Robert Rosenblum - The Origin of Painting A Problem in The Iconography of Romantic Classicism

The Origin of Painting: A Problem in the Iconography of Romantic Classicism
Author(s): Robert Rosenblum

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 1957), pp. 279-290
Published by: College Art Association
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THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING: A PROBLEM
IN THE ICONOGRAPHY OF
ROMANTIC CLASSICISM*
ROBERT ROSENBLUM
IN both Occidental and Oriental cultures, one of the oldest and most pervasive legends of
the origin of painting involves the observation of a shadow and the tracing of its outline?.
Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, mentions just such a legend, claiming that while
authorities are not in exact accord about the beginnings of the art of painting, they all at least
agree that it began with the outlining of a man's shadow;' and Quintilian, too, tells us how
painting in its most primitive phase was restricted to tracing a line round a shadow thrown in the
sunlight." Thanks to the study of such classical writers, this legend was persistently referred to
throughout the Renaissance. Thus, Alberti's Della pittura cites Quintilian's remarks;' Leonardo's
Trattato alludes to the same legendary origin;' and Vasari's Proemio delle Vite refers to Pliny's
account of the outlined shadow."
In the seventeenth century, allusions to this primitive beginning of the art of painting occur
even more frequently. In particular, the prominent historians and theorists of the time perpetuated
the legend of the outlined shadow when summarizing, in the early pages of their treatises, the
ancient history of the imitative arts. For example, Franz Junius, the Dutch scholar and librarian
to the Earl of Arundel, again refers to Pliny's authority when he tells us, in the English edition
of his De pictura veterum, that "the great interpreter of the mysteries of Nature witnesseth also,
that the first Picture hath been nothing else but the shadow of a man drawne about with lines";7
* This article is an amplified version of a paper read at the nisi quae lineas modo extremas umbrae, quam corpora in sole
College Art Association Meeting in Detroit, January 1957. fecissent, circumscriberet."
I wish to acknowledge the stimulus of Professor Emeritus 4. "Diceva Quintiliano che pictori antiqui soleano circon-
Walter Friedlaender, who long ago noticed the Corinthian scrivere l'ombre al sole, et cosl indi poi trouvb questa arte
maid and realized her potentialities. In addition, I should like cresciuta." (Hubert Janitschek, ed., Leone Battista Alberti's
to express my gratitude to the Spears Fund of the Department kleinere kunsttheoretische Schriften [Quellenschriften fiir
of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, for assistance Kunstgeschichte, xi], Vienna, 1877, p. 93.) For an English
with photographic expenses. translation, see John Spencer's edition (Leon Battista Alberti,
1. A discussion of the magical basis of this legend, with On Painting, London, 1956, pp. 64, 118 n. 9).
examples cited from Western antiquity as well as Kalmuckian 5. "'La prima pittura fu sol di una linea, la quale circondava
and Indian myth, is found in Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz, Die l'ombra dell'uomo fatta dal sole ne' muri." (Gaetano Milanesi
Legende vom Kiinstler; ein geschichtlicher Versuch, Vienna, and Marco Tabarrini, Trattato della Pittura di Leonardo da
1934, P. 79. Vinci, Rome, 1890, p. 58.) Erwin Panofsky (The Codex
Huygens
2. xxxv. 15. "De picturae initiis incerta nec instituti operisand Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory, London, 1940,
quaestio est. Aegyptii sex milibus annorum aput ipsos p. 61 n. 4) mentions this as well as Alberti's comment and
inventam,
gives, in addition, a bird's-eye view of the legend from an-
priusquam in Graeciam transiret, adfirmant, vana praedicatione,
tiquity down to Douglas Fairbanks' silent movie, Robin Hood.
ut palam est; Graeci autem alii Sicyone, alii aput Corinthios
repertam, omnes umbra hominis lineis circumducta, 6. itaque
"Ma, secondo che scrive Plinio, quest'arte venne in
Egitto da Gige Lidio; il quale, essendo al fuoco, e l'ombra
primam talem, secundam singulis coloribus et monochromaton
dictam, postquam operosior inventa erat, duratque talis di se etiam
medesimo riguardando, subito con un carbone in mano
nunc ... ." contorn6 se stesso nel muro. . . ." (Le Vite [Milanesi ed.],
For a compilation of antique texts related to theFlorence,
origin of 1878, I, p. 218.) I have not traced the source of
Vasari'szur
painting, see J. Overbeck, ed., Die antiken Schriftquellen story, which does not occur in Pliny. Pliny, in fact,
Geschichten der bildenden Kiinste bei den Griechen, mentions
Leipzig, Gyges of Lydia not in relation to the invention of
1868, pp. 67-69; and Adolphe Reinach, Recueil Milliet, painting,
Paris, but to the invention of ball-throwing as a sport.
1921, I, pp. 62ff. See also A. Rumpf, "Classical This remark is immediately followed by a reference to the
and Post-
Classical Greek Painting," Journal of Hellenic Studies, invention
LxvII,of painting by the Egyptians, a sequence which may
1947, p. 10. be at the root of Vasari's error. (Pliny vII. 205.)
7. The Painting of the Ancients, London, 1638, Chapter In,
3. De institutione oratorias x. ii. 7. ". . . non esset pictura,
280 THE ART BULLETIN
and of Continental treatises one migh

plus excellens peintres de l'antiquiti, w
qui s'avisa de designer, fist son coup d
que la lumiere faisait paroistre,"' or su
as Vicente Carducho's assurance that d
concuerdan en el modo que fue circums
ment repeated by Francisco Pacheco.'
One of the first illustrations of this l
Esteban Murillo (I618-I682) (Fig. I)
printed accounts of the invention of pa
the profile of a man's shadow cast by
momentous event with appropriate awe
to antique sources, appears exceptional i
themes, its presence in his oeuvre is e
offered to the Capilla de los Pintores (
Andris, Seville) after his election to th
1660. The subject could hardly be mor
respectful homage to the remote, antiq
now to be safeguarded by the Baroque
lower right makes this point explicit:
TUBODELASOMBRA
ORIGEN
LAQUEADMIRASHER
MOSURA
ENLACELEBREPIN
TURA
that is, "The beauty that you admire in renowned painting originated in shadow.
It is again the milieu of the academy that provides the stimulus for another seventeen
illustration of this antique legend. In Joachim von Sandrart's Teutsche Academie, f
in I675, the text is illustrated by the author himself. In one case (Fig. 2), San
similar theme in which a shepherd, together with the goat and sheep at his left,
mimetic images cast by the oblique rays of the sun." Directly below this engravi
Sandrart illustrates a far more elaborate and ingratiating legend of the origin of
arts and one which is also recounted by Pliny (Fig. 3)."
p. 27. Italics original. Two Latin editions of Junius also ap-

