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    David-Summers-Real-Spaces (Introduction) PDF

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    Nicolás Lamas

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    Real Spaces ‘World Arc History and the Rise of Western Modernism LE EA 000 Phaidon oi Pages ‘Alea Landon gon don Pele 86 Vee, Nev Yorn easy sonia con i oie 229 (too; Psion as ied ACIP evga ardor beck's ate frmsbe bah Liar, igh pala scan may espa retina reveal en eres eS by ae rea eon shane oveopyig cote other ihre hice pinion! Maid een Daignth2Chavent Tn Mer seals Pisco in ‘Hnmboldt-Untrersisnt zu Bertin “ Usiveretisibirhek ‘Encigbistotiek Kenstwieaensebatt oor - 49360 Contents PREFACE ANDAGENOWLEDGEMENTS 1 1 Postformalist At History bese 35 2 Farm, Pictorial Imagination and Formalism... 38 3 Real Spaces, Conditions and Cardinality......... 36 4 The ‘Visual Arts’ and the Spatial Arts... 00.04 4 5 Real Space and Vietwal Space... 4B {6 An Image in Real Space: the Aztec Coatlcue 45 7 Vietual Space and the Primacy of Real Space 8 Given Nature and Second Nature... sees 33 9 Real Space and Art-Historical Interpretation 5s x0. Are History and Aestheties... 38 x2 Conditions of . cece OF 1.2 Configurasion: Fanetions and Purposes... - eo 1.3. Achitratiness. 6 114 The Principle of Definition and Series. cesseeeee 1.5 Authority and Series... cee 1.6 Technology, Medium, Technique and Style. 1.7. Diachronic and Synchronie xt Facture xg Facture and Materials s.to Facture and Valve. +--+ 1 Refinement and Distinetion 1.32 Ornament 1 23 Play. 1.14 Notionalicy 15 Models x07, a4 cuarran 2 nbaces az Inttodoetion .. - 2.2, Place, Relation and Hierarchy .. 2.5. The Navajo Hogan « : 2.4 Real Space, Gender and Ritual... as Centres. a7 13 sons a7 4 much in the inal revisions, as [have profited over the years from his fine, far~ ranging scholarship and critical writing. [also wish to thank Bernard Dod at Phaidon for is scrupulous editing and many useful suggestions. The reader ‘owes hi a substantial deb. ‘My wife Nancy could not knows she was marrying this project when she married me. Not only has her patience thus been double, she bas risen to the ‘ale, ae a partner and companion, hur ako asa most clear-headed and careful critic of the ongoing work. Our three children, Ben, Tim, and Mary, ge up and left home with whst mast be the vivid memory of their father hunched yeac inand year out over his books, legal pads and keyboard, rushing off from rime to time to see exhibitions of Olmec sculpture, Chinese archaeology or Persian painting, Tean only hope it was pactly this example that has helped co bend those ‘wigs in the right ways, and thank chemas che adults they have become for thelr ‘precocious co-operation and understanding. ‘A trip to Mexico in the summer of 1986 (funded by che Samuel H, Kress Foundation) as one of the participants in a graduate seminar given by George Kabler on the iconography of the art of Teotihuacan planted the questions in iy mind around which this undertaking has grown. Oue day on that trip, away from the museums and archacological zones, I decided co pick eaceus fruit of a kind I had seen in village markers for myself and my friends. We stopped the car, Tvalked into a thick forest ofall cactus and begaa to gather the leathery red globes, immediately co find all ten fingers carpeted with tiny spines. As 1 stood trying to figure out what to do, a woman about forty-five years old, whose “ancestors might have built and used the monuments I had come to see, stepped {from among the eactus, chuckling, amused ro see someone who did not know ‘enough to avoid my predicament. We could say very little to one anothers but she took my hands, took chicle from her mouth, and with it began painstakingly ‘and even tendecl to clean ay fingers, laughing sofly. After some minutes ofthis she gave my hands to me and sent me on my way, as if certain I would know berterin the Sorue. This woman would be olé now, andl hope cis book coneibutes toa better world, fnot for her, then for her children and grandchildeer. Introduction ‘You know that poiesis is moze than a single thing. For of anything whazever tha passes from nor being into being the whole cause is composing or poetry; so that the productions ofall ares are kinds of poetry, and thie craftsmen areal poets But. they are not called poets: they kave other names, whilea single section more ot less specialized activities of makers, works of artace integral boch to traditional, habitual activities and to new ciceumstances. To be sure, forms articulating human space and time may be combined in ways that have the additional significance of being moze o less pleasing and satisfy- ing tothe eye. The erucial point, however, is thar the genesis and meaning of ‘works cannot be explaized, nor can the rules of their combination be explained, merely by