, can be
interpretedas comments upon the bourgeoisie, with Ubu eversince the day the exoticmonolithhadfrighteneda certain
becoming the ugly, bloated symbol of the upper middle literarylady who was all out of breathfrom climbing three
classes (fig. 1). Ubu'sbasic pear shape can be foundin the and a halffloors and at a loss how to act in Jarry'sunfur-
lithographsof Daumier and Travies that caricature Louis- nishedcell. "Isthat a cast?"the lady asked. "No,"said Jarry.
Philippe, the Citizen King of the July Monarchy(1831-48).
Duringthis period, the shape of the pear (poire,the symbol
fora dope and an idiot)was used in workssuch as Garguan-
tua andPot de melasse,or "Crockof Shit"(see pages 36-37,
tion.l5 In Gargantua, the trusting citizens turn over their
money to the pear-headed king only to have their taxes
recycledinto ministerialfavorsvia the commodeon whichhe
is enthroned.Travies'sprint also combines the pear-shaped
head of Louis-Philippewith a scatologicalreference(thepot
de melasse on which it sits) to commentupon the reign of
Louis-Philippe.Thus, the basic shape of Ubu, as well as the
use of scatologicalimagery,was an establishedfeaturein the
Frenchvisual vocabulary.16 Jarry,althoughnot discussing
the July Monarchydirectly, admitted the nature of Ubu's
shape(a pear)with the followingwryremark:"ThenPereUbu
shakes his peare [sic] which is afterwardscalled Shake-
speare by the Englishe and you have many excellent trage-
dies writtenby his hand underthis name."17
Thus, both Somm and Jarryin their plays addressed 61
the bourgeoisieand their positionvis-a-vis the lowerclasses.
While Somm'sworkcontained no specific referencesto the
pear,the artistdid complete,in the same period,a drawingof
two figures that look like Ubu (fig. 2). It may suffice as an
early representationof the poire being modernizedby the
avant-garde. The shape of Ubu can be taken further-
perhapshe is to be seen as shit personified(this interpreta-
tion is supportedby English versions of the plays in which
Ubu roi is translatedas King Turd).18Ubu'sscepter, further,
is a toilet brush("thelittle sceptre made of strawwhich kept
the peace in old Warsaw"),and his wife serves him food that
includes Jerusalem "fartichokes" and "cauliflower a la
pschitt."19This showsa significant modificationof the use of
the pear. The derogativestatementaboutthe body politics of
Louis-Philippe evolved into a more complicated symbol.
Ubu not only representedthe upper middle class, but also
suggested that the lower classes, having now appropriated
Ubu as their symbol by his close linking to a base bodily
function, were struggling to be seen and heard.
Ubu has anotherinterpretation:as a penis and a rear
end connected. The circular patternon his "stomach"(see
could representintestines. This wouldmakethe stom-
ach and anus have the same function(whichthey verynearly
do anyway).This hypothesisis supportedby a descriptionof
Ubu'scostume by Jarryas a "bum in front and behind."20
interestin the organsof excrementis supportedby the
famousstoryof the stonepenis given to him by FelicienRops,
considerablylarger than life-size. Jarry kept a
velvet skull-cap on it, accordingto RogerShattuck,
"Its a reduction."21
ART JOURNAL
62
Ubu roi also providesclear verbalreferencesto shit. Cooper
has noted that "shit"appears thirty-threetimes in the play,
by itself and in compounds such as "pschittabugger"and
"buggerapschitt."22 "Pschitt"becomes the signal to slaugh-
ter the king in act 2 of Ubu roi. MereUbu becomes "Madam
of my pschitt."23FrequentlyUbu utters multiple expletives
that include the wordand also phrases such as "piss off"or
"fuck off."24In this first play Jarryseems most concerned
with the use of the word itself (the later plays are more
complicatedand less intenton the use of thatword),but some
special weapons-the "pschittasword,"the "pschittahook,"
the "pschitt-scissors,"and the "pschittapump"(the latterhe
calls the "special Turkishhookah")-are also introduced.25
The army's marching song includes the chorus "pee-pee,
pee-pee, pee-pee, ca-ca, ca-ca, ca-ca, . . . poo-poo, poo-
poo, poo-poo."26When things get difficult in the fighting,
Ubu declares, "Ooh, I've done it in my pants."27
The purpose of relaying this informationis twofold.
First, thereis a markedcontrastbetweenJarryand Sommin
the language and tenorof their work. Second, with some of
the phrasing-especially "Madamof my pschitt"-there is
the suggestionthat Ubu is admittingscatologicalorigins. In
this contextthe word"merdre"at the openingof the first play
can be taken as Ubu announcing himself to his public.
FALL1993
FIG. 2 HenrySomm,sketchon inside
coverof GeorgesMelandri'sBazarA Treize,
ca. 1885. Privatecollection.
Clearly Ubu lives with shit, eats shit, sleeps with shit, and
employsshit in battles. Catulle Mendes,when reviewingthe
first performanceof Ubu roi in Le Journal the followingday,
predicted that the title character "will become a popular
legendof base instincts, rapaciousand violent;and Monsieur
Jarry... will have created an infamousmask."28Certainly
eating and shitting are truly basic instincts which link Ubu
with the lowerclasses.
The connection of Ubu and the bourgeoisie is made
clear in Ubu cocu, where the "sometimeKing of Polandand
Aragon, professorof pataphysics"becomes a tax collector
(gatheringthe funds in his "pschitt-sack,"of course).29Ubu
also has a conscience, which he keeps in a box and when
angered, banishes to a chamber pot. This play features a
Greek chorusof sorts, "the palcontents,"who declare in act
2, scene 5:
Trembleand quakeat the Lordof Phynance,
Little bourgeoiswhos getting too bigfor his pants!
Ubu is also called the Chancellorof the Excretain additionto
Masterof Phynance. It is in this play as well thatwe learn of
the truefunctionof the "pschittapump,"which is just another
wordfor a flush toilet. Ubu is accompaniedby such charac-
ters as Crapentake,Achras, and Scytotomille.The last is a
cobblerwhosells shoes called "Turd-Crunchers" thatcome in dynamismand infinity."35LindaStillmanconsidersthat the
special varieties: "still-steaming, horsedung, the oldest "giant gut symbolizes the processes of assimilation and
coproliths, sullen cowpats, the innocent meconium of a rejection, constructionand destruction, upon which all life
breast-fed baby, something special for policeman'sdrop- depends."36Ubu, in his constantquest forfood, determines
pings, and a pair for the stools of middle-aged men."30 the continuedproductionof shit via his owndigestive system.
The cuckoldingof Ubu, while it does not appearto be In any discussion of scatology with reference to the
the central focus of the second play, does result in a scat- bourgeoisieand the lowerclasses in the plays by both Somm
ological episode. Memnon,one of Ubu'sfinancial competi- andJarry,it is importantto commentuponthe specific choice
tors, seduces Mere Ubu after donning his "sewage-wader's of the theater as the forum where these "revelations"took
topboots."(Cantherethus be any doubtthather originis shit place. Nowherein Somm's artistic output, for instance, is
as well? To this end, Ubu later exclaims "It'syou, [Achras] there a pictorial representationof excrementor even of any-
. . . who came to my house to cuckoldme, who mistakes my thing suggestive of it. Originaldrawingsby Sommadded to
virtuous wife, in other words, for a piss-pot.")31 When Ubu two copies of his playare nothingmorethan portraitsketches
returnshome unexpectedly, Memnonis forcedto hide in the of the characters.37Jarry,similarly,does notmakepresentin
outdoorlavatory,where the formerhas already stored his the illustrations of Ubu what is present in the dialogue
conscience. Ubu, of course, has to use the "pschittapump," (unless, that is, one supports the hypothesis that Ubu is
and while he shits on both Memnonand the conscience, the meant to be viewed as a walking, talking piece of shit).
lavatorycollapses. Ubu then exclaims, "Isthe pschittapump The theateris traditionallyan upper-class and upper-
out of order?"32 middle-class venue, and certainly the potty-talkplays could
The charactersin the last drama, Ubu enchaine,con- be perceivedas commentaryon the classes thatfrequentthe 63
tinue in the scatological vein: BrotherBung, Pissweet, and veryforumin which they take place. It was duringthis period
Pissale (the last two are known in public as the Marquisof that social activity among the rich and idle bourgeoisie
Grandmeadowand the Marquisof Grandair),forinstance. In reacheda peak; "itsmembersvied withone anotherin theater
this final work,Ubu comes forwardin the openingscene and and salon, in the Bois de Boulogne and Maxim's."38The
says nothing, despite the constant proddingof MereUbu to theaterwas thus the place to take direct action-to makethe
"say the Word."Ubu is then accused of forgettinghow to bourgeois eat shit (figuratively)at a performancethat sati-
speak French. He claims that the Wordgot him in too much rized their very existence. It was also a means to popularize
troublelast time; it does not appearin this drama.The plot imageryby presenting crude words and situationsthat ap-
here revolves around Ubu's quest to become a slave to the pealed to the masses, who were being solicited to attenda
"Pschittanarmy"under CorporalPissweet, "Corporalof the "popular"theater.
Free Men." In this play the concept of freedom is con- Hatredof the bourgeoisiemanifesteditself in the ideas
voluted-the free menact like slaves evenin their"freedom" and practices of the anarchists. Within this broad context,
and Mere and Pere Ubu act as they always do (killing and Jarry'suse of the wordmerdeand the scatologicalcontentof
plundering)in their "slavery."Eventuallythe two are con- the Ubu plays can be comparedto the anarchistphilosophies
fined to prison, which is their goal. In act 4, scene 4, Ubu of propagandaby wordand propagandaby deed. Jarryhad
worries that the chains on his feet are not secure enough: intendedfor Ubu to functionlike an "exaggeratingmirrorin
"Look,my ironcollar'scoming undoneand the manaclesare which the spectator should see his own vices enlarged."39 It
so big they'reslipping off my wrists. If I'mnotcarefulI'll end had been the lack of understandingamongsuccessive gener-
up at liberty, strippedof these fine trappings,deprivedof my ationsof upwardlymobileFrenchcitizensthathad resultedin
escort and other honours, and forced to pay my own continuedpersecution of the poor. George Wellwarthnotes
expenses!" that the "rebellion implicit in the utterance of the word
Ubu eventually becomes the king, of sorts, of the [merde]on a public stage was a rebellion against all society
slaves. He names all the "thieves, bandits and brain- and, indeed, all life. It was an evocationof disgust so deei
extruders"the "gallantCraptainsof [the] Pschittanarmy."At that conventionallanguage was powerlessto express it," and
the end of the play, MereUbu notes thather husbandhas not further that "the various scatological references that are
been much of a success as a slave. This mattersnot to Ubu, sprinkled through the play represent rebellion on its most
whohas madean importantdiscovery:"Mystrumpotis huger instinctive and elementarylevel-the level of a child's re-
than the whole world, and thereforeworthierof my services. fusal to bow to bathroomtraining."40
Fromnowon I shall be the slave of my Strumpot."33 Further, Withtheir use of scatologicaldialogueJarryand espe-
he declares "I'mnot giving any ordersever again. That way cially Sommtrod on dangerousground. Althoughliberty of
peoplewill obey me all the morepromptly."34 Ubu's"strum- the press had been declared in 1881, Article 28 was simul-
pot," (gidouille in French), is his huge gut, with which he is taneously introduced, imposing "severe penalties for the
preoccupied throughoutthe trilogy. The spiral insignia that offenseof l'outrageaux bonnesmoeurs.This law concerning
brazenshis buxomness (seefig. 1) is likewise a "symbolof obscene publication was strenthened by amendments in

ART JOURNAL
 1882, 1898, and 1908."41But the danger of proscecution
underthese amendments(whichwouldmeanfollowingin the
footstepsof the likes of Flaubert)only served to intensifythe
effect thatscatologicalorpornographicreferenceswouldhave
on the public.
Accordingto HunterKevil, "Ifwe think of Symbolism
as the pursuitof the Ideal, . .. then shit, the obvioussymbol
of the materialworldin which we are obliged to exist, is the
Symbolist substance par excellence."42In La Berline de
l'emigre, HenrySommseparatedthe classes on the basis of
whocould and could notdefecate-which was a commenton
how often or how well people ate-but basically Somm
presentedclear class distinctions. Jarry,on the otherhand,
directly presentedthe upper-middle-classicon as a piece of
shit which was then linked to the lowerclasses throughthe
revelationthatpeople, regardlessof class, mustsubmitto the
instinctive urge to relieve themselves. Ubu went in quest of
the materialisticpossibilities-power, money,and of course
food-but all of this was "dirtied"(symbolized by Jarry's
64 vocabulary).Sommand Jarryin their plays flung this "sym-
bol of the material world" directly into the faces of the
bourgeoisie. In so doing, they rendered their plays more
accessible to the lower classes by attacking traditional
canons of taste and by linking up with a patternof popular
imagery-on the most basic level-that made their icons
understandablein terms of the language of the streets. _
Notes
Translationsare by the authorunless otherwise indicated.
1. See, e.g., PaulJeanne, Les Theatresd'ombresd Montmartre(Paris, 1937); and John
Grand-Carteret,Raphael et Gambrinus(Paris, 1886).
2. See Elizabeth K. Menon,"HenrySomm'sJaponisme,1881, in Context,"Gazettedes
Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 119 (1992), 89-98. Some of Somm's plays are listed in Phillip
Dennis Cate, The Circle of Toulouse-Lautrec,exh. cat. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Jane
VoorheesZimmerliArt Museum, Rutgers University, 1985), 153-55.
3. See, e.g., JudithCooper,UbuRoi:AnAnalyticalStudy, TulaneStudies in Romance
Languages and Literature,6 (New Orleans:Tulane University, 1974); Henri Behar,
Jarry:Le Monstreet la marionette(Paris, 1973); Eva Gassler, "TheLegend of Ubu,"
Bard Review2 (1948): 148-55; Linda Klieger Stillman, AlfredJarry(Boston:Twayne
Publishers, 1983); RogerShattuck, The Banquet Years(New York:Harcourt, Brace,
1955); Charles Chasse, Dans les coulisses de la gloire (Paris, 1947); and G6rard
Damerval, Ubu Roi: La Bombe comiquede 1896 (Paris, 1984).
4. JudithCooper,in Ubu Roi: An Analytical Study, chap. 4, goes the furthest in this
regard on the use of language in Ubu roi. See also Behar, Jarry: Le Monstreet la
marionette,chap. 2. Coopermentionsthe specifically scatologicalnatureof the words,
but is more concerned with how Jarryarrived at them than their importanceto the
actual point of the play. Fora statistical table of the variouswordsand their use in the
respective plays, see the appendices in Damerval'sUbu Roi: La Bombecomique.For
the influence of Ubu roi upon the avant-gardeand the place of scatology within the
avant-gardetheater in France, see Martin Esslin, The Theatreof the Absurd(Har-
mondsworth:Penguin Books, 1985); and MichelArriv6,LireJarry(Brussels:Editions
Complexes,1976).
5. The play is not mentioned in Jeanne's Theatresd'ombresd Montmartre,which
purportsto list all of these productionschronologically.Moreover,those shadowplays
writtenby SommthatI have located clearly state their purpose;La Berlinehas no such
notation.
6. Henry Somm, La Berline de I'emigre, ou Jamais troptard pour bienfaire (Paris:
Chat Noir, 1885), 5.
7. Ibid., 4.
8. Ibid., 8.
9. Ibid., 13.
10. Ibid., 15.
11. Ibid., 18.
12. Ibid., 31.
13. See, e.g., Nigey Lennon, Alfred Jarry: The Man with the Axe (Los Angeles:
PanjandrumBooks, 1984), 55. Followingthe utteringof "the word,"there was a full
FALL1993
fifteen minutes of pandemoniumin the crowdbefore the play commenced. Present in
the audience on opening night were the likes of Catulle Mendes,StephaneMallarme,
and William Yeats(who did not understandthe Frenchbut neverthelessrecordedhis
thoughtsin his autobiography-see Shattuck, The BanquetYears,208). With regard
to Jarry'slanguage and the translation of merde as "pschitt," see Simon Watson
Taylor'sintroductionin AlfredJarry: The UbuPlays, trans. Cyril Connollyand Simon
WatsonTaylor(NewYork:GrovePress, 1969), the English versionof the plays quoted
in this article. Taylorexplains the difficulty that translatorsencounterwhenpresented
with mutilated or just plain "invented"words such as merdre,cornegidouille,and
cornephynancethat make up much of Ubu's vocabulary. Forthe complete cycle and
additional documents in French, see Alfred Jarry, ToutUbu, ed. Maurice Saillet
(Paris:Librairie Generale Francaise, 1965).
14. The characterof Ubu is said to haveevolvedfromone of Jarry'sprofessors.Thereis
considerable debate over whether the idea was originally his or not. For a full
description of the teacher in question, see Claude Schumacher,Alfred Jarry and
GuillaumeApollinaire(New York:GrovePress, 1985), 38-39.
15. See GabrielP. Weisberg,"TheCoded Image: Agitationin Aspects of Politicaland
Social Caricature,"in TheArt of the July Monarchy:France, 1830 to 1848, exh. cat.
(Columbia:Universityof Missouri Press, 1990), 148-60, 177-91.
16. Merdebecame the "motde Cambronne"when General Cambronneuttered it at
Waterlooupon learning that a portionof the armywas surrunded; see Shattuck, The
Banquet Years,206 (note). Forinformationon the use of scatological imageryduring
the period of the Napoleonic revival, see Weisberg, "The Coded Image."
17. Alfred Jarry,Ubu roi: Drama in 5 Acts, trans. BarbaraWright(Norfolk,Conn.:
New Directions, 1961), 4.
18. Alfred Jarry,King Turd,trans. Beverley Keith and George Legman (New York:
Boar'sHead Books, 1953). The three plays are translated as King Turd,King Turd
Enslaved, and TurdCuckolded.
19. Ubu roi, act 1, sc. 3.
20. Schumacher,Alfred Jarry and GuillaumeApollinaire, 40.
21. Shattuck, The Banquet Years,213.
22. Cooper,Ubu Roi: An Analytical Study, 82. See Ubi roi, act 1, sc. 1.
23. Ubu roi, act 3, sc. 7.
24. Ibid., act 1, scs. 5, 6.
25. Ibid., act 3, sc. 8 ("pschittasword"and "pschittahook");act 4, sc. 3 ("pschitt-
scissors");act 4, sc. 1 ("pschittapump").
26. Ibid., act 4, sc. 4.
27. Ibid., act 5, sc. 2. Most Jarryscholars attribute his scatology to an interest in
Rabelais. Shattuck(The Banquet Years,192), states that in addition to Rabelais (a
volumeof whose workswas one of Jarry'sonly possessions at his time of death)and an
interest in dream imagery, Jarryalso admired Shakespeare and the Greek masters.
See Cooper,UbuRoi:An Analytical Study, chap. 2, forcomparisonsbetween specific
scenes in Ubu roi and Macbeth. Forinformationon the use of scatologicallanguage by
the Greeks, Rabelais, and Shakespeare, see Jae Num Lee, Swift and Scatological
Satire (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971), chap. 1; and Eric
Partridge,Shakespeare'sBawdy (London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1947).
28. Cited by Shattuck, The Banquet Years,209.
29. Ubucocu, act 1, sc. 1. The science of"pataphysics"is described by Shattuck(The
BanquetYears,201) as "a kind of reasonableunreason similar to the workingsof our
dreamingmind."The connection of "pataphysics"to the use of scatologicallanguage
and images could thus be related to the writings of Freud and Nietzsche. The
significance of negroes in Somm'sand Jarry'sdramasand the use of a crocodile to end
the performancesof bothLa Berline and Ubu cocu are two otherissues that remainto
be probed.
30. Ubu cocu, act 3, sc. 4.
31. Ibid., act 5, sc. 2.
32. Ibid., act 4, sc. 4.
33. Ubu enchaine, act 5, sc. 7.
34. Ibid., act 5, sc. 8.
35. Linda Klieger Stillman, Alfred Jarry (Boston:TwaynePublishers, 1983), 45.
36. Ibid., 46.
37. Oneof these illustratededitions is preservedin the BibliothequeNationale,Paris,
and the other in a private collection.
38. Brian E. Rainey, "AlfredJarryand Ubu: The Fin de Siecle in France,"Wascana
Review3-4 (1968-69): 29.
39. Ibid., 35.
40. GeorgeWellwarth,"AlfredJarry:The Seed of the Avant-GardeDrama,"Criticism
4 (1962): 111.
41. Alec Craig, SuppressedBooks:A History of the Conceptionof LiteraryObscenity
(New York:WorldPublishing Company,1963), 182.
42. Quoted in Stillman, Alfred Jarry, 48.
ELIZABETH K. MENON is a doctoral candidate in art
history at the Universityof Minnesota. She has recently
published an article on Henry Somm in the Gazette des
Beaux-Arts.
Myths and Meaningsin
Manzoni's Merda d'artista
GeraldSilk
MarcelDuchampspoketo me, duringthe courseof the Second
WorldWar(travelingbetweenArcachonand Bordeaux),of a
new interest in the preparationof shit, of which the small
excretionsfrom the navel are the "deluxe"editions. Tothis I
repliedthat I wished to have genuine shit, from the navel of
Raphael. Todaya well-knownPop artist of Veronasells artists'
shit (in verysophisticatedpackaging) as a luxury item!
-Salvador Dali, 19681

n May1961, the ItalianartistPieroManzonipackedand 65

sealed ninety cylindrical cans, each containing thirty

gramsof his ownexcrement(fig. 1). Atopeach tin are the
wordsPRODUCED BY,followedby the signaturePieroManzoni,
and a stenciled numberdesignating its place in the run. A
label affixedto the body of each consists of rowsof the artist's
first and last names strung togetherand repeated over and
functions as a back-
over. This PIEROMANZONIPIEROMANZONI
groundon which is printedthe words:
Artist'sShit
CONTENTS30 GRAMSNET
FRESHLYPRESERVED
PRODUCErD
ANDT~INNED 1 PieroManzoni,Merdad'artista(Artist'sShlit) no. 058,1961, metal,
FIGFIG.
paper,andfecal matter,22.incheshigh, inches diam.CourtesyEdizionidi
IN MAY1961 VanniScheiwiller,Milan.

On every can, these words appear in four languages- the time ManzonimadeMerdad'artista, he was undoubtedly
English, Italian, French, and German.Merdad'artista, to in the grips of this moreconventionalinterpretation.
be sold by weight based on the currentprice of gold, was first Functioningwithin this avant-gardecontext, Merda
exhibited in August of that year at the Galleria Pescetto in d'artista brings to mind the remark attributed to Marcel
Albisola, Italy. Duchamp that "a painting that doesn't shock isn't worth
Few works of art address the subject of scatology so painting."2For Duchamp, however,art provokednot simply
directly, and Manzoni's Merda d'artista invokes various because of its potential offensiveness, but because of its
myths and meanings about art and its production.These unexpectednessorinappropriateness.Oftenthis is a result of
myths and meanings will be placed in several contexts, his conceptualism, to which Manzoni'sworkowes a major
including the role of the avant-gardeartist in modernism, debt. Thatanythingthe artistcalls art is art, thatchristening
Manzoni'spreoccupationwith the body and its products,and ratherthan craftingmakes art, lurks behind Manzoni'sdeci-
SigmundFreud'stheories of anal erotism. sion to offer up his excrementas art. As well, Duchamp's
It wouldbe naive on my partand, I believe, on the part most notoriousexample of this attitude, his "ready-made"
of Manzonito assume thatMerdad'artistawas notintendedto urinal titled Fountain (1917), produced problemsnot only
shock its audience. Merdad'artista thus operateswithin a because it was a commonobject signed and placed withinan
strain of modernistavant-gardehistorydefined by art that is art context, but also because of its links to natural bodily
innovative and risky. Pressure on the vanguard artist to functions and waste.
break new groundnot only leads to stunning and provocative As this issue of Art Journal demonstrates,there is no
results, but also encouragesnovelty,shock, and extremism. dearth of examplesof stercoraceoussubjects in the historyof
Although this notionhas been underattackin recent years, at art. But there is a certain modernist pedigree that goes

ART JOURNAL
 references, and Guillaume Apollinaire's ambiguous 1913
manifesto, "LAntitraditionfuturiste," which distinguishes
betweenthe progressiveand the.reactionary,awardinga rose
to the formerand shit (in the thin disguise of "merde")to the
latter. Several years before Duchamp added a mustache,
goatee, and the letters L.H.O.O.Q to a reproductionof the
MonaLisa, simultaneouslyconfusingher sexualityand offer-
ing an orgasmicexplanationfor her supposedly inscrutable
grin, Filippo TommasoMarinetti,founderand leaderof Ital-
ian Futurism, had already spoofed this symbol of the past
scatologically.Knownin Italy as La Gioconda,"theMerry"or
"SmilingOne,"she was relabeledby Marinetti"LaGioconda
purgativa,""The PurgativeSmiler,"which implies that her
pleasure is one of relief at having successfully moved her
bowels. In a broader fusion between such functions and
art, American Dadaist Arthur Cravan's1914 statement-
"Paintingis walking, running, drinking, eating, and fulfill-
ing one'snaturalfunctions. Youcan say that I'm disgusting,
but that'swhat it is"-augurs aspects of Manzoni'soeuvre.6
66
Examples include Manzoni'sScultureviventi(LivingSculp-
tures),worksof art that obviouslylive, breathe, and perform
naturalfunctions(fig. 2), and the actual orplanneduse in his
FIG. 2 Manzoni signing a Scultura vivente (Living Sculpture) at the Studio
art of his feces, fingerprints,breath, and blood.
Filmgiornale Sedi in Milan, January13,1961. In Freddy Battino and Luca Duchamphimself made a curiouspairingof excrement
Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni: Catalogue raisonn6 (Milan: Edizioni di Vanni
Scheiwiller, 19911 and art. In a characteristicallyparadoxicalvein, he asserted
in 1914that"Arrheest a art ce que merdreest a merde."7This
typical Duchampian exploitationof homonymsand puns,
beyondmere defecatoryallusions. Maurice Denis provided which creates confusionamong nouns, verbs, and preposi-
the surprisingexampleof Paul Cezanne, whowhen asked by tions, whenspokentranslatesas: "Artis to artas 'shitte'(orto
EdouardManetwhat he would submit to the Salon of 1870, shit) is to shit." Hoveringbetween nonsense and truism, the
replied "a pot of shit."3 Common to nearly all aesthetic remark recalls bothGertrudeStein'slaterutterance"roseis a
correspondencesbetween art and excrement,Cezanne'spu- rose is a rose is a rose," and Apollinaire's olfactoryand
tativeproposalis notsimply an act of antagonismand irrever- aesthetically dichotomousprizes expressing disdain and
ence, but also establishes ties between presumedopposites: love-shit and roses. (Duchampalso used the doubleorextra
the high of art and low of shit. In a related and perhaps "r"to give doubleandextrameaningto the nameof his female
equally apocryphal incident, sometime in the 1920s Con- alter-ego"RroseSelavy,"whichwhenread is yet anotherrose
stantin Brancusi or Maurice Vlaminck is reportedto have and when spoken might imply that what "life is" is "eros").
toldEzraPoundthat eventuallyartists woulddisplay "shiton But as NancySpectorpoints out, the word"arrhe"also refers
a silverplatter,"4thus mixing notonly the high of artwith the to the Frenchplural noun "les arrhes,"which means "down
low of ordure,but also the exalted and preciousmaterialof payment,"8thus coupling the spoken sense of Duchamp's
silver (and its connections to money)and the debased and phraseas somethingself-evidentand absurdwith its written
mundanematerial of feces. Manzoni'sexploitationof such sense of affinitiesbetween art and moneymattersand art and
connections and oppositions in his interrelation of gold, fecal matter. In a customary attempt to give his ideas a
feces, and art will be discussed in more detail, but it is at mathematical,scientific, philosophical, or linguistic ring,
least worthmentioningthatsuch affinitiesand polaritieshave Duchamp in this 1914 essay restates the concept as an
been frequentlycommentedon. The most famousexample equationor formula:
comes fromFreudwho noted that "the contrastbetween the arrhe merdre.9
most precioussubstance knownto men and the most worth- art merde
less, which they reject as waste matter. . . has led to this And if we are to believe SalvadorDali, Duchampactually
specific identificationof gold with faeces."5 proposedthe packagingof shit as art sometimeduringWorld
Such attitudes were not uncommonin Futurism and WarII (see the epigraphabove).
Dada, and in those thoughtof as antecedentsandfollowersof Manzoni'sMerdad'artista, in its transubstantiationof
these movements.Among the more notoriousexamples are the drossof defecationinto the goldof art, harksback notonly
Alfred Jarry's1896 play Ubu roi, which flaunts excremental to Duchamp'sconceptualismbut also to his connectionswith

FALL1993
 public and high-speed executionof a twelve-footpaintingon

vases, leaving hauntingsmearsand imprints.In 1960, at the

GalerieInternationaled'ArtContemporainin Paris, underthe
title Anthropomrtriesdel'epoque bleue, Klein and his lady
"brushes"publicly performedthe procedureto the strains of
his appropriatelyand punningly titled Symphonie mono-
tone-cellists and violinists playing the same note overand
over.
Manzoni simultaneously enlists and caricatures the
issue of process and its link to productin Merdad'artista.
Like thatof an anguished Pollockworking,a photographof a

the butt of ridicule in proposing a scatological interpretation

f her smile. Manzoni'spiece, done when the rhetoricsur-
t W rounding action painting was being challenged, deconstructs
FIG. 3 HansNamuth,l ackson Pollock, 1950, photograph. the myththatin the existentialisttranslationof aspectsof
Surrealist automatism into bold, muscular gestures, the

shamanismandalchemy,althoughDuchamp'sties withthese X t M L
latterideas havebeen called into question.The assertionthat
one's own body waste is art is an extreme example of the
notionthatanythingan artistmakes is art. Manzoni'slinkage
of excretawith gold invokesalchemyand also mythology:he
becomes the artist with the Midas touch, convertingfeces
into gold. Moreover,shamans and alchemists ritualistically
and experimentallyused body productssuch as excrement,
urine, blood, and breath, believing them to be sacred,
thaumaturgicsubstances.l? (Manzonideclared: "Paintings
are and always have been magic, religious objects.")" As _
mentioned,he made pieces involvingnot only his feces but
also his breath, and proposedworksincorporatinghis blood.
In Merdad'artista, anothermodernistmyth regarding
the facture of art sardonicallyemerges:the role of process
and its link to product. For Manzoni, perhaps the most
powerfulprogenitorwas recent gestural painting. The fin-
ished work of some of the artists associated with Abstract
Expressionism,Tachisme,and l'art informel(of which Man-
zoni's early art was a part) allegedly carried the residues of
their processes of creation. Moreimportant,the publication
in 1951 of Hans Namuth'sfamous photos taken in 1950 of
JacksonPollock at work (fig. 3) emphasized process to an
extent that certain artists, from the mid-fifties throughthe
nr~PPnt anv hpKr;n twr;t;ino alnit anri nrrnIllritnr art ;in

manner in which the making of a work becomes as important FIG.4 Ole Bj0rndal Bagger,Manzoni with Merdad'artista,at the AngliShirt
Factory,Heming,Denmark,November1961, photograph.CourtesyOle
as the work made. Examples include George Mathieu's 1956 Bjrndal Bagger.

