Page 60 - Studio International - March 1973

explanations of Exposure Latitude, Acutance, Sweet classic dreams contemporaries (I add that Rousseau's first
Modulation-Transfer Curves, Sensitometry and Winckelmann: Writings on Art, selected and Discours of 1750 deserves a closer look by
soon. Lip ton is quicker and easier than edited by David Irwin. 176 pp, 24 illustrations. students of Winckelmann), in demanding a
mistakes. Phaidon. £3.50. serious and meaningful alternative to Rococo
OK, so it's a book for beginners, but is it any art. One of Winckelmann's alternatives for the
use to more advanced film-makers and students ? Winckelmann was one of the principal latter problem was to be the revival of allegory,
In his introduction Brakhage refers to 'Film and theorists of the classical revival in the latter although fortunately Du Bos had already dealt a
its Techniques' (Raymond Spottiswoode) and half of the 18th century, to be set beside the less pretty effective blow to that idea as early as 1719.
`American Cinematographer Manual' as his tedious Diderot, Rousseau, and Goethe. Here is That is to say, that except for generally
previous sources of information. My own have a handy reprint of Fuseli's 1765 translation of re-affirming the classical tradition, Winckelmann
been the latter (but rarely) and 'Principles of Winckelmann's Gedanken- where we find the did not have any very helpful advice for the
Cinematography' (Leslie J. Wheeler), to which I famous yet still surprising description of the modern artist.
have referred a great deal. However, like the Laocoon's 'noble simplicity and sedate Joshua Reynolds was certainly right to warn
other two, it is tough going, a little like an grandeur' - together with translated selections his students off Winckelmann - whereas with
engineering textbook. Saying that I go to it for from the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, the old PRA one can always distinguish between
`information' is a bit misleading. I go to it for and from three essays : on beauty, ancient the pedagogical and the private faces (Do this !
that, but mostly for 'inspiration', though architecture, and allegory. but like what you like), there is a nasty finality
Leslie J. Wheeler, I suspect, would not Those famous words on the Laocoon are about Winckelmann's dismissal of Tiepolo in
understand that function for his book, whereas surprising because they are so at variance with favour of Mengs (`Tiepolo did more in a day
Lenny Lipton clearly does for his own. He is the real expression of that work. Of course, than Mengs in a week, but the former is seen
quite obviously fascinated by the 'magic' of the artists or art theorists will always see what they and forgotten; the latter remains for ever'), of
processes of film, filming, sound recording, want to see in the art of the past. What Bernini in favour of the Apollo Belvedere, and
lenses, electric light etc., and understanding Winckelmann did in his interpretation of something almost prudish about his recoil from
`how' they work only increases the magic. antique art was to impose an abstract, notional Caravaggio and Piazzetta. And even
The whole book is written in the first person beauty, perfect only in the mind, and derived Winckelmann's Neo-Classicism is of a
and he frequently gives an opinion about the from ancient philosophy and the classical/ backward, rather than a forward-looking kind.
choices which are available. Far from clouding idealist tradition of art theory, upon certain That old Neo-Classical chestnut, David's
the 'information', his clear viewpoints help to an works such as the Laocoon, which seemed to Serment des Horaces, turns up here in the
understanding of the problems, and give them a universal authority and validity. On `Introduction', although its toughness and
communicate his enthusiasm. Talking about the one hand, Winckelmann's interpretation of brilliant realism, which derive ultimately from
camera weight: 'If it's hefty, they contend, it's Greek art as a product of Greek society was to be the study of Caravaggio, would have scared the
easier to hold. But as far as I'm concerned, a very important for its apparent relativism, and pants off Winckelmann. It is curious, though,
feather is easier to carry than a sack of was to be a great influence on Herder and other that Quatremere de Quincy does not even rate
potatoes, and film-makers who crave heavy Romantic historians - enabling them to a mention here - self-professed disciple of
cameras, deserve heavy cameras.' Is the book interpret the culture of the northern medieval Winckelmann, his chief interpreter in France,
solidly informative ? I tried a number of tests, world, for example, in its own terms. But on the and the man at whose hands David felt he had
thinking of some basic questions which other hand, the absolute validity which he had a cataract operation which enabled him to
anybody might ask about normal film-making accorded works of ancient art (and the art of its see antiquity for the first time.
procedures who was using the book to answer modem interpreter, Raphael) was the very What little excitement there was in
them. At this level I could not find any weak denial of history. Winckelmann - except for his savage death by
points at all, and in addition the indexing, layout Winckelmann was not very interested in murder - was in his vision of an ideal Greek
of chapters, and sub-heading system are so good modern art: his heart just wasn't in it at all. The world (`Much that might seem ideal to us was
that I found everything quickly. The difficulty ancient world, with all those bums flashing in natural to them'), a vision which had a lasting
in carrying out these tests was that wherever I the sunlight, was an Ideal for him, his opium if influence on German Hellenism from the late
went into the book it started telling me things I you like, and he found it distilled in ancient art: 18th century, through Goethe, Hegel (`There
did not know: 'Newton believed that it was hence the passionate and emotive essays on the cannot be, and never will be, anything more
impossible to correct dispersion - colour Belvedere Torso and The Apollo (not republished beautiful'), right through, I think, to Gustav
fringing - or chromatic aberration as it is here). Winckelmann's, indeed, was a very von Aschenbach's contemplation of Tadzio.
called when applied to lens design .. . Newton Romantic view of the all-but-vanished classical The man and his vision inspired a couple of
was wrong.' He goes on to explain the world, and he was aware of this when he fine essays from Goethe and Walter Pater, and
development of the lens with more than one compared himself with a girl who, 'standing on it's that poetry that modern scholarship seems
optical unit . . . so, I kept getting side-tracked. the shore of the ocean, follows with tearful eyes to miss. q
Any complaints ? Only minor, what Brakhage her departing lover with no hope of ever seeing PHILIP CONNISBEE
calls 'nit-picking', plus a lack of information for him again and fancies that in the distant sail
film-makers who process and print their own she sees the image of her beloved.' This, in
material, although he does have a good section 1764, makes his earlier exhortations to modern A question of definition
on improvised 'optical' printing artists to imitate the ancients, (albeit in spirit, Jewish Art: An Illustrated History, edited by
(Rephotography), eliminating the most costly rather than letter) ring even more hollow. Cecil Roth. Revised edition by Bezalel Narkiss.
aspect of lab dependence. However, this Dr Irwin's 'Introduction', which occupies London, Vallentine Mitchell, 1972. 325 pp,
quibble is more than counteracted by the about a third of the volume, sketches illustrated. Price £7.00.
comprehensive coverage of all other aspects Winckelmann's life, and places him in a broad
of the film-making process. Clear, simple, general context, whisking us from the The late well-known Jewish historian Professor
more than enough information, easy to use, Carolingian Renaissance to Gombrich. Cecil Roth, planned ten years ago a popular,
practical and stimulating. This is clearly Winckelmann is fitted neatly into the history of collective work which would give to the non-
a must for almost every film-maker and antiquarianism, while as an art theorist we see specialist reader a good introduction to 'Jewish
student. q him taking up the classical/academic preference art'. It was richly illustrated, and provided a
MALCOLM LE GRICE for disegno, and joining Diderot and other bird's eye view of a rather complicated subject.