Mr. Albert Sicroff of the Department of Romance Languages,
peared in the seventeenth century (Amsterdam, 1637;
Princeton Rot-
University, for assistance with this translation.
terdam, 1694). 13. Teutsche Academie der Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey-
8. Paris, i66o, p. 21. Kiinste, Nuremberg, 1675, 11, opp. p. 2. Sandrart mentions
9. Dialogos de la pintura, su defensa, origen, essencia, de- Quintilian as the source for this illustration. ("Also haben
finicion, modos y diferencias [Madrid], 1633, p. 27. Car- auch andere von dem Schatten derer so in der Sonne stunden
ducho, in a marginal note, refers to Pliny as his source. die aluserste Linien abgezeichnet wie Quintilianus schreibet und
io. Arte de la pintura, su antigiiedad, y grandezas, Seville, das mit Lit. B. bezeichnete und hie beygeffigte Kupferblat
x649, pp. x5-x6. "Pero todos concuerdan (dize Plinio) en que weiset.") For a comparable illustration in an earlier emblem
fue primeramente imitada de la sombra del ombre." book, see Laurentius Haechtanus [Laurens van Haecht],
i1. See Al. Busuioceanu, "A Re-Discovered Painting by
MuKpoKd6/LOo, Antwerp, x579, p. 72. (This is listed, with de-
Murillo: El Cuadro de las Sombras," Burlington Magazine, scriptions of later editions, in Mario Praz, Studies in Seven-
LXXVI, 194o, pp. 55-59. Busuioceanu's remarks in turn depend teenth-Century Imagery, London, 1947, II, pp. 1x2-113.) An
upon Francisco M. Tubino, Murillo, su ipoca, su vida, sus even earlier illustration of an artist tracing a shadow on a wall
cuadros, Seville, 1864, pp. 231-233; and Charles B. Curtis, is in the Codex Huygens (Panofsky, op.cit., p. 6x, fig. 51).
Velazquez and Murillo, London, 1883, p. 273. 14. For another reproduction of this engraving see ibid.,
2z. The inscription is syntactically complex, and might be fig. 73. The illustration of this scene in the Latin edition of
reworded more clearly as: "La hermosura que admiras en la the Teutsche Academie (Academia nobilissimae artis pictoriae,
celebre pintura tubo origen de la sombra." I am indebted to Nuremberg, 1683, facing p. 40) is both more elaborate and
THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING 281
In discussing the origin of clay modeling, Plin

ventiveness was motivated by love. Knowing th
the shadow that her lover's face cast upon the
how this mimetic image, which was to solace t
was further improved by her potter father, B
baked it with his other pottery."
Sandrart's illustration of this delightful story, ho
century, although it is referred to in other the
prevails in the earlier eighteenth century, for
including even an epistolary poem by the cent
are scarce. Among the many verbal references
abundant eighteenth century Pliny editions and
story which appeared in 1714 in an English
Christian Athenian of the second century.'9
eighteenth century provided another vehicle f
one finds it recounted in Diderot's Encyclope'd
the period."2 Yet despite such printed allusions,2
erally referred to as Dibutade, after her father
more amorous; for in addition