ART JOURNAL

68
artist simultaneously taps more directly into and gives ex-
pression to his unconscious and essence.13 In response to
l'art informel, Manzoni engaged in activity that produced a
material and physical art that expunged the "meta" from the
metaphysical. 14
Merda d'artista abounds in paradoxes regarding art
facture in relation to individuality, uniqueness, common-
ness, and mass production. Each container holds excrement,
a substance producible by everyone and anyone, although the
make-up of one's feces is distinctly his or her own. Manzoni's
presentation of fecal matter, a substance that partakes of the
universal, mass, common, individual, unique, exalted, and
debased, suggests both mechanically reproduced art and
product manufacture. Like most signed and numbered multi-
ples, uniqueness is compromised through reproduction.
Within a series, however, works of art often are not precisely
identical; certainly, the composition of Manzoni's feces must
vary from tin to tin. At the same time, multiples generally
issue from mechanical or industrial processes, and Man-
zoni's ninety cans of human waste suggest products of indus-
trial manufacture, especially in their labeling with allegedly
factual descriptions of their contents.
FALL1993
FIG. 5 Manzoni,Lineadi lunghezza
infinita(Lineof InfiniteLength),1960,
wood, ink,and paper,6/4 incheshigh,
17/8 inchesdiam.CourtesyArchivio
OperePieroManzoni.
Questions about Manzoni's methods also make one
wonderwhether the cans truly contain shit, akin to the
mysteryof what makes the noise in Duchamp'sWithHidden
Noise (1916).15Like Manzoni'slines on papersealed in tubes
that operatemorein the realm of imaginationand idea than
perceivableactuality (seefig. 5), these containersof excre-
ment, designed to remainclosed, are ultimatelyconceptual.
Paradoxically,Manzoni bridges two potentially polar ap-
proaches:as one who often trades in materialfactualness,
especially in the body and its substances, he is the ultimate
empiricalmaterialist.Yetas the makerof unverifiablethings
thatdeal with artandlife but exist in the realmof thoughtand
imagination,he is also a seminal conceptualist.
In his "canning" lines (prior to producing Merda
d'artista), Manzonibrilliantly mixed art, commodity,and
concept. Madebetween1959 and 1961, each workconsists of
a single ink line of varyinglength drawnon paper, which is
rolled up like a scroll and stuffed into cylindrical tubes or
drums. Since the line cannot be seen, only imagined, Man-
zoni catapults this fundamentalcomponentof art into the
realm of thoughtand idea. His Linea di lunghezzainfinita
(Lineof Infinite Length),producedin an edition of nineteen
in 1960 (fig. 5), exemplifies this imaginaryand conceptual
status, again calling into question his procedures while
suggesting his wizardry. Although some Lines have been
displayedunfurled("onlyfor demonstrationpurposes," said
the artist), Manzoniinsisted that "the cylindersthat contain
them remainperfectlyclosed, because openingthemmakes
them [the lines] disappear."16 "I put the line in a container so
that people can buy the idea of the 'Line.' I sell an idea, an
idea closed in a container."17Like the price of his Merda
d'artista based on weight indexed to the value of gold, and
that of his Fiato d'artista (Artist'sBreath), based on the
quantityof air the artist expelled into a balloon (seefig. 9),
the cost of the lines increased with their length: art sold by
the meter.
Manzoni'sselling of Lines of Infinite Lengthlike other
bodyproductswas nota meremarketingploy.As an artist, he
regarded line as a personal and general body productno
differentfromhis excrementorbreath.From1960 to 1962, he
also made pieces consisting of inked imprintsof his finger
and thumbprints, body productsthat became art because he
signed (somethingof a redundancy),dated, and numbered
them. Ironically,signatureand fingerprintprovidetwolevels
of self-reference-one artistic, the otherlegalistic. As marks
used to establish identity,the fingerprintsbecome absolute
self-portraits,since changes in likeness occur overtime but
fingerprintsremainconstant(althougheach imprintvaries at
least slightly). Manzoniagain confoundsissues of individu-
ality and reproducibility,since some of the fingerprintsare
punninglyprintsin a series and partof a portfolio.No doubt,
Manzoni regarded his body secretions and excretions as
marksof his identity,aesthetic and otherwise,remarkingin
1961: "The fingerprintis the unique sign of the [artistic?]
personality,but one must admit:if collectorswantsomething
fromthe artist that is moreintimateand trulypersonal, then
the artist'sshit wouldtruly be the best."18
As I havesuggested, a majorissue thatMerdad'artista
addresses is the relationshipbetween art and commodity.
Characteristically,Manzoniparticipatesin and parodiesthis
nexus. Duchampconfoundedthe interconnectednessof art,
money,and excrement;Manzonicontinuedthis ironic inves-
tigationby assigning prices based on the currentquotation
forgoldto Merdad'artistaand by packagingit like goods sold
in stores. The explorationof the commodificationof artby two
of his contemporaries-Yves Klein (whomManzonimet in
1957) and Arman (whomManzonimet the same monthhe
executedMerdad'artista)-may have had particularimpor-
tance. In 1958, Klein held an exhibition at the Iris Clert
Galleryin Paris, titled "LaSpecialisationde la sensibilite a
l'etat matiere premiere en sensibilite picturale stabilisee"
("The specialization of sensibility from the state of prime
matterto the state of stabilized pictorialsensibility"),or "Le
Vide"("TheVoid").Everythingin the gallery was removed,
andthe interiorwalls werepainted, orone mightsay, purified
in white. Klein began meditating, pumping "purepictorial
sensibility" into the room, intending paradoxicallyto sell
"immaterialpaintings." Opening-nightcrowds arrived to a
space absent of materialart objects. The guests were served
blue cocktails based on his unique InternationalKlein Blue
(IKB)pigment, which were intendedto imbue themwith the
artist's aesthetic sensibility, and which would cause their
urine to be blue for several days.
In a follow-up to Klein's "Void,"Arman made "Le
Plein"("The Full") in 1960 at the same gallery. Instead of
emptyingthe space, he filled it up with heaps of garbageso
thathis exhibitioncould notbe entered.This exhibition/event
was a dramaticexampleof whatthe artist called "accumula-
tions,"which involved"thepseudobiologicalcycle of produc-
tion, consumption, and destruction,"as he described it. "I
havebeen anguishedby the fact that one of its most conspic-
uous materialresults is the flooding of our worldwith junk
FIG. 6 Manzonisigning Uovacon impronta (Eggwith Thumbprint),
at the
StudioFilmgiornaleSedi in Milan,for Consumazionedell'artedinamicadel 69
pubblicodivorareI'arte(Consumptionof DynamicArtby the PublicDevouring
Art)July1960. In Battinoand Palazzoli,PieroManzoni:Catalogueraisonn6.
and recycled odd objects."19Affiliated with nouveaureal-
isme, the Europeanmovementclosest to American Pop art
and assemblage, Arman probed the virulent consumption-
abandonment-replacement cycle of postwarconsumertech-
nological culture that so intrigued his American counter-
parts. In salable and portable versions of "The Full" that
sanctifywastematterin a mannerakin to Manzoni'selevation
of excrement,Arman also encased trash in Plexiglas enclo-
sures, offeringup the results as worksof art.
Manzoni,however,removesthe "pseudo"fromArman's
pseudobiologyby producingpieces that highlight not only
"natural"waste but also "natural"consumption. In July
1960, Manzoniheld an exhibition/eventrecordedon film and
in photographsat the Studio Filmgiornale Sedi in Milan
(althoughthe invitationnames the Galleria Azimut as the
location). He boiled seventy eggs (symbols of birth and
creativity),signed them with his thumbprint(artmade via a
magicaltouch),and placed each in its ownlined box. He then
ate several eggs himself and gave the remainder to the
gallery-goersto eat (fig. 6). Entitled Consumazionedell'arte
dinamica del pubblico divorarel'arte (Consumptionof Dy-
namicArt bythePublicDevouringArt),the piece owes a debt
to "TheVoid"of Klein. Bothmakereferenceto consumption-
waste cycles, break downart-life distinctions, and allude to
the magicalpowersof the artist, mostemphaticallyin Klein's
filling a vacantgallerywith intangible"pictorialsensibility."
Both impregnatethe public with the sensibility and stuff of
art. If the AbstractExpressioniststried to envelopthe viewer
in epic-sized pieces, to effect a direct transactionbetween
viewer and art sometimes with metaphysical or spiritual
pretensions;if happenings, in the spirit of ancient rituals,
ART JOURNAL

70
FIG. 7 Manzoni standing on Base magica (Magic Base) no. 2, becoming a
Living Sculpture, at the Angli Shirt Factory,Heming, Denmark, November
1961. In Battino and Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni: Catalogue raisonn6.
converted spectators into participants; then Manzoni and
Klein carry these efforts to new heights and depths, simul-
taneously involving spectators on physiological and sacra-
mental levels. Manzoni, dabbler in blood and also user of
bread in his Achromes, aptly called a 1961 variant of this
event "Communion with Art."20
The invitation by Manzoni and Klein to eat or drink the
art further emphasizes the idea of art as a commodity to be
consumed. Yet this consumption fuses the viewer and the art
through an act that destroys the conventional artwork as we
know it. In an odd adumbration of "process" art, the only way
to retain a tangible product of this experience is if the artist or
the viewer/participant (converted into artist) were to preserve
the urine or feces that contained the digested and then
excreted cocktails or eggs, precisely as Manzoni did in
FALL1993
Merdad'artista. In this regard, Manzoni'sMerdad'artista
bizarrely exalts, rather than defies, commodification.By
packagingand at times displayingit in a mannerthatresem-
bles a commonproduct,and by offeringit at a price tied to the
gold market, he enlists and also exposes the idea of art as a
packageableand marketablecommodity.Manzoni'scans of
shit announce the identificationof art with commodityin a
literal and extremeway that makes other contemporaneous
references to the connections among art, commodity,and
everydayproductvia the can-namely AndyWarhol'sdepic-
tions of cans of Campbell'ssoup (the earliest dating from
1960) and Jasper Johns's sculpture of ale cans (Painted
Bronze,1960)-pale by comparison.
Manzoni'spieces allude notonly to the sacramentalbut
also to the relatednotionof the sacrificial in art. His selection
of feces refers not simply to a cycle of ingestion, digestion,
and excretion,but to feces as partof an organiccontinuum,a
fertilizerforgrowth.By canning the excrement,Manzoninot
only producesa personaland actual versionof the product-
types favoredby Pop artists; he also prohibitsits ability to
functionas organicstimulusand irritantat the sametime that
he promotesits ability to operateas an aesthetic, cultural,
and intellectual stimulus and irritant.
Merda d'artista can also be understoodwithin the
contextof Freud'stheories on anal eroticism, or erotism, as
he called it. GermanoCelant, the most trenchantanalyst of
Manzoni'sart, was the first to suggest this nexus; later,
severalauthorselaboratedon the concept.21Freud'stheories
on anal erotism appear throughouthis writings, and they
received furtherexposition and clarification in Norman0.
Brown'sLife against Death: The PsychoanalyticalMeaning
of History,published in 1959, two years before the appear-
ance of Manzoni's Merda d'artista.22 Freud argued that
feces, as matter that comes from within oneself and then
becomes matteroutside and thus independentof oneself, is
recognizedby the child as his "creation."In this recognition,
the child frequentlyuses feces forlove, offeringit up as a gift
to those for whomhe cares. As somethingwhich he makes
and which becomes his own (and is not bestowed on him
externally),the child perceives of feces as personalproperty
that defines independence.The child also recognizes that
this substance, often problematicallyreceived by the world,
can be used aggressively,as a weapon. Thus a child's sense
of mastery,power,and defiance derivesinitiallyfrommanip-
ulationof excrement.
Manzoni'sMerdad'artista partakes of the values that
Freudassigned to coprophilia.The artist regards and uses
feces as his own creation or art; he treats it as propertyby
attachingmonetaryvalue to it; he understandsits aggressive
potentialas somethingthat can shock its audience and seem
to blasphemethe practice of art.
Freudexplainedthat as one evolvesout of the stages of
infantsexuality, the values attributedto feces are reattached
throughsublimationto othernonbodilyobjects. Accordingto
Freud, anal erotism moves from feces to money. But, as
Browndescribes it: "Sublimationsare ... symbols of sym-
bols. The categoryof propertyis not simply transferredfrom
feces to money;on the contrarymoneyis feces, because the
anal erotismcontinues in the unconscious.The anal erotism
has not been renouncedor abandonedbut repressed."23
In its expressionof repressedimpulses thatunveils the
mechanics of sublimation, Manzoni'swedding of feces and
money takes on even greater meaning in light of Freud's
theories on anal erotism. Interestingly,Manzonirecognized
such correspondences,havingwritten,probablyin 1957, that
since "the work of art has its origin in an unconscious
impulse, . . . the artist must immerse himself in his own
anxiety dredgingup everythingthat is alien. . . . The more
we immerse ourselves in ourselves, the more open we be-
come, since the closer we are to the germ of our totalitythe
closerwe are to the germof totalityof all men ... therecomes
a point whereindividualmythologyand universalmythology
become identical."24
These ideas reveal Manzoni'sroots in l'art informel,
which he would later somewhat reject. Nonetheless, they
demonstratehow Merdad'artista again participates in and
parodies certain contemporaneousart theories and prac-
tices. As I described above, Merdad'artista, by offeringan
alternateart-makingprocess that circumventspsychic im-
pulses and issues from direct physical needs, appears to
satirize the concept that gesturalism expresses a personal
unconscious while carrying universal meaning. Yet Freud's
insistence that how we handle feces (or later on money) is a
key to one's character, expressing sublimated or repressed
impulses embedded within one's unconscious, implies that
Merda d'artista can be thought of as a psychologically pene-
trating piece on a par with gestural painting.
Psychoanalytic theory further argues that creativity
derives from the proper channeling of repression, a process
that might be called constructive sublimation. Neurosis
springs from improper channeling of repression, or destruc-
tive sublimation. Consequently creativity and neurosis, both
results of sublimation, resemble each other. In Totem and
Taboo, Freud wrote:
Neuroses exhibit on the one hand striking and far-reaching
points of agreement with those great social institutions, art,
religion and philosophy. But on the other they seem like
distortions of them. It might be maintained that a case of
hysteria is a caricature of a work of art, that an obsessional
neurosis is a caricature of a religion and aparanoic delusion is
a caricature of a philosophical system.25
Merda d'artista functions as art even as it seems to caricature
art, and in Manzoni's near-obsessive emphasis on his own
body in his work, he exhibits narcissistic behavior charac-
teristic of hysteria. Through these dualities, Manzoni sug-
gests the psychoanalytic structuralismbetween creativity
and neurosis.
Merdad'artista, as unusual as it may seem, takes on
furthercoherence when placed within the context of Man-
zoni's career, and it bears special comparisonto the workof
some of his contemporaries,in particularthat of Yves Klein
and Ben Vautier.
In 1959, Manzoniannounceda direct concernwith the
humanbody and its functionsin his decision to sign people's
bodies as worksof art, althoughhe did notbegin designating
LivingSculpturesuntil 1961. In Januaryof thatyear,Manzoni
"signed"people (seefig. 2) and, in a variationon the check-
book, receipt, or legal contractthatmixes art, life, commod-
ity, and money,he issued each witha "Declarationof Authen-
ticity,"reading as follows:"This is to certify that has
been signed by my handand is thereforeto be consideredas
an authenticworkof art forall intentsand purposes as of the
date below."He left room beneath for his signature, a geo-
graphicallocation, and a date. Consecutivelynumberedac-
cordingto the orderin which the certificateswereissued and
bodies signed, the LivingSculptures,like the numberedtins
71
of Merdad'artista, become partof a series thatplayswith the
polarities of individualityand reproducibility.On April 8,
Manzonisigned himself as a work of art, writing his own
name and the word "Self-portrait"on certificate no. 004.
Since Manzoniwas nowa workof art, or betteryet, a workof
"process"art, it hardly seems surprising that whateveris-
sued fromhis body, his excrementincluded, might also be
consideredart. He made thatexplicitbut a monthlaterin the
productionof Merdad'artista.
In a similar vein in 1961, Manzoni, as part-
conceptualistand part-shaman,built his first Base magica
(MagicBase). Whenevera person-the artist included (fig.
7)-stood on the felt outlines of feet on the top of the base,
that person was convertedinto a pedestaled workof art. A
new twist on the relationshipof portraitureto identity and
likeness emerges. In this context and in that of his "self-
signing," Manzoni'sfingerprints, excrement, breath, and
blood are not just body excretionsand secretions magically
transformedinto art, but self-portraitsthat refer to sub-
stances that, often in legal contexts, are used to establish
identity.Fusinglaw and art, they makehis signature,a mark
used forlegal identificationand aesthetic authentication(es-
pecially since some of Manzoni'sart, like that of Duchamp,
seems doable by nearly anyone),operatelike anotherbody
product,one aptly associated with an artist.
Priorto Manzoni'sLivingSculptures,Klein haddubbed
his 1958 paint-daubed nudes "living brushes." Ben, as
Vautiercalled himself, claims to have inauguratedSculp-
tures vivantesin 1959, but he did not actually appropriate
living peopleas sculptures until 1961. In additionto alluding
to the magical or conceptual powers of the artist, these
gestures/acts/pieces take elimination of the boundarybe-
tween art and life to a logical and absurd extreme. Robert
Rauschenbergmay have tried to workin the gap betweenart
and life; Manzoni,Klein, and Ben tried to close the gap.
ART JOURNAL
72
FIG.8 Manzoni,Corpod'aria(Bodyof Air no. 44/A, 1959-60, rubber,metal,andwood, 17/s x 1634 X 47/8inches.CourtesyEdizionidi VanniScheiwiller,
Milan.
In anothervariationon the body in art, Manzonimade
forty-fivepieces labeled Corpod'aria (Body of Air) (fig. 8),
the title of whichmayreferto a key substance thatgives life to
bodies and puns on the term of an artist's body of work,
appropriateto one forwhomthe body played such an impor-
tant role. Done between 1959 and 1960, each consists of a
small woodencase housinga wrappingthat containsa white
balloon, a mouthpiece, a tripod, and a set of instructions.
The ownercan followthe instructions,blow up the balloon,
and place the air-filled results on the stand to make "Airor
Pneumatic Sculptures." Like his egg-eating event, which
requiredhumaningestionto create a workof art, Body ofAir
requires human respirationfor its realization. Expanding
Duchamp'snotion that art derives meaning through com-
plicitybetweenpiece and spectator(andin an allusionto Du-
champ'sParis Air of 1919), Manzoni'sworkreaches fruition
throughenlisting the owner/viewerin the art-makingpro-
cess. By request, the piece could be inflated by Manzoni(or
any otherartist), and then sealed and mountedon its base,
inflatingthe price by 250 lire a liter and changingits title to
Artist'sBreath(fig. 9). While the workgives anyonewilling to
pay the price the opportunityto engage in the artist-god
myth, impartinglife to art throughhis or her breath, "real"
artistsare at the apex of this pantheon,and their specialness
amplifiesthe value of the resulting art. Of course, the breath
pieces relate to Merdad'artista as body products,as part of
an organic continuumthat here involves a cycle and inter-
change of inhalation-exhalation, oxygen-carbon dioxide,
animal-plant,and animate-inanimate.
FALL
1993
Again Klein's work comes to mind, particularly his
1958 exhibition of immaterialpictorial sensibility and his
1957 display of nearly identical works assigned different
prices on the basis of how much pictorialsensibility he had
impartedto them. In an alchemicalvein relatedto Manzoni's
bartering of feces for gold, Klein sold his first Zone de
sensibilit picturaleimmaterielle(Zoneof immaterialpictorial
sensibility)in 1959: in exchange for gold, Klein issued re-
ceipts forthe Zones that relate to Manzoni's"Declarationsof
Authenticity."The purchaserwas required to burn the re-
ceipts, otherwise the Zones would be expunged of their
sensibility. In return, Klein promisedto toss half the gold
into an irretrievableplace.
There are strong connections between the careers of
Manzoniand Klein, althoughManzoniappearsto tradein the
material,the measurable,and the finite, and Klein pursues
the immaterial, spiritual, transcendent,and infinite. Man-
zoni stands on a base; Klein flies throughspace. But their
sensibilities are not alwaysneatly divided betweenthe finite
and infinite, and they share a certain ambitiousness. In
1948, Klein, Arman, and Claude Pascal divided up the
world,Klein signing, in his imagination,the back of the blue
sky as his work of art. In the post-Sputnik era of 1961,
Manzoni(who proposeddrawinga "Line"aroundthe earth
andproducinga series of "Lines"equal in totalto its circum-
ference)invertedone of his Magic Bases and placed it on the
ground,calling it Socle du monde(Baseof the World)(fig. 10).
Neverto be outdone,Ben madea careerof partakingin
and parodyingthe notionof the body and the worldas art.
FIG. 9 Manzoni making
Fiatod'artista(Artist's
Breath)in his studio,1962.
InBattinoand Palazzoli,
PieroManzoni:Catalogue
raisonne.
74
FIG. 10 Manzoni,Socledu monde(Base of the World),1961,ironand bronze,32% x 39Ysx 39Ys inches.HerningKunstmuseum,
Like Manzoni'sself-signing as a Living Sculptureand his
ascension to art standing atop his Magic Base, Ben made
himself availablefor sale as a "living, movingsculpture"in
1962. In a nod to Manzoni'sart of ingestion and excretion,
Ben's own eating and vomiting became worksin 1964 and
1962 respectively. In 1961, the pope and his actions were
Ben'sliving sculpture, three years after he displayed a box
and a ping-pong ball, each titled God. As part of his "total
art" concept, the absence of art and that which is not art
became his art in 1962 and 1963. Ben became the equivalent
of artin 1963. He signed everythingas his workof artin 1960
and claimed the destructionof all art in 1964. Deathbecame
his art in 1961, and he used that precedentto "sign"as his
workKlein'sdeath in 1962 and Manzoni'sdeath on February
6, 1963.26 In this spirit, Ben made Manzonia part of the
birth-death-rebirthcycle and the life-art fusion that so mes-
FALL1993
Denmark.
merizedManzoni.ForManzoni,life was art, and waste, as if
risen fromthe dead, could become art. ForBen, death was
also art, and in a referenceto the clich6 thatan artist'soutput
outlives his life, Manzoniis resurrected, his death living on
as a workof art.27 Manzoniallegedly proclaimed:"I will die
whenI am 33 (like Christ).I wantto arrangefora commemo-
rativepostage stampwith my portraiton it. I wantto arrange
for my body to be closed up in a transparentplastic paral-
lelepiped [for display as art]."28Several years prematurely,
Ben impartedto Manzonithe aesthetic immortalityhe craved
and made him the embodimentof the artist-godmyth he so
often invoked. -
Notes
This essay is based on a paper of the same title presented at the 1990 College Art
Association annual conferencein New YorkCity for the session "Scatologyand Art,"
first proposedby Richard Martinand ultimatelychaired by Gabriel Weisberg.I want
to thankJenniferKahaneand Julia Shirarfortheir help in the preparationof the essay.
Others who generously provided assistance and informationinclude Pia Candinas,
GermanoCelant, ManuelaProietti, and SharaWasserman.I am particularlygrateful
to Contessa Elena Manzoni and the Archivio Opere Piero Manzoni and to Freddy
Battinoand Luca Palazzolifortheir cooperationin providingmaterialforthis article.
Translationsare mine, unless otherwise indicated.
1. SalvadorDali, preface to Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues with MarcelDuchamp(New
York:Viking Press, 1971), 13-14. Although Dali has some of his facts wrong-
Manzoniwas not from Verona, had died five years earlier, and sold only his own
excrement-his reference must still be to Manzoni. Interestingly, in a letter to Ben
Vautierof 1961, Manzoniwrote:"I wouldlike thatall artists sell their fingerprints...
or else sell their shit in tins";reproducedin FreddyBattinoand LucaPalazzoli, Piero
Manzoni:Catalogue raisonne(Milan: Edizioni di Vanni Scheiwiller, 1991), 144.
2. Cabanne, Dialogues with MarcelDuchamp, 69.
3. Maurice Denis, Journal, 3 vols. (Paris: La Colombe, 1957-59), 2:212.
4. See VanniScheiwiller,Piero Manzoni, gallery pamphlet(Milan:GallerySchwarz,
1964), n.p.; quoted in Jean Pierre Criqui, "Piero Manzoniand His Left-Overs,"in
GermanoCelant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat. (Paris: Musee d'Artde la Ville de Paris,
1991), 21. In 1991, Celant, the leading authorityon Manzoni, organized a major
retrospective of his work in Paris. The catalogue contains several excellent essays,
and Criqui's deals substantively with Manzoni'sMerdad'artista.
5. Sigmund Freud, "Characterand Anal Erotism," in The Standard Edition of the
CompletePsychological Works:9. 1906-1908, trans. James Strachey (London:
HogarthPress, 1959), 174.
6. ArthurCravan,"Exhibitionat the Independents(1914),"in TheDada Paintersand
Poets: An Anthology, ed. Robert Motherwell,2nd ed. (Cambridge,Mass.: Belknap
Press, 1989), 12.
7. Marcel Duchamp, "La Boite de 1914," in Michel Sanouillet with Elmer Peterson,
eds., Duchampdu signe (Paris: Flammarion, 1975), 37.
8. Nancy Spector, "ATemporaryBlindness: Piero Manzoniand America," in Celant,
PieroManzoni,43, n. 21. Duchampalluded to moneyin otherworksincluding Tzanck
Check (1919), Wantedl$2,000 Reward (1923), and Monte Carlo Bond (1924). Even
Fountain includes a sly monetaryreference. Denying that the signature R. Mutton
Fountain referredto the GermanwordArmut, meaning poverty,Duchampexplained
that the "R."stood for Richard:"That'snot a bad name for a 'pissotiere'[sic]. Get it?
The opposite of poverty."Richard is a Frenchslang termfor "money-bags."See Otto
Hahn, "PassportNo. G255300," Art and Artists 1, no. 4, (1966): 10.
9. Duchamp created other scatological puns and word plays, including: "Autobio-
graphique-Ma m6re adore l'odeur/de ma merde-/ma m6re adore l'odar/de ma
merde,"which confoundsassociations among maternallove, bodily fluids, creation,
and perhaps art; quoted in Seymour Howard, "Duchamp, Dali, Tzara, and Dadist
Coprophilia,"in Abstractsand Programs Statementsll990 College Art Association
Annual Conference(New York:College Art Association, 1990), 48. Othershave been
noted in the English-language versionof Duchampdu signe (see note 7 above), titled
Salt Seller: The Writingsof Marcel Duchamp (Marchanddu Sel) (New York:Oxford
UniversityPress, 1973), esp. "Rrose Selavy & Co.," 103-20.
10. Fora fascinatingand exhaustiveaccount of the use of feces and otherbodily fluids
throughouthistory in a wide range of areas and cultures, see John G. Bourke,
ScatalogicRites ofAll Nations(Washington,D.C.: W. H. Lowdermilkand Co., 1891).
Fora reprint, Freud wrote a forewordthat addresses the connections between feces
and money;see ibid. (New York:American AnthropologicalSociety, 1934), vii-ix.
11. Piero Manzoni,"Prolegomenaforan Artistic Activity,"writtenin March1957 and
first published in a pamphlet for his one-man show at the Galleria del Corrieredella
Provinciain Comoin December 1957. See Celant, Piero Manzoni, 67.
12. This photographdoes not record the original making of Merdad'artista, which
occurred in Milan in May1961. It was taken in Herning, Denmark, by Ole Bj0rndal
Baggerat the Angli Shirt Factory,where Manzoniwas providedwith a studio during
an exhibitionof his workat the Galerie K0pckein Herningin October1961. Examples
of Merdad'artista were shown;see Battinoand Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni:Catalogue
raisonne, 139. Not long after he producedMerdad'artista in Italy, Manzonimade a
trip to Paris. He broughtalong examples of the piece, according to artist Bernard
Aubertin,who recounts Manzoni'sprobablytongue-in-cheek referenceto his working
methods:"WhenI knockedon the doorof his [Manzoni's]room, he was coming out of
the hotel toilet. ... He simply said. ... 'I was in the toilet working, in orderto have
Artist'sShit to sell. If the possible buyer of one of my cans of shit finds the price too
high, I proposeselling him my shit at the weight he wants, wrappedin a sheet of toilet
paper, after having removed it from the toilet bowl with a small spoon'"; Bernard
Aubertin,"SurPiero Manzoni,"Robho3 (Spring1968): n. p. In 1962, Manzonisigned
a roll of toilet paper as art.
13. Manzoninamed Pollockone of the great artists because of "anattitudetowardlife:
the will, the powerof the art: the freedomof invention"(Piero Manzoni,"Da Milano,"
II Pensiero Nazionale 21, Rome: November 1, 1959); reproduced in Battino and
Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni:Catalogue raisonne, 55. In JacksonPollock:An American
Saga, a controversialbook regarded skeptically by many art historians, the authors
link Pollock's idiosyncratic dripping and pouring of paint directly onto canvases
placed on the floor to childhood recollections of his father making patterns as he
urinated on a rock. Asserting that Pollock associated this act on unconsciouslevels
with male potencyand employedthe drip technique to compensateforhis impotence,
they reportthat the artist was obsessed withmicturitionthroughouthis life. See Steven
Naifeh and GregoryWhite Smith, Jackson Pollock: An AmericanSaga (New York:
ClarksonN. Potter,1989), 541.
14. If Manzoniparodies the gestural wing of AbstractExpressionismin Bagger'sshot
of him smirking as he exits the bathroom(see note 12 above), he may elsewhere be
addressing the less autographic wing of the movement. In photographstaken by
GiovanniRicci in 1961 (see Battinoand Palazzoli,PieroManzoni:catalogue raisonne,
figs. 327, 347), Manzonireverentiallyadmires his canned creation as if something
sublime, adumbratingHans Namuth's1964 image of MarkRothkocontemplatinghis
own supposedly sublime art (see Brian O'Doherty,AmericanMasters:The Voiceand
the Myth [New York:RandomHouse], 182-83).
15. There are rumorsthat cans have been opened to reveal pineapple, not shit. In
recent correspondence,GermanoCelant assured me that the rumorsare false.
16. Wladimiro Greco, "8 Domande al pittore Manzoni," II Travaso39, Milan:
October 5, 1959; reproduced in Battino and Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni: Catalogue
raisonne,51.
17. Jens J0rgenThorsen, "Hansselger ideer pa dae," Aktuelt,Copenhagen:June 20,
1960; reproducedin ibid., 92.
18. Manzoniletter to Ben (December 1961); reproducedin ibid., 144.
19. Henry Martin,Arman, or Four and TwentyBlackbirdsBaked in a Pie, or Why
SettleforLess WhenYouCan Settlefor More(New York:HarryN. Abrams, 1973), 56.
Prior to their 1961 meeting, Manzoni and Arman, as members of the Gruppo
Nucleare, were among the signatories of the 1957 "Manifestoagainst Style."
20. The relationship between possession and consumption of art and artists, also
implying that artists and their output are devoured by their audience, establishes
particularaffinities with the workof JasperJohnsand Claes Oldenburg.Interestingly,
Oldenburgwrote:"I am foran art ... which is eaten, like a piece of pie, or abandoned
with great contempt, like a piece of shit"; from the catalogue for the exhibition 75
"Environments,Situations,Space," at the MarthaJacksonGalleryin NewYork,which
opened the same month Manzoni made Merda d'artista, quoted in Barbara Rose,
Claes Oldenburg,exh. cat. (New York:Museumof ModernArt, 1970), 190. Manzoni
himself praised an exhibitionof "edibleart"held in March1961 at the StudioGruppo
N in Padua.
21. No serious discussion of Manzoni's work is possible without acknowledging
Celant, whose many writings remain a brilliant and provocativesource. His most
comprehensivestudy of Merdad'artista and anal erotism can be found in Germano
Celant, Piero Manzoni:Catologogenerale(Milan:PrearoEditore,1975), 52-55. See
also Criqui, "Piero Manzoni and His Left-Overs," 21-26; Giorgio di Genova,
"Discorso scatologico sull'arte," TerzoOcchio (May 1978): 1-6; and Spector, "A
TemporaryBlindness: Piero Manzoniand America," 39-45.
22. Norman0. Brown, Life against Death: The PsychoanalyticMeaning of History
(Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1959), esp. part 5, "Studies in
Anality," and in particular chap. 13, "The ExcrementalVision."
23. Ibid., 191.
24. Piero Manzoni, "Forthe Discovery of a Zone of Images," (1957?), see Piero
Manzoni:Paintings, Reliefs, and Objects, exh. cat. (London:Tate Gallery, 1974),
16-17.
25. SigmundFreud, Totemand Taboo:Some Points of Agreementbetweenthe Mental
Lives of Savages and Neurotics, trans. James Strachey (New York:W. W. Norton,
1950), 73. In 1957 Manzoniwrotethat"theartist ... discovers newtotemsand taboos
of which his age possesses the seeds, but not the awareness"(my emphasis). See
Manzoni,"Prolegomenafor an Artistic Activity," 67.
26. In a letterto Ben of December1961, Manzoniwrote"I am truly enthusiastic about
your work," making specific reference to "god in a box" and noting their similar
endeavorsin making "living sculptures." In an apparentreferenceto Ben'sMourirest
uneoeuvred'art (Death is a workof art) of 1961, Manzonimentionshis ownproposalof
enclosing dead people (including himself) in transparentplastic blocks for display
as art.
27. Ben chose wisely. Manzoni'srole and legacy can be detected in a variety of
developments,such as happenings/performance/body,Pop, minimalism, conceptual-
ism, deconstruction, appropriation,process, systemic, and earthworks,to mention
several. Merda d'artista itself lives on as a fecund and fertile object and concept;
artists probablyindebted to it include Kiki Smith, JohnMiller,and MaryKelly. Kelly
paid Manzonia humorousand fittinghomagein a projectforArtforumthatfantasizesa
futureexcavationof tin-canned art reminiscentof Manzoni'sentombedline in a drum,
and of course, Merdad'artista; archaeologistsattemptan attribution,naming Italian
artist Cannzonias the innovatorof this type of art. See MaryKelly, "Magiciensde la
Mer(d):Mus6e d'art subalterraneen,"Artforum29, no. 5 (1991): 89-92.
28. Artist GiovanniAnceschi, a friend of Manzoni, is the source forthis remark;see
Battino and Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni: Catalogue raisonne, 161. See also note 26
above.
GERALD associate professor at Tyler School of Art,
SILK,
TempleUniversity, is a memberof the editorial board of Art
Journal and has published widely on modern art.
ART JOURNAL
 The Fig Leaf Was
John Miller
o a workingartist, the prospectof broadcategoriza-
tionsthattendto organizeart-historicalresearchand
analysis-such as the classical versusthe romantic,
the geometricversus the organic, landscape, portraitureor
still life, painting, drawing or sculpture, the erotic, the
religious, the pastoralor the scatological, for that matter-
seem somewhatremovedfromthe day-to-dayexigenciesof art
production.What actually goes into making an artworkis
often either much morerefractorythan that, just in the first
76
stages of being ordered, or else much more contingent,
shaped by various topical concerns. Perhaps because art
remains virtually a luxury commodity produced under a
marginal,quasibohemianeconomicsof scarcity, artists as a
rule aren'tso muchgiven to sweepingperspectives;instead,
theyfocus on whatthey can use at the moment.Classification
typically becomes a lower priorityfor artists than it is for
historians. By this, I don't mean to imply that my own
particularinsights as a practitioneroffersomethingmore,or
less, than a properacademic approach. Rather, they are
necessarily different and so I must clarify the basis from
which I speak. One challenge for the art historian is to
understandwhat conditions create and perpetuatea given
categoryand, conversely,howthe legitimationof the category
in turn shapes what appears to be the artist's available
possibilities and alternatives. The challenge for the artist,
thrustinto the false position of independentproducerforthe
market, is often just to be able to reproduce her or his
nominalmeans of production.
When Gabriel Weisberg invited me to write a text
concerning"scatologyin contemporaryart,"I repliedthatin
lieu of such an overviewI could writemoredirectly aboutthe
assumptions and developmentof my own work (which is
characterizedby a brown excrementalimpasto), with the
understandingthat these remarksmight represent as well
similar concernsof otherartists; the relationshipof my work
to this categoryis hardlyunique. Moreover,forme it's not so
mucha questionof "scatologicalreferences,"as it is one of a
relation between excrementalmaterial and art's underpin-
nings in libidinal economy and commodityfetishism. But
before raising some theoretical points, I want to give a
narrative account of how I came to use the trope which
qualifies my workas scatological, because an artist'schoice
of materialand technique-not to mentionsubject matter-
is never just that, it is also the result of predispositions
FALL 1993
Brown
inscribed within particular ideological and institutional
frameworks.
Initially,my deploymentof brownimpastodid notarise
outof a programmaticdecisionto addressscatologicalthemes
per se. Ratherit was a gradualoutgrowthof an established
workprocess, a repertoireof competences and procedures
carried out in my studio, which was at first only a studio
apartment.In 1981 I began workingon a series of paintings
that considered the idea of "scenario" as an ideological
construct-or, dialectically, as a constructof ideology. Be-
cause they followeda periodin which I made videotapesand
artist's-5sbooks,these worksconstituteda returnto painting,
which was not so much an affirmationas it was a counter-
refusalpredicatedon a series of priorrefusals. In the course
of painting these pictures, I began to forma distinct set of
ideas and attitudesabout the materialsI was using. Myart-
school instructionin painting (Rhode Island School of De-
sign, 1972-74) was steeped in the Abstract Expressionist
ethos still prevalent in the painting departmentsof most
American schools at that time. This I had determined to
reject as muchas possible, but it was only a rejectionof what
had been long before discredited by Pop art. On the other
hand, I meant to avoid Pop's authoritarianslickness, its
machine-madelook. Instead I wanted to make small-scale
workswhich requireda minimumof equipmentand skills. I
based my technique on William Blake's notion that paint
should be applied in thin transparentlayers to create an
effect of luminosity. Blake had furtherequated luminosity
with spirituality,but for me spiritualitywas out of the ques-
tion. I was working quite intensively then, painting one
picturea dayfora periodof nine months.In the courseof this
regimen, I acquired a differentsense of painting, quite at
odds with the positive one suggested by Blake: that the
processof paintinga picture entailed the physicaltransferof
material,pigmentsuspended in acrylic medium, to the sur-
face of the canvas in a series of slow, even, repetitivestrokes
which sealed off the surfaceof the canvasfromtop to bottom.
This less-than-wholesomeprocess I associated with repres-
sion. I only vaguely equated the paint with shit; I didn't
necessarily think of it as shit per se, but ratheras something
generally"shitty."After fighting this association at first, I
eventuallycame to capitalize on it.
The first worksI made in this vein were self-portraits,
brownfinger-paintingson two mirrorsI had purchased in
second-hand shops. I planned to execute them by simply
tracing the outlines of my features over the surface of the
mirror,unawarethat in practice this is extremelydifficult.
The resultingportraitsturnedout to be rathermurky,but the
material presence of paint was strikingly palpable: brush-
strokes, or ratherfingerstrokes,suspendedoverthe mirror's
evanescent surface. It was two years before I made another
"brown" work. By then I was preparedto confrontthe idea of
excrementboth as subject matterand as a formalprinciple.I
decided to paint a series of brownabstractpictures. I meant
these to be "pictures of pictures," representing what I
thought might be the proverbial man on the street's idea of
fine art in the mid-1980s. Of course, this implied a time lag
vis-a-vis contemporary discourse. In retrospect I can say
that the stylization of these paintings was influenced by Max
Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Phillip Guston, and John
McLaughlin. Curiously, my Abstract Expressionist training
had reasserted itself through the "negativity" of a popular
vernacular, be it real or imaginary. What I meant to be
uncanny or disconcerting about them was the reiteration of
the color brown, burnt sienna, in picture after picture,
twenty times over. This gesture may seem overly didactic,
but it passed without remark on the occasions I exhibited the
series; reviewers tended to regard the installations as a kind
of appropriation art.
What was disappointing about these paintings was that
they always looked better when wet; by the time they dried,
the acrylic brushstrokes flattened out considerably. After one
week, the impasto was completely gone. It was only the
recurrent color, and not the palpability of the physical stroke,
which might have registered any departure from the formalist
abstraction these paintings were intended to undercut. Thus,
the critical function of the work hinged on technical consid-
erations. I knew that if I wanted to continue to work with
acrylics and to resolve this problem as well, I would have to
use an additional material-modeling paste-to create a
permanent texture. And for me the choice of acrylic constitu-
ted a renunciation of oil paint's connotation of authenticity; it
underscored painting as a representational act. Because
modeling paste is white and opaque, it produces pastel
shades when added directly to paint. Ordinarily, one must
build up areas of texture and allow them to dry before
applying the desired color. What is important about this
seemingly trivial technical factor is that it denaturalizes the
brushstroke by making it a slow, "artificially" constructed
entity amenable to allegorical adaptation and at odds with the
Abstract Expressionist cult of spontaneity. As soon as I
began using modeling paste, I began to exaggerate the im-
pasto, intrigued by the idea that a real brushstroke could
function as a cartoon. Although acrylic paint was marketed
after the Second World War as an inexpensive substitute for
oils, its allegorical potential lies in its imperfection, its
failure to replicate completely the appearance of oil paint. At
the same time, acrylic is a kind of plastic paint and carries
FIG. 1 Montessori Method: The Brown Stair. From a Montessori manual.
with it the utopian promise of "plasticity,"the ability to
assume any form.Yetironicallythis makes it somewhatakin
to the heterogeneityand polymorphousnessof excrement,a
decidedlydystopianideal. In my workthe inclusionof mod-
eling paste opened the way for a numberof other elements:
twigs, model houses, figures, Styrofoam, sand, gravel,
skateboards-all of which could be subsumed undera uni-
formbrowncoating.
I have workedin this mode for a period of over eight
years. Mytheoreticalperspectivearose in partout of manual
activity in the studio, which was, in turn, transformedby
theoreticalinsights. Of course, my educationandclass back-
groundcreated certain proclivities, but I want to stress the
differentialbetween theoryand practice, that theorydid not
present itself as a ready-made construct-that contra Sol
LeWitt,the idea was notthe "machine"which, automatically
and autonomously,made the art. I have called the con-
structedbrushstrokeI use allegorical in connectionwith its
excrementalconnotations,but whatis it, exactly, an allegory
of? Or is the very idea of an exact allegory implicitly spe-
cious? Let's considershit as a common-sensemetaphoras it
appearsin everydayspeech.
A cursorysurveyof colloquialisms. First, there is shit
as an active, aggressive element, a weapon:"Shitor be shat
upon," "He was shitty to her,""Eat shit," and so on. Then
there is shit as a passive, entropicelement, an obstruction:
"Cutthroughthe bullshit," "Get this shit out of my way,"
"Shitwork."Then there is shit as essence: "Get the shit
kicked out of him," "Can'ttell shit fromShinola,""Getyour
shittogether,""Scaredshitless."And shit as Other:"Various,
assorted shit," "Shit-faced,""The shit hit the fan." These
active andpassive, intrinsicand extrinsicvalencesof shitare
ART JOURNAL
 not mutuallyexclusive. But, in these examplesat least, shit two is somewhat artificial. The broad contrast between the
seems to change value depending on whether it remains indolent orality of the feudal system, in which the symbolic
78 contained within one's own body or whether it has been power of the nobility was rooted in its potential for waste and
excreted,and it is, as such, closely associatedwithnotionsof prodigality, and the comparative anal retentiveness of capi-
controland willpower,or a lack thereof.Withina humanistic tal, which seeks to waste nothing and to recuperate every
or religious framework,shit also tends to exert a negative expenditure, illustrates at least one way in which Freudian
connotationbecause, like pornography,it reminds human- thought may be bound up in its particular historical milieu.
kind of its inescapableanimal nature. Outsidesuch a frame- As the feminist critic Juliette Mitchell put it, Freudianism is
work, the moral question is nonexistent. Accordingly, shit not a matter of hunting down phallic symbols, but rather it is a
functionsas a context-dependentmetaphorwhichnonetheless means of interrogating a (patriarchal) culture in which all
sustains overlappingand contradictoryreadings. The ones I signification tends to be phallic in nature. For an artist to
have mentionedare only the most obvious. deliberately incorporate fecality in her or his work, then, is to
As opposed to these unreflective and sometimes vis- make art about art via a psychoanalytic detour. Ironically,
ceral conceptionsof feces, SigmundFreud'spsychoanalytic the detour may be more significant than the self-referent-
theories offer a systematic analysis which explicitly links ialism; it at least shows selfhood to be a construct. The
excrement and artmaking. Disavowal facilitates Freud's contradiction is that this excremental self-consciousness
sense of artmakingas a sublimatedanal urge while, at the tends to render the artwork in question decidedly less fecal
same time, the purpose of artmakingseems, tautologically, insofar as feces begins to be understood primarily as an
to provethe efficacy of sublimation.Sublimationexertsitself aesthetic vehicle. Moreover, one wonders, "How threatening
as a kind of patrimony;the urge to makearthas somethingto is real shit?" And the answer is, "Not terribly." Rather, it
do with totemism, a visualizationof God. BarnettNewman, seems that it is the artworks operating under the sign of
for example, wanted his paintings to create the sensationof Beauty or the Sublime which commit truly fecal indiscretions
Man standing in judgment before God. The materialityof against which the "transgressive" artist can't compete: the
physical artworkoperates on the order of the sacred, that waist-high sculpture with thick orange scales, the paintings
which lies outside the sphere of utility, bringing together of lemons rendered in tar, the monument on the square. Just
what is deemed worthless with that which supersedes all as psychoanalysis made its cultural interventions through
values. Freudsuggested one factorthat structuresthis oppo- various forms of allegory (the primal father, the Oedipus
sition; in the infantile mind feces appear as a detachable complex, "acting out," etc.), so art which takes its own
phallus, in otherwords, as the first artificial signifier. This fecality into account is necessarily allegorical art-and the
too seems to approximatethe semiotic status of the artwork. stuff of allegory is never what it purports to be. It is precisely
Yetit is importantnotto treatFreud'sideas deterministically, through this allegorical transformation that so-called scat-
i.e., to insist that beneaththe surface of everyartworklurks ological art holds out its potential for the practice of a non-
shit and that the unrealized goal of every artist is to model reductive, materialist (i.e., politicized) aesthetics.
feces. Rather,Freudvolatilizesa historicallyrelativenetwork
of meanings,latentandovert.These in partcomprisethe not- JOHN MI L L E R is an artist and writer, who teaches at the
always-rational a priori of valuation and evaluation pro- School of Visual Arts, New York.He spent 1992 in Berlin as a
cesses, economic or aesthetic-the separationbetween the participant in the DA A .D. BerlinerKiinstlerprogramm.