reference tothe chacacter ofa visval oF formal synthesis. The demand for explanation posed by works of artis more complex and multilayered, and at base all at must acknowledge in making and in us the real spatial conditions ‘of humnan existence. ‘The abandonment ofthe ‘visual arts’ in favour of che ‘spatial ats’ involves a corresponding cise inthe importance of the other sensory modes by which ‘paces and times were (and are) both defined and experienced. The ancient past, surviving in skeletal fragments demanding completion and reconstruction, ‘encourages the abstract visual in ove mind's eye, Having outlasted cher makers, builders and users, che forms ofthe past persist utterly without tei living sur- roundings and associat ons of sound, couch, taste and smell, Even colour is lost ‘or changed. But soundis as essential co the definition and use of spaces as the 4: THE "VISUAL ARTS! AND The SPATIAL ARTS ixrropuerion walls thatenclose chera~ acousties, for example has its own absolute personal and social spatial limits and values ~ and the burning of incense and sacrifices ‘may hens indispensableto distinguish a temple precincr as the less fugitive images ‘or boundaries with which I shal necessarily be mostly concezned. "The rejection ofthe visual’ asthe presumed basis ofthe address coall art not ‘only sepazaces art from the sense of sight in general, it more specially separates it from aptical naturalism — che traditional European imitation of appeerances ‘and from the mors genosal prychology of vicual perception (which might ba called abstract vision). As we have seen, identification of ars with any of these climinatesat the outst fundamental categories of meaning and factors of histor- ‘cal coneinuity and change. No less important, the reduction of artto the modelling ‘of perception eliminates che possibile of considering the psychological tradition. inglf, as well as the relations ofthis eradition to artmaking, as themselves histor~ I. Most act has heen made outside the assumptions of Westera representa- sionalist psychology altogether, ust asthe assumptions of this psychology, and ‘theielletual and critical principles coozed init, have exerted continual pressure ‘on Western art from its ancien: beginnings as a distinct tradition to the present. ‘As shall discuss ia later chapters the perennial Westera aim oF imitation is aceually fractured into critical disputes about what kinds of mental images ~ sensations, concepts, fantasies or ideas, for example ~are able co be, oF should. be, imiated, ‘The visual ares implied ‘viewers’ who are sensitive to formal relations and expressions.'To be sure, some works of art were (and are) meant primazily ro be viewed, and many more may be seen with interes or pleasure. In the chapters ‘follow, however, Iwill use the word ‘observer to efer to chose who stand in ‘one or another social spatial relation to works of art. ‘Observe’ unlike the more purely visual terms ‘view' or ‘behold’, possesses a useful ambivalence; we may se the word as a synonym for ‘see’, 0: to mean ‘to fook closely” (which is more ike its root meanings}; but we may also ‘observe' a rule, a holiday ora custom, ‘meaning that we behave in appropriate ways. “Observer” do not simply se the work bor rather know and observe che decorum of the work andits setting. This is as true of New York gallery- and muscum-goers 3s it was of those who used ‘Magdalenian cave paintings in whatever ways they di, Such observances have ‘heir own social spatial histories, and ic ells us, for example, very much about the modern world to explain how we have come to lookin the ways we think. appcopriate at altarpieces or mandalas in national museums. ‘When we look at European act (around which the discipline ofthe history of art was founded), even if we do not know much about it, and have not been ‘aught 10 ‘look’ at it, we bring a more oc les focused background to the experi= cence. We may recognize cerain works, themes or styles, but much moce than that, we bring familiarity with formats, circumstances and conventions of display aswell as expectations about the presentation and use of visual information, and attitudes (positive or negative) ahoucthe meaning, importance and value of art and its social purposes in general. It is precisely a ehis level of habit and ‘expectation that some of the most crucial differences and similarities) in traditions of images and artifacts are to be located and addressed; this is also where we must look to understand why in basic respects works oF att wete made toappear to usas they do, This struc ina double sense; because other real spatial habits and expectations than ours determined the fi of wosks of att from other times and placesto their rst spaces of use just as specific institutional histories led to the circumstances in which we encounter these works inthe present. 