latines, xxi),to
Paris,the
1946, pp.potter's wares shown in
9-20o. During the eighteenth
the foreground, the lovers' arms
century, some of Pliny's are intertwined
chapters on art appeared in separate and one
putto supports the lantern while
editions: Histoire deanother hovers
la peinture ancienne, extraite de . . .above. This
more complex illustration Pline,
is liv.
also XXXV,used inTraduction
London, 1725; the des eighteenth
XXXIV, cen-
XXXV et XXXVIe lires
tury German edition of Sandrart de Pline ... avec des notes par
(Nuremberg, M.
1768-I775, viI
facing p. 64). Falconet, Amsterdam, 1772 (2nd ed., The Hague, 1773).
There exists a drawing for I9.
the 1675 ofedition
The Apologeticks in Philosopher
the Learned Athenian the Albertina.
For an illustration, see Hans Tietze
Athenagoras et
(trans. by David al., Die
Humphreys), Zeichnungen
London, 1714,
der deutschen Schulen bis p.zum
173: "MakingBeginn des
of Wax Images was Klassizismus
invented by Core, who (Be-
schreibender Katalog der Handzeichnungen in
being in love, drew her Lover's Picture on der
a Wall graphischen
as he lay
Sammlung Albertina [ed.byby A.
asleep; and Stix],
her Father Iv, with
extremely delighted v),
the Vienna,
Exact- I933,
plate 1So, fig. 639. The identification
ness of the Likeness, and happeningof to the drawing
be a Joiner by Pro- (Iv, p.
73, no. 639) as "Gyges Lydius in
fession, cut out Egypten
the Features, and filled that die erste Zeich-
them with Wax."
nung," a phrase taken from 20. Sandrart's
Paris and Neufchitel, 1751-1765,
marginal xIv, p. 820o. "Dibu-
comment (II,
tades, Corinthien,It
1675, p. 2), is clearly incorrect. passe is
pour etre le premier qui inventa la that Sand-
interesting
plastique....
rart also attributes to Pliny the Tout le monde sait que la fille,
reference to6prise pour un
Gyges of Lydia'
invention of drawing, justjeuneashommeVasari qui partoithad
pour un voyage,
done traga before
sur le mur him, for
it suggests a common source for
l'ombre que sonthis error.
visage formoit par l'opposition d'une lampe.
15. xxxv. i151. "De pictura
Le peresatis
frapp6 de ce superque.
dessein, suivit les contourscontexuisse
et remplit...." his
et plasticen conveniat. eiusdem2x. [Antoineopered'Origny]terrae
Dictionnaire des origines . ,
fingere ex argilla
Paris, 1777,
similitudines Butades Sicyonius vI, p. 92. "Plusieurs
figulus primusHistoriens disent qu'une
invenit Corinthi
filiae opera, quae capta amora
jeune fille quiiuvenis,
devoit etre separbe deabeunte illo peregre
son amant pour quelques
umbram ex facie eius ad lucernam in pariete
temps, remarqua sur une muraille l'ombre de ce jeune lineis
homme circum-
scripsit, quibus pater eius inpressa
dessinbe par la lumi'reargilla typum
d'une lampe. L'amour fecit et cum
lui inspira l'id&e
ceteris fictilibus induratum igni
de se m6nager proposuit,
cette image ch&rie, en tragant eumque
sur 1'ombre une servatum
in Nymphaeo, donec Mummius ligne qui en suivit & marquait exactement
Corinthum le contour. Cette tradunt."
everterit,
For a compilation of antiqueamantereferences
avoit pour pere un Potier to de Sycione, nomm6 Di-
Butades, see Over-
beck (ed.), op.cit., p. 46. butade ... ."
16. For example, Pacheco, 2x a. More loc.cit.
casual references to the"I la Coroplastica
Corinthian maid were
(que es 1'Arte de vaziar) invento
not uncommon in theCoro, i su
eighteenth century. padre
Thus, Lessing opens Dibutades
Sicyonio. Esta amanda un the mancebo, i aviendose
second chapter of his Laoko6n (1766) with an obliquede partir la
noche antes debux8 la sombra que
allusion to the tale: "Es sei causava
Fabel oder Geschichte,del,
dass die la luz del
candil, en la pared; i su padre
Liebe den erstenlabrando enKiinsten
Versuch in den bildenden fondo gemacht dentro de
aqiellas lineas, hincho el espacio dedassbarro,
habe: so viel ist gewiss, i Meistern
sie den grossen alten salio die una figura
que despues cozio." In the sixteenth
Hand zu fiihren nicht miide century, the story is re-
geworden ..."; and ]tienne-Louis
Boullie, in his Treatise
counted by Raffaello Borghini (II on Architecture (ed. by
riposo, Helen Rosenau,
Florence, 1584, p
255). This was reprinted in the
London, 1953,eighteenth
p. 82), likewise refers to itcentury
parenthetically: (Florence,
1730, p. 202). "Tout le monde connolt l'effet des corps mis en opposition avec
17. "Dibutadis " Polemon," in Oeuvres diverses, Amsterdam, la lumi're: il en r6sulte comme on sait, que les ombres offrent
x1701, III, pp. 151-154. la rassemblance de ces corps. C'est ' cet effet de la nature que
18. For a list of Pliny editions (including translations), see nous devons la naissance du bel art de la peinture. L'amour,
F. L. A. Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, dit-on, l'inspira "a la belle Djbutade [sic]: Pour moi, c'est i
Leipzig, 1834, II, pp. 781ff.; and H. Le Bonniec, Bibliographie l'amour de mon art que je dois mon inspiration."
de PHistoire naturelle de Pline l'4ncien (Collection d'itudes 22. Just as this article was being submitted for publication,
Beginning with this decade, the sub