FALL 1993
 An
Postscript: Anal Universe

Lenore Malen

In her essay "Perversionand UniversalLaw"the French YayoiKusama'shigh-heeled shoes, on the otherhand,

psychoanalystJanine Chasseguet-Smirgelrefers to "an are obviouslya fetish, a substituteforthe sexually forbidden
79
anal universe where all differencesare abolished.... (fig. 3). With the counterfeit shit in the shoe, the artist
All that is taboo, forbiddenor sacred is devouredby the suggests a corruptionof the beautiful, and elevates that
digestive tract, an enormousgrinding machine disintegrat- corruptioninto an aesthetic position. A press release forJohn
ing the moleculesof the mass thus obtainedin orderto reduce Miller'sApril 1993 exhibitionat MetroPictures, New York,
it to excrement."1This kind of abolition of boundaries, states thathis worksuggests "ananalogyto the infantileurge
Chasseguet-Smirgelsuggests (drawingheavily on the mar- to handle feces," and represents"culturalknowledgeover-
quis de Sade), can "pushforwardthe frontiersof the possible, taken by nature'sentropicimpasto"(fig. 4).
unsettling reality."During times of historical discontinuity, In DangerousGround,1992, Jackie Brooknerdefiles
to breakdownorderat the mostbasic organiclevel createsthe silk with dirt (here, a kind of synonymfor shit), and the dirt
possibility of renewal. peeps clitorislike from a slit (fig. 5). Chasseguet-Smirgel's
In a Sadean universe of abolished differences, all description of the Sadean "permutationof the erotogenic
things are returnedto chaos-to excrement.Good and evil zonesandtheirfunctions,. . . makingtheminterchangeable"
are synonymous.Evendeath dies, or ceases to exist, since it comes to mind.4 Sexual parts are often interchangeablein
is no longerdistinguishablefromlife. Preciselysuch a view of CindySherman'sphotos;in Untitled, 1992, the anus appears
"shit" as a metaphor for negation-but this universe, after as a gaping cloaca (fig. 6). Cosima Von Bonin's Untitled,
all, makes no distinction between negationand rebirth-lies 1993, a delicate ink drawingof a prisonwindowdefiled with
behind much contemporaryart that is either explicitly scat- real bird droppings,ratherliterally suggests the breakdown
ologicalor has as its subject matterentrails, or waste, or the of penal/penile authority and of patriarchal law (fig. 7).
disorderedsexual body and its parts. (Chasseguet-Smirgel: Finally,in MikeKelly'sManipulatingMass-Produced,Ideal-
"Theerotogeniczones and differentpartsof the body become ized Objects,1990, the display of naked behinds presentsan
interchangeableand are metamorphosedby a kind of diaboli- orgiastic image of the dissolution of the social order into
cal surgery.")2Perhaps a hint of these same ideas inheres indulgent excess and infantile urges, an inversion of the
even in worksthat extend the traditionof the scatologicalas "civilized"(fig. 8). -
politicalsatire, orthatexpresswhatforFreudwas an infantile
pleasure-the retentionof feces, which, later in life, merge
in the unconsciouswith "filthylucre." Notes
The selection of images that follows may suggest the 1. Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, "Perversionand Universal Law,"in Creativityand
Perversion(New York:W. W. Norton, 1985), 3-4.
range of these approaches.MeganWilliams'sFarting Boys 2. Ibid., 4.
II, 1993, a drawing in which cherubs flying overheadare 3. ChristopherKnight, Lari Pittman: Paintings 1992, exh. cat. (Vienna: Galerie
Krinzinger,1992), n.p.
poweredby their own anal combustion, obviouslyfalls into 4. Chasseguet-Smirgel, "Perversionand Universal Law,"3.
the realm of satire (fig. 1). Lari Pittmanweaves sexual and
scatologicalimages into an intricatearrayof paintedpatterns
and markingsto conveya disordereduniverse-for the critic
ChristopherKnight, "determined,even spookyreveryin the LE NO R E MA LE N is a New York artist and the executive
face of chaos and decay" (fig. 2).3 editor of Art Journal.

ART JOURNAL
FIG.1 MeganWilliams,FartingBoysII,1993, pastelon paper,22 x 28 FIG. 3 YayoiKusama,Untitled,1963, mixedmediaand shoes, each 9Y2inches
inches.CourtesyJohnPost Lee,Inc.,New York. N.Y.
high.CourtesyBeatricePerry,Germantown,

FIG. 2 LariPittman,Fecundand Needy,1992, acrylicand enamel FIG. 4 JohnMiller,Untitled,1990, Styrofoam,assortedobjects,plaster,

on mahogany,48 x 36 inches.CourtesyJayGorneyModer Art, and acrylicpainton Masonitepanel,60 x 48 x 14 inches.
papier-mach6,
NewYork. CourtesyMetroPictures,New York.
 DangerousGround,1992, earth,silk, and
FIG. 5 JackieBrookner, FIG. 7 CosimaVonBonin,Untitled,1993, inkand bird
copper,51 x 22 x 181 inches.Collectionof the artist. droppingson paper,2312 x 1612inches.Courtesy
AmericanFineArtsCo., New York.

FIG. 6 CindySherman,Untitled#258,1992, colorphotograph,68 x 45 IdealizedObjects,

FIG. 8 MikeKelly,ManipulatingMass-Produced,
inches.CourtesyMetroPictures,New York. 1990, photograph,14 x 11 inches.CourtesyMetroPictures,
NewYork.
 *S

TheAncientAmericas
VIRGINIA E. MILLER

RichardF. Townsend,editor.TheAncient
Americas:Artfrom SacredLandscapes.
Munich:PrestelVerlagforthe Art Institute
of Chicago,1992. 397 pp.; 203 colorills.,
238 black-and-white,5 maps, 5 time
charts.$65.00
Exhibitionschedule:Art Instituteof Chi-
cago, October10, 1992-January3, 1993;
Museumof Fine Arts, Houston,February4-
84 April18, 1993; Los Angeles CountyMu-
seum of Art, June6-August 15, 1993

he AncientAmericas:Artfrom Sa-
credLandscapesis the first compre-
hensive exhibition of pre-
Columbian art ever mounted by the Art
Instituteof Chicago. It is an endeavorlong
overdueand particularlywelcome in a city
with a large Latino population. A major
undertakingfive years in the making, the
exhibition includes loans from Mexico,
Guatemala,Colombia,Ecuador,Peru, Bo-
livia, and Chile as well as from European
and Americancollections. In a year marked
by both celebrationand acrimonythrough-
out the Westernhemisphere, the efforts of
curatorRichardE Townsendof the Art In-
stitute's Department of Africa, Oceania,
and the Americas to coordinate this event
transformedhim from museum curator to
internationaldiplomat.While otherinstitu-
tions in 1992 tended to emphasize the im-
printof Columbusand the age of exploration
on the NewWorld,Townsendchose to ignore
the manof the yearin favorof presentingthe
broad sweep of Amerindian cultures that
flourished before Columbus changed his-
tory. Furthermore,his exhibition goes be-
yondthe familiartriad of Aztec, Inca, and
Maya to encompass less well-known cul-
tures ranging from the Mimbres of the
southwesternUnitedStates to the positively
obscure Jama-Coaqueof Ecuador.
The intense spiritualrelationshipbe-
tween aboriginal Americans and their
cosmos-earth, sky, water,and the invisi-
ble realms of the supernaturalworld-has
fascinated and mystified Westernerssince
the earliest contact. The entrancegalleryin
Chicago providesthe first hint of the geo-
FIG. 1 Colossalportraitof a ruler,Mexico,Olmec,900-800 B.C.,stone, 65 x 532 x 46 in. Museo de
Antropologia,Xalapa,Veracruz.
graphicalscope and focus of the exhibition.
A map of the Americas encompassing the
cultures represented, from the south-
western United States to central Chile, is
turned on its side and wrappedaroundthe
upperhalf of the room.This arrestingtrans-
formationof our normalview of the Western
hemispherepreparesthe way for the show's
theme, the explorationof the relationship
between the makers of the artifacts within
and the naturalworldthatsurroundedthem.
It is unfortunate that the message
tends to get lost withinthe exhibitionitself.
While the objects are stunning, they do not
convey easily either the magnificence of
their original natural settings, nor, for the
mostpart, do they expressclearly the strong
spiritual relationship between the pre-
Columbianpeoples and their environment.
As might be expected, there is inconsis-
tency in the presentationof this relation-
ship: in some sections, the materials used
by native artists are emphasized;in others,
particular motifs drawn from the natural
world,such as maize or felines, become the
focus; and elsewhere the land itself is the
theme. The observantviewerwill be able to
note common threads running throughout
the exhibition,such as widespreadevidence
for shamanism-often represented by
human/animal transformationalfigures-
throughoutthe Americas.
Large black-and-white photographs
placed at intervalsthroughoutthe exhibition
do little to bring the varied landscapes to
life, however,and seem to compete unnec-
essarily with the morecompelling real arti-
factson display. A fewof the photographsdo
demonstratethe way in which native peo-
ples built their environmentto echo or chal-
lenge the surroundingtopographyor actu-
ally sculpted it to meet their spiritual
needs, as in the Nazca lines, giant geomet-
rical designs and animalfigures etched into
the rainless desert of Peruand only seen in
their entirety from the air. But even this
image seems remotefromthe much smaller
andmorecolorfulpieces displayedbelowit.
While some cultures are represented
in such a way that the connection between
humansand the landscape is obvious, there
are sections of the exhibition where the
theme is obscure or somewhat contrived.
With few exceptions, the viewer must read
the accompanyingwall or object labels in
orderto understandwhy the objects were
chosen to fit the theme. Forthe Olmec, for
example, the earliest great Mesoamerican
civilization,which flourishedbetween 1200
and 600 B.C., the curatorchose a colossal

FALL1993
stone head, probablydepicting a ruler(fig.
1). While it is a pleasureto view one of these
massive portraits,rarelyseen outside Mex-
ico, the only obvious link with the land-
scape is the stone materialitself. The label
foran Olmecjade figure states thatjade was
associated with water,as if to pull the cov-
eted stone more firmly into the natural
realm. Moreconvincingin terms of the ex-
hibition's theme, perhaps, is the great
carved stone mask that once served as an
entrancewayto a cave, most likely a sacred
space into which only the initiated could
pass. Even wrenchedout of its original set-
ting, it succeeds in conveying a sense of
supernaturalpower.
Forthe Maya,we are told in the wall
text that they "wereintensely preoccupied
with the cult of the ancestors and nature
deities, the calculation of historical, astro-
nomicaland mythologicaltime, and hidden
forces that controlledthe destinies of rulers
and people." While the statement may be
true, it is so broad that it encompasses
nearlyeverythingthe Mayathoughtaboutat
all. Again, the objects do not enlighten the
viewer. Vessels are labeled "maize plate
depicting dancer" and "plate of the sun,"
with no further elaboration. The accom-
panying audiotape,narratedin this section
by MayanistMary Ellen Miller, brings to
life a well-knownbust of the young maize
deity froma Copantemple, but the tapeless
visitorwill have troubleidentifyingthis se-
rene and youthfulfigure as a deity at all, let
alone as the maize god.
Also speaking on the taped tour,cur-
ator Townsendsheds light on the complex
Aztec symbolism in cult images and relief
carvingsby drawingon his ownresearchon
the mountaintopTempleof Tlaloc in Mex-
FIG.2 Pedestalbowlwith abstractdesignof aquaticanddragonlikecreatures,Panama,Cocle,A.D.
600-800, ceramic,12Y2in. diameter.Privatecollection,Illinois.
ico. His commentshelp to pull togetherthe
religiousart of urbanTenochtitlan(the Az-
tec capital), kingship, and the landscape
sacred to the Aztecs. Withoutthe tape, the
visitor may be tempted to move on to less
forbiddingand moreaccessible artifacts.
A significantly large proportionof
the gallery space of Artfrom SacredLand-
scapes is devotedto CentralAmerican and
northernSouthAmericanchiefdoms,giving
these relatively unknown and unstudied
cultures equal weight with the great civili-
zationsthat existed to the northand south of
this area prior to the Spanish conquest.
Althoughit could be arguedthatthey should
remainin the shadowsof their moreimpres-
sive and better understoodneighbors, it is
refreshingto see them given such a promi-
nent position in this broad exhibition. It is
unfortunatethatforthe Chicagoinstallation
the excellent descriptive wall label for this
area was placed well beyond most of the
exhibited pieces instead of near the begin-
ning of the gallery where it could have set
the stage forthe varietyof cultures to come.
The spectacular gold objects pro-
duced by the Cocle of Panama,the Tairona
of Colombia,and a numberof othercultures
are always a great drawwheneverthey are
displayed, but impressive ceramic and
stone pieces were also produced in this
region.The energeticand boldabstractzoo-
morphicforms painted on the surfaces of
Coclepedestal plates, forexample,bring us
swiftly back to the worldof nature after the
esoteric imageryof the Aztec (fig. 2). The
creatures represented bristle with sharp
teeth and claws as well as spiky fur,
feathers, and skin, remindersof the fear-
some aspects of the natural world. There-
fore it is surprising to view a jar painted
FIG. 3 Modelof trophyhead, Ecuador,LaTolita,
A.D.200-400, ceramic,234 x 33Yx 4Y8in.
MuseoArquel6gicodel BancoCentral,Quito.
with what seem to be human trophyheads
blandlylabeled as "jarwith modeledanimal
features."If we havelearnedanythingabout
pre-Columbianpeoples in the last few de-
cades, it is that their relationshipswith one
anotherwere often quite hostile and that
they recorded their victories quite graph-
ically in their art.
It is a pleasantsurpriseto see a large
selection of modeled ceramics from the
little-knownTolita and Jama-Coaquecul-
tures of Ecuador, both dating from A.D.
200-400. Here also animals and poly-
morphic creatures predominate, but deli-
cately modeled and painted humans in
elaborate costumes are also represented
(fig. 3). The connectionwith the landscape
is again somewhatobscure. One figure is
labeled as a ritualsowerwith a seed bag and
staff, but we have no way of knowingwhat
his bag contains, norcan we be certain that
his staff is a plantingstick and not simply a
batonof office or a walking stick. Another
figure appearsto perch uncomfortablyon a
stackof maniocroots,a rootcropthatis still
a staple in muchof tropicalAmerica. How-
ever, manyof the figures representedseem
to have little direct connection with the
land: in fact, some are representedseated
withinobviousarchitecturalenclosuresthat
suggest physical and spiritual separation
fromthe environment.
Among the Andean cultures repre-
sented, the sacred landscape themeis most
convincingly expressed by the Nazca cul-
ture of the south coast of Peru, which flour-
ART JOURNAL
 ished between 200 B.C. and A.D. 600. A
numberof the ceramic vessels vividly illus-
trate the flora and fauna of the region, in-
cluding the feline motif that seems to be
ubiquitousin South America. While a sin-
gle aerial photographof the Nazca lines
cannot convey the size and thematic scope
of these giant geoglyphs, it certainly re-
minds us howdramaticallythe ancient An-
dean peoples could transform their sur-
roundings. The Inca, of course, are best
knownfortheircustomof carvinginto living
rock to create massive outdoorshrines as
well as for their impressive stone architec-
ture. The small selection of Inca objects
displayed suffers in contrast to the more
impressive Inca architecture, represented
by a large photographof MachuPicchu. The
tiny silver femalevotivefigurine dressed in
a feather headdress and a textile cloak
foundon a Chilean volcanois an exception,
a poignantreminderof the occasional sacri-
86 fice of childrenwho were buried with such
figurines (fg. 4).
Among the most impressive works
exhibited in the Andean gallery are the
woventextiles, preservedby the dryclimate
of coastal Peru. While the dim lighting and 5 Tunic,Peru,Huari,A.D. 500-800, camelidwool and cotton,39M8x 36-Y8
FIG. in.
the sheercomplexityof boththe iconography MuseoNacionalde Antropologiay Arqueologia,Lima.
and the weavingtechniques may be daunt-
ing to the visitor nearing the end of a large mals) fiber fabrics, rarely displayed be- culture is noted, and also a rare set of
exhibition, the patient viewer will be re- cause of theirfragility.Amongthe pieces on brilliantlypainted ritualcache figures from
wardedby close study of these magnificent view are the embroideredmantles of the the Art Institute's own collection (fig. 6).
cottonand camelid (llama and related ani- Paracasculture, manyof which vividly de- Despite the quality of the objects, the Mim-
pict local faunaof south coast Peru, and the bres section seems somehowtacked on as
woven tunics of the later Huari culture, an afterthought. While the southwestern
FIG. 4 Votive female figurine, Chile, Inca, ca. A.D.
1500, silver,feathers,and textiles,5% x 4Y in. whose animal and human imagery is an traditionmaybe culturallyrelatedto Meso-
MuseoNacionalde HistoriaNatural,Santiago. extremely abstract representationof their america, to the average museum visitor it
naturalworld(fig. 5). An apt descriptionof forms part of the North American native
these pieces is given in one of the labels, heritage. As a result, it must carry the
whichsuggests thata mantlewhenwrapped burden of representingall indigenous cul-
around its owner represented one's "own tures here before the arrivalof Europeans,
personallandscape." and will inevitably disappoint viewers ex-
The Art Institute was particularly pecting the same richness and variety rep-
fortunatein securing a number of objects resented in the subsequent sections.
from the highland Bolivian site of One of the unexpected pleasures of
Tiwanaku, approximately contemporary this wide-rangingexhibition is seeing the
with and relatedto the Huari of Peru. Their strikingcontrastsevidentin the representa-
massive stone figures are carved in a con- tion of the same theme by cultures widely
tainedandblockystyle, with simplified fea- separated in time and space. The great
tures and sharplydelineated limbs that ex- stone Olmec and Tiwanakuruler portraits,
press neitheremotionnormovement.Closer one a huge, fully modeledand fleshy head,
viewing, however,reveals delicatelyincised the other a stylized block with flattened
linear patterns across the surface of the featuresanddelicatelyincised insignia, are
stone pieces. Unfortunately,the complexity among the examples that come to mind.
of the designs and the dim lighting of the Anothercomparisonis providedby the Az-
gallerymake these patternsdifficult to dis- tec and Chavin earth goddesses, one mas-
cern even with the help of the audiotour's sive and three-dimensionaland repletewith
narrator. death imagery, the otherwearing a fanged
The only NorthAmericanculture in- maskand engravedin a birthingpositionon
cluded, that of the Mimbres, appearsat the the bottomof a stone offeringvessel.
beginningof the exhibition.Thereis a good The sacred landscape theme is cap-
selection of the black-on-white painted turedmoresuccessfully in the large accom-
bowls for which this ancient southwestern panying catalogue. Townsend marshaled