5. REAL SPACE AND VIRTUAL SPACE Real space isthe space we find ourselves sharing with other people and things; teivtual space ie space represented an a surface, space we “seem eo see? Ta Fart, space can only be represented visually a¢viewal, bt athe same time we always ‘encounter a virtual space in a real space. Sculpture and arctieectute are the principal arts of real space. Within the ‘genezal category of real space, sculptures the at of personal space ad architee- tutes the at of socal space. Personal space is aticulated by relations of atifats tothe ral spetial cond itions of our embodiedexistences, thatis, our sizes, uprightess, facing, handed- ness, vulnerability, eemporal nitude, capacities for movement, strengths, reaches ‘and grasps. A marble colossus is fondamentaly significant in these cerms, but so isa clay figurine or an amulet. Tangibility, manipulability, portability, pos- seseabilty, and their epposites are also characteristics meaningful in terms of fundamental personal spatial categories. As I shall discuss at length the formats some ofthese values, butin very different terms, and within the cans by which human groups are seria thie acual ateange ‘ments, Ths defaition embraces suburban American houses as wells Maya sital eentes or Chinese impedal capil cites. More specifically, architecore isthe shaping and rletive distinction of places (the subject of Chapter 3). AS social space, archtecrre embraces the specially artcaated personal space of sculpture as well asthe formats necessary fr vical spaces, and the conditional categories of personal space are embraced by those of soial space, much as individuals belong to groups. Social spaces entail coreatve socal mes, even ifche images or texes that also shaped collective and personal condvet in one sway or another often survive only in part, if they survive at all. These corcela- tive imes~ rituals and festivals, for example i more reconstrucable in some cass than in others, ce often be ony rly imagined Painting andthe graphic are are principal arts of virtual space, We may look aa frescoed wall at psinted stone o rik, ata sro ora sheet of paper or can- ‘8s, and seem tofook ‘into’ its surface; we may see an apparent three-dimens- ional reality, a vast panorama furious battle, a cable with dishes and fruit, oF a person in an armchei. A virtual space i always an nage on a suyface (as ‘opposed toa substitute, the primary values of which are seal spatial). Vitual spaces are always representations of space, and we an sz any rursber of specific representations as spatial. Whatever the diflerences between ther, we insmedi- axely se both a Mesolithic cock painting and an Ialian Renaissance perspective construction az spatia’ and spatiotemporal). In these, an inal ase, virtual spaces havesomethingof the vet’ or free of spaces and things we actually experience 5- REAL SPACE AND VIRTUAL Srace a 4 Msp of Tenocvitan (al), fom H. Coven, Praecana de Nova Macs Ocean Hyspante Navato, Nurombecgs 1324 Weodeus, 31x45. (istic Bein) Newbery iba, Chicago “4 staal spaces may be made te describe and record actual places and times, ‘or they may simply seem co do so, projecting and elaborating imaginary ones. Inall cases the space cei credible, occupiable and traversable only in imagina- tion; i can also never adequately represent a zeal space, or correspond to one. [Nor can the ‘forms in vireual space ever be complete; on the contrary, they de ‘mand what shall all completion on the part of an observer. Whatever illasion- istic force they may have, visual spaces show what s always at an unbzidgeable remove, at distance in space or time, another present, past or future, Again, hhoweves,thisis nc a limitation, The same condicions under which vitual spaces ‘cannot fully represent what they show mean that they may be specially Bounded ‘and qualified apparent regions of space and time for an observer, within which ‘things seem to exist in cecain ways. Thetis, virtual spaces are always positively ‘not real spaces, even though they seem to refer to spaces that are real, ox might hereal. ‘The encounter of an observer witha wistual space, before iti an encouater with avast panorama ora furious bette, cakes place before a culturally specific format~a sercen, polyptych or book, for example ~ i personal and social space, at Tshall discuss in Chapter 4. The interactions of these real spaces and virtual spaces are in principle endlessly variable adaptations to any numberof histori= cal situations. To return t9 an earlier example, ‘canvas’ is a cerm we use almost ‘as. synonym for painting, and we think of landscapes and sil lifes, for example, ‘as more of less indiffezent co their surroundings. eis insticurionally significant, however, that most canvases were meant from very early on to be bought and used in shatever way a buyer might wish; furthermore, a fairly strict decorum prevails within the