I 82o's, when it again disappears. Ap
the fullest response to the legend o
response which will be the subject of
II
What is likely to be the first work to proclaim this new iconographic tradition appears on the
periphery of European painting, in the oeuvre of the Scottish master, Alexander Runciman
(1736-1785) (Fig. 4) .2 The very choice of a subject from Greek legend presented in a recon-
structed classical milieu and in a style that prophesies the relief composition and firm contours
of later decades is precocious for the date of this painting, 1771, and serves to remind us again
of the priority which British, and particularly Scottish, painting had in the introduction of Neo-
classic style and iconography in the second half of the eighteenth century. By way of parallel
examples, one need only mention the pioneering Neoclassicism of Runciman's compatriot, Gavin
Hamilton (1723-1798), who, with Benjamin West, clearly preceded Neoclassic developments
in France.2' But more than this, the particularly romantic inflection Runciman gives to the legend
is remarkably advanced. His source is apparently Athenagoras and not Pliny, for he includes a
narrative element with which the Greek writer has varied Pliny's tale, namely that the Corinthian
maid (whose name, in the 1714 English translation, becomes Core)25 "drew her lover's picture
on a wall as he lay by asleep.'"26 This added detail was evidently sufficient stimulus for a nocturnal
setting, in which the potter's daughter, her hand guided by Cupid, stealthily records the profile
of her lover's slumbering head upon a wall whose inscription clarifies the historic significance of
the event: AMORE MAGISTRO INVENTRIX ECCE GRAIA.27 To underline this combination of mystery
and antiquity, Runciman has added a melancholic note of decay in the crumbling, irregular wall
already overgrown with leaves, as well as a reference to classical architecture in the dimly
lit monopteros at the right.
While such elements convey the increasingly romantic flavor of the ruins and concealed antique
pavilions in contemporary English garden architecture, the source of light offers an even more
emphatic assertion of this romanticism. For Runciman has cast the youth's shadow not by the
light of the sun or, as in Pliny's text, by an artificial indoor light, but rather by the light of the
moon. Again, to consider the early date of this painting, 1771, is to suggest the pre-eminence
of British painting in introducing the new expressive attitudes of Romanticism. Indeed, it
was Runciman himself who in 1773 was the first to paint subjects from the Nordic moonlit
mysteries of Ossian, long before its vogue on the Continent;s28 and it was Runciman's brother
A. Pigler's monumental encyclopedia of Baroque iconography
Painting," Proceedings of the British Academy, XL, 1954, PP.
appeared (Barockthemen; eine Auswahdl von Verzeichnissen57-74. The most important earlier studies of the priority of
zur Ikonographie des z7. und z8. Jahrhunderts, BudapestBritish painting in the development of Neoclassicism are those
and Berlin, 1956, 2 vols.). It includes a list of seventeenth andby Jean Locquin (La peinture d'histoire en France de z747
eighteenth century illustrations to the legend of the Corinthian S1z785, Paris, 1912, pp. i52ff.; and "Le retour " l'antique dans
maid (II, p. 335). While this list is hardly complete (omittingl'ecole anglaise et dans l'&cole frangaise avant David," La
about half the examples cited in this article), it does mention renaissance de Part franfais et des industries de luxe, v, 1922,
works I had not come across in my research and have not had pp. 473-48 ).
time to locate at the last minute. Substantially, though, Pigler's 25. This is apparently a transliteration of the Greek K6pn.
compilation corroborates the general premise of this study 26. The Apologeticks . . . , p. 173. For a discussion com-
(namely, that the theme was uncommon until the later eight-paring Pliny's and Athenagoras' version of the legend, see Carl
eenth century), and an investigation of the few pre-1770 items Robert, Arctiiologische Mirchen aus alter and neuer Zeit
mentioned by Pigler would probably alter only slightly, if at (Philologische Untersuchungen, x), Berlin, x886, pp. 130-131.
all, the interpretations offered here. 27. With love the master, behold the Greek inventress.
23. Ellis K. Waterhouse (Painting in Britain z530-z790, 28. Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, p. 213. Runciman's
London, 1953, p. 213) believes Runciman's painting may have
priority in Ossian illustrations is supported by the list given
been executed while the artist was still in Rome. in Klaus von Baudissin, Georg August Wallis, Maler aus
24. For the most recent discussion of Hamilton, see Water-
Schottland, z768-z847, Heidelberg, 1924, pp. 60-63. Baudis-
house, "The British Contribution to the Neo-Classic Style in
sin's compilation, however, is far from complete, omitting as
John (1744-1768) who in 1767 painted a Kin

furious, unleashed nature foreshadows the man
If the milieu of Scotland may well be the first
legend of the Corinthian maid, it appears to b
especially well suited to the historical imaginat
the later eighteenth century. This may be se
Scotsman, David Allan (I744-1796), who execu
St. Luke in Rome, but who won greater fame w
the scene, now following Pliny, moves indoors t
oil lamp rather than from the moon. Furtherm
participates in this commemorative act while em
The amorous sentimentality of this antique tale
tions, for this painting was often engraved"' a
involved no less a figure than Ludwig van Be
(1757-1851), began to publish a series of compi
teristically romantic enterprise comparable to T
Poetry."8 In his 1816 edition of Irish songs, Tho
as a frontispiece.3" This work, in turn, had so a
professor of modern history at Cambridge, that
was set to an old Irish air for which Beethov
arranged a piano and string accompaniment. Th
of romantic attitudes:
Thy ship must sail, my Henry dear,
Fast comes the day, too soon, too sure;
And I, for one long tedious year,
Must learn thy absence to endure.
Come let me by my pencil's aid
Arrest thy image ere it flies;
And like the fond Corinthian maid,
Thus win from Art what Fate denies."'
Here the romantic imagination's remarkable abi

of historical experience to another is succinctly
ing lovers is retained whereas the milieu of anci
Ireland and the hero, whose name becomes Hen
terms of pictorial attitudes around I 8OO, it is
mobility that helps to explain the simultaneous
subject matter in the work of, say, Benjamin
Roman subjects into a contemporary context.88
it does Ossian illustrations 3by