FALL
1993
the talents of an international group of
scholars to write essays on variousaspects
of pre-Columbianart and architecture.Al-
though the sheer size of the volume may
intimidatethe generalreader,he or she will
be well rewardedby sampling even one or
two of its offerings.A section titled "Princi-
ples and Themes"sets the stage and gathers
together some interesting scholarly "loose
threads." ArchaeoastronomerAnthony E
Aveni, for example, complementsthe study
of sacred space with an essay on pre-
Columbianimages of time. Anthropologist
EvonZ. Vogtwrites about the sacred geog-
raphy of the contemporaryTzotzil Mayaof
southernMexico,informingus thatthe con-
cept still thrives in certain native commu-
nities. Architectural historian Vincent
Scully recalls his thirty-fiveyears of exam-
ining the relationshipbetween the land and
architecturefrom ancient Greece to seven-
teenth-centuryFrance to the southwestern
United States, reminding us how earlier
scholarshiplargelyignoredsetting, treating
Greektemples, forexample,"asif theywere
all standing in Kansas"(p. 71).
The rest of the volume is arranged
accordingto geographicalareas: the South-
west, Mesoamerica, Central America and
the northernAndes, and finally the Andean
civilization. Some of the articles deal di-
rectly with the relationship between hu-
mans and nature,while othersintroducethe
readerto aspects of pre-Columbianart not
included in the exhibition, such as the
painted codices of Mexico. The essays are
uneven not in terms of quality, as they are
almost uniformly sound, but in terms of
approach.While some of the authorshave
chosen to present new findings, otherspro-
vide an introductoryoverviewof the culture
in questionor reviewthe state of studies in a
particularfield.
Among the more original essays is
Townsend's on the "mythic drama" per-
formed by Aztec kings each year at the
mountaintoptemple of Tlaloc. JohanRein-
hard, citing currentPeruvianwaterand rain
ritualsamongothertypes of evidence, inter-
prets the Nazca lines as examples of pre-
Columbianmountainworship.Alan Kolata
and Carlos Ponce Sangines report on the
recent intensive research carried out at
Tiwanaku,Bolivia, notingthe manipulation
of the environmentto meet the needs of the
urban and rural populations. In one of the
more scholarly essays in the volume, art
historianRebecca Stone-Millerargues that
weaving in Huari and Tiwanakuexpresses
the hostility inherent in the relationshipof
humans to nature. She sees this reflected
not only in the uncertaintythat must have
surroundedthe care of llamas, the main
fiber source, but also in the delicate bal-
ance between orderand chaos as expressed
in the complexabstractimages of the natu-
ral worldwoven into their splendid tunics.
Moregeneral are the essays by Ste-
phen H. Lekson on the architectureof the
Southwest, Beatriz de la Fuente on the
Olmec, Mary Miller on the Maya, Esther
Pasztory on Teotihuacan, Elizabeth Hill
Booneon codices, and Elizabeth P. Benson
on Moche.Each servesas an excellentintro-
ductionto the subject but does not advance
a particularthesis.
The section on the chiefdomsof Cen-
tral America and the northern Andes is
particularlyenlightening because so little
has been writtenon the artof this region. As
MaryW. Helms points out in her essay on
Panamanianart, the study and interpreta-
tion of this material-largely gold and
ceramics-has barely begun. She notes
that the images represented in pre-
ColumbianPanamanianart are not of agri-
cultural pursuits, but are of wild creatures
or their impersonators,symbols of social
and supernaturalpower. Francisco Valdez FIG. 6 Ritual cache figure, New Mexico, Mimbres,
ca. A.D. 1350, wood, cotton, feathers, and pigment,
describes the ceramicartof twoearly Ecua- 25Y8 x 7 x 3s in. Art Institute of Chicago.
dorian cultures, La Tolita and Jama-
Coaque,notingthattheiranimalsymbolism
has much in commonwith other early An- theme, the relationshipbetween man and
dean traditions, such as Chavin in Peru. nature in the pre-Columbianworld, it suc-
Finally, Tom Zuidema demonstrates the ceeds on many levels. It brings together
continuitybetween the contemporaryKogi outstanding objects rarely seen outside
of Colombia and their ancestors, the their native countries, whose museums are
Tairona. usually loathe to part with their first-rate
Although there is a checklist of ob- pieces, as well as contributionsfrom scat-
jects exhibited at the back of the volume, tered American collections, both private
not every item is illustrated. The reader and public. It provides a glimpse of cul-
must referto each entryto find out where in tures little known in this country, and in-
the catalogue an object appears. The au- deed seems to give equal weight to the artof
thorsobviouslytried to include in their es- minorchiefdomsand greatempires. And for
says as manyexhibitedobjects as possible, those who take the time to read the cata-
but a helpful additionto the volume would logue, it will alter their perception of the
have been an appendix with small black- relationshipbetween the land and its origi-
and-whitephotographsof each piece. And nal occupants. Amerindiansdid not hesi-
as sometimesoccurs when a cataloguemust tate to manipulate the landscape to fulfill
go to press long beforethe exhibitionopens, their practical and spiritual needs-as
not every item made it to the Chicago show. Susan A. Niles points out in her essay on
A notableexampleis the relief fromPiedras Inca architecture,the nameof the first great
Negras (cat. no. 144) that had to undergo Inca conqueror,Pachacuti, means "shaper
repairson arrivalin Chicago but which was of the earth"-but theyrespected it as well.
scheduled to appear in the other venues. This reverence for the earth and its re-
Missing, too, is the stone chachapumafig- sources is best expressed in the essays and
ure (cat. no. 275), which the local popula- the often dramaticphotographsthat accom-
tion prevented from leaving Tiwanaku in panythem. But it is also revealedin the fine
Bolivia. But given the delicate and lengthy craftsmanshipof a carved Olmec jade, the
negotiations that must have been under- complexcasting of a gold Taironapendant,
taken to secure loans from such a large and the embroideredabstractanimal imag-
numberof sources, the curatorand his staff ery of a Paracasmantle, all vivid reminders
areto be commendedfortheirpersistencein of a vanishedera when reverencefornature
was central to human existence. -
amassingone of the finest and mostcompre-
hensive exhibitions of pre-Columbian art
V I RGI N I A E. MI L LER, associateprofessorin the
that NorthAmerica has seen.
Department of the HistoryofArchitectureand Art,
Although this impressive show may Universityof Illinois at Chicago,specializesin pre-
fail to convince the viewer of its stated Columbianart, particularlythat of the Maya.
ART JOURNAL
 rmmnrzrrere
Fictions
Revolutionary JONATHAN P. RIBNER
BernadetteFort,ed. Fictionsof the French
Revolution.Evanston,III.:Northwestern
UniversityPress,1991. viii + 209 pp.; 20 black-
and-white ills. $34.95; $14.95 paper
LynnHunt. The FamilyRomanceof the French
Revolution.Berkeley:Universityof California
Press,1992. xvi + 213 pp.; 31 black-and-white
ills.$20.00
MadelynGutwirth.The Twilightof the
Goddesses: Womenand Representationin the
88 FrenchRevolutionaryEra.New Brunswick:
RutgersUniversityPress,1992. xxi + 440 pp.;
120 black-and-whiteills. $39.95
incethe decade precedingthe 1989 Bicen-
tennial,there has been an ongoing boom
in publications,exhibitions,and symposia
devoted to the French Revolution.A welcome
featureof this formidablescholarlyindustryis an
interest in tracing thematic affinities within a
broad spectrum of cultural materials including
paintings,sculpture,prints,novels, plays,political
pamphlets,scientificwriting,and publicorations.
Such an interdisciplinary approach characterizes
the three books underreview,whose relevanceto
arthistoryresidesnot just in theirincorporationof
visual imagery but in a shared emphasis on the
role of fiction and representationin shaping, as
well as reflecting,consciousand unconsciouspo-
liticalaspirations.
The fruitfulnessof the FrenchRevolution
as the subject for such inquirystems from the
urgent need, after Julyof 1789, to reconstructa
new order on the ruinsof the Old Regime. The
fearsomeviolence unleashedby the revolutionary
attemptto wipe the slate clean had as its counter-
partthe generationof legitimatingfictionsof sta-
bilityandtruth.And,as BernadetteFortpointsout
inthe introductionto Fictionsof the FrenchRevo-
lution, the emphasis on fiction in recent revolu-
tionary scholarshipreflects the impact of post-
structuralism, with its attentionto the constructed
aspect of receivedideas and to the autonomous
and inherentlyideologicalaspect of discourse.
Fictionsof the FrenchRevolution,the pro-
ceedings of a Bicentennialcolloquiumat North-
western University (November 10-12, 1989),
FALL 1993
offers impressive examples of recent inter-
disciplinaryresearchinto the dialogue of revolu-
tionarypoliticsand culture.1Followingthe editor's
articulateaccount of currenttrendsin revolution-
ary scholarship,the collection opens with "The
RevolutionaryBody"by PeterBrooks.Thisessay
exploresaffinitieslinkingthe extremismof revolu-
tionary political thought and action to melo-
drama,for Brooksthe characteristicdramaticform
of the period:"Melodramasimplyenacted on the
stage, in a heightened, excessive, Manichaean,
hyperbolic drama, the national drama being
playedout in the Convention,in the sections, in
the tribunals,and on the scaffold" (p. 47). In
revolutionarymelodramassuch as SylvainMar-
echal'sJugement dernierdes rois (1793), which
delighted Parisiansliving through the Reign of
Terrorwiththe edifyingspectacleof the monarchs
of Europeconsumed by volcanic flame, Brooks
sees an insistenceon "bodiliness"that he positsas
a central aspect of the mentality of the period.
Claimingthat "the body, its freedoms, capacities,
pleasures,and responsibilities,became a central
concernof the Revolution"(p. 35), Brooksviews
the guillotineas representing"an abstractnotion
of judgmentembodiedina machineforthe exem-
plarypunishmentof bodies"(p. 37). He also finds
evidenceof this focus on the body in the disinter-
ment of the bodies of Frenchkingsfrom the Ab-
bey of Saint-Denisand inthe misogynisticstrainin
revolutionaryrhetoricthat focused relentlesslyon
Queen Marie-Antoinette.
The explosion, duringthe Revolution,of
violent, obscene pamphlets and caricaturesdi-
rected against the queen-a target of derision
withinthe courtsince the mid-1770s-is the sub-
ject of JacquesRevel'scontributionto Fictionsof
the FrenchRevolution,"Marie-Antoinettein Her
Fictions:The Staging of Hatred."2Setting forth
the self-legitimatingand self-referentialaspect of
the pamphletsdirectedagainst the queen, Revel
characterizesthis body of materialas "a coherent
networkof intertextuality,organizedin citations,
references,allusions,in a lexiconand an arsenalof
shared syntactical and formal resources from
which it is always possible-and, in fact, nec-
essary-to borrow,and from which each single
text drawsits credibilityand the illusionof reality
on whichit rests"(p. 129). Revelpursuesthis mate-
rialin accordwith his interest"inthe long process
of privatizationand degradation of royalty in
Franceduringthe last half-centuryof the absolute
monarchy"(p. 113). Yet his project is as much
about poetics as it is about a specific historical
episode.As analyzedby Revel,the venomousout-
put of his anonymous hack authorsoffers a test
case illustrating the rhetorical dynamics of a
slandercampaign.
In contrast to the blunt, public imagery
treated by Brooks and Revel, Thomas Crow's
"RevolutionaryActivism and the Cult of Male
Beautyin the Studio of David,"the sole essay in
the volume devoted to art, concerns submerged
layersof politicalsignificancein a workby a great
artist, Jacques-LouisDavid'spainting (1794) of
the young republicanmilitaryaide, Joseph Bara,
killedby counterrevolutionaryinsurgents in the
west of France.In particular,the author is con-
cerned with Bara'snudity and androgyny.These
enigmaticaspects of the figure, which seem in-
congruous with the painting'sintended purpose
of glorifyinga heroic revolutionarymartyr,have
been considered by previous commentators as
representingan abandonment, by the artist, of
concentratedpoliticalpurpose.Crow,on the con-
trary,argues that the erotic, corporealaspects of
the dead Bara were, themselves, politically
charged.Insupport,Crowreconstructsa richfab-
ric of association between, on the one hand,
David'sDeath of Baraand, on the other,both the
sensationallyeroticSleep of Endymion(1791) by
his pupilGirodet-who had been imbued with a
heroic stature by his recent patrioticactivitiesin
Rome-and the moralizinglens through which
Winckelmann'scult of male beauty was viewed in
the lateeighteenthcentury.Havingestablished,at
the outset, David'sclose workingrelationshipwith
his circleof students, Crow speculativelylocates
The Death of Bara and The Sleep of Endymion
withina competitivedialogue,initiatedby David's
pupil Drouais, in which ambitiously innovative
treatmentof the male nude symbolizeddefiance
of academicauthority.The subtlety of Crow'sar-
gument is such to suggest that, in additionto the
public,commemorativefunctionof The Death of
Baraas a monumentto a martyredvictimof coun-
terrevolution,the paintingcarrieda more sophis-
ticated,and partiallyunconscious,politicalcharge
that could have touched only a limitedaudience,
perhapsonly the artistand Girodet.
PatriceHigonnet'ssuperbessay "JointSui-
cide in Eighteenth-CenturyFrenchLiteratureand
Revolutionary Politics"illuminatesthe intersection
of literarysentiment with both privateand politi-
 cal life. Here we are made aware of a pre-
revolutionaryliterary tradition, established by
Rousseau'sNouvelle Heloise and popularizedby
the novels of Nicolas-GermainLeonard,that val-
orizedacts of joint,sentimentalsuicideby desper-
ate lovers.Whilethis motifwas incompatiblewith
the Jacobinbelief that "publicresponsibilitiesal-
ways had precedentover privatedesires,"Higon-
net brilliantlyinterprets the suicide of Gilbert
Rommeand the other martyrsde Prairial(1795)
who, "passingtheir weapon from hand to hand
... seriallystabbed themselves in the dock after
they had been condemned,"as a sublimatedand
politicizedenactmentof the pre-revolutionarylit-
erarymotif.(Atthe same time this groupsuicideis
reminiscentof suchacts of antiqueself-sacrificeas
the death of Catoof Utica,which,two yearslater,
was the subjectofferedto contestantsfor the Prix
de Rome.)InHigonnet'sperspective,the last ges-
ture of the condemned revolutionariescan be
seen as "ajoint and covertsuicideof love (to each
otherand the nation)and of hatred... [inwhich]
90 both Jacobinactorand feminizedloved one (that
isto say,the nation)are on the edge of extinction"
(p. 104). Since RobertRosenblum'sdiscussionof
David'sDeath of Maratin Transformations in Late
Eighteenth Century Art (1967), scholars have
been alert to the politicaltransvaluationof reli-
gious motifsin revolutionaryart. Higonnet'sessay
suggests that romance and literary sentiment
couldalso be subjectedto politicalalchemyunder
the extraordinarypressuresof the 1790s.
The resonance in nationalpoliticsof cul-
turaland gender paradigmsis centralto TheFam-
ily Romance of the FrenchRevolution by Lynn
Hunt."FamilyRomance"is borrowedfor the title
from Freud,without its originalFreudiandefini-
tion of grandiosefantasizingby childrenwho feel
slightedby their parents.Maintainingthat "most
Europeansin the eighteenth centurythought of
theirrulersas fathersand of theirnationsas fami-
lieswritlarge,"Huntargues,"thatthe Frenchhad
a kindof collectivepoliticalunconsciousthat was
structuredby narrativesof familyrelations.""This
familialgrid," accordingto Hunt, "operated on
both the conscious and the unconsciouslevel of
experience"(pp. xiii-xiv).
Huntsupportsthis intriguingand sensible
hypothesisby setting forth a historyof attitudes
toward fathers, mothers, brothers,women, and
the family as reflected in public oratory,legisla-
tion, satiricalprints, novels, plays, and even in
pornography.The familiarevents of the Revolu-
tion are thus subsumedwithina fresh narrativein
which the execution of Louis XVI-the funda-
mental, traumatic familial experience of the
Revolution-is accompaniedby a discreditingof
paternalauthorityinfavorof the radicalRepublic's
"bandof brothers."We are shown how,underthe
Directory,a rehabilitationof the familyoccurredin
which the father returned,but as a gentle and
benevolentfigure. Finally,we see patriarchyfully
restoredby Napoleon and his CivilCode.
To illuminate the psychodynamic pres-
FALL1993
sures unleashed by the execution of LouisXVI,
Hunt makes loose reference to the theories of
guilt sublimation, bonding, ritual sacrifice, and
scapegoating proposed by Freud in Totem and
Taboo and by Rene Girardin La Violence et le
sacre (1972) and Le Bouc emissaire(1982).While
these theoretical references lend a thought-
provokingresonanceto the argument,the author
is judiciouslyunwilling to attempt a consistent
alignment of the concrete data at hand to the
transhistoricalmodels of Freudand Girard.
Wellawareof the challengesposed to the
historianby worksof art and literature,Huntob-
servesthat:
Sourcessuch as paintings,engravings,and novels
... are not transparentrepresentationsof the
imagery of power. Paintersrarelypainted with
straightforwardpolitical purposes, even during
the FrenchRevolution,and novelistsrarelywrote
with the self-conscious aim of supportinga par-
ticularpolitical order.Moreover,we know little
about the specific intentionsof artistsor novelists
of the period (p. 15).
Thiswise cautionarynote inadvertentlysuggests
the differentperspectivesthrough which a histo-
rian and an art historianmight view the inter-
disciplinaryenterprise. For a historian such as
Hunt,who is interestedin culturalmaterialsas a
means of access to largercurrentsof politicaldis-
course, the aforementioned difficultieslimit the
scholarlyviabilityof such data. But for the art
historian, for whom images-even those of
purely iconographicinterest-are the very em-
bodimentof history,the obstructionsthat works
of art offer to straightforwardpoliticalinterpre-
tation are a source of enrichment. In some
instances-David's Death of Marat, for
example-style, subject,and politicalintentseem
to perfectlycoincide.Thatthe politicalvoice of a
work of art is more difficultto ascertain-as in
David's great Greco-Roman paintings of the
1780s-can make the objects all the more
interesting.
Nowhere is Hunt'sculturalmaterialmore
recalcitrant than inthe chaptertitled"Sade'sFam-
ily Politics."Turningfrom the publicdiscoursesof
the Revolutionto the idiosyncraticand perverse
subjectivityof the marquisde Sade, the author
groundsan analysisof Sade'sPhilosophiedans le
boudoir (published in 1795, though perhaps
largelywritten in the late 1780s) in a conviction
that Sade'spornographyoffers a reductioad ab-
surdumof contemporarydiscourseand thus "re-
veals the points of tension in revolutionaryideol-
ogy" (p. 128). Thisattractiveinsightsuggests that
Sade's writing, like political caricature, offers
ready access to larger,more serious currentsof
contemporarythought and sentiment.Yet Hunt's
attemptto integratethis outrageous materialinto
the largedesign of herargumentis as problematic
as it is bold. Apartfrom the difficultyof charac-
terizingthe politicalcoloring of this debauched
text, pornographyoffers its own set of problems
to the historian.Politicalcaricaturesof the revolu-
tionaryperiodoften drawon the power of sexual
or scatologicalreference-those attackingMarie-
Antoinetteare examplesof this. Butthe primary
aim of such materialis to enact politicalviolence.
Sade's pornography,in contrast, has less to do
withpoliticalexpediencythan with genitalarousal
and moraltransgression.Whereaspoliticalcarica-
ture can be illegible without knowledge of the
specificsof its historicalcontext, Sade'sincorpora-
tion of topical politicalreferenceadds spice and
immediacyto a repetitiveand ahistoricalaccount
of sexual domination and desecration. Political
caricatures,sometimes cryptic and ambiguous,
can be difficultto manage with precision.At the
same time, revolutionarydiscourseemerges from
Sade so shattered that the historicalinterpreter
faces a task of a differentorder.
Hunt'sfamilialperspectivehas richimpli-
cations for the study of gender in Revolutionary
politics: "Becauseit was molded in the varying
imagesof the family,the politicalimaginationwas
inherentlygendered, and its gendering had im-
portant,often unforeseen consequences for the
constructionof the social order" (p. 201). Such
consequences are evident in Hunt'scoverage of
the pamphlet war against Marie-Antoinette.In
contrastto Revel,who emphasizesthe rhetorical
autonomyof this crueldiscourse,Huntfocuses on
the explicitly sexual aspect of the defamation
campaign,whichfeatured,for example,the illus-
trated Fureurs uterines de Marie-Antoinette,
femme de Louis XVI (1791). Hunt persuasively
argues that the queen's body, obsessively sexu-
alizedby hercritics,becamea site of revolutionary
anxiety occasioned by the destructionof the old
patriarchal,monarchicregime and intensifiedby
the intrusionof women (includingboth the queen
and female revolutionaries) into the public
sphere:"ByattackingMarie-Antoinetteand other
publiclyactivewomen, republicanmen reinforced
their bonds to each other; Marie-Antoinettein
particularwas the negative versionof the female
icon of republicanliberty,the bad mother in a
republicthat was supposed to be shaped by the
lessons of good republican mothers" (p. 122).
Hunt'sargumentis made allthe more compelling
by evidence that "the obsessive focus on the
queen's sexualized body was carriedover from
politicalpamphletsand caricaturesto the trialit-
self" (p. 94).
Violenceagainstwomen-whether phys-
ical, discursive,or institutional-is centralto The
Twilightof the Goddesses: Women and Repre-
sentationin the FrenchRevolutionaryEraby liter-
aryscholarMadelynGutwirth.Thisambitiousac-
count of gender politicsfromthe Rococothrough
the Revolution is a valuable resource. Writing
froman outspokenlyfeministperspective,the au-
thorforegroundshersympathieswith, and antip-
athies toward,the texts, images, individuals,and
events underconsideration.In discussingthe libel
campaignagainstMarie-Antoinette,for example,
Gutwirthemphasizes, more than Revelor Hunt,
the absurd injustice of the attacks against the
queen.
Gutwirthis both a learned,thoughtful in-
terpreterof literatureand a perceptiveobserverof
images. Her adherence to the topic of misogyny
acrossso richa body of documentationis instruc-
tive. While being made aware of the ceaseless
workingsof sexual politics,the readeris taught a
greatdeal about the literature,politics,and social
historyof the Old Regimeand Revolution.At the
same time, the anger that animatesthis study and
lends it a sense of moral urgency does so at the
expenseof historicaldistancebetween authorand
subject. While attentive to the details of revolu-
tionary events, Gutwirth gives gender struggle
such a predominantprofilethat other aspects of
the Revolutionseem subsidiaryto it. Thusrevolu-
tionaryfemale allegoricalfigures-referred to as
"iconsof otherness"(p. 284)-are discussedpre-
dominantly in terms of the gender stereotypes
they embody. One of the few allegoricalfigures
that satisfiesthe author'squest for nonmisogynist
imageryis an engravingby Copiaafter a drawing
by Prud'hontitled Liberty-She Has Overthrown
the Hydra of Tyrannyand Broken the Yoke of
Despotism (it adornsthe book'sdust jacket):
Prud'hon'sLiberty is at rest from her effective
labors-the brokenyoke of despotism falls from
the chain in her hand over the gently undulant
hair on the heads of slain despots, the Hydraof
tyranny lies inert just behind her feet, and her
raised leg rests on a severed crowned head.
Throughher efforts the reign of tyrantshas been
ended. Thesheer forceand relaxationof thisgen-
tly muscledstrongwomans body conveysa sense
of easy athletic grace. Her powerful arm firmly
graspingthe axe, along with her directglance at
the observer,gives the work its essential note of
tension.... Gentlymovingraggedtattersneutral-
ize any notion of prettification.... Thisallegory
of Libertylooks equal to her task (pp. 263-64).
Anotherimage of Libertyoffersan exampleof the
negative view of women that, for the author,is
generally embodied in the Revolution'sfemale
allegories:
A pretty-faced, half-dressed young woman
stands here immobilized and insubstantial,her
armsand figure devoid of muscularityor of ten-
sion. So relaxedare herpostureand the drooping
lines of herhandsthatshe seems scarcelyto grasp
the tablets of the new Decalogue (the Rightsof
Man) or herstaff.... Only her breasts... in their
firmroundedness,face us with any sense of affir-
mation (p. 259).
It is both valid and interestingto so considerthe
gender characteristicsimputed to the allegorical
figures;however,the exclusivityof this approach
seems problematic.Because these politicallydi-
verse, generally undated images are viewed pri-
marilyin regardto the staticcriterionof empower-
mentversusdisempowerment,there is a tendency
to move away from historicalspecificity and to
drifttoward that hazardof thematic studies, the
iconographicscrapbook.
LikeHunt,Gutwirthconvincinglydemon-
strates that the construction of gender was as
subject as other areas of culture to stress and
disruptionduringthe Revolution.Yet in contrast
to Hunt, who emphasizes the transformation-
albeitirregular-of familialparadigmsduringthe
Revolution,Gutwirth'sreading of the record of
gender struggle is one of continuity.Underlying
the richcollectionof lateeighteenth-centurytexts
and events underconsiderationis a timelesswillto
malesupremacy;amidthe dizzyingvicissitudesof
the Revolution,there is an "eternalreturnof the
binarygender opposition"(p. 338). Constitutions
crumble,heads fall from the guillotine,but in the
sphere of sexual politicsplus ca change.
As the three books under reviewdemon-
strate,the removalof historicalanalysisawayfrom
the documentedintentionsof artists,writers,and
politicianscan illuminateindividualworks of art
and literature,and bringsense to particularpoliti-
cal events, while laying bare vast, transpersonal
patternsof beliefand behavior.Theviabilityof this
type of inquiryis most at riskwhen the momen-
tum of criticaldiscourseoverwhelmsthe historical
materialsto which it is directed. This occurs, for
example,inthe essay by PeterBrooks,"TheRevo-
lutionaryBody,"in Fictionsof the FrenchRevolu-
tion. Referringto the tendency of the revolution-
aries to condemn as unnatural women who
supposedlyabandoned domesticityand invaded
the public sphere (a tendency demonstratedby
both Hunt and Gutwirth),and citing the revolu-
tionaryview of CharlotteCordayas doubly mon-
strous(both as murderessof Maratand as politi-
callyactive),Brooksstates that:
Inthe subsequentcult of Marat,CharlotteCorday
is present only in that gash in Marat'sbreast, a
kind of displaced representationof her woman's
sexe: her sex as wound on the martyredman.
David'spaintingsays it all: the ecstaticface of the
martyr,the drops of blood on the immaculate
sheet, the quill pen still grasped next to the
kitchen knife fallen on the floor, the bathwater
become a pool of blood-all these elements sug-
gest the intrusionof an ungovernedfemale sexu-
ality on a life dedicated to the highercause. The
male body had been made to pay for the primal
drives of the woman's body At the same time,
Marat' apotheosized body has gained a realm
to which the woman's body has no access (pp.
39-40).
This ingenious passage offers suggestive analo-
gies to the lines from Peter Weiss'splay Marat/
Sade (1966), quoted with evocative effect at the
conclusion of the essay. Transhistoricalconnec-
tions could also be made with two eroticizedre-
makes of David's painting not mentioned by
Brooks,the lugubriousDeath of Maratby Edvard
Munch (1905-27, Munch-Museet, Oslo) and
Picasso's nightmarish Woman with Stiletto
(Death of Marat) (1931, Musee Picasso, Paris).
However,as historicalanalysis,Brooks'scommen-
taryis wantingintact. He upstages,with a sexual-
izationof the murder,the evident Christianrefer-
ences that empoweredboth the cult of Maratand
David'spainting. Neitherthis interpretation,nor
the surrealsuggestionof identitybetween Marat's
wound and his assassin'sgenitalia, can be sus-
tained by the eighteenth-century evidence that
CharlotteCordaywas demonized in misogynistic
terms by Marat'sfollowers.
The enduring capacity of the Revolution
to attract,as well as to resist, historicalinquiryis
relatedto what FrancoisFuret,in "TheTyrannyof
Revolutionary Memory"(inFictionsof the French
Revolution),refersto as the "imaginationof the
Revolution"-that tyrannicalimpingementof the
Revolutionon future events and politicalsenti-
ments. Furet'sessay examinesthe impact of this
heritage on nineteenth-centuryFrench politics,
which had "the strange characteristicof being
both terriblyrecent and terriblyweighed down
with history"(p. 156).Thatmemoriesof the Revo-
lutionstillhauntthe Frenchpoliticalscene is sug- 91
gested by the surprisingevents of January21,
1993. On that day, five thousand people assem-
bled at the central Parisiansite where LouisXVI
died on the guillotine.At 10:22 A.M., exactlytwo
centuriessincethe bladefell, a minuteof silence,a
readingof LouisXVI'sfinaltestament,and prayers
were followed by a massivelayingof lilies,carna-
tions, and tulips.At the other end of the square-
namedthe placede la Concordeby Louis-Philippe
who wished to bury its divisive past-a small
group of republicancounterdemonstratorssang
the "Marseillaise"and brandisheda pig's head
witha papercrownas riotpolicestood watch.This
douraftermathto the buoyant Bicentennialcele-
brationsof 1989 bears witness to Furet'sconten-
tion that "for the past two hundred years the
FrenchRevolutionhas been the sole heritage of
Frenchpubliclife, and even those who opposed it
could lay claimto no other past" (p. 151).As the
currentrenaissancein interdisciplinary revolution-
ary studies suggests, the search for that revolu-
tionarypast can be as fertileand unpredictableas
history itself.
Notes
1. In addition to the essays discussed here, Fictions of the
French Revolution includes David Simpson's polemical essay,
"The RevolutionThat Will Not Finish:Mythologies of Method
in Britain,"which links late twentieth-century academic suspi-
cion of theory to a long-standing Britishtradition that runs, via
EdmundBurke,back to the sixteenth century; and a discussion
by Craig Kinzer of his production of Stanislawa Przyby-
szewska's play The Danton Case (1927) at Northwestern Uni-
versity on the occasion of the colloquium.
2. On this subject, see also Chantal Thomas, La Reine scele-
rate: Marie-Antoinette dans les pamphlets (Paris:Seuil, 1989).
JO N ATHAN P. R I B N ER, assistant professor of art
history at Boston University, is the author of Broken Tablets:
The Cult of the Law in FrenchArt from David to Delacroix
(California, 1993).
ART JOURNAL
 Studies
19th-Century
THOMASF. ROWLANDS
Jacquesde Caso. David d'Angers:Sculptural
Communicationin the Age of Romanticism.
Trans.DorothyJohnsonand Jacquesde Caso.
Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1992. xviii
+ 273 pp.; 153 black-and-whiteills. $49.50
Michael Paul Driskel.RepresentingBelief:
Religion,Art,and Society in Nineteenth-
CenturyFrance.UniversityPark:Pennsylvania
State UniversityPress,1992. xv + 282 pp; 102
black-and-whiteills. $48.50
hese two recent volumes are most wel-
92 come additions to the bibliography of
nineteenth-century studies, since each
deals with an aspect of the art and cultureof that
era that has remainedmarginalizedfor too long.
In the case of the art of David d'Angers, and
indeedof Romanticsculpturein general,there has
been too littleseriousscholarshipbenefitingfrom
the post-traditionalistart historicalapproaches
that have alreadyprovidedsuch impetus to the
reshapingof our understandingof the painting,
and even of the popular(or so-called "low")art,
of nineteenth-centuryEurope.And while Bruno
Foucart has produced a welcome panoramic
studyof religiouspaintingin France-justly char-
acterized by Michael Paul Driskelas "revisionist
and celebratory"-the presentvolume on sacred
art is an examinationof the relationshipof artistic
production and ideological formations, rather
than a generalsurveyof Frenchreligiousart.1
In fact, the two authors, Driskel and
Jacquesde Caso,are linkedby theirspecificrejec-
tion of any claimof presentinga traditional,chro-
nologicalexaminationof theirsubjects,as well as
by their interestin examiningthe social, political,
and ideologicalformationsin which the worksof
art were created. Both offer valuable new inter-
pretationsof their subjects. The Davidd'Angers
volume providesstimulatinganalysesof the ideas
of thisferventlyRepublicanartistabout the nature
and functionof sculpture,as revealedin his volu-
minouswritings,while Driskel'sbook constitutesa
radicalreappraisalof the contributionsof religion
and religiousart in nineteenth-centuryFrance.
De Caso'sstudy is a revisedversionof his
David d'Angers: L'Avenirde la memoire, pub-
lishedin Frenchin 1988-which was inturnbased
on a seriesof lecturesdeliveredto greatacclaimat
the College de Francein 1981-82-to which has
been appendeda most valuableadditionalsection
consisting of a fascinating exchange of letters,
heretofore unpublished, between the sculptor
and CarlGustavCarus.
FALL 1993
The volume explores a series of specific
"neglected issues and problems"in the work of
David,which in turn serveas confrontationswith
assumptionsabout the natureof Romanticsculp-
turein general.De Casoarguesmost convincingly
that the oeuvre of this artist "expresses,with a
unique degree of coherence, originality, and
power,the Romanticconceptionof sculpture,par-
ticularly monumental, commemorative sculp-
ture" (p. xvii).
While the primarypurpose is to explore
certainfacets of the art and ideas of the artist,de
Caso must first reconstructthe historicrole and,
ultimately,the particularimportanceof sculpture
in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
France.Recognizingthat the artof David,in order
to be accessible to modern audiences, must be
examinedin lightof the ideologicalstructuresde-
finingthe natureof sculpturein that era, de Caso
providesa conciseand highlyeffectivesurveythat
clarifiesthe theoreticalbases, the objectives,and
the consequent impactof this art.
With respectto Davidspecifically,the first
of the majorcontributionsmade by this studyis its
clarification of the concept of "homage"-a
majorinterestin nineteenth-centuryFrance-as
applied by the artist to the commemorationof
great individualsin publicsculpturalmonuments.
The insightsgained by the authorin thirtyyears'
explorationof the art of this era permit him to
analyzethe Romanticconception of homage, as
well as David'sown ideas on the subject, as re-
vealed in his art and his writings.David'soeuvre,
alwaysprivilegingthe publicand the iconic,con-
tains a significant number of edifying images
commemoratingoutstanding personalities,both
historicaland contemporary.The authorexplores
a numberof these grandshommes, includingthe
(destroyed)colossal Grand Cond6 for the Pont
LouisXVIin Paris,the funerary monuments of
GeneralBonchampsand GeneralFoy,contrasting
starklyin both artisticstyle and politicalimplica-
tions, and the importantsculpturalcommemora-
tions of Fdnelon,Racine, and Corneille. In addi-
tion to these, the authorexaminesseveralof the
nearlyone hundredportraitbusts, notablythose
of Paganiniand Volney,and selections from the
seven hundred portrait medallions David
produced.
The second uniquecontributionis the ex-
plicationof David'sinnovativetreatment of the
bas-reliefformat. In contrast to the refined ele-
gance of his large-scalesculpturesin the round,
the figuresin David'sreliefs,with theirshort,squat
proportionsand exaggeratedphysiognomies,are
disconcerting;indeed, they were often altogether
incomprehensibleto the artist'scontemporaries.
It must be recognized that his relief works-
"drawn"ratherthan sculpted, with canons de-
rivedfrom phrenology ratherthan archaeology,
and with "aspectival"vistas ratherthan perspec-
tival constructions-constitute a unique chal-
lenge to Frenchacademic theory (pp. 147-48).
Drawingfromcommentsin the artist'svo-
luminouswritings,de Caso establishes how and
why David evolved a conception of relief that
privilegesthe contour,with the resultantflatness
of drawing,and, ideally,the desired legibilityof
writing:
Flatnessalone preservedthe relief from pictur-
esque, pictorial, illusionistic deformations that
would weaken the meaning of the image if a
lateralor othertype of shift in light occurred,or if
the spectatorchanged his position. Thus,transi-
toryeffects could not affect figurativestability in
the low relief (p. 73).
Repudiatingthe anthropometricmodels of the
human figure espoused by academic theory,
which were rooted in the study of antique sculp-
ture, Davidturned instead to the lessons of the
physiologists,which predicatedmodels based on
ideas of organicgrowth. Again in the interestof
directnessand legibility,Davidrejectedthe illusio-
nism of perspectiveas "the lie of art," cleansing
the relief of the "intellectualand optical refine-
ments"that such sculpturecould not sustain (p.
136),and createdscalelessand fragmentarycom-
positionswhose dislocationsof space heightened
the dramaticimpact.
Davidattempted to create a naive, brutal vision
whose simplicity would strike the eye and the
memory and whose conventions the child, the
illiterate,and the working classes could under-
stand. Thisprimary,elemental system of repre-
sentation is the vector of the social and didactic
functions that David assigned to sculpture (p.
149).
Thereliefs,althoughgenerallysmallin scale, were
weightedwith communicativepossibilitiesfor Ro-
manticsculptors.Indeed,Davidclearlyconsidered
the format to be of central importanceto the
sculptor,as significantand essentialas sculpturein
the round.Further,the authornotesthe sourcesof
inspirationin Western and non-Westernart for
the Romanticconception of the relief, and the
culturalfactors that help explainhow the "genre
experiencedan extraordinaryvogue around the
1830s when Romanticcriticismcelebratedthe dis-
ruptionof the formertheoreticaland criticalcom-
partmentsand hierarchies"(p. 82).
The presentvolume comprisesmore than
just a discussionof David d'Angers, since, as its
subtitle suggests, the artist'swork is examined
withinthe context of the issue of communication
in Romanticsculpture.The resultsare nothingless
thana guide to the sculpturalhistory-theory and
practice,productionand criticism-of Francein
the firsthalfof the nineteenthcentury.Thus,long
recognized as the indefatigable champion of
sculpturalart history,de Caso has here provided
not only a provocativereading of Romanticart,
but a paradigmfor allthose attemptingto grapple
with the elusive meanings of nineteenth-century
sculpture.
Driskel'sRepresenting Belief: Religion,
Art, and Society in Nineteenth-CenturyFrance
constitutes a studied analysis of all the compo-
nents his title comprehends. His subject is the
conflictbetween two irreconcilablebelief systems
at war throughoutmost of the centuryin France,
and the mannerin whichthis conflict,dominating
all religiousdiscourse,was manifest in the visual
artsin France.The polaritiescould be categorized
as "religion"versus "science," or "authoritaria-
nism" versus "republicanism," or "tradition"
versus"progress."ForDriskel,these polaritiesare
investigated as manifestations of the partisan
forces of ultramontanism-that faction of the
Catholicrightthat privilegedthe principleof papal
authority-versus naturalism.
Ratherthan attemptinga comprehensive
reviewof Frenchreligiousart, the author has fo-
cused on a series of works, rangingfrom popular
caricatureto the high academic productionsof
such artists as LouisJanmot, Jean-PaulLaurens,
and EdouardDebat-Ponsan,whichserveto illumi-
nate this theoreticaland politicalconflict. While
this might suggest a narrowlyconceived study of
selected examples of neglected religiousart, the
author'smethodologicalapproach,inflectedwith
structuralistand poststructuralisttheory, actually
servesto broadenthe traditionaldiscussionof the
role of such art in the nineteenth century.
Recognizingthat artistic productionand
the socialcontext in which it takes placeappearas
organizingsystems, Driskel'sstated purposeis "to
ground this art in the historicalcircumstancesof
its productionand concentrate on those works
that are the most revealingof underlyingstruc-
tures organizingsocial life during the century."
The primaryinteresthere is not "the putativein-
trinsicaesthetic value or the 'authenticity'of the
culturalartifact,but its social and historicalrele-
vance: how it can advance our knowledge of the
relationbetween artisticpraxisand social value,
and of the ways art objects are invested with
meaningby theirsocial contexts"(p. 4). Thus, his
examinationchartsthe great ideologicalarcs op-
erating beyond the reductive categorization of
traditional art history-rooted in the analysis
of periodic styles-and the manner in which
the visual productions are informed by such
ideologies.
Applyingthe techniquesof KennethBurke
and Ferdinandde Saussure,Driskeladopts a defi-
nitionalstructurethat relieson difference,defin-
ing the modalitiesin the conflict by their nega-
tions. Analyzingthe worksof art in relationto the
contemporarysocial, cultural,and politicalcon-
texts, Driskelexploresthe "ideologicalmeanings
encoded by or embedded in"sacredart(p. 4), and
ultimatelyrevealshow such meaningsshifteddra-
maticallyas the century progressed.
To recoverthe social content of this art,
Driskel first carefully lays out the cultural
background-or as he rightly labels it "battle-
ground" (p. 19)-exam;ning the oppositional
forces locked into intractablecombat duringthe
nineteenth century in France.Firstamong those
conflicts was that of church versus state: "Be-
tween the Concordatof 1801 and its abrogationat
the beginning of the twentieth century there
existed a superheated universeof discourse and
ideologicalconflict in which any meaningfuldis-
cussion of nineteenth-centuryreligiousart must
be firmlysituated"(p. 58).
Driskelhas provideda penetratingand co-
gent explicationof the majortheoreticalstreams
thatfed the riseof the renouveauCatholique,and
particularlythe militantascendancy of the ultra-
montanistpositionand the concomitantrejection
of the traditionof Gallicanismby major church
polemicists,such as Felicitede Lamennais,Charles
de Montalembert,and DominiqueLacordaire.
Ratherthan marshalingan endless suc-
cession of works deemed revelatoryof the op-
posing polemical stances-traditional versus
progressive-Driskel concentrateson "the com-
plex relationships that pertained between the
competing ideologies and artisticstyles" (p. 58),
using carefullyselected works that concretize in
visualformthe ideologiesunderdebate inthisera.
As Driskelnotes: "It is, therefore, at the level of
ideology-the systematic expression of ideas
knowinglyor unknowinglydesigned to serve the
ends of a particulargroup-that this 'revival'is
importantfor the present study" (p. 35). Forex-
ample, in his explorationof the imageryof Christ
during the Second Republic, he demonstrates
how the "style"employed for the representation
of Christbecame itself "chargedwith ideological
implications"(p. 38). The recognitionof the recip- 93
rocalnatureof the relationshipis crucialto under-
standingthe complexof forcesoperativein French
culture.As Driskelobserves: "As the contempo-
rary beholder became increasinglysensitized to
signs encoding class values and social discourses,
artisticform assumed new socialsignificanceand
correspondinglybecame politicizedto a greater
extent than ever before in France"(pp. 38-39).
Afterexaminingthe variousstages of the
revivalphenomenon, Driskelfocuses on that ele-
ment of the platformthat has the most telling
implicationsfor religiousart, namelythe "hieratic
modality,"and its relationshipto one of the great-
est discoursesof the age: the ideologicalcomplex
that he termsthe "Aestheticsof Ultramontanism"
(p. 6). Driskelidentifiedthis complex of values,
described,accordingto MichelFoucault'sideas,as
a "discourse,"and demonstrateshow its adher-
ents calculatedlyset out to impose a returnto a
hieraticmode in the visual arts, "as a means of
givingconcrete,visibleformto a specificreligious,
social,and politicalideology" (p. 6).
By tracing the paths established by au-
thoritarianwriters, such as Alexis-FrancoisRio,
and by such movements as the liturgicalrevival
linkedwith Dom ProsperGueranger,Driskelar-
rivesat a summaryof the natureof this aesthetic:
Stoicism, abstinence, and renunciation of the
world-essential to the religiousstate of mind-
had their ceremonial equivalents in the Roman
rite, their aural equivalents in plainchant, their
plastic equivalents in severity of line and color,
isolation of individualforms, and the avoidance
of techniquessuggesting vitality and movement
(p. 87).
Chartingthe genealogy of the hieratic(or iconic)
modality, Driskel effectively identifies "a far-
reaching demand in mid-nineteenth-century
Francefor an hierophanticcoding in the visual
arts"(p. 99), advocating the reappraisalof pre-
ART JOURNAL

Renaissancemodes. The "officially"encouraged
anti-illusionisticFrenchpre-Raphaelitestyle, seen
in various muralprojects carriedout in Parisian
churches,linkedto the revivalof Romanliturgy,is
both a reflectionof, and a programmefor, the
rhetoricof authoritarianism in the churchand re-
actionismin the politicalrealm.
The ultramontanistseffectivelyadvanced
as models the seemingly contradictoryfigures of
Savanarolaand FraAngelico,and successfullyim-
posed a style that was static,flat, iconic,and pro-
scriptive,eventuallyfindingin HippolyteFlandrin
an artist who satisfiedtheir rigidlyauthoritarian
and reductiveaesthetics. A revitalizedvision of
Byzantiumtook the ultramontanistaestheticto its
iconic conclusion. Driskelprovidesan extremely
usefulsurveyof the radicalrevivaland rehabilita-
tion of the (heretofore"decadent")Byzantinetra-
dition of pictoriallanguage, carriedforth both in
the writingof scholarsand in the productionof
suchartistsas FrancoisPicotand CharlesLameire.
Thisprocessof "reappraisal and reappropriation,"
as seen in selected decorativeprojectscarriedout
aroundthe midcentury,is consideredas the logi-
cal expansionof the interestin the hieraticmode.
In surveyingthe nineteenth-centurycon-
cept of the naturalisticmode, Driskelagainadopts
the genealogical approach, to "document the
evolution of the diverse forms of naturalismin
religiousart and the meaningsthey bespoke" (p.
165). Here again, the definition is based on the
inherentdifferences:
Whereas ultramontanismstood for authority,a
fixed and permanentbody of doctrineand strati-
fication in the social body, naturalistdiscourse
implied a much different concept of the social
orderand the place of religion in it. When it did
not rejecttraditionalreligionoutright,naturalism
displayedan undisguisedsympathyfor the ideas
of progressand change that were antitheticalto it
(p. 7).
AcceleratingLindaNochlin'sevaluationof the nat-
uralisticmode, Driskelobservesthat "formuchof
the centurythis modalityfaithfullypromotedan
ideologyof the triumphantindustrialbourgeoisie,
yet paradoxicallyconstituteda willfulnegationof,
or counterdiscourseto, the thoroughlybourgeois
Aestheticsof Ultramontanism"(p. 165). As in his
traversalof the hieraticmode, Driskel'sanalysisof
the naturalisticmode attemptsto discover,as far
as is possible,the relationshipof this culturalde-
mandto actualcontemporaryartisticpracticeand
production.
Before the century had run its course, a
radicalshifttook place, with the conservativefac-
tionshavingembraced-albeit most reluctantlyin
some cases-the new interestsin biblicalscholar-
ship and archaeology,and havingadopted, in of-
fensive counterattack, the positivist techniques
FALL 1993
that had been heretoforethe exclusiveweapons
of theirprogressivistopponents. The resultof this
"metamorphosisin the aesthetic ideology of ul-
tramontanism"(p. 203), beginning in the 1870s,
was the appropriationby conservativeCatholics,
for their polemicalpurposes,of an often slavishly
naturalistic(read "photographic")depiction of
biblicalsubjects.The paintingsby HenriLerolleor
JamesTissotcited by the author bear ample wit-
ness to the resultanttransformationof style in the
1880s and 1890s.
Parallelingthis shift of the traditionalists
towardthe naturalisticmode was an equallyradi-
cal transformationwithinthe avant-garde,result-
ing in its appropriationof Byzantiumand the hier-
aticmode. The writingsof J.-K.Huysmansand the
paintingsof GustaveMoreauare characteristicof
the formativestage in this complex religiousand
culturalexchange, originallyundertakenby the
liberalCatholic intelligentsia, violently reacting
"againstthe scientificmentality governing con-
temporarysociety and against its aesthetic ana-
logue, the naturalisticmovement" (p. 228), and
eventuallyby the vanguardartistsat the end of
the century,most notablythe Symbolistsand the
Nabis.
The assertionthat modernismis the prod-
uct of a process that reversedthe direction of
traditionis modified by Driskel,who argues that
such a reversalin fact took place,
but one in which both rearguardand avant-garde
art were instrumental,with the formerhaving a
claim to precedence in time. Furthermore,in-
stead of following a parallel course, the hieratic
traditionof Byzantiumintersectedthe course of
nineteenth-century art when attempts were
madeto revivedefiningqualitiesof Byzantineart,
forreasonsthat havenothingto do with the cause
of modernism(pp. 255-56).2
Driskel'sbook providesan alternativereading of
modernistart as a "dialecticalengagement" (p.
256) with the discursive complex that he has
calledthe Aestheticsof Ultramontanism,making
a compellingcase that religiousart, traditionally
marginalized,is of criticalimportancefor any at-
tempt to reconstructthe nineteenth century or
our own.
Notes
1. Bruno Foucart, Le Renouveau de la peinture religieuse en
France (1800-1860) (Paris:Arthena, 1987).
2. See Clement Greenberg, "Byzantine Parallels,"in Art and
Culture(Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), 168. As Driskelnotes (p.
255, n. 1),the argument is restated in Greenberg's "The Begin-
nings of Modernism," Arts Magazine 57, no. 8 (April1983):
79.
T H O M A S F. R W LA N D S teaches at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. He is writing a book on French sculptors
of the Revolution and the Empire.
PublicSculpture
MONROE DENTON
HarrietF.Senie. ContemporaryPublic
Sculpture:Tradition,Transformation,and
ControversyNew York:Oxford University
Press,1992. 276 pp.; 122 black-and-whiteills.
$35.00
arriet Senie's incompletelytitled book
(betterwould be ContemporaryPublic
Sculpturein the U.S.) surveysthe cir-
cumstances of public sculpture in this country
after a quarter century of various public pa-
tronage programsand proposes to fill scholarly
lacunae in a significant and politically volatile
area-the literatureof the design and placement
of publicsculpturein the UnitedStates.Itappears
at a propitiousmoment.Thereis a need for histor-
icaloverviewsand descriptive(possiblyeven pre-
scriptive)criticalvoices to shape currentdiscus-
sions. Alexis de Tocqueville's fears warrant
reconsideration:
Equalitystimulates every man to want to judge
everythingfor himself and gives him a taste in
everythingfor the tangible and real and a con-
tempt for traditionsand formalities.
-Democracy in America,1835
One hopes that the writingsof arts professionals
willshape the debate on the relationshipof artto
the societythat producesit. Commentaryon pub-
lic worksof art is particularlyscarce in this coun-
try; the artisticcreationswe see most frequently
are the most frequently ignored. Donald
Thalacker's 1980 ThePlace of Artin the Worldof
Architecture (Chelsea House/Bowker) mixes
paintingand sculpturein an overviewsuch as one
mightexpect from an NEAfunctionary.Thereis a
developingliteratureof what are in effect glorified
guidebooks, such as George McCue'sSculpture
City:St. Louis(Hudson Hills,1988). In New York
City, Margot Gayle and Michele Cohen assem-
bled a Guide to Manhattan'sOutdoor Sculpture
underthe directionof the ArtCommissionandthe
MunicipalArt Society (Prentice-Hall,1988). A
closer, more scholarly reading of much of this
materialis found in Michele H. Bogart, Public
Sculptureand the Civic Ideal in New YorkCity,
1890-1930 (Universityof Chicago Press:1989),
whichabuts Senie'stime frame;Monumentsand
Masterpieces by Donald Martin Reynolds(New
York:Macmillan,1988) dividesthe New YorkCity
historicalmaterialintotypes of work:tombstones,
equestrianportraits,street furniture,etc. Thereis
even a morespecializedliteratureforming,exem-
plified by Clara Weyergraf-Serraand Martha
Buskirk's dossierfor M.I.T.(1991),TheDestruction
of TiltedArc:Documents.Senie'sbook is a survey
of (primarily)open-air sculpture and architec-
turalistensemblesdatingfromaround1960 to the
present; the bulk of her examples are from the
New YorkCityarea or by New York-basedartists.
The previouswork that most nearlyover-
laps Senie's discussion of publiclyand privately
financed sculpturesin public spaces (uncited in
Senie'snotes) would be MargaretA. Robinette's
Outdoor Sculpture: Object and Environment
(Watson-Guptill,1976). Thatstudy was based on
the superficialquestions in a battery of public
opinion surveys:"Areyou aware of [the work]?
Do you noticeit?""Doesthis particularworkhave
a message or purposeotherthan an esthetic one?
... Do you thinkthat most people understandthe
message?... Ifthere is a message, and ifyou think criticism?Thesix chapters:"Memorialsand Mon-
most people understand it, do you think it is
valid?"1The upshot of Robinette'squestionnaire
approach was entries such as that on Isamu
Noguchi'ssculpturegardenat the ChaseManhat-
tan Plaza:"Fifteenof the respondentsexpresseda
favorablereactionto the work,while twenty-two
judged it aestheticallypleasing."2
Senie avoids such empty comparisonsin
her comments on the same garden, although her
observationsare as symptomatic of the weak-
nesses of her approach:
Intendedas a sunken water garden, punctuated
by rocks chosen by Noguchi and Bunshaft in
Kyoto, Japan, the circular form with its gently
undulatingbase and jagged naturalrocksstands
in markedcontrast to the rectilinearplaza and
architectureabove. Plansto make this a fountain
with varying water effects unfortunately never
materialized. Originally the pond contained a
number of goldfish, but they soon died of lead
poisoning caused by the pennies thrown from
above. As it now stands, color and life are sadly
lacking.Since the vieweris alwaysdistancedfrom treated here in two
the work (either by glass or height), the piece
remainsstatic and remote, better in concept than
actuality-indeed a "sunkenart hole," as it was
once dubbed (p. 77).
Senie is more informativethan Robinette,but her
assumptions prompt reservations. Why were
"plansto makethis a fountainwith varyingwater Rector Gate is considered as "Sculpturewith a
effects unfortunately never materialized"?This
reader'sguess that the changed plans resulted that functionmightbe. Infact, when Seniespeaks
from conformity to New York City regulations of the piece as "providingseating around the
may well missthe point; a decisionalong political base" (p. 188), one suspects she is referringto
or aesthetic lines-that water might prove "too
attractive"or "attractthe wrong elements"-or
based on insurance liability or even ecological
concernswould cast the decisionin a far different
light. The weight of Senie's arguments is com-
monly carried by modifiers. In addition to that
"unfortunately,"there are judgments galore in
"static" and "remote"-apparently negative
qualities here at any rate-and a "lacking"of
"color and life." Are these universalstandards?
Why are they appropriate to this particular
project?3
The problemsof Senie'sapproach rest in
the lackof an overalldesign for her book. Should
her work be read as chronicle, appreciation,or
uments Reconsidered,""Sculptureand Architec-
ture: A Changing Relationship," "The Public
SculptureRevivalof the 1960s: FamousArtists,
Modern Styles," "Landscapeinto Public Sculp-
ture: Transplantingand TransformingNature,"
"Sculpturewith a Function:Crossing the High
Art-Low Art Barrier,"and "The Persistenceof
Controversy: Patronage and Politics," are not
linked by an underlyingargument or series of
definitions even of fundamental terms such as
"public."Basicissues, such as the question of the
differences between governmentallysponsored
art and privatelyfunded "art in public places"
(which might be withdrawnwith impunity)are
unaddressed,as are other broader "art" issues
such as the high/low dichotomy.To say that in
"Europeanculture. . . art, that is to say high art,
traditionallywas not functional" (p. 172) de-
mandsat least a definitionof "functional."
This absence of organizationresultsin a
vitiationof specific projectssuch as one notable
recent achievement in public sculpture, New
York'sBatteryParkCity,five elementsof whichare
separatechapters.The Mary
Miss (with Stanton Eckstutand Susan Child)and
Scott Burton/SiahArmajani(with CesarPelliand
PaulFriedberg)projectsare both inthe chapteron
"Sculptureand Architecture"(Seniefindsthe for-
mer "somewhat disappointing";the latter "re-
mains undistinguished"[p. 90]). R. M. Fischer's
Function,"although it's hard to figure out what
RichardArtschwager'sgrouping, discusseda few
pages earlier;both projects are praisedfor their
"mystery"(pp. 182, 189). In the same chapter,
Ned Smyth'sUpperRoomis ratedas unsuccessful
(p. 208).
Senie'sjudgments derive from an essen-
tialiststandardof qualitythat she nevermoots in
response to specific works any more than she
definesthe particularsof each assessment.Toan-
chorthisobservation,one may "unpack"a typical
entry for a specificwork in Senie'sbook:
Like [George] Rickey and [Kenneth] Snelson,
97
Mark di Suvero also works in a Constructivist-
inspiredstyle. His UnderSky/ One Family(1979),
located diagonally across from Snelson's sculp-
ture at Baltimore'sInnerHarbor,just east of the
WorldTradeCenter,is farless successful in either
formor siting. ... Di Suverotook his title from a
Confucianideogram and said at the dedication
ceremonythat he wanted the sculptureto "sym-
bolize progress and forward-lookingurbanpol-
icy." His words, more than the work, expressed
the city's wish for a sculpturesymbolic of, or in
the spiritof, its renewal efforts.
Thevisualappearanceof the workis con-
fusing. Although the cross bar of the sculpture
suggests a cruciformshape, this can hardly be
interpretedas the content of the piece or even
its primary visual meaning. If anything, the
groundeddisconnectedpropellersuggestsa ship-
wrecked ruin, and the vertical element with its
abruptlytruncatedapex suggests a fallen banner
or symbol. However,such a negative interpreta-
tion would be inconsistentboth with the sculp-
tor'sworkand this site.... [T]herehas been some
expressionof disappointmentthat it is not more
like a typicaldi Suverosculpture.Thatis to say, it
has no movablepartsor climbablecomponents-
those aspects of the sculptor'swork that make it
physically, if not intellectually, accessible (pp.
126-28).
At the heart of Senie's appraisalis the solecistic
"visualappearance."Isthere a nonvisualappear-
ance? Wouldthat be less "confusing"?Although
a text in the area of visual arts might fairly be
expectedto employ such basicconcepts compre-
hensibly,the authorhas alreadylost this reader's
confidence. How could the directorof museum
studies at the City College of New York(Senie's
position)have writtenthe following:
The VietnamVeteransMemorialis a living me-
morial in a ritual-poorage, a testimony to the
ART JOURNAL
continuingpower of memorialsthat trulyhelp us
remember.Publicresponse to the memorialis an
indicationof the need to participate.Theobjects
people leave are collected daily by ParkService
rangersand stored in a warehouse in Maryland
for some as yet undefined purpose. As the vet-
erans built their own memorial, so people are
creatingtheir own museum (p. 38).
One need not have read extensivelyin the litera-
tureon museumsto knowthat something is amiss
here. The "people" may be "creatingtheir own"
archive (although the Park Service is definitely
structuringthat),but this can neverbe a museum,
even in the most populistdefinition.Of the con-
structionof this memorial,Senie hasobservedthat
"in1979 the VietnamWarwas stilla valent issue"
(p. 31). One assumes the writermeans "ambiva-
lent" or "volatile";my dictionaryentry for "val-
ent" says that it is "usu[ally]used in combina-
tion," as in "bivalent"or "multivalent."Yet, Senie
uses the word again in reference to another
Vietnam-associatedpublic sculpture,Claes Old-
enburg's Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar
Tracks(1969) for Yale (p. 52). The reader may
understandthis pass at CharlesJencks's"multi-
valent" postmodernism, but the root doesn't
stand without its prefix(es)or discourse.It begins
to look like fudging the issue.
Returningto the di Suvero entry, one is
broughtup short by "lesssuccessful":Towhom?
Theartcommunityof Baltimore?The artcommu-
nity outside Baltimore?The workersin the adja-
cent WorldTradeCenter,who after all view the
sculpturefrom a much higherviewpointthan the
visitorsto the InnerHarbortouristdevelopmentin
which it is sited? In fact, this writerrecentlyob-
served three boys-two African-American,one
white, all (self-describedas) "almost"or "about"
six yearsold-using the propelleras a slide. They
saidthey likedto come herefromthe otherside of
the harborand play on the work.
Next, one comes to "in form and siting,"
arrivingat the vacant space of the discourseon
public sculpture in this country. Nowhere does
Senie reflect a reading of recent writings from
here and Europeon the constructionand consti-
tution of public space. If one wished to ignore
Frenchwritingson les lieux de memoire spawned
by their bicentennial,there is still a developing
literaturein translationor publishedby university
presses in this country.4The reader interestedin
the issuescould begin by followingthe citationsin
a source ratherconfusinglycited by Senie in her
notes: "Thesedevelopments[of BatteryParkCity]
aretracedand documentedby RosalynDeutsche,
'Urban Development: Public Art in New York
City,'October [47], Winter1988, pp. 3-45" (p.
247). It is typicalof certain"academic"writingto
proposea false congruity,to "normativize""diffi-
cult" or "other" writings. In this example,
Deutsche'sessay is preciselynot a chronicle.It is
an impassionedcontributionto the debate over
meanings of "public," "sculpture," "urban
space," among other terms. The documents it
cites are at the service of an argument of
legibility-a reading of public space-a reading
that is political, which is at the core of Deutsche's
enterprise.Forthe readerinterestedin assembling
a bibliographyon the basic issues of the "public"
and "publicsculpture"today, one would be far
better served consulting Deutsche than Senie,
whose referencestend to the New YorkTimesand
reportage.ThatSenie does not understandthese
differencesshould be made clear by the closing
footnote to her introduction:
The subject of "the public" looms large today
both in intellectual circles, and in a more prag-
matic vein, in the public art community. For a
recentanthology of criticalthinkingon the topic,
see Hal Foster,ed., Discussionsin Contemporary
Culture,NumberOne, Seattle, 1987. Essaytopics
include "The CulturalPublic Sphere"and "The
Politics of Representation."For a discussion of
the decline of public life, see RichardSennett,
The Fallof PublicMan (New York:VintageBooks,
1978) (p. 236).
One shouldnot trustthis characterization.Foster's
anthologyis a "collectionof edited texts and tran-
scripts. . . of a series of six weekly discussions"
[emphasisadded].5Senie's"essays"are infact the
firstand thirdof three discussiontopics (the mid-
dle one is "1967/1987: Genealogies of Art and
Theory").Farfrom being "essays,"these discus-
sions featured three presenters at each session
(two pertopic),followed by a discussion(withthe
exception of the final evening, when there were
only two presenters).6Senie lapses into an aca-
demic "diplomacy" that "claims" material
through attribution without the courtesy of a
reading. Here, the final topic was in fact "The
Politicsof Representations"; that droppeds estab-
lishes distance from RichardSennett'spopulariz-
ing essay.
Nor should one trust the iconographic
readingof the di Suvero, which to this reviewer
evokes a three-dimensionalization of Caspar
DavidFriedrich's The Wrecked"Hope"orJ. M. W.
Turner'sTheSlave Ship. The combinationof pro-
peller and uprightforms at best referencestwo
different modes of seafaring, if that is the in-
tended meaning, not the dramathat Senie reads
in the composition. This type of parochialart-
historicistreading figures elsewhere in the text,
e.g., in reference to Jackie Ferrara'spiece in
WalkerArtCenter'sSculptureGarden:"Although
the title Belvederesuggests the famous courtyard
inthe Vaticanwhere the classicalApolloBelvedere
torso resides,the T-shapeddeck and structureare
not identifiableclassicalor Renaissanceforms"(p.
205). Setting aside any confusion caused by the
conflationof Hellenisticreferences,7the meaning
of belvedere,as an open upperfloorof a building,
intendedas a place from which to organizeland-
scape viewing, is sufficient provocationfor the
title.
Thereis no articulationof views otherthan
the author's.Insteadof a much-neededattemptto
define concepts such as "public," "popular,"
"populist,""publicart," or "sculpturein publicly
accessible spaces," there are space-fillingdiver-
sionsinto "standardarthistory,"such as the infor-
mation (in a discussion of his Chicago piece of
1967) that "forthe aging Picasso,the decade of
the 1960s was spent with Jacqueline Roque
(whom he marriedin March1961) at their rural
hillsidevilla, Notre Dame de Vie, near Mougins,
France"(p. 97).
More useful would be the dimensionsof
specificprojects.An appendix with budgets, se-
lectionpanels,and other basicinformationsuch as
datesof commissionand completionforthe works
discussedwould not be amiss. The author might
even take the readerthroughspecificworks,con-
centratingon the physical experiences of those
works. This readerdoubts that anyone has ever
had the experience of Maya Lin'sCivil Rights
Memorial(1989),describedby Senie,that "[dedi-
cation] participantstouched the names as their
tears merged with the flowing water" (p. 39). Is
such weeping possible?
99
Any criticor historianmust win over the
reader,assure her or him of the standards by
which works are judged, establisha relationship
of trust.Thisreader,for whom Senie's1980 disser-
tation "Studies in the Development of Urban
Sculpture,1950-1975" (New YorkUniversity)has
been a reliablereference,was puzzledat the out-
set, with an epigramcreditedto TinaTurner("We
don't need another hero" [p. 18]). "The Theme
from Mad Max (BeyondThunderdome)"isn't by
Turner(any morethan it is by BarbaraKruger,who
has more blatantlyappropriatedthe phrase).The
recordlabel credits "Britten-Lyle";a Mr.or Ms.
Lylewrote the words. The issue is not minor,in
that it pointsto a surrenderof the researchfunc-
tion on the one hand and on the other a lack of
appreciationof the question of authority (and
authorship)in publicart. The treacheryof "pub-
lic" images is in the area of ventriloquy.Who
determinesthe content of the individualpiece?
Howdoes the workspeak?Thisproblemdescends
at least fromthe controversyover Rodin'sBalzac:
Justwhat was under his dressinggown? Balzac's
body? Rodin'sgenius? The public'sdesire? Al-
though it mightbe formulateddifferentlytoday,in
the case of large-scaleabstractionsin publicareas
there remainsthe questionof whetherthe owner-
ship and content of both the piece and the space
thus set aside are determinedby patronor com-
munity,or effectivelyceded to the sculptor.
Controversiesabout publicartworksmost
frequentlyarise along lines of "meaning."The
jacket flap copy impliesthat this will be a major
consideration of Senie's book, saying that she
"tracesthe developmentsthat defineda new civic
art: one which substituted the artist'sfame for
public content and sparked debates about cost,
the roleof government,and the placeof publicart
in a democraticsociety."The authorignoressuch
worthy questions in her writing.Thus, we must
accept on face value this surprisinginformation:
ART JOURNAL