x. Fuseli,
The firstFriedrich,
engravingIngres. On
appeared
Scottish Romanticism, see also
don,Frederick Antal,
loc.cit.), who Fuseli
also Studies,
engraved th
London, 1956, p. 19. and West.
29. See W. M. Merchant, "John Runciman's
32. London, 1765, 3 'Lear
vols.in the
Storm,' " Journal of the Warburg
33. Georgeand Courtauld
Thomson,Institutes,
ed., Selec
XvII, 1954, PP. 385-387. Irish Airs for the Voice United t
30. See T. Crouther Gordon, David
Poetry Allan, for
Written Alva,the1951,
Pianopp.
Fo
24-25; Edinburgh, National Gallery by
Composed of Beethoven,
Scotland, Catalogue
London a
(5oth ed.), Edinburgh, 1946, 34.p. 67.
Ibid., pp. 141-142.
The Academy of St. Luke awarded
35. Thus,Allan
withina gold medalWest
five years for p
this painting. Allan later presented
eral Wolfe this award Epaminondas
(1771), to the Society
of Antiquaries in 1783 (William
Bayard Smellie, Account
(ca. 1775), of the
pictures In-
essent
stitution and Progress of but
the different
Society of in the
theirAntiquaries of
choice of hist
Scotland, Edinburgh, 1782-1784,
36. The II, pp. study
best 74f.). of the contem
In another
British example by Jose
of painting
corresponds to a nu again
Wright's work (Fig. 5) was originally
tion to the story obviously depended
by the Corinthian maid was later mo
the right are probably an allusion to
appropriately named Etruria."8
But beyond such specific relevances,
fidelity which the period so often e
piece Wedgwood commissioned from
friend, the writer William Hayley."
antique exemplar of feminine loyalt
paintings by the presence of Fido. Th
classical symbol of feminine virtue to a
Portia, and Cornelia, as well as to th
too, that the dramatic luminary situa
Wright's characteristic pictorial talen
in terms of candle- or moonlight. In
ness the intimate antique scene-on t
over the sleeping Telemachus; and on
lover in the gloomy light.
The relation of Wedgwood to these p
of the Corinthian maid. Like the lin
pottery, Wright's interpretation of t
increasingly clean-cut, continuous co
Thus, the posture of the sleeping yo
Museo Capitolino's relief of the sleep
attraction to that art of earlier epochs
This emphasis is even noted in Hayley
in 1781:
Inspir'd by thee [love], the soft Corinthian maid,
Her graceful lover's sleeping form portray'd:
Her boding heart his near departure knew,
Yet long'd to keep his image in her view:
Pleas'd she beheld the steady shadow fall,
By the clear lamp upon the even wall:
The line she trac'd with fond precision true,
And, drawing, doated on the form she drew...*.
tions of David's art is David L. Dowd, Pageant-Master of the known it through contemporary prints (e.g., G. G. Bottari,
Republic, Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution, Musei Capitolini . . . , Rome, 1750-1782). Furthermore, a
Lincoln (Nebraska), 1948. plaster cast of the relief in the collection of Sir John Soane
37. See Eliza Meteyard, The Life of Josiah Wedgwood, (and still to be seen in the Soane Museum) suggests its famili-
London, i866, 11, p. 5o8. The painting is poorly reproduced arity to English art circles around 18oo.
in color in C. Reginald Grundy, "Wright of Derby," Con- 41. William Hayley, An Essay on Painting: in Two
noisseur, LxxxvI, December, 1930, facing p. 354. Epistles to Mr. Romney (3rd ed.), London, 1781, p. 9. This
38. I wish to thank Mr. Benedict Nicolson for calling this was reprinted in 1785 and 1788 as well as in Hayley, The Life
to my attention. of George Romney, Esq., Chichester, I8o9, p. 346. A shorter
39. Mentioned in a letter of August 3', 1783 from Wright account of this legend is given in another of Hayley's poems
to Hayley (William Bemrose, The Life and Works of Joseph (An Essay on Sculpture; in a Series of Epistles to John Flax-
Wright ..., London, i885, p. 6i). man, London, i Soo, p. 27). Both this and the essay on paint-
4o. Miss Elaine Loeffler kindly pointed out this relationship ing are accompanied by notes which refer to Pliny and Athe-
to me. If Wright had not actually seen the Endymion relief nagoras, as well as to eighteenth century comments on the
during his Roman sojourn (1774-1775), he could easily have legend by Fontenelle and the Comte de Caylus.
One could hardly ask for a tidier list of Neoclass

lamp clear, the wall even, and the line precise. Fo
gravings of Flaxman and which sought out the li
uncorrupted phases of an artistic evolution, be it
preceded the High Renaissance, the legend of t
another confirmation of the historical priority an
eight years after Hayley's poem, Friedrich Schille
origin of art, but in even more elemental terms. In
Die schoine Bildkraft ward in eurem Busen wac

Zu edel schon, nicht miissig zu empfangen,
Schuft ihr im Sand--im Thon den holden Sc
Im Umriss ward sein Daseyn aufgefangen.'2
And by I 8oi, Schiller, in a conversation with Lud

simple outline to a criticism of the paintings in t
nicht loswerden, dass diese Farben mir etwas Unw
oder anders fiillt, oder der Standpunkt, aus dem ich s
gefdirbt erscheinen; der blosse Umriss wiirde mir
France as well as Great Britain responded to the l
pretation of the subject is retardataire by comparison
the version by Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754-18
the Grand Cabinet de la Reine at Versailles (Fi
Wright's painting, Regnault's decoration offers ne
form of its English counterpart. Rather, its attitud
Regnault, painting for Marie Antoinette, conceiv
mysterious moonlight or artificial indoor illumina
daylight realm yet infused with those dramatic qu
conspicuous in Great Britain as early as the 1770's.
trafant le portrait de son berger,45 moves to that
so that the maiden's lover becomes a shepherd car
shepherd's staff. For Regnault, painting might h
structed Hameau.
Essentially, then, Regnault's decoration is an amorous theme in the Rococo taste, a taste which
would enjoy this antique demonstration of love as the ultimate source of artistic invention. This
affirmation of the omnipotence of love is likewise made by the companion piece Regnault executed
for the Queen's chambers, Pygmalion amoureux de sa statue." For here, in another erotic Greek
myth, a comparable theme-the magical identity of a mimetic image with the object imitated-
is encountered, although the situation is, of course, reversed. In the legend of the Corinthian maid,
a beloved human being is transformed, as it were, into a work of art to replace him in his absence;
42. Gedichte, Leipzig, x800oo-803, II, p. 47. The poem wasLouvre (2nd ed.), Paris, x855, III, p. 303; and F[ernand]
composed in 1788-1789. E[ngerand], ed., In)entaire des tableaux commandis et
43. L. F5rster, ed., Biographische und literarische Skizzen
achetis par la direction des Bdtiments du Roi (1709-1792),
aus dem Leben und der Zeit Karl F6rsters, Dresden, 1846, pp.Paris, 1900, p. 409.
x55-x56. See also Rudolf K6pke, Ludwig Tieck, Leipzig, 45. Briere, loc.cit.
1855, I, pp. 258-259. Schiller's remarks are cited in Franz 46. Ibid. Pygmalion, unlike Dibutade, was shown at the
Landsberger, Die Kunst der Goethezeit, Leipzig, 1931, pp.
Salon of 1785, together with another amorous antique myth:
x56-157. PsicG ' venant 'a la faweur d'une lampe, pour poignarder son
44. Gaston Briere, "Emplacements actuels des tableaux du
amant qu'elle croit un monstre: elle reconnoit l'Amour (Ex-
Mus6e du Louvre," Bulletin de la SociWti de lhistoire de l'art plication des peintures, sculptures et graveurs, de Messieurs de
franfais, 1I, 1924, PP. 331-332. See also Frederic Villot, Notice Pl'Acadimie Royale, Paris, 1785, p. 31). In the Salon catalogue,
des tableaux exposes dans les galeries du Musie Imperial du Regnault's name is given as "Renaud."
whereas in the legend of Pygmalion

a human being.
This conjunction of the Corinthia
same year, 1785, Louis Philippe M
a group of bronze reliefs which incl
of origin and metamorphosis as the
transformation of the daughters of
tural version of the Corinthian m

virtuoso attempt at rendering intric
Pliny's text more closely, using aga
not only Butades' workshop but the
By the 179o's, however, French a
painting of the Corinthian maid
Director of the French Academy in
(Fig. I I )," exhibited at the Salon of
and sentiment which had been form
darkness of the potter's workshop, t
lover, while he in turn demonstrate
his glance from her face or to resis
Suv~e's painting reflects the Neocla
which caused a contemporary critic
It is hardly surprising that the er
of another French master, Anne-
exploration of even the most obscu
illustration of L'origine du dessin t
Le peintre:5"
Oui, c'est lui [Cupid] qui, jadis, dans l'antique Argolide,
D'une jeune beaut6 guida la main timide,
Lorsque, d'un tendre amant, son doigt stir et l6ger,
Arreta sur le mur le profil passager
Qu'y dessinait sans art une ombre vacillante.
Oh! douce et chaste erreur d'une pieuse amante!
Separee " regret de l'objet de ses feux,
A cette esquisse encore elle portait ses voeux
L'adorait en silence, et l'image fidle
Recevait les sermens adress6s au modile!
O Dibutade! non, ce ne fut pas en vain
Que l'amour t'embrasa de son transport divin:
47. Ibid., p. 45. 5x. Explication et critique impartiale de toutes les peintures
48. Henri Hymans, ed., Catalogue des Sculptures, Musies. . . par M.D., Paris, 1791, p. 19. Most critics, in fact, were
Royaux de peinture et de sculpture de Belgique (2nd ed.),negative, and some preferred another painting of Dibutade by
Brussels, 1911, p. 44.
Francois Nicolas Mouchet (1749-x814), which was also ex-
49. Bruges, Musbe Communal des Beaux-Arts, Catalogue hibited in the Salon of 1791. (See Sallon de peinture, 179x,
illustri, Bruges, 1932, p. 28. p. 6; and A. Callet, "Le peintre Fr. Mouchet," La citi, xvii,
50. Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, et architecture . . July,
. 1x98, p. 186.) Lemonnier (loc.cit.) also criticizes Suv&e's
exposis au mois de Septembre z79z, Paris [ 791 ], p. 5o. painting in comparable terms ("si glacial, si nu, si vide dans
Suv6e exhibited another version of the same theme in the Salon sa recherche du style").
of 1793 (Description des ouavrages de peinture . . . exposis au 52. In addition to such paintings of Girodet's as Erigone
Louvre, Paris, 1793, P. 17). For further remarks on the 1791and Mlle. Lange as DanaL, see also his Les amours des dieux
painting, see Henry Lemonnier, "Suvde et ses amis '1acole (Paris, 1826), a collection of prints which included such rare
de Rome (1772-1778)," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 3, xxx, myths as Thetis and Peleus, Clytia, and Hermaphrodite and
Salmacis.
1903, P. Ixx o and Jules Guiffrey, "Joseph Benoit Suve&; corre-
spondance inidite (1773-x807)," Archives de Part franfais, 53. See A.-L. Girodet-Trioson, Oeuvres posthumes (ed. by
Iv, Paris, 9o10, p. 302. P. A. Coupin), Paris, 1829, I, p. lxxxv.
i. B. Murillo, El Cuadro de las Sombras. Formerly Sinaia (Rumania)
2. J. Sandrart, The Invention of Painting. Engraving from Teutsche

Academie, II, 1675
3. J. Sandrart, Dibutade. Engraving from Teutsche Academie, 11, 1675
4. A. Runciman, The Origin of Painting. Penicuik House (Scotland)
(Courtesy National Galleries of Scotland)
6. D. Allan, The Origin of Painting. Edinburgh, National Gallery

of Scotland (Courtesy National Gallery of Scotland)
5. J. Wright of Derby, The Origin of Painting. Derby, Private

Collection (Courtesy A. Robotham)
8. J. Wright of Derby, Penelope. New York, Private Collection

(Courtesy IH. Wedgwood)
7. Endymion, Rome, Museo Capitolino

9. J.-B. Regnault, Dibutade. Paris, Louvre
io. L. Mouchy, Dibutade. Brussels, Musees Royaux de Peinture
et de Sculpture de Belgique (Copyright ACI)
Si. J. Suv6e, The Origin of Painting. Bruges, Musbe
Communal des Beaux-Arts (photo: Brusselle)
12. A.-L. Girodet-Trioson, The Origin of Drawing 13. J. Schenau, The Origin of Painting, or Portraits a la Mode
Engraving from Oeuvres posthumes, 1829
C r.,-, i>
.<i1C~ Bl" . . .}. . . .-
K (photo: --X
Franceschi)
'ifi
14. Mine. Chaudet, Dibutade Coming to Visit Her Lov~er's Portrait
.f ., . 2 . -
(i 6.~ A W. Mulrady Th rgno ane 7H amePnlp'sNgt Cuts erpltnMsu At
6:.u(
Lui-meme, il aiguisa cette fliche ac&Cre,