Problemsresultnot when public art is part of an
urban renewal project, but when it is used in
place of (ratherthan as an accompanyingsign of)
urbanrenewal. Rafael Ferrer'sPuerto RicanSun,
installed in a South Bronx community garden
park in 1979 as a result of an NEAgrant, was
intended as a symbol of local pride for an eco-
nomically deprived residential neighborhood.
But no art can make up for a lack of decent
housing (p. 219).
Does this mean that the sculptureactuallytakes
the placeof housing,a frequentargumentagainst
public works? Since Senie follows this passage
with, "Urbansculpture is not and cannot be a
substitute for urban renewal, although the two
are by no means mutuallyexclusive,"the reader
100 may well wonderjust what was the budget here;
what agency funded this piece? Couldthe funds
have been transferredto cover housing,and if so
how many units? Did Ferrercreate a "symbolof
localpride,"whichwould be imaginableconsider-
ing his PuertoRicanidentity?8
Not once does Senie lead the reader
through the experience of the sculpture or its
community.Consequently,she mustfind recourse
ingeneralizingadjectivesthat convertspecificand
differentworks with varyinglevels of aspiration,
success, budgets, functions,into synecdochesfor
artingeneral.Whatdoes the followingcommuni-
cate about AlexanderCalder'sLaGrandeVitesse:
In GrandRapids, Calder'ssculpturebecame the
focal point for much more than an empty urban
space.... Ultimately,... [it] became a literalcivic
symbol, the logo on official stationery and city
vehicles, includinggarbagetrucks.... LaGrande
Vitessegave the city a new image. A local busi-
nessman remarked, "We had lost our identity
The Calderwas like a great big heart bringingus
to life again,"an unusualfunctionfora sculpture
without commemorativeor other recognizable
content ...
TheCalderbecame "thesymbol of urban
optimismthe civic group desired."...
One of the negative resultsof this use of
art is that it is no longerseen as art-either by the
general public, for whom it may become some-
thing of a totem, or for art critics, who have
largelyignoredpublicartanyway.Inany event, La
GrandeVitesseis not a particularlyinspiringCal-
der Ratherclunky from a variety of views, with
too many ribs to allow a sense of grace, it is
neverthelessbig enough and red enough to make
a difference in GrandRapids'drearydowntown
area (pp. 103-4).
Note how quicklythe piece becomes "not partic-
ularlyinspiring,""ratherclunky."Whatabout the
people of GrandRapids,who find pridein "their"
FALL 1993
Calder?Thiswritingsmacksof New Yorkchauvin-
ism. More students and scholars (and perhaps
even congressionalaides and arts administrators)
willexperiencethese worksvia HarrietSeniethan
willsee them. Or they will see them, but with the
experience shaped in advance by texts such as
this. There remainsa need for an articulateand
accuratestudy of publicsculpturein this country
as it enters an era characterizedagain as "popul-
ist."Senie'sbook providesa groundingand stim-
ulus for increasedpublic discussionof the ques-
tions of our publicart. It will be interestingto see
how her challenge is taken up. -
Notes
1. Margaret A. Robinette, Outdoor Sculpture (New York:
Watson-Guptill, 1976), 93. One of the perverse pleasures of
reading Robinette is that her respondents invariablyfind work
more "aesthetically pleasing" than they "like it."
2. Ibid., 96.
3. To the criticalart historian, such distinctions matter in eval-
uating Noguchi's relationship here to the Western/minimalist
tradition of classicism-cool, measured-and Asian
classicism-in flux, uncentered.
4. In this area, the writings of Mona Ozouf are particularly
strong; see, for example, her Festivals and the French Revolu-
tion, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1988). For writing on the structuring of national con-
sciousness and the function of art and memory, see Pierre
Nora'srich(over 2,500-page) anthology Les Lieuxde memoire
(Paris:Gallimard,1988). An alternativeto the French practice
can be found in work from this country that does not appear to
have figured in Senie's reading, such as Marianne Doezema
and June Hargrove, The Public Monument and Its Audience
(Cleveland:ClevelandMuseum of Art, 1977); in Sherman Lee's
foreword the opening word is "public," followed by a defini-
tion. This ratherbrief (76-page) catalogue features Doezema's
"The Public Monument in Traditionand Transition"and the
more sociological entry by Hargrove, "A Social History of the
Public Monument in Ohio." The latter is especially useful in
considering issues of utilityand function in public monuments,
memorials, and fountains.
5. Charles Wright, "A Note on the Series," in Hal Foster,ed.,
Discussions in Contemporary Culture (Seattle: Bay Press,
1987), n.p.
6. The enterprises of the speakers anthologized in Foster-
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, James Clifford, Douglas Crimp,
Thomas Crow, VirginiaR. Dominguez, Michel Feher,Michael
Fried, Dan Graham, Alice Jardine, Silvia Kolbowski, Rosalind
Krauss,BarbaraKruger,Craig Owens, Aimee Rankin, Martha
Rosier,TrinhT.Minh-Ha, and KrzysztofWodiczko-appear, to
this reader, intended to abrade the smooth, academic argu-
ments of a RichardSennett.
7. The Apollo Belvedere and the "Belvedere" Torso.
8. Jane Kramer,"Whose Art Is It?" (New Yorker,December 21,
1992, 80-109) is a model reading of community identity and
concerns regarding "public sculpture" in the Bronx. Kramer
explores questions raised in the placement and removal of
three figural sculptures by John Ahearn-issues of identity, of
the use of sculpture to symbolize a community, of the relation-
ship of the sculptor, his models, the finished pieces, the resi-
dents of a community, and those who pass through.
M O N R0 E D EN T 0 N teaches at Queens College
(CUNY)and the School of Visual Arts. His dissertation is a
catalogue raisonne of Mark di Suvero's sculptures for the
Graduate Center, CUNY.
Art throughtheAges
HARRY MURUTES
Helen Gardner.Artthroughthe Ages. 9th ed.
Editedby Horstde la Croix,RichardG. Tansey,
and Diane Kirkpatrick. FortWorth:Harcourt
BraceJovanovich,1991. xvi + 1,135 pp.; 485
color ills.,835 black-and-white.$54.65; $33.95
paper(2 vols.)
F irstproducedin1926, HelenGardner'sArt
through the Ages has been thoroughly
rewritten by other authors. The fourth
edition(1959) was revisedby SumnerCrosby,and
the fifth (1970) down through the eighth (1986)
were the workof Horstde la Croixand RichardG.
Tansey.The ninth edition (1991) now includesa
thirdauthor with de la Croixand Tansey,Diane
who was responsiblefor rewritingthe
Kirkpatrick,
chapterson the eighteenththroughthe twentieth
centuries.
The descriptive,style-orientedmannerof
the revisionof 1970 by de la Croix and Tansey
helped establish Art through the Ages as the
widely used surveytextbook it is today. But the
book's philosophical orientation is now being
questioned. Duringthe past decade researchin
art historyhas reflectednew outlooks;traditional
methodologies focusing on appreciation,style,
and periodicity have been challenged by revi-
sionist approachesstressingsocial issues. A new
multiculturalistresearchhas emerged emphasiz-
ing such concerns as context, gender, sexuality,
minority,ethnocentrism, power, and audience.
Thus, some art historiansare considering how
futureart surveytexts should be configured.
It would be wrong to conclude that the
traditionaltext surveyingWesternart is now ren-
deredmeaninglessby multiculturalism. The needs
of a school'sprogramand courses should deter-
mine which textbooks will be used or produced
for the market.Becausea two-semester surveyin
Westernart is still indispensableto studio and art
historyprogramsacross the country,appropriate
survey texts are necessary. Many schools offer
courses in non-Westernart, and for these differ-
ent textbook requirementsexist. Some schools
currentlyoffer,or are developing,courses simul-
taneously investigatingthe arts of both Western
and non-Westerncultures.Forsuch coursesa dif-
ferent kindof text is needed. It would be unrea-
sonable,therefore,to proposeeliminatingthe tra-
ditionalsurveytext of Westernart or to expand it
with materialintendedfor other kindsof courses
underan assumptionthat one text must serve all.
Moreto the point, some criticswondering
about the viabilityof the philosophybehind Art
through the Ages have called into question the
book'semphasison style and appreciation.In his
review of the 1986 edition, Bradford Collins
rightlycriticizedArt throughthe Ages for its em-
 phasison "stylisticclasses"and its failureto rec-
ognize the diversity in circumstance and re-
sponses affecting art. He faulted the book for
declaringthat the goal of art historyis "apprecia-
tion and enjoyment." In Collins'swords, the text
was "no more than informedart appreciation."1
Responding,the authors of Art through
the Ages have defended their approach in the
prefaceto the ninthedition:"Ouraimthroughout
has been to presentand interpretworksas reflec-
tions of an intelligibledevelopment ratherthan
merely as items of a catalogue." They cite the
"crisisof art history,"which has been minimizing
the "traditionalmethod of stylistic analysis and
periodicity,"and state: "Wefeel that our method
of presentation. . . is best for introducingart
history.. . . The classificationand chronological
mappingof the worldof artas an intelligiblecon-
tinuum is the business of the survey"(pp. v, vi).
Whereasvisualanalysisand the "chrono-
logicalmappingof the worldof art"are essential
to the businessof a survey,the peculiargrandeur
102 this textbookgives to style is not. Artthroughthe
Ages exhibitsan inclination,justifiablycriticized
by Collins,toward appreciationand the celebra-
tion of style as an evolutionary, independent
force, self-fulfillingand internallyfeeding upon
itself.Indeed,in its heroizingof style, Artthrough
the Ages leaves the impressionof being a text
dedicatedto the art of writingabout art. At times
its discussionsof style appear self-consciousand
contrived,as if composed to compete with the art
objectsthey describe.A good exampleis the anal-
ysis presentingWillemKalf'sStill Lifeas a "small
universe"in whichthe "glossy,transparentshells
of the goblets gleam like night skieswith galaxies
of sparkletsand light filaments"(p. 797). That
description calls more attention to its writer's
imaginationthan to Kalf's.Discussionsof style
sometimes become unnecessarilylengthy (e.g.,
the descriptionof the Cracowaltarby Veit Stoss,
p. 718) and ideas tediously belabored (e.g., the
discussionsof Masaccio'suse of light, p. 599, and
Nicholas of Cusa's exaltation of sight, p. 705).
While style and aesthetics receive attention, ico-
nographysignificantto the artistor patron goes
ignored (e.g., the animalsin BenvenutoCellini's
Dianaof Fontainebleau,p. 672; the couple on the
stairwayin Domenico Ghirlandaio'sBirth of the
Virgin,p. 620; and the entire figural group in
QuentinMetsys'sSt. Anne Altarpiece,p. 732).
Collins'scriticismcallingfor more contex-
tual informationin Art throughthe Ages is justi-
fied. The authorsof the ninth edition could pro-
videthe readerwith a betterunderstandingof the
art by presentingmore facts about the artist,the
work, and the context, and less belaboring of
abstractconceptsor rhapsodizingabout the expe-
rienceof art.
Some physicalchanges inthe ninthedition
are positive contributions. Glossier paper im-
proves the quality of the reproductions,a new
pronunciationguide is appended, and time lines
are detailed by individualbars devoted respec-
FALL1993
tivelyto politicalhistory,art, and contextualcon-
temporaryevents. As well, the number of color
images has been considerablyincreased.Of de-
batablemeritis the expansionof the book by an
additional118 pages and 59 illustrations.2
Someyearsago one of the strengthsof Art
throughthe Ages overothersurveybookswas the
employmentof subheads throughoutthe text to
furnishvisualclarityin the presentationof infor-
mation. But by the ninth edition the headings
have become inconsistentand confusing. Forex-
ample,artistsdiscussedin one chapterare listedin
subheadsthat are centered and in lowercaselet-
ters (e.g., Duccio, p. 565), whereas those of the
nextare given subheadsthat are justifiedleft and
in capitals(e.g., Donatello,p. 585). Flemishartists
are named in individual subheads, but the
fifteenth-centuryGermansKonradWitzand Stoss
are not; then, individual subheads are rein-
troducedfor AlbrechtDurerand other Germans
of the sixteenth century.And in the chaptersre-
written by Kirkpatrick, the function of the sub-
heads is inconsistentwith the previoussections of
the book. Because readerscan be confused and
annoyedby these stylisticinconsistencies,the au-
thors or their editors would be well advised to
systematizesubheads in the next edition.
As it is unrealisticto assume that all lec-
turers will discuss every monument in this ex-
panded survey,or that all students will read the
discussionof every workfrom coverto cover,the
formatcould be betteradaptedfor selectiveread-
ing. This might include additional subheadings
and visuallyisolated paragraphscommenced by
the artist'sname in capitals (or otherwise typo-
graphicallyhighlighted),as seen in other surveys.
Suchchanges would allow readersto find desired
paragraphsof discussion more easily. A revised
formatdesignedforeasierselectivereadingwould
counteract the sometimes difficult "search and
findmission"facing readersof the now expanded
ninth edition, yet permit others to read Art
throughthe Ages as an integratedunit.
The authorshave made a largelysuccess-
ful effort at correctingerrorsand refiningclumsy
phraseologyfound in the previousedition. Inpar-
ticular,the chapterson the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries,marredin the eighth edition by
areasof muddleddiscussion,were given a signifi-
cantly clearer treatment by Kirkpatrick. She in-
cludes more women artistsand gives recognition
to African American artists working in main-
stream modern movements such as Aaron
Douglas, Jacob Lawrence,and Sam Gilliam.As
well, she reorganizedthe twentieth-centuryma-
terial,classifyingit in three categories, or "con-
cerns":Formalist;Psychologicaland Conceptual;
Social and Political.But that only gives rise to
arbitrarypigeonholing.FauveartistsAndreDerain
and HenriMatisse,despite the Expressionistphi-
losophy behind their art, are placed not among
other Expressionist artists (including Georges
Rouault)under the "Psychologicaland Concep-
tual" heading, but under the "Formalist"one.
Andthe heading"AbstractFiguration"provesun-
satisfactoryfor classifyingtogether such diverse
artistsas MarcChagall,PaulKlee,AristideMaillol,
and ConstantinBrancusi.It appears arbitraryto
place Willemde Kooningunder the "Formalist"
category while listing FrancisBacon under the
"Psychologicaland Conceptual" heading. Two
importanttwentieth-centurymovements,Op art
and Photorealism,discussedin the eighth edition,
have been downplayed with the editing out of
worksby BridgetRileyand RichardEstes.
Kirkpatrick'sinclusionof examplesof cine-
maticart as worksparticipatingin modernmove-
ments (e.g., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and
Expressionism, p. 971; Un chien andalouand Sur-
realism,p. 983) only raises questions about the
appropriatenessof the lengthy attentionthat the
movingpicturereceivesin this text. Not a branch
of kineticart, cinema is an independentart form
which, needing to be experiencedthrough time,
standsclose to theater,a dramaticart. Filmas art
usuallyinvolvesspecialcomponents such as dra-
maticdevelopment,casting, and, since the early
partof the century,sound.The illustrationof a still
(for instance, that from Jean-Luc Godard's
Breathless, p. 1071), despite accompanying ex-
planatoryparagraphs,only underscoresthe sep-
aratenessof cinema from painting,sculpture,ar-
chitecture, installations, and environments.
Demonstrationof the artisticcomponent in cin-
ema is valuable,but it is questionablewhetherthe
genre shouldbe embracedwith such lengthycov-
erage in an art surveybook alreadytroubledwith
excess.
There are still several works in the ninth
editionthat remainmisidentifiedand so need cor-
rection.First,MichaelPacher'spanel titled in the
text St. Wolfgang Forces the Devil to Hold His
Prayerbook(fig. 18-29) deals neither with St.
Wolfgang nor a prayerbook. Gisela Goldberg
demonstratedthat the paintingdepicts TheDevil
Showing His Book of Sins to St. Augustine, a
miraclerelated in Jacopo da Voragine'sGolden
Legendof the thirteenthcentury.3Alsoincorrectis
the title Diana of Fontainebleau(fig. 17-45) for
Cellini'sbronze lunette, producedfor FrancisI as
an overdoorfor the palace at Fontainebleau,and
laterreusedat Anet. Leaningon a water-spewing
urnand surroundedby boars, deer, and hounds,
the female is reallythe Geniusof Fontainebleau,a
nymph personifyingthe spring within the royal
forest. Cellinihimselfidentifiedthe subject in his
autobiography,where, discussingthe modellofor
this very lunette, he calledthe female "the genius
of Fontainebleau,"and "my Fontainebleau,"but
never"Diana."4
Otherworksinthe ninthedition,although
correctlynamed,are wronglyinterpreted.The ky-
lix scene Dionysus in a Sailboat (fig. 5-7), ex-
plainedas depictingthe god "sailingover the sea
carrying his gifts to mankind" (p. 132), more
surely depicts an event demonstrating divine
power,as describedin the "Hymnto Dionysus,"
one of the ancient HomericHymns.5In another
example, the text characterizes the setting in
AlbrechtAltdorfer'shistoricalpainting Battle of
Issus as a fictionalized"bird's-eyeview of an Al-
pine landscape"(p. 723) and so misses the most
remarkable component of the work. Cord
Meckseperhas demonstratedthat Altdorfer'sset-
ting is identifiableas a panoramalooking south
acrossthe easternMediterraneanbasin,the fore-
ground representingsoutheast Asia Minor,just
where the battle between Alexanderthe Great
and Darius Ill-subject of the painting-
historicallytook place.6
Butto this reviewer,more disturbingthan
the errorsare other problemsin the text that have
escaped criticismfor severaleditions. Specifically,
the authors have dispensed distorted interpreta-
tions and inaccuratedescriptions,leavingthe im-
pressionthat recklessassertionsand carelesswrit-
ing constitute legitimateart history.In addition,
the authorshave displayeda disturbingtolerance
for oblique and gratuitous statements that ob-
struct the reader'scomprehension.These prob-
lemscontinueto marthe presenteditionand spoil
the sound art historicalmethodology to which a
beginnershould be introduced.
Among the careless, unwarrantedstate-
mentsisthisastonishingchargethat the officersin
FransHals'sArchersof St. Adrianare partlydrunk:
"Thewine has alreadygone to their heads, and
each in his own way is sharingthe abundanthigh
spirits"(p. 789). Neitherthe painting,itselfdevoid
of any representationof food or drink,nor docu-
mentation supports that unfounded interpreta-
tion. The text asserts that the grandees in El
Greco'sBurialof Count Orgaz are "the faces of
the conquistadores,who broughtSpainthe New
Worldand who, two years after this picturewas
completed, would lead the Great Armada" (p.
747). Thereis no evidence that these are faces of,
known conquistadores. The authors' most pre-
posterous interpretationoccurs in the discussion
of llya Repin'sReligious Procession in the Kursk
District,in the left area of which a man protec-
tively extends his staff to prevent a struggling
crippledboy from straying into the path of the
procession.Twisting pictorialevidence, the text
gives this absurd explanation:"In the left fore-
ground, a boy on a crutch has just been struck
heavilywith a staff wielded by the priest behind
him"(p.904). No corroborationforthat irrespons-
ible claimexists in serious studies of Repin'sart.7
In describingstyle the authorsfreely use
inaccurateand exaggeratedlanguage that, when
given criticalscrutiny,is found to be at odds with
the workof art being treated.Impreciselanguage
and unjustifiablecharacterizationsabound in the
text, with the result that a careful reader is left
with the impressionthat the authors were less
interestedin workingfrom the artthan they were
in creating evocative writing for its own sake.
Carelessuse of words is no insignificantmatter,
particularlyin a book intended to guide novices
throughthe discipline.To misdescribesomething
is to misunderstandit, as the following examples
demonstrate. In Andrei Rublev'sOld Testament
Trinity,the angels' wings are not at all "sweep-
ing," as the text states (p. 297). "Sweeping,"
whichmeans "extendingovera greatspace," mis-
characterizesthe restrained,half-foldedwings ex-
pressing the controlled spirituality,thoroughly
Byzantine,in Rublev'sicon. The readeris told that
the figuresinthe Crucifixionat Daphneare "elon-
gated" (p. 291), when, in fact, two of these-the
Virginand St. John-have proportionsalmost ex-
actly the same as the normative,classicalRoman
figuresin the reliefof MarcusAureliusSacrificing
(fig. 6-71). Hence, in addition to distortingthe
evidence, the authorsinadvertentlyminimizethe
post-Iconoclasticneo-Hellenismthat the mosaic
is, to a great extent, about. The passage treating
the facialfeaturesin the gold FuneralMask from
Mycenae(shown ina reversedphoto, fig. 4-27) is
carelessand inaccurate.Indeed,the remarkon its
style, "recordingfairlyclosely the featuresof the
deceased" (p. 121), is contradictedby the mask
itself,whose eyes, eyebrows,and earsare, instead,
rendered in primitivizingschemata.8 And else-
where, again in apparentdefiance of visualfacts,
the text declaresthat GiovanniBellini'sFeastof the
Gods presentsfiguresin a "floralcountryside"(p.
682), even though the setting, consistingof grass,
trees, and a rockycliff, is devoid of any conspic-
uous flowers.
Occasionalinsensitivityto the values of a
cultureerodes the text'sobjectivity.Inone exam-
ple, the authorsdismissthe religiousworth of the
sweet and graceful Virgin in Fra FilippoLippi's
Madonnaand Childwith Angels by pronouncing
her "not at all spiritual"(p. 608). In another,the
text declareswith chargedlanguagethat the Pan-
tocratorat Monreale "looms menacingly in the
vaultof the apse" (p. 292).
Besides delivering inaccurate and dis-
tortedcharacterizations of the art,Artthroughthe
Ages exhibits disturbing practices of writing
which, perhaps intended for literaryelan or to
stimulate reader interest, only interfere with
readercomprehension.One such featureis a tol-
erance for sentences constructed in oblique En-
glish. These force the student to read twice in
orderto gain comprehension.Althoughthe ninth
edition has been freed of much of the peculiar
wordingthat plagued the eighth, numerouspas-
sages phrased in indirect English remain. One
suchexampleis this remarkon Greekarchitecture:
"Althoughcolor was used for emphasis and to
mitigatewhat might have seemed too barea sim-
plicity . ... ,the primarydependence in Greek
architecture,as in Greek mathematics,science,'
and philosophy,was on the setting of clearlimits"
(p.142).Elsewhere,the beginnermust untwistthis
statement about the revivalof pagan humanism
afterthe MiddleAges: "Theintellectualand artis-
tic history of the modern world is as much the
historyof Christianity'sreactionto this new spirit
as it is a historyof the challenge of that spiritto
Christianity"(p. 552).
Creatingfurtherdifficultyis the authors'
fondnessfor statementsthat are eithereffusiveor
given an inflated profundity.For instance, this
statement on Peter Paul Rubens'sLion Hunt is
amusingfor its vacuity:"Thewildmelee of thrust-
ing, hacking, rearing,and plunging is almost an
allegory of the confined tensions of Mannerism
explodinginto the extravagantactivitythat char-
acterizedthe Baroque"(p. 783). Afterthe dust has
settled, the student is left to wonder: Is the
Rubensan allegoryor not? Ifit is, does it deal with
Mannerism,the Baroque,or both? Vacuous,too,
is this insight indicatingthat semi-asymmetryin
TheDeathof Sardanapalusby EugeneDelacroixis
a sign of genius: "Itis a testament to Delacroix's
genius that his center of meaning is placed away
fromthe centralactionyet entirelycontrolsit" (p.
878). The analogy introducingthe discussionof
cave art is abstruseand illogical.It reads, "What
Genesis is to the biblicalaccount of the fall and
redemptionof humankind,earlycave art is to the
historyof human intelligence, imagination,and
creativepower" (p. 28). The text goes on to ex-
plain in a false analogy-a comparison of two 103
things that are alike in unimportantways and
differentin importantones-that the inventionof
representationseen in cave painting is like the
creationof animalsas told in Genesis.Butwhy the
fall and redemption of humankindget thrown
intothe equationis not clear.Indeed,what Gene-
sis has to do with laterbiblicalhistoryis not at all
directlyanalogousto what cave paintingis to the
very broadlycircumscribed"historyof human in-
telligence, imagination,and creativepower."The
analogyis morespeciousthan substantive,one of
the text's many attemptsat verbalelan that fail.9
The ninth edition still makes conspicuous
use of gratuitous qualifiers like "astonishing,"
"stunning," "incredible,""remarkable,""mar-
velous," "masterful," "striking," "ingenious,"
and "wonderful."Carefulemployment of words
of praise in an art history text is desirable, but
liberaldoses of them can obscure more meaning-
ful information.How much was gained, then, by
addingthe qualifiersin remarkslike,"[FrankLloyd
Wrighthad an] incrediblyproductivecareer"(p.
1036), or [Belliniwas an] astonishinglyapt artist"
(p. 681)? A passage on the San Marco mosaics
glitterswith superfluousqualifiers:"The mosai-
cists'masterlycontrolof their medium,theircon-
summateskillin design, their faultless geometric
procedure, their subtle color harmonies, their
deft, clear and economical draftsmanship"(p.
294). Unsuccessful,and gratuitous,too, is the use
of quotationstakenfrompoetryand prosewritten
ina laterperiodto discussworksof artof an earlier
time. Thus, Baudelaireis cited to describe Hiero-
nymus Bosch, Proust for Jan Vermeer, and
ThomasGrayfor WilhelmLeibl.These are extra-
neous literarypassagesfailingto throwsignificant
light upon the art.
The sections on historical background
precedingeach major era need to be rewritten.
The principle,still sound, that a paragraphis a
group of sentences developinga unifyingidea is
ART JOURNAL
 frequentlyignoredthere. In particular,the Intro-
duction (pp. 3-21) is long and tedious. This and
othersectionswarrantrevisionso as to maketheir
informationmore accessibleto the reader.
Finally,I would like to express disagree-
ment with some of the text'sjudgmentsrendered
on styles and periods.The authorsare contradic-
tory about Mannerism, presenting the reader
withan acceptablegeneraldescriptionof it on the
one hand, but a selective, almost arbitraryappli-
cation of it on the other. Thus, Jacopo da Pon-
tormo'sart,accordingto the text, is Manneristfor
its instability,distortion,and ambiguity(p. 668),
but not so the art of ElGreco or Tintoretto,even
104 though works of these two artistsshare charac-
teristics identified in Pontormo's art (pp. 688,
747). Unconvincing,too, is the attemptto isolate
Michelangelo'sart from the very Manneristpe-