Qui servit de crayon " ta main rassuree:
Son flambeau fut ta lampe, et Minerve, en
Applaudit d'un sourire aux leqons de l'Am
Like the text, the engraved illustration (Fig. I2

in terms of Girodet's most glacially erotic, neo
only passively to follow the dictates of love's g
lights the wall of the potter's studio, but his le
sharp-pointed arrow serves as her drawing instrum
The legend of Dibutade appears to have attracted
also have suggested to him, as to the whole per
Indeed, the invention and flourishing of the silhou
sponded to the very years in which the Corinth
permanence and essentiality, the silhouett'e confor
a flat, linear style that offered immutable distillati
visual data recorded by the earlier eighteenth cent
silhouette was more than casual, for his knowl
studies is well documented." But more broadly sp
legendary antique origin of painting was easily
Academy of i 8oi, for example, the Anglo-Swiss
our belief, the amorous tale of the Corinthian m
by the secret lamp, appeals to our sympathy,
first essays of the art [painting] were skiagrams
have been introduced to vulgar use by the stude
of Silhouettes . .."" And most appropriately, th
to a contemporary edition of outline engraving
vases.59
The association between silhouette-making and the legendary linear origin of painting may, in
fact, be even more explicitly demonstrated in a French print of ca. 177o0" after a painting (Fig.
13) by the German master, Johann Eleazar Schenau (I737-1806). Here one sees the lighter
counterpart of Lavater's scientific analyses of human physiognomy as revealed by the silhouette.
In a scene of simple fun-making, the young man commemorates the young lady's profile, as the
Corinthian maid had done centuries before, while a juvenile complement is offered below, where
the children trace a kitten's shadow and create an imaginary rabbit on the wall."' In the context
of the antique legend, however, it is the title of the print which is most significant: L'origine de
la peinture, ou Les portraits d la mode.
54. Ibid., p. 48. 60o. Engraved by Jean Ouvrier. See Roger Portalis and
55. Engraved by Henriquel Dupont. Henri Beraldi, Les graveurs du dix-huitieme siecle, Paris,
56. For a succinct account of the history of the silhouette, x882, I1, pp. 244-245. The pendant to this work is La lan-
see the article by Anton Kippenberg in Georg Biermann, terne magique, which also deals with the entertaining aspects
Deutsches Barock und Rokoko, Leipzig, 1914, I, pp. lxvii-lxix. of shadow plays.
57. George Levitine, "The Influence of Lavater and Giro- 61. It may be worth mentioning the conjunction of human
det's Expression des sentiments de l'dme," ART BULLETIN, and animal profiles here. Such comparisons of man and beast
XXXVI, 1954, PP. 33-44. Levitine (p. 33 n. 8) cites the im- were not uncommon around x8oo, not only in Lavater but in
portant editions of Lavater around I8oo. such a work as Wilhelm Tischbein, Tites de diffirents animaux
58. Henry Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, Delivered at the dessinkes d'apris nature pour donner une idee plus exacte de
Royal Academy March, z80o, London, I8oi, pp. 8-9. leurs caractires, Naples, 1796. Analogies between human and
59. Outlines from the Figures and Compositions upon the animal physiognomy had been made earlier by Charles Lebrun,
Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Vases of the Late Sir William and his comparative studies were even included in a French
Hamilton (drawn and engraved by Henry Kirk), London, edition of Lavater (L'art de connaltre des hommes par la
18o4, pp. xiii-xiv. Physionomie . .. , Paris, I8o6, Io vols.).
To explain the popularity of this le

should mention still another tendenc
role of women painters around I 8o
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Adelaide L
pupil, Constance Charpentier. It was
so often disguised itself in antique cl
of their art to be a woman, a fact w
histories of women artists;"' and at ti
sentiment. Thus, in a French Pliny e
the Corinthian maid telling how he f
artist adopted the name of her Gree
Dibutade peignit; son maitre f

Et son amant fut son module;
L'amitie triomphe ' son tour;
Elle a fait ce portrait fidele."
And the same identification of past a

Mile. Gueret exhibited at the Salon
Probably the most fanciful of these
exhibited in the Salon of 18 o by
Vigee-Lebrun and of her first hus
Chaudet.6" Mme. Chaudet was best k
travagant items as a young lady teach
pected that her feminine imaginatio
contemporary outline engraving of
lover has already departed and that
ago. To add to the gravely sentiment
upon which the lover's profile is e
faithful and reverent offering brought
a familiar symbol of pure love.
With such an amusing, but most imp
integrity is seriously threatened; and in
graphic decline. In 1827, Auguste Je
Louis-Francois Gosse (1787-1878) on
Louvre. The encyclopedic program co
the Corinthian maid took her inevita
of the arts in Greece: Sculpteur grec
62. See Henry ReneGreek

d'Allemagne, La contempo
legend into toile imp
indiennes de traite, Paris,
66. She 1942, plate
is also 11. I wish
known as M
Florence Kossoff of her
thesecond husband.
Frick Collection, New Y
reference. 67. Salon of x182. See C. P. Landon, Annales du Musie et
63. For example, Ernst Guhl,
de l'Ncole moderne Die
des beaux-arts; Frauen
Salon de 8x 2, Paris, 1812, in d
schichte, Berlin, 1858,
I, p. 88 and pp.
pl. 65. 23-245 Mrs. E. F.
Artists in All Ages and 68. The outline engraving appeared in Landon,
Countries, Annales
London, 1
Walter Shaw Sparrow, . Salon deed.,i8zo, Paris, i8io, pl. 34 (facing Painters
Women p. 54). The o
London, 1905, p. 21. painting was again exhibited at the Salon of 18x4. The paint-
ing itself used to be
64. L. Poinsinet de Sivry, at the Arras
ed., Museum (Catalogue des
Histoire naturel
1771x-782, xI, p. 299tableaux,n.bas-reliefs
1. et statues... du Muske de la Ville d'Arras
[4th ed.], Arras, 1907, p.
65. Description des ouvrages de76, no.peintures,
195), but disappeared sculp
during World War I.au
tecture et gravures exposis The Museum
Sallon still possesses
du Mme. Louvre
p. 46, no. 483. I have not
Chaudet's been
Jeune fille able
pleurant sa colombe to locate t
morte.
the title, at least, evokes another sentimental tran
and L'origine du chapiteau corinthien.8 What is n