riodin whichit was created.Theauthorsdeny that
Michelangelo'sarthasaffiliationwith Mannerism,
yet describe his art as exhibitingthe very anti-
classical,intuitivetendencies identifiedin desig-
nated Mannerists(pp. 659-60). Michelangelo's
Medici Tombs,LaurentianLibrary,and LastJudg-
ment can only be fully understoodwhen consid-
ered as part of-not apartfrom-the Mannerist
contextof Italywithinwhichthey were produced.
And the text embraces the disputable position
that AndreaPalladio'sfacade for S. GiorgioMag-
giore is also outside the Manneristcategory (p.
679), ignoringthe structure'smost significantfea-
ture, the clashing interpenetrationof two pedi-
mentedtemplefrontswhose ambiguityand illogi-
cality so disturbed Ruskin that he wrote a
vituperationagainst it.10The text's coverage of
northernEuropeanartreflectssome old arthistor-
ical prejudices,particularlyin the unjustcriticism
of earlysixteenth-centuryFlemishpaintersfordis-
playing Italian influence (e.g., Metsys and Jan
Gossaert, pp. 732-33), and the neglect of the
architectureof the LowCountriesor Germanyof
the same period.
In sum, the ninth edition of Art through
the Ages has been significantlyimprovedby its
revisionsand physicallyenhancedproduction,but
its authors need to subject the work to a more
thoroughand criticalreview,with particularatten-
tion to precisionof language and readercompre-
hension.A reconsiderationof the book'spremise
concerningwhat an art surveyshould do, and do
clearly,would contributesignificantlyto the next
edition.
Notes
1. ArtJournal48 (Summer1989):190-94, esp.192ff.
2. The increasein illustrations
and text has, in my opinion,
broughtthe surveyto the pointof beingunwieldy.Thesheer
FALL 1993
number of works for the reader to master or sift through for
selective reading is formidable. The ninth edition would bene-
fit by more selectivity, particularly in the coverage of
twentieth-century art. Dividing that material into two chap-
ters, the authors have now assigned it 163 illustrations, the
book's highest number for covering one century or period,
increased by 41 over the 122 in the eighth edition. The second
highest total is 99 illustrationsin the chapter on nineteenth-
century art, after which come the Roman chapter with 98
illustrationsand the Greek with 95.
3. See Gisela Goldberg, "ZuMichael Pachers Kirchenvateraltar
in der Alten Pinakothek," Pantheon 37 (1979): 263-66.
Jacopo da Voraginenarratedthe miraclein his discussion of the
life of the saint (feast day August 28): St. Augustine, getting a
look at the devil's Book of Sins, saw that his own sole fault was
that he once forgot to complete a recitation of prayer. He
therefore dashed into a church, finished the prayer,and re-
turned to frustratethe devil who now found the sin obliterated
from the book's page. An Englishtranslationof the miracleof
the Book of Sins is found in The Golden Legend of Jacobus de
Voragine, trans. Granger Ryan and Helmut Ripperger (New
York:Longman's, Green and Co., 1969), 499.
4. See Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, trans. John
Addington Symonds (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co.,
1961), 345. Cellini states: "The first of these [modelli] was
intended for the door of the palace at Fontainebleau.... Here
the King wanted a figure placed to represent the genius of
Fontainebleau.... In the lunette ... I placed a female figure
lying in an attitude of noble grace; she rested her left arm on a
stag's neck, this animal being one of the King'semblems. On
one side I worked little fawns in half-relief with some wild
boars and other game in lower relief; on the other side were
hounds and diverse dogs of the chase of several species, such
as may be seen in that fair forest where the fountain springs."
5. The Homeric Hymns are so called because they were once
thought to have been composed by Homer. The "Hymn to
Dionysus" relates how pirates kidnapped a man they thought
to be a prince worthy of ransom. He turned out to be Di-
onysus, whose divine power then caused a vine with grape
clustersto grow over the sail. This so frightened the piratesthat
they jumped overboard and were turned into dolphins. The
"Hymn to Dionysus" can be found in English translation in
Apostolos N. Athanassakis, The Homeric Hymns (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 56-58, and 97-98,
where the scholar suggests a sixth-century B.C. dating for the
poem.
6. Cord Meckseper, "Zur Ikonographie von Altdorfers Alex-
anderschlecht," Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins fur Kunst-
wissenschaft 22 (1968): 178-85. Altdorfer'svista is directed
southward across southeast Asia Minor (foreground), where
the land turns to join Syria (at the left). In the distance is the
MediterraneanSea surroundingthe island of Cyprus. Near the
horizon, left of center, lies the Red Sea, correctlyangled south-
westerly, while just below the horizon, right of center, is the
Nile delta with its estuaries cutting through the north coast of
Africa.
7. Concerning the cripple in Repin's painting, Fan Parkerand
Stephen J. Parker,in Russia on Canvas: llya Repin (University
Park: Penn State Press, 1980), 67, write, "An adolescent
hunchback, his face expressing unquestioned faith, moves
quicklytoward the icons despite his deformity but is thwarted
from crossing the sunbaked road by the raised stick of a
peasant." Similarly,Josef Brodski,in llya Repin, trans. Gerhard
Hallmann (Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, 1981), 47, states, "Dien-
steifrig verlegt der Dorfalteste dem Kruppelden Weg, um zu
verhindern,dass diese bemitleidenswerte Gestalt die feierliche
Stimmung der Prozession stort" (With zeal of office, the vil-
lage elder blocks the way for the cripple, in order to prevent
this pitiable shape from disturbing the mood of the solemn
procession). Nor is the malicious interpretationshared in Eliz-
abeth K. Valkenier,llya Repin and the World of Russian Art
(New York:Columbia University Press, 1990). It is worth not-
ing that Repin did include a violent detail, but at the opposite
end of the canvas, where, in the right background, an officer in
a white uniform and on horseback whips at someone in the
crowd.
8. Inthe eighth edition, the FuneralMask was even referredto
as "powerfully realistic"(p. 121).
9. The authors of Art through the Ages cultivate another
literary habit that can cause difficulty, namely, the taste for
summarizing a work of art metaphorically as a "monument
to" or "challenge to" something. Popular among some art
historians,that usage must be carefully phrased or it will twist
secondary meanings into primaryones. To explain, a monu-
ment is a "reminder"(from the Latinmonere, to warn, admon-
ish, remind),thus connoting something set up with an inten-
tion or motive. But as the authors sometimes employ it, the
metaphor results in linguistic emphasis being placed where it
does not belong. Forexample, the text describes the innermost
coffin of Tutankhamenas "a supreme monument to the sculp-
tor's and goldsmith's craft" (p. 99). The statement thus pro-
claims that the goldsmith was working to produce a monu-
ment to his own craft, when certainly the principalpurpose
and meaning to the work was the creation of a splendid coffin
to hold the mummy of the god-king. In another example, the
student is told that the Escorialis "a monument to the collab-
oration of a great king and a remarkablyunderstanding archi-
tect" (p. 745). But is collaboration really the primaryelement
for which the Escorialis a "reminder"?Certainlyother cultural
meanings supersede collaboration when one ponders over
what the Escorialsymbolizes. The authors even assert hun-
dreds of works of art to be one collective "monument": "The
art of the Renaissance may be said to be the first monument to
the Western search for order in nature" (p. 557).
10. Ruskinon S. Giorgio Maggiore, in John Ruskin,The Stones
of Venice, vol. 3, reprinted in Robert L. Herbert, ed., The Art
Criticism of John Ruskin (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and
Co., 1964), 133: "The noble Romanesque architects built story
above story, as at Pisa and Lucca; but the base Palladian
architects dared not to do this. They must needs retain some
image of the Greek temple, but the Greek temple was all of
one height, a low gable roof being borne on ranges of equal
pillars.So the Palladianbuildersraisedfirsta Greektemple with
pilasters for shafts, and through the middle of its roof, or
horizontal beam, that is to say, of the cornice which externally
represented this beam, they lifted another temple on pedes-
tals, adding these barbarous appendages to the shafts, which
otherwise would not have been high enough, fragments of the
divided cornice or tie-beam being left between the shafts, and
a great door of the church thrust in between the pedestals. It is
impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous,
more childish in its conception, more servile in plagiarism,
more insipidin result, more contemptible under every point of
rational regard."
HA R RY M U R U T ES is an assistant professor of art
history at the University of Akron. He received a Ph.D. from
the University of Michigan and has published in Burlington
Magazine.
 ~
LRm~~Rlm~illi~pnrr
lm?*0
Addiss, Stephen, and Mary
Erickson.Art Historyand
Education.Chicago: Universityof
IllinoisPress,1993. xxi + 220 pp.;
13 black-and-whiteills. $39.95;
$15.95 paper
Archer,Mildred.Company
Paintings:IndianPaintingsof the
BritishPeriod.London:Victoria
106 and AlbertMuseum, 1992. Distr.
Universityof WashingtonPress,
Seattle.240 pp.; 152 color ills., 7
black-and-white.$45.00
Arrowsmith,Alexandra,and
ThomasWest, eds. Georgia
O'Keeffeand AlfredStieglitz: Two
Lives:A Conversationin Paintings
and Photographs,exh. cat. New
York:CallawayEditionsfor the
PhillipsCollection,Washington,
D.C., 1992.144 pp.; many color
and black-and-whiteills. $40.00;
$30.00 paper
Arwas,Victor.Art Deco Sculpture.
London:Academy Editions,1992.
Distr.St. Martin'sPress,New York.
252 pp.; 298 color ills.$75.00
Balderrama,MariaR., ed. Wifredo
Lamand His Contemporaries,
1938-1952, exh. cat. New York:
StudioMuseum in Harlem,1992.
Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New York.
176 pp.; 43 color ills.,41 black-
and-white. $34.95 paper
Bankes,George, and Elizabeth
Baquedano.Sanuq and Toltecatl:
Pre-ColumbianArtsof Middle and
South America.Manchester,
England:ManchesterMuseum,
1992. 72 pp.; 8 color ills., 66 black-
and-white. ?10.00 paper
Bell, Leonard.Colonial Constructs:
EuropeanImagesof Maori, 1840-
1914. Auckland:Auckland
UniversityPress,1992. xvi + 291
pp.; 8 color ills., 150 black-and-
white. $69.95
FALL1993
Benezra,Neal. Martin Puryear,
exh. cat. New York:Thamesand
Hudsonfor Art Instituteof
Chicago,1991. Distr.W W.
Norton, New York.160 pp.; 48
color ills.,54 black-and-white.
$29.95 paper
Berger,Maurice.How Art Becomes
History:Essayson Art,Society, and
Culturein Post-New Deal America.
New York:HarperCollins, 1992.
xxiii + 200 pp.; 62 black-and-
white ills.$15.00 paper
Berger,RobertW. The Palaceof
the Sun: TheLouvreof LouisXIV
UniversityPark:PennsylvaniaState
UniversityPress,1993. xx + 232
pp.; 143 black-and-whiteills.
$65.00
Bergerot,Frank,and Arnaud
Merlin. TheStoryof Jazz:Bop and
Beyond. DiscoveriesSeries.New
York:HarryN. Abrams,1993. 160
pp.; many color and black-and-
white ills. $12.95 paper
Berlo,JanetCatherine,ed. Art,
Ideology,and the City of
Teotihuacan.Washington,D.C.:
DumbartonOaks Publishing,1992.
xi + 443 pp.; many black-and-
white ills.$38.00
Binion, Rudolph.Lovebeyond
Death: The Anatomyof a Myth in
the Arts. New York:New York
UniversityPress,1993. xiii + 168
pp.; 1 color ill., 77 black-and-
white. $24.95
Blum,Ann Shelby.Picturing
Nature:AmericanNineteenth-
CenturyZoologicalIllustration.
Princeton:PrincetonUniversity
Press,1993. xxxiv + 403 pp.; 74
color ills., 229 black-and-white.
$59.50
Boime, Albert. TheArtof the
Macchia and the Risorgimento:
RepresentingCultureand
Nationalismin Nineteenth-
CenturyItaly.Chicago: University
of Chicago Press,1993. xxi + 338
pp.; 6 color ills., 185 black-and-
white. $55.00
Bois, Yve-Alain.EdwardRuscha:
Romancewith Liquids,Paintings
1966-1969, exh. cat. New York:
GagosianGallery,1993. Distr.
Rizzoli,New York.111 pp.; 24 color
ills., 30 black-and-white.$30.00
paper
Bonsanti,Giorgio.The Galleria
della Accademia,Florence:Guide
to the Galleryand Complete
Catalogue.New York:G. K. Hall,
1987. 96 pp.; many color ills.
$19.95 paper
Boone, ElizabethHill, ed.
Collectingthe Pre-ColumbianPast.
Washington,D.C.: Dumbarton
Oaks Publishing,1993. vi + 360
pp.; many black-and-whiteills.
$30.00
Braunfels,Wolfgang. Monasteries
of WesternEurope:The
Architectureof the Orders.Trans.
AlastairLaing.New York:Thames
and Hudson,1993. 263 pp.; 285
black-and-whiteills.$34.95 paper
Brilliant,Richard.Portraiture.
Cambridge:HarvardUniversity
Press,1991. 192 pp.; 10 color ills.,
75 black-and-white.$18.95 paper
Brusati,Celeste. Johannes
Vermeer.RizzoliArt Series.
New York:Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.;
15 color ills.,3 black-and-white.
$7.95 paper
Buitron-Oliver,Diana. The Greek
Miracle:ClassicalSculpturefrom
the Dawn of Democracy,the Fifth
CenturyB.C., exh. cat. New York:
HarryN. Abramsfor the National
Galleryof Art, Washington,D.C.,
and the MetropolitanMuseum of
Art, New York,1992. 164 pp.; 103
color ills., 31 black-and-white.
$45.00
Caneva,Caterina,et al. The Uffizi:
Guide to the Collectionsand
Catalogueof All Paintings.New
York:G. K. Hall,1986.192 pp.;
many color ills.$24.95 paper
Capon, Robin.Landscapesin
Watercolour.Devon, England:
Davidand Charles,1992. Distr.
TrafalgarSquare,North Pomfret,
Vt. 112 pp.; many color ills. $39.95
Caruana,Wally.AboriginalArt.
Worldof Art Series. New York:
Thamesand Hudson,1993. 216
pp.; 31 color ills., 156 black-and-
white. $12.95 paper
Cassidy, Brendan,ed. The
RuthwellCross. Princeton:
Departmentof Art and
Archaeology,PrincetonUniversity,
1992. xiv + 206 pp.; 66 black-
and-white ills. $39.95; $17.95
paper
Cernuschi,Claude. Jackson
Pollock:Meaning and Significance.
New York:HarperCollins,1992. xiii
+ 336 pp.; 100 black-and-white
ills.$20.00 paper
Chiarini,Marco,ed. Pitti Palace:
Guide to the Collections and
Complete Catalogueof the
PalatineGallery.New York:G. K.
Hall,1988. 128 pp.; many color ills.
$21.95 paper
Chotner,Deborah.AmericanNaive
Paintings:The Collection of the
National Galleryof Art, Systematic
Catalogue.Washington,D.C.:
NationalGalleryof Art, 1992. Distr.
CambridgeUniversityPress,New
York.xvii + 668 pp.; 150 color
ills., 171 black-and-white.$165.00
Colpitt, Frances.Minimal Art: The
CriticalPerspective.Seattle:
Universityof WashingtonPress,
1993. xii + 270 pp.; 59 black-and-
white ills. $16.95 paper
Cook, Jeffrey.AnasaziPlaces: The
PhotographicVision of William
Current.Austin:Universityof Texas
Press,1992. xiii + 138 pp.; 101
black-and-whiteills. $45.00
Cox-Rearick,Janet. Bronzino's
Chapel of Eleonorain the Palazzo
Vecchio.Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress,1993. xxix + 446
pp.; 33 color ills., 187 black-and-
white. $75.00
Crowther,Paul. CriticalAesthetics
and Postmodernism.New York:
Oxford UniversityPress,1993. xvi
+ 214 pp.; 7 color ills. $39.95
Dali, Salvador.TheSecret Lifeof
SalvadorDali. Trans.HaakonM.
Chevalier.New York:Dover
Publications,1993. 405 pp.; 2 color
ills., 16 black-and-white.$9.95
paper
Davis, Thulani.Malcolm X: The
GreatPhotographs.New York:
Stewart,Tabori,and Chang, 1992.
168 pp.; many black-and-whiteills.
$40.00; $24.95 paper
Day,Jane Stevenson. The Fallof
the Aztec Empire:The Drawingsof
KeithHenderson.Denver:Roberts
Rinehartwith the DenverMuseum
of NationalHistory,1993. 116 pp.;
100 black-and-whiteills. $14.95
paper
Desai, Vishakha,and Darielle
Mason, eds. Gods, Guardians,and
Lovers:TempleSculpturesfrom
North IndiaA.D. 700-1200, exh.
cat. New York:Asia Society
Galleries,1993. Distr.Universityof
WashingtonPress,Seattle. 288 pp.;
many color and black-and-white
ills. $65.00
Desmarais,Charles.Proof:Los
Angeles Art and Photographs
1960-1980, exh. cat. Laguna
Beach,Calif.:LagunaArt Museum,
1992. 143 pp.; many color and
black-and-whiteills. $39.95;
$29.95 paper
Dine, Jim, et al. Jim Dine: Drawing
from the Glyptothek.New York:
Hudson HillsPresswith the
MadisonArt Center,Wisconsin,
1993. 126 pp.; 74 color ills., 24
black-and-white.$45.00
du Pont, Diana C. In Dialogue: The
Art of ElsaRadyand Robert
Mapplethorpe,exh. cat. Santa
Barbara:Santa BarbaraMuseum of
Art, 1993. $2.00 paper
Duncan, Carol. The Aestheticsof
Power:Essaysin CriticalArt
History.New York:Cambridge
UniversityPress,1993. xvii + 230
pp.; 44 black-and-whiteills. $16.95
paper
Economakis,Richard,ed. Leon
Krier:Architectureand Urban
Design, 1967-1992. London:
Academy Editions,1992. 300 pp.;
over 500 color and black-and-
white ills.
Ehresmann,Donald L.Applied and
DecorativeArts:A Bibliographic
Guide. 2d ed. Englewood,Colo.:
LibrariesUnlimited,1993. xxxvii +
630 pp. $75.00
Eldredge,CharlesC. Georgia
O'Keeffe:Americanand Modern,
exh. cat. London:HaywardGallery,
1993. Distr.YaleUniversityPress,
New Haven.226 pp.; 104 color
ills., 66 black-and-white.$45.00
Farrell,Terry.TerryFarrell:Urban
Design. London:Academy
Editions,1993. Distr.St. Martin's
Press,New York.300 pp.; many
color ills. $79.50
Fehl, PhilippP. Decorumand Wit:
The Poetryof VenetianPainting.
Vienna: IRSA,1992. 428 pp.; 224
black-and-whiteills. $135.00
Fisher,RobertE. BuddhistArtand
Architecture.Worldof Art Series.
New York:Thamesand Hudson,
1993. 216 pp.; 32 color ills., 147
black-and-white.$12.95 paper
Flam,Jack.RichardDiebenkorn:
Ocean Park,exh. cat. New York:
Gagosian Gallery,1992. Distr.
Rizzoli,New York.77 pp.; 13 color
ills., 13 black-and-white.$25.00
paper
Fox, RichardWightman,and T.J.
JacksonLears,eds. The Powerof
Culture:CriticalEssaysin
AmericanHistory.Chicago:
Universityof Chicago Press,1993.
vi + 292 pp.; 27 black-and-white
ills. $42.00; $13.95 paper
Franklin-Smith,Constance.
Encyclopediaof LivingArtists.Vol.
7. Renaissance,Calif.:ArtNetwork,
1993. 160 pp.; many color ills.
$17.95 paper
Franklin-Smith,Constance. Erotic
Art by LivingArtists.2d edition.
Renaissance,Calif.:ArtNetwork
Press,1992. 71 pp.; 35 color ills.
$17.95 paper
Frelinghuysen,Alice Cooney,et al.
SplendidLegacy:The Havemeyer
Collection,exh. cat. New York:
MetropolitanMuseumof Art,
1993. xvi + 414 pp.; 176 color ills.,
624 black-and-white.$85.00
Gaehtgens, ThomasW., and Heinz
Ickstadt,eds. AmericanIcons:
TransatlanticPerspectiveson
Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-
CenturyAmericanArt. Chicago:
Universityof ChicagoPressfor the
Getty Centerfor the Historyof Art
and the Humanities,1992. 362
pp.; many black-and-whiteills.
$55.00; $29.95 paper
Garau,Augusto. Color Harmonies.
Trans.Nicola Bruno.Chicago:
Universityof Chicago Press,1993.
xv + 76 pp.; 40 color ills.,9 black-
and-white. $40.00; $15.95 paper
Garrard,MaryD. Artemisia
Gentileschi.RizzoliArt Series. New
York:Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.; 13
color ills.,4 black-and-white.$7.95
paper
Gibbs, LindaJones. Out of the
Land:Utah Women,exh. cat.
Springville,Utah, 1993. 68 pp.;
many color ills.$18.00 paper
Gilbert,Sylvie, ed. As Publicas
Race:Margo Kane,James Luna,
Paul Wong,exh. cat. Banff,Alberta,
Canada:WalterPhillipsGallery,
1993. Some black-and-whiteills.
Gillow,John, and Nicholas
Barnard.TraditionalIndian
Textiles.New York:Thames and
Hudson,1991. 160 pp.; 169 color
ills., 34 black-and-white.$22.50 107
paper
Gimenez, Carmen.Picasso and the
Age of Iron,exh. cat. New York:
Guggenheim Museum, 1993. Distr.
Rizzoli,New York.334 pp.; many
color and black-and-whiteills.
$59.95
Glenn, Constance W. Time Dust:
JamesRosenquist,Complete
Graphics:1962-1992, exh. cat.
Long Beach: UniversityArt
Museum, CaliforniaState
University,1993. Distr.Rizzoli,New
York,1993. xv + 180 pp.; $50.00
Glozer,Laszlo.Picasso:
Masterpiecesof the Blue Period,
Thirty-eightPaintings.Schirmer's
VisualLibrarySeries. New York:
W W. Norton, 1988.103 pp.; 38
color ills., 2 black-and-white.
$10.95 paper
Goldman, Judith.James
Rosenquist:The EarlyPictures,
1961-1964, exh. cat. New York:
Gagosian Gallery,1992. Distr.
Rizzoli,New York.102 pp.; 19 color
ills., 48 black-and-white.$35.00
paper
G6mez, Alberto Perez, ed. Charles
Perrault:Ordonnancefor the Five
Kindsof Columnsafter the
Method of the Ancients. Trans.
IndraKagisMcEwen.Santa
Monica: Getty Centerfor the
Historyof Art and the Humanities,
1993. Distr.Universityof Chicago
Press,Chicago. xi + 194 pp.; 20
black-and-whiteills. $34.95;
$19.95 paper
ART JOURNAL
 Guest, Diana, et al. Diana Guest
StonecarverLivingston,Mont.:
ClarkCity Press,1993. 160 pp.;
134 color ills. $60.00
Hambourg,MariaMorris,et al.
The WakingDream:Photography's
FirstCentury,Selections from the
GilmanPaperCompany
Collection,exh. cat. New York:
MetropolitanMuseum of Art,
1993. Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New
York.xxii + 384 pp.; 79 color ills.,
196 black-and-white.$60.00
Harbison,Peter,et al. IrishArtand
Architecture:FromPrehistoryto
the Present.New York:Thames
and Hudson,1978. Distr.W. W.
Norton, New York.272 pp.; 40
color ills., 276 black-and-white.
$27.50 paper
Harris,David, and EricSandweiss.
EadweardMuybridgeand the
PhotographicPanoramaof San
108 Francisco,1850-1880, exh. cat.
Montreal:CanadianCenterfor
Photography,1993. Distr.MIT
Press,Cambridge,Mass. 136 pp.;
many color and black-and-white
ills.$15.95 paper
Hart-Davis,Duff. Wildings:The
Secret Gardenof EileenSoper
London:H. F.& G. Witherby,1991.
Distr.TrafalgarSquare,North
Pomfret,Vt. 144 pp.; many color
and black-and-whiteills. $17.95
paper
Heins, Marjorie.Sex, Sin, and
Blasphemy:A Guide to Americas
CensorshipWars.New York:New
Press,1993. Distr.W. W. Norton,
New York.xii + 210 pp. $22.95;
$11.95 paper
Henkes, Robert.The Artof Black
AmericanWomen: Worksof
Twenty-fourArtistsof the
TwentiethCentury.Jefferson,N.C.:
McFarland,1993. 13 color ills., 167
black-and-white.$35.00
Herman,LloydE. ClearlyArt:
Pilchuck'sGlass Legacy.Seattle:
Universityof WashingtonPressfor
the WhatcomMuseum of History
and Art, 1992. 85 pp.; 77 color ills.,
16 black-and-white.$29.95
Hill, David. Turneron the Thames:
RiverJourneysin the Year1805.
New Haven:Yale UniversityPress,
1993. x + 182 pp.; 100 color ills.,
109 black-and-white.$45.00
FALL 1993
Hobbs, Robert,and Judith
Bernstock.EleanoreMikus:
Shadows of the Real. Ithaca,N.Y.:
GrotonHouse, 1991. Distr.
Universityof WashingtonPress,
Seattle.148 pp.; 8 color ills., 112
black-and-white.
Hokin,Jeanne. Pinnaclesand
Pyramids:The Artof Marsden
Hartley.Albuquerque:Universityof
New Mexico Press,1993. xxii +
166 pp.; 34 color ills.,63 black-
and-white. $50.00
Holtzman,Harry,and MartinS.
James, eds. The New Art-The
New Life: The Collected Writings
of Piet Mondrian.New York:Da
Capo Press,1986. xvi + 414 pp.;
254 black-and-whiteills. $24.95
paper
Honda, Hiromu,and Noriki
Shimazu. Vietnameseand Chinese
CeramicsUsed in the JapaneseTea
Ceremony.New York:Oxford
UniversityPress,1993. vii + 230
pp.; 223 color ills.$75.00
Hood, William.FraAngelicoat San
Marco. New Haven:YaleUniversity
Press,1993. xv + 339 pp.; 140
color ills., 140 black-and-white.
$60.00
Hughes, Robert.Cultureof
Complaint:The Frayingof
America.New York:Oxford
UniversityPress,1993. xiii + 211
pp. $19.95
Hunter,Sam. MarinoMarini:The
Sculpture.New York:HarryN.
Abrams,1993. 224 pp.; 70 color
ills.,98 black-and-white.$75.00
Huot, Sylvia. "TheRomanceof the
Rose"and ItsMedieval Readers:
Interpretation,Reception,
ManuscriptTransmission.New
York:CambridgeUniversityPress,
1993. xvi + 404 pp.; 19 black-
and-white ills.$59.95
Imbert,Dorothee. The Modernist
Gardenin France.New Haven:
YaleUniversityPress,1993. xv +
268 pp.; 17 color ills., 272 black-
and-white. $50.00
Ives, Colta, et al. Daumier
Drawings,exh. cat. New York:
MetropolitanMuseum of Art,
1992. Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New
York.xii + 268 pp.; 43 color ills.,
236 black-and-white.$65.00
Johnson, Randal,ed. Pierre
Bourdieu:TheField of Cultural
Production,Essayson Artand
Literature.New York:Columbia
UniversityPress,1993. viii + 322
pp. $37.50
Johnson,Ursula.LovisCorinth:
1858-1925, Workson Paper,exh.
cat. Chicago:R. S. JohnsonFine
Art, 1993. 120 pp.; 4 color ills., 140
black-and-white.$15.00 paper
Jones, PamelaM. Federico
Borromeoand the Ambrosiana:
Art Patronageand Reformin
Seventeenth-CenturyMilan. New
York:CambridgeUniversityPress,
1993. xiv + 386 pp.; 100 black-
and-whiteills. $95.00
Kemal,Salim, and IvanGaskell,
eds. Landscape,NaturalBeauty
and the Arts. New York:
CambridgeUniversityPress,1993.
ix + 278 pp. $54.95 paper
Kertess,Klaus,et al. John
Newman:Sculptureand Workson
Paper,exh. cat. FortWayne, Ind.:
FortWayneMuseumof Art, 1993.
64 pp.; 24 color ills.,11 black-and-
white. $8.00 paper
Kleinfelder,KarenL. TheArtist,His
Model, Her Image,His Gaze:
Picasso'sPursuitof the Model.
Chicago:Universityof Chicago
Press,1993. xvii + 256 pp.; 154
black-and-whiteills. $50.00
Knox,George. Giambattista
Piazzetta:1682-1754. New York:
Oxford UniversityPress,1992.
xxviii + 244 pp.; 13 color ills.,157
black-and-white.$125.00
Koerner,Joseph Leo. TheMoment
of Self-Portraiturein German
RenaissanceArt.Chicago:
Universityof Chicago Press,1993.
xx + 543 pp.; 1 color ill., 223
black-and-white.$60.00
Krafft,Maurice.Volcanoes:Fire
from the Earth.DiscoveriesSeries.
New York:HarryN. Abrams,1993.
208 pp.; many color and black-
and-whiteills. $12.95 paper
Krauss,RosalindE. The Optical
Unconscious.Cambridge,Mass.:
MITPress,1993. ix + 353 pp.; 118
black-and-whiteills.$24.95
Kultermann,Udo. Architecturein
the 20th-Century.New York:Van
NostrandReinhold,1993. viii +
306 pp.; 253 black-and-whiteills.
$39.95
Kupfer,Marcia.RomanesqueWall
Paintingin CentralFrance:The
Politicsof Narrative.New Haven:
YaleUniversityPress,1993. x +
262 pp.; 16 color ills., 230 black-
and-white. $50.00
Kuspit,Donald. The Cult of the
Avant-GardeArtist. New York:
CambridgeUniversityPress,1993.
176 pp. $40.00
Kuspit,Donald, et al. ThreeTexts
on the Workof Rudolf Baranik,
exh. cat. New York:ExitArt/The
FirstWorld.Distr.Bee-StingPress,
New York,1993. 38 pp. Paper
Lavin,Irving.Past-Present:Essays
on Historicismin Art from
Donatello to Picasso. Una's
LecturesSeries,6. Berkeley:
Universityof CaliforniaPress,
1993. xx + 375 pp.; 355 black-
and-white ills. $65.00
Lawton,Thomas, and Linda
Merrill.Freer:A Legacyof Art.
New York:HarryN. Abramswith
the FreerGalleryof Art,
SmithsonianInstitution,1993. 272
pp.; 125 color ills., 75 black-and-
white. $49.50
Layton,Robert.AustralianRock
Art:A New Synthesis. New York:
CambridgeUniversityPress,1992.
xi + 285 pp.; 247 black-and-white
ills. $65.00
Leo Manso, exh. cat. New York:
Art Student League, 1992. 29 pp.;
11 color ills.;23 black-and-white.
Paper
Levey,Michael. Paintingand
Sculpturein France:1700-1789.
PelicanHistoryof Art. New Haven:
YaleUniversityPress,1993. xi +
319 pp.; 75 color ills., 225 black-
and-white. $55.00
Levin,Kim,ed. Beyond Wallsand
Wars:Art, Politics, and
Multiculturalism.New York:
MidmarchArts Press,1992. xii +
240 pp.; 40 black-and-whiteills.
$15.00 paper
LikaMutal: Stone Sculpture,exh.
cat. New York:Nohra Haime
Gallery,1993. 32 pp.; 10 color ills.
$15.00 paper
Lipton,Mimi, and ThorstenDuser.