du dessin (Fig. 15), is only the iconographic indiff
lessly reversed, making it the maiden, and not he
Stylistically, too, the painting is decadent, for it offe
forms whose waning vitality was vigorously attack
By the late 182o's, in fact, the iconographic traditio
antique form, had all but disappeared.7"
However it was left to Great Britain, where the
been explored some fifty years earlier, to make a
the Corinthian maid. In 1826, the English gen
exhibited at the Royal Academy a painting called
years later in a lithograph (Fig. 16)." Here the ant
into rural genre terms, and one sees, instead of the G
profile on the wall of a ramshackle farmhouse wh
With this interpretation of the legend, the form
pletely vanished; even the reproductive medium, l
and pristine whiteness of Mme. Chaudet's outline e
and atmospheric values in which a clean-edged,
Clearly, by the 182o's an ever-growing audience f
a satisfactory vehicle of expression. The lure of an
exactness and eternal, primitive simplicity were o
new century.
If Mulready's prosaic translation of the Greek
everyday environment places us on the threshold
no longer be a reality,"7 a later decade, that of th
In 1848, Rodolphe Topffer's Riflexions et menu
posthumous edition. With the viewpoint of Darwi
and graffiti as documents of the origins of artistic im
maid was patently false and ridiculous and, like V
sexes. Thus he asks, "L'art est-il n6, comme le dit
amant de crayonner sur la muraille le contour de
ou bien l'art est-il ne, au contraire, du premier essai q
au moyen de l'imitation, quelque conception du be
enfin issue de sa pensee et qui la charmait?""
If the legend which Fuseli, forty years earlier, s
intellectually tolerable to T/pffer, the imagery of
69. See F. de Clarac, Musie de sculpture

Grigson, antique
English et moderne,
Drawing from Samu
ou Description historique et London,
graphique 1955,
. . ., pl. o104,
Paris, p. 8o).
1841x-853,
I, p. 574. The gallery containing
72. Inthese decorations
Richard is now
J. Lane, Lithographi
Salle IV (Salle des objets votifs) in the Artists,
by Modern Salles des Antiquites
London, I828.
igyptiennes. (Musee nationale
73. du
ForLouvre, Catalogue
another genre des
transformatio
peintures exposies dans les galeries, I [tcole
one) of this franfaise,
legend, see The ed. by
Silhouett
Gaston Briere], Paris, x924,(x778-1854),
p. 302.) a wash drawing of ca
70o. For a rare survivor in the next
Museum decade, see
(illustrated Eduard
in Iolo A. Willia
colours .
Daege's Die Erfindung der Malerei . . , London,
(x832) 1952, fig. 36
in the National-
galerie, Berlin. 74. For a discussion of Tipffer in rel
71. See London, Victoria and Albert attitudes
century Museum, towards
A Catalogue
popular a
of the Pictures, Drawings, Sketches of "Courbet
Schapiro, the Late William Mul- Im
and Popular
ready, Esq., R.A. (1786-r863),
Warburg London, 1864, p. Institutes,
and Courtauld i3i and I
Frederic G. Stephens, Memorials
pp. 177ff. of William Mulready, R.A.,
New York, x89o, p. 78. I have not
75. Rodolphe been
Tapffer, able
Riflexions et menusto locate
propos d'un the
original painting. The Victoria and
peintre genevois, Paris,Albert
1848, II, Chap. xx,Museum
p. 10o5. owns a
76. Fuseli, loc.cit.and described in Geoffrey
drawing for the painting (illustrated
of the cherished profile. Between

Charivari his Histoire ancienne, a ser
reality the antique world might have
Aeneas, Ariadne, or Hannibal was L
Mme. Chaudet's Dibutade." For com
swooningly, to Ulysses' archaic profile
De son 6poux absent l'adorable p

Toujours " ses doux yeux brillait
Daumier's destruction of the Greek

decades, problems concerning the ori
anthropological sciences.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
77. See
Pen'lope (no. Loys Delteil,
930) was Honor.
published Daumier
in Charivari, (Le24,peintre-graveur
April x 842. illustr, xxii), Paris, 1926, III, nos. 925-974. Les nuits de

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The Origin of Painting: A Problem in the Iconography of Romantic Classicism

Author(s): Robert Rosenblum

and of Continental treatises one migh

p. 27. Italics original. Two Latin editions of Junius also ap-

In discussing the origin of clay modeling, Plin

more amorous; for in addition

Beginning with this decade, the sub

John (1744-1768) who in 1767 painted a Kin

Here the romantic imagination's remarkable abi

it does Ossian illustrations 3by

One could hardly ask for a tidier list of Neoclass

Die schoine Bildkraft ward in eurem Busen wac

And by I 8oi, Schiller, in a conversation with Lud

whereas in the legend of Pygmalion

tural version of the Corinthian m

2. J. Sandrart, The Invention of Painting. Engraving from Teutsche

3. J. Sandrart, Dibutade. Engraving from Teutsche Academie, 11, 1675

6. D. Allan, The Origin of Painting. Edinburgh, National Gallery

5. J. Wright of Derby, The Origin of Painting. Derby, Private

8. J. Wright of Derby, Penelope. New York, Private Collection

7. Endymion, Rome, Museo Capitolino

.<i1C~ Bl" . . .}. . . .-

14. Mine. Chaudet, Dibutade Coming to Visit Her Lov~er's Portrait

(i 6.~ A W. Mulrady Th rgno ane 7H amePnlp'sNgt Cuts erpltnMsu At

Lui-meme, il aiguisa cette fliche ac&Cre,

Like the text, the engraved illustration (Fig. I2

To explain the popularity of this le

Dibutade peignit; son maitre f

And the same identification of past a

62. See Henry ReneGreek

and L'origine du chapiteau corinthien.8 What is n

69. See F. de Clarac, Musie de sculpture

of the cherished profile. Between

De son 6poux absent l'adorable p

Daumier's destruction of the Greek

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