StackingWood. New York:Thames
and Hudson,1993. 119 pp.; 112
color ills. $19.95 paper
Livingston,Jane. The New York
School Photographs,1936-1963.
New York:Stewart,Tabori,and
Chang, 1992. 404 pp.; many
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Long, Rose-CarolWashton, ed.
GermanExpressionism:
Documents from the Endof the
WilhelmineEmpireto the Rise of
NationalSocialism. New York:
G. K. Hall,1993. xxiv + 350 pp.;
50 black-and-whiteills. $45.00
Lucie-Smith,Edward.Latin
AmericanArtof the 20th Century.
Worldof Art Series. New York:
Thamesand Hudson,1993. 216
pp.; 38 color ills., 133 black-and-
white. $12.95 paper
Lynes,BarbaraBuhler.Georgia
O'Keeffe.RizzoliArt Series.
New York:Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.; 16
color ills.,4 black-and-white.$7.95
paper
MacLeod,Glen. WallaceStevens
and Modern Art:Fromthe Armory
Show to AbstractExpressionism.
New Haven:Yale UniversityPress,
1993. xxix + 253 pp.; 20 black-
and-white ills. $30.00
Mainardi,Patricia.TheEndof the
Salon: Artand the State in the
EarlyThirdRepublic.New York:
CambridgeUniversityPress,1993.
xii + 211 pp.; 51 black-and-white
ills.$50.00
Mason, Penelope. Historyof
JapaneseArt. New York:HarryN.
Abrams,1993. 431 pp.; 75 color
ills., 381 black-and-white.$60.00
Mathews, Harry.Singular
Pleasures.III.by Francesco
Clemente. Normal,IIl.:Dalkey
ArchivePress,1988. Unpaginated;
many black-and-whiteills. $19.95
Maxwell, T.S., ed. Eastern
Approaches:Essayson Asian Art
and Archaeology New York:
Oxford UniversityPress,1992. xii
+ 252 pp.; 80 black-and-whiteills.
$35.00
McColley,Diane Kelsey.A Gust for
Paradise:Milton'sEdenand the
VisualArts.Chicago: Universityof
IllinoisPress,1993. xviii + 306 pp.;
60 black-and-whiteills. $44.95
Messinger, Lisa Mintz. Abstract
Expressionism:Workson Paper,
Selections from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. New York:
MetropolitanMuseum of Art,
1992. Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New
York.xi + 164 pp.; 62 color ills.
$45.00
Metken, Gunter.Gauguinin Tahiti:
TheFirstJourney,Paintings1891-
1893. Schirmer'sVisualLibrary
Series. New York:W W. Norton,
1992. 104 pp.; 37 color ills., 3
black-and-white.$10.95 paper
Millstein, BarbaraHead, and Sarah
M. Lowe. Consuelo Kanaga:An
AmericanPhotographer,exh. cat.
New York:BrooklynMuseum with
the Universityof Washington
Press,Seattle,1992. 223 pp.; 174
black-and-whiteills. $35.00 paper
Mitchell, W. J. T.,ed. Artand the
PublicSphere. Chicago:University
of Chicago Press,1992. 268 pp.; 1
color ill., many black-and-white.
$41.95; $19.95 paper
Moholy-Nagy,Laszl6.Peinture,
photographie,film et autres6crits
sur la photographie.Trans.
CatherineWermester,J. Kempf,and
G. Dallez. Forewordby Dominique
Baque. Nimes: EditionsJacqueline
Chambon,1993. 279 pp.; 14
black-and-whiteills. FF145.00
paper
Monod, Paul Kleber.Jacobitism
and the EnglishPeople: 1688-
1788. New York:Cambridge
UniversityPress,1989. xvi + 408
pp.; 14 black-and-whiteills. $22.95
paper
Montague, John. Basic Perspective
Drawing:A VisualApproach.2d
ed. New York:Van Nostrand
Reinhold,1993. 200 pp.; 200
black-and-whiteills. $29.95 paper
Morphet,Richard,ed. Richard
Hamilton,exh. cat. London:Tate
Gallery,1992. Distr.Universityof
WashingtonPress,Seattle.208 pp.;
106 color ills.,198 black-and-
white. $75.00; $45.00 paper
Muccini, Ugo, and Alessandro
Cecchi. Palazzo Vecchio:Art
HistoricalGuide to the Palace.
New York:G. K. Hall,1989. 128
pp.; many color ills. $19.95 paper
Muraro,Michelangelo. I//libro
secondo di Francescoe Jacopo dal
Ponte. Bassano,Italy:G. B. Verci
Editrice,1992. 445 pp., 64 black-
and-white ills.
Naggar,Caroleand FredRitchin,
eds. Mexico: ThroughForeign
Eyes/Vistopor ojos extranjeros,
1850-1990. New York:W. W.
Norton, 1993. 320 pp.; 320 black-
and-white ills. $50.00
National Galleryof Art:
Washington.Worldof Art Series.
New York:Thamesand Hudson,
1993. Distr.W W Norton, New
York.328 pp.; 309 color ills.,3
black-and-white.$14.95 paper
Neils, Jenifer.Goddessand Polis:
The PanathenaicFestivalin
Ancient Athens, exh. cat. Hanover,
N.H.: Hood Museum of Art,
DartmouthCollege, 1992. Distr.
PrincetonUniversityPress.228
pp.; 22 color ills., 94 black-and-
white. $49.50; $19.95 paper
Nemiroff,Diana, et al. LandSpirit
Power:FirstNations at the
NationalGalleryof Canada,exh.
cat. Ottawa: NationalGalleryof
Canada,1992. Distr.Universityof
Chicago Press.232 pp.; 20 color
ills., 100 black-and-white.$39.95
paper
Nesbit, Molly.Atgets Seven
Albums.New Haven:Yale
UniversityPress,1992. 428 pp.;
578 black-and-whiteills.$55.00
Noble, Dennis L. Forgotten
Warriors:CombatArt from
Vietnam.Westport,Conn.:
Praeger,1992. Distr.NationalBook
Network,Lanham,Md. xxvi + 198
pp.; 152 black-and-whiteills.
$29.95
Normand,Tom.WyndhamLewis
the Artist:Holdingthe Mirrorup
to Politics. New York:Cambridge
UniversityPress,1992. xvi + 230
pp.; 58 black-and-whiteills.
$75.00
Norvig, GerdaS. DarkFiguresin
the Desired Country:Blake's
Illustrationsto the Pilgrims
Progress.Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress,1993. xxxii + 328
pp.; 28 color ills., 70 black-and-
white. $68.00
O'Brian,John, ed. Clement
Greenberg:The Collected Essays
and Criticism.Vol. 3, Affirmations
and Refusals,1950-1956.
Chicago:Universityof Chicago
Press,1993. xxxiii + 305 pp.
$29.95
O'Brian,John, ed. Clement
Greenberg:The Collected Essays
and Criticism.Vol.4, Modernism
with a Vengeance,1957-1969.
Chicago:Universityof Chicago
Press,1993. xvi + 341 pp. $29.95
O'Connor,Diane Vogt. Guide to
PhotographicCollectionsat the
SmithsonianInstitution.Vol. 3.
Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian
InstitutionPress,1992. xii + 342
pp.; 96 black-and-whiteills.
$49.95 paper
Ohly, Friedrich.The Damned and
the Elect:Guiltin WesternCulture.
Trans.LindaArchibald.New York:
CambridgeUniversityPress,1992.
xiv + 211 pp.; 12 black-and-white
ills.$49.95
Olson, RobertaJ. M. Ottocento:
Romanticismand Revolutionin
19th-CenturyItalianPainting,exh.
cat. Philadelphia:Universityof
PennsylvaniaPress,1992. 294 pp.;
over 105 color and black-and-white
ills. $67.95
Pachnicke,Peter,and Klaus
Honnef, eds. John Heartfield,
exh. cat. New York:Museum of
ModernArt, 1993. Distr.HarryN.
Abrams,New York.342 pp.; 83
color ills., 206 black-and-white.
$45.00 paper
Papadakis,Andreas,et al. Theory
+ Experimentation:An
IntellectualExtravaganza.London:
Academy Editions,1993. Distr.St.
Martin'sPress,New York.420 pp.;
over 800 color and black-and-
white ills. $95.00
Papadakis,Andreas,et al., eds.
FreeSpiritin Architecture:
Omnibus Volume. London:
Academy Editions,1992. Distr.
VCH Publishers,DeerfieldBeach,
Fla.236 pp.; 300 color ills. $79.50;
$50.00 paper
Papanikola-Bakirtzis,Demetra, et
al. CeramicArt from Byzantine
Serres,exh. cat. IllinoisByzantine 109
Studies,3. Champlain:University
of IllinoisPress,1992. x + 73 pp.;
4 color ills., 51 black-and-white.
$27.95 paper
Paszotory,Esther.Aztec Art. New
York:HarryN. Abrams,1983. 335
pp.; 74 color ills., 319 black-and-
white. $45.00
Patin,Sylvie. Monet: The Ultimate
Impressionist.DiscoveriesSeries.
New York:HarryN. Abrams,1993.
176 pp.; many color and black-
and-white ills. $12.95 paper
Payne, Burton,III.The WorldIs
Gettingto Be a FunnierPlace or
How I Applied to Calartsunder
FourAliases and WasAccepted or
Denied. Williamstown,N.Y.:
Dryhouse,1992. 90 pp.; 47 color
ills., some black-and-white.$21.95
paper
Phillips, HerbertP. The Integrative
Artof Modern Thailand,exh. cat.
Berkeley:LowieMuseum of
Anthropology,Universityof
Californiaat Berkeley,1992. Distr.
Universityof WashingtonPress,
Seattle. x + 138 pp.; 89 color ills.,
2 black-and-white.$24.95 paper
Phillips, Peter,and Gillian Bunce.
RepeatPatterns:A Manual for
Designers,Artists,and Architects.
New York:Thames and Hudson,
1993. Distr.W W. Norton, New
York.192 pp.; 160 color ills. $19.95
paper
Phillips,Tom.TomPhillips: Words
and Texts,exh. cat. New York:
Thamesand Hudson, 1992. Distr.
W. W. Norton, New York.296 pp.;
415 color ills., 85 black-and-white.
$34.95 paper
ART JOURNAL
 PierpontMorgan Library.In
AugustCompany:The Collections
of the PierpontMorganLibrary.
New York:HarryN. Abrams,1993.
310 pp.; 115 color ills., 60 black-
and-white. $49.50
Poggi, Christine.In Defiance of
Painting:Cubism,Futurism,and
the Inventionof Collage. New
Haven:YaleUniversityPress,1992.
xx + 312 pp.; 50 color ills., 90
black-and-white.$50.00
Pointon, Marcia.Hangingthe
Head: Portraitureand Social
Formationin Eighteenth-Century
England.New Haven:Yale
UniversityPressfor the PaulMellon
Centrefor Studiesin BritishArt,
1993. ix + 278 pp.; 77 color ills.,
217 black-and-white.$65.00
Pollock,Griselda.Avant-Garde
Gambits,1888-1893: Genderand
the Colorof ArtHistory.New York:
110
Thamesand Hudson,1992. Distr.
W. W. Norton, New York.80 pp.;
50 black-and-whiteills. $14.95
Pope-Hennessy,John. The Piero
della FrancescaTrail.New York:
Thamesand Hudson,1993. 64 pp.;
59 black-and-whiteills. $10.95
paper
Porter,Tom,and Sue Goodman.
Treasuryof GraphicTechniquesfor
Architects,GraphicDesigners,and
Artists.New York:Charles
Scribner'sSons, 1992. 224 pp.;
many black-and-whiteills. $20.00
paper
Pran,Peter.PeterPranof Ellerbe
Becket:Recent Works.
ArchitecturalMonographs,24.
London:Academy Editions,1992.
145 pp.; many color and black-
and-white ills. $45.00; $30.00
paper
Pressly,WilliamL.A Catalogueof
Paintingsin the FolgerShakespeare
Library:'As ImaginationBodies
Forth."New Haven:YaleUniversity
Press,1993. x + 386 pp.; 32 color
ills.,302 black-and-white.$50.00
Promey,Sally M. Spiritual
Spectacles: Visionand Image in
Mid-Nineteenth-Century
Shakerism.Bloomington:Indiana
UniversityPress,1993. xxiv + 293
pp.; 5 color ills.,30 black-and-
white. $35.00
Quantrill,Malcolmand Bruce
Webb,eds. Constancyand Change
in Architecture.College Station:
TexasA&MUniversityPress,1991.
xviii + 150 pp.; 46 black-and-
white ills.$50.00
FALL 1993
Rand,Paul.Design, Form,and
Chaos. New Haven:YaleUniversity
Press,1993. xii + 220 pp.; 70
color ills.,55 black-and-white.
$45.00
Ranson, Ron. EdwardSeago: The
Vintage Years.Devon, England:
Davidand Charles,1992. Distr.
TrafalgarSquare,North Pomfret,
Vt. 96 pp.; many color ills.,some
black-and-white.$75.00
Ranson, Ron.Modern Oil
Impressionists.Devon, England:
Davidand Charles,1992. Distr.
TrafalgarSquare,North Pomfret,
Vt. 128 pp.; many black-and-white
ills. $45.00
Rappaport,Susan S., ed. 1993
TravelersGuide to ArtMuseum
Exhibitions.Washington,D.C.:
Museum Guide Publications,1992.
Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New York.
239 pp.; 24 color ills.,75 black-
and-white. $12.95 paper
Ratcliff,Carter,and Robert
Rosenblum.Gilbertand George:
TheSingingSculpture.New York:
AnthonyMcCall,1993. Distr.
DistributedArt Publisher,New
York.64 pp.; 20 color ills., 38
black-and-white.$35.00
Ratcliffe,Sam DeShond.Painting
TexasHistoryto 1900. American
StudiesSeries.Austin:Universityof
TexasPress,1992. xviii + 140 pp.;
50 color ills., 76 black-and-white.
$29.95
Rathbone,Belinda,et al. Georgia
O'Keeffeand AlfredStieglitz:
Two Lives,exh. cat. New York:
HarperCollins/Callaway Editions
with the PhillipsCollection,
Washington,D.C., 1992.144 pp.;
many color and black-and-white
ills.$40.00
Rawson, Jessica, ed. The British
Museum Book of Chinese Art.
New York:Thamesand Hudson,
1992. Distr.W. W Norton, New
York.396 pp.; 122 color ills., 133
black-and-white.$24.95 paper
Rempel,Siegfried,and Wolfgang
Rempel. Health Hazardsfor
Photographers.New York:Lyons
and Burford,1992. x + 214 pp.
$16.95 paper
Rice, Don Stephen. LatinAmerican
Horizons:A Symposiumat
DumbartonOaks, 11thand 12th
October 1986. Washington,D.C.:
DumbartonOaks ResearchLibrary
and Collection,1993. viii + 373
pp.; some black-and-whiteills.
$30.00
Richardson,Brenda.BriceMarden:
Cold Mountain, exh. cat. New
York:Dia Foundationfor the Arts,
1992. Distr.Houston FineArt Press,
Houston.151 pp.; many color and
black-and-whiteills.$40.00
Riegl, Alois. Problemsof Style:
Foundationsfor a Historyof
Ornament.Trans.EvelynKain.
Princeton:PrincetonUniversity
Press,1992. xxxiii + 406 pp.; 197
black-and-whiteills.$45.00
Rifkin,Adrian.Street Noises:
ParisianPleasure,1900-40.
Manchester,England:Manchester
UniversityPress,1993. Distr.St.
Martin'sPress,New York.xii +
221 pp.; 30 black-and-whiteills.
$49.95
Robin,Rons. Enclavesof America:
The Rhetoricof AmericanPolitical
ArchitectureAbroad,1900-1965.
Princeton:PrincetonUniversity
Press,1992. xiii + 208 pp.; 43
black-and-whiteills.$24.95
Rojas,Carlos.SalvatorDali: Or the
Artof Spittingon YourMothers
Portrait.Trans.AlmaAmell.
UniversityPark:PennsylvaniaState
UniversityPress,1993. 199 pp.; 11
black-and-whiteills. $29.95
Roman,Gail Harrison,and
VirginiaHagelstein Marquardt,
eds. The Avant-GardeFrontier:
RussiaMeets the West, 1910-
1930. Gainesville:UniversityPress
of Florida,1992. 291 pp.; 9 color
ills.,64 black-and-white.$49.95
Rosenthal,MargaretF.The Honest
Courtesan:VeronicaFranco,
Citizenand Writerin Sixteenth-
CenturyVenice.Women in Culture
and Society.Chicago:Universityof
Chicago Press,1992. xiv + 391
pp.; 32 black-and-whiteills.
$50.00; $18.95 paper
Rosenzweig, Daphne Lange.The
YangtzeRiverCollection:Later
ChineseJades, exh. cat. Museum
of FineArts,St. Petersburg,Fla.
Sarasota:Helga Wall-Apelt,1993.
96 pp.; 61 color ills.$35.00 paper
Ross, Jeffrey,ed. Cataloging
ArchitecturalDrawings:A Guide to
the Fieldsof the RLINVisual
Materials(VIM)Formatas Applied
to the CatalogingPracticesof the
AveryArchitecturaland Fine Arts
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LibrariesSociety of NorthAmerica,
1992. iii + 90 pp.; 8 black-and-
white ills.$20.00 paper
Rossol, Monona. The Artist's
Complete Health and Safety
Guide. New York:AllworthPress,
1990. 328 pp. $16.95 paper
Roth, LelandM. Understanding
Architecture:Its Elements,History,
and Meaning. New York:
HarperCollins, 1993. xxxi + 543
pp.; 7 color ills., 495 black-and-
white. $50.00
Roworth,WendyWassyng, ed.
Angelica Kauffman:A Continental
Artistin GeorgianEngland.Seattle:
Universityof WashingtonPress,
1992. 216 pp.; 41 color ills., 108
black-and-white.$22.50 paper
Russo, David Anson. Mazemaster
2. New York:Simon and Schuster,
1992. 96 pp.; many black-and-
white ills.$9.95 paper
Santi, Bruno.San Lorenzo:Guide
to the LaurentianComplex. New
York:G. K. Hall,1992. $19.95
paper
Saslow, James M. The Poetryof
Michelangelo. New Haven:Yale
UniversityPress,1991. xii + 559
pp.; 17 black-and-whiteills.
$50.00; $20.00 paper
Schade, Werner.Joseph Beuys:
EarlyDrawings.Schirmer'sLibrary
Series. New York:W. W. Norton,
1992. 103 pp.; 41 color ills., 13
black-and-white.$10.95 paper
Schefold, Karl.Gods and Heroes in
LateArchaicGreekArt.Trans.Alan
Griffiths.New York:Cambridge
UniversityPress,1992. xii + 375
pp.; 361 black-and-whiteills.
$125.00
Schodek, Daniel. Structurein
Sculpture.Cambridge,Mass.: MIT
Press,1993. xiv + 312 pp.; 130
black-and-whiteills. $60.00
Schulze, Franz,and Kevin
Harrington,eds. Chicago'sFamous
Buildings:A PhotographicGuide
to the City'sArchitectural
Landmarksand Other Notable
Buildings.Chicago: Universityof
Chicago Press,1993. 337 pp.; 294
black-and-whiteills. $19.95; $9.95
paper
Schwartz,Sanford.ChristenKobke.
New York:Timken,1992. Distr.
Rizzoli,New York.153 pp.; 58
color ills.,58 black-and-white.
$35.00
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Surrealizingthe Nude. Seattle:
Universityof WashingtonPress,
1992. 136 pp.; 20 color ills., 35
black-and-white.$22.50 paper
Seigel, Judy,ed. Mutiny and the
Mainstream:Talkthat Changed
Art, 1975-1990. New York:
MidmarchArts Press,1992. xxiii +
360 pp. $22.00 paper
Shanes, Eric.JackBeal. New York:
Hudson HillsPress,1993. 120 pp.;
64 color ills., 17 black-and-white.
$50.00
Shepherd,David. David Shepherd:
An Artistin Conservation.Devon,
England:Davidand Charles,1992.
Distr.TrafalgarSquare, North
Pomfret,Vt. 112 pp.; many color
and black-and-whiteills. $75.00
Silbergeld,Jerome, and Gong
Jisui. Contradictions:ArtisticLife,
the SocialistState, and the Chinese
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Universityof WashingtonPress,
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54 black-and-white.$50.00
Simakoff,N. IslamicDesigns in
Color.DoverPictorialArchive
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ills. $12.95 paper
Sims, LoweryStokes. Romare
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York:Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.; 15
color ills.,4 black-and-white.$7.95
paper
Skolnick,Arnold,ed. Paintingsof
California.New York:Clarkson
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$30.00
Smidt, DirkA. M., ed. AsmatArt:
Woodcarvingsof Southwest New
Guinea. New York:George
1993. xii + 160 pp.; over
Braziller,
100 color and black-and-whiteills.
$65.00
Smith,Michael A. Michael A.
Smith:A VisualJourney:
Photographsfrom Twenty-five
Years,exh. cat. Revere,Penn.:
LodimaPress,1992. Distr.
Universityof New Mexico Press,
Albuquerque.192 pp.; 176 black-
and-white ills. $75.00
Smith, RalphA., and Ronald
Berman,eds. PublicPolicy and the
Aesthetic Interest:CriticalEssays
on Defining Culturaland
EducationalRelations.Chicago:
Universityof IllinoisPress,1992. xii
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Smith, RayCampbell.Developing
a Style in Watercolour.Devon,
England:Davidand Charles,1992.
Distr.TrafalgarSquare,North
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Smith, RichardJ. Chinese
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New York:Oxford UniversityPress,
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Smith, Terry.Makingthe Modern:
Industry,Art, and Design in
America.Chicago: Universityof
Chicago Press,1993. xv + 512
pp.; 156 black-and-whiteills.
$50.00
Smyth, CraigHugh. Mannerism
and Maniera.Vienna: IRSA,1992.
161 pp.; 77 black-and-whiteills.
$60.00
Snodin, Michael, ed. KarlFriedrich
Schinkel:A UniversalMan, exh.
cat. London:Victoriaand Albert
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UniversityPress,New Haven.xii +
219 pp.; 25 color ills., 100 black-
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Snyder,J. Caringfor YourArt:A
Guide for Artists,Collectors,
Galleries,and ArtInstitutions.New
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Solkin, David H. Paintingfor
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PublicSphere in Eighteenth-
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Spector,Nancy,ed. Guggenheim
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$19.95 paper
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Spender,Michael. The Paintingsof
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Davidand Charles,1992. Distr.
TrafalgarSquare,North Pomfret,
Vt. 96 pp.; many color and black-
and-white ills. $85.00
Spender,Michael. Visionsof
Venice. Devon, England:Davidand
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Square,North Pomfret,Vt. 127
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white ills. $75.00; $34.95 paper
Spender,Stephen, and David
Hockney.ChinaDiary.New York:
Thamesand Hudson,1982. Distr.
W. W. Norton, New York.200 pp.;
over 200 color ills.$24.95 paper
Steele, James. Hellenistic
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London:Academy Editions,1992.
Distr.St. Martin'sPress,New York.
252 pp.; 160 color ills.$69.00
Stephenson, Jonathan.The
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New York.192 pp.; 98 color ills.;
182 black-and-white.$18.95 paper
Stern,Radu.A contre-courant:
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Distr.NationalBook Network,
Lanham,Md. xxxi + 511 pp.; 36
color ills., 470 black-and-white.
$95.00
Strong,WilliamS. The Copyright
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Stuckey,Charles.Andy Warhol:
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RelatedWorks,1984-1986, exh.
cat. New York:Rizzoliand
GagosianGallery,1992. 143 pp.;
55 color ills., 55 black-and-white.
$35.00 paper
Taggard,Mindy Nancarrow.
Murillo'sAllegoriesof Salvation
and Triumph:The Parableof the
ProdigalSon and the Lifeof Jacob.
Columbia:Universityof Missouri
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black-and-whiteills.$32.50
Tan,RitaC., et al. Chineseand
South-EastAsian White Ware
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Manila:OrientalCeramicSociety
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128 pp.; many colorand black-
and-white ills. $70.00
Tannenbaum,Judith. VijaCelmins,
exh. cat. Philadelphia:Instituteof
ContemporaryArt, Universityof
Pennsylvania,1992. 112 pp.; 12
color ills.,55 black-and-white.
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TateGallery.RichardSerra:Weight
and Measure, 1992, exh. cat.
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white ills. $27.50 paper
Taylor,KatherineFischer.In the
Theaterof CriminalJustice: The
Palaisde Justice in Second Empire
Paris.Princeton:Princeton
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pp.; 60 black-and-whiteills.
$35.00
Temkin,Ann, and BerniceRose.
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of Joseph Beuys, exh. cat.
Philadelphia:PhiladelphiaMuseum
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color ills., 115 black-and-white.
$50.00
Terenzio,Stephanie, ed. The
Collected Writingsof Robert
Motherwell. New York:Oxford
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white. $39.95
Terrasse,Michel. Bonnardat Le
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Hudson,1987. Distr.W. W Norton,
New York.128 pp.; 77 color ills.,
53 black-and-white.$24.95 paper
Thomson, EllenMazur,comp.
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to the Literature.Art Reference
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Greenwood Press,1992. x + 282
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Tibol, Raquel.FridaKahlo:An
Open Life. Trans.ElinorRandall.
Albuquerque:Universityof New
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black-and-whiteills. $18.95
Todd,EllenWiley.The "New
Woman"Revised:Paintingand
GenderPoliticson Fourteenth
Street. Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress,1993. xxxiv + 414
pp.; 8 color ills., 158 black-and-
white. $45.00
Tomasello,Bruna.Museum of the
Bargello:Guide to the Collections.
New York:G. K. Hall,1991. 128
pp.; many color ills. $21.95 paper
Trapp,KennethR., et al. The Arts
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California:Livingthe Good Life,
exh. cat. Oakland,Calif.:Oakland
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Press,New York.328 pp.; 111 color
ills., 102 black-and-white.$55.00
Treuherz,Julian. Victorian
Painting.Worldof Art Series. New
York:Thamesand Hudson, 1993.
Distr.W. W. Norton, New York.216
pp.; 24 color ills., 153 black-and-
white. $12.95 paper
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Vequaud,Yves. HenriCartier-
Bressonin India. New York:
Thamesand Hudson,1987.128
pp.; 105 black-and-whiteills.
$24.95 paper
Vemeuil, M. P.Art Nouveau Floral
Stencil Designs in Full Color.Dover
PictorialArchiveSeries. New York:
DoverPublications,1993. 32 pp.;
32 color ills. $6.95 paper
von Gerkan,Meinhard.Von
Gerkan,Margand Partners.New
York:AcademyEditions,1993. 300
pp., 560 color ills. $65.00
Waldman,Diane. Roy Lichtenstein.
RizzoliArt Series. New York:
Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.; 14 color ills.,
3 black-and-white.$7.95 paper
Wallis, Brian,ed. RockMy
Religion:Writingsand Art Projects,
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Cambridge,Mass.: MITPress,
1993. xx + 328 pp.; many black-
and-white ills.$34.95
Wardropper, lan, et al. News from
a RadiantFuture:Soviet Porcelain
from the Collection of CraigH.
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Chicago:Art Instituteof Chicago,
1993. Distr.Universityof
WashingtonPress,Seattle. 92 pp.;
25 color ills., 50 black-and-white.
$19.95 paper
Watrous,James,and Andrew
Stevens. AmericanColor
Woodcuts:Bounty from the Block,
1890s-1990s, exh. cat. Madison:
ElvehjemMuseum of Art,
Universityof Wisconsin-Madison,
1993.135 pp.; 73 color ills., 76
black-and-white.$29.95 paper
Watson,Peter.FromManet to
Manhattan:The Rise of the
ModernArtMarket. New York:
RandomHouse, 1992. xxviii +
558 pp.; 86 black-and-whiteills.
$35.00
Webster,BrendaS., and Judith
EmlynJohnson.Hungryfor Light:
TheJournalof EthelSchwabacher.
Bloomington:IndianaUniversity
Press,1993. xviii + 265 pp.; 16
color ills., 16 black-and-white.
$29.95
Weiss, Evelyn,and MariaTeresa
Ocafia, eds. Picasso: The Ludwig
Collection:Paintings,Drawings,
Sculptures,Ceramics,Prints,exh.
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MichaelRobertson.Munich:
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New York.$65.00
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White, HarrisonC., and Cynthia Credits Index of Advertisers
A. White. Canvasesand Careers: ? A.C.L. Brussels,pages 50 (top), 51, 52 HarryN. Abrams, Inc., page 16
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page 86 (bottom); Dirk Bakker,courtesy Art HarvardUniversity Press, page 101
Painting World.Chicago:
Instituteof Chicago, pages 85 (top), 86 Hill-Stone Incorporated,page 105
Universityof Chicago Press,1993.
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xx + 173 pp.; 12 black-and-white
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Chicago, page 87; Ralph Kleinhempel, Oxford University Press, page 95
Wilkin,Karen,and Lewis Kachur.
Hamburg, page 44 (bottom); ? 1991 Hans Princeton University Press, page 96
TheDrawingsof StuartDavis: The
Namuth, page 67 (top); Douglas M. Parker, Rosenthal Art Slides, page 105
AmazingContinuity,exh. cat. New courtesy Art Institute of Chicago, page 85 Sandak, page 101
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Williams,CharlotteAllen. Florida Universityof Chicago Press, page 83
Quilts. Gainesville:UniversityPress Universityof New Mexico Press, inside
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137 color ills.,82 black-and-white. Universityof Pennsylvania Press, page 89
$44.95; $24.95 paper University Prints, page 105
Yale University Press, page 17
Wolff,Janet.Aestheticsand the
Sociology of Art. 2d ed. Ann
Arbor:Universityof Michigan
Press,1993. xiv + 132 pp. $24.95;
$12.95 paper
Wood, Mara-Helen,ed. Edvard
Munch: The Friezeof Life,exh.
cat. London:NationalGallery,
1992. Distr.HarryN. Abrams,New
York.144 pp.; 76 color ill., 53
black-and-white.$45.00
Wootton, Frank.FrankWootton:
Fifty Yearsof AviationArt. Devon,
England:Davidand Charles,1992.
Distr.TrafalgarSquare,North
Pomfret,Vt. 96 pp.; many color
and black-and-whiteills.$75.00
Wosk, Julie. BreakingFrame:
Technologyand the VisualArtsin
the Nineteenth Century.New
Brunswick,N.J.:RutgersUniversity
Press,1992. xiii + 267 pp.; 65
black-and-whiteills.$32.95
Young,ChristopherR. The
PurloinedImage,exh. cat. Flint,
Mich.: Instituteof Art,1993. 96
pp.; 51 color ills.$20.75 paper
Young,James E. The Textureof
Memory:HolocaustMemorials
and Meaning. New Haven:Yale
UniversityPress,1993. xvii + 398
pp.; many black-and-whiteills.
$35.00
Zafiropoulos,Simoni, ed. Greece
in Poetry:Paintings,Drawings,
Photographs,and Other Worksof
Art. New York:HarryN. Abrams,
1993. 176 pp.; 32 color ills., 66
black-and-white.$39.95
Zemel, Carol. VincentVanGogh.
RizzoliArt Series. New York:
Rizzoli,1993. 24 pp.; 16 color ills.,
4 black-and-white.$7.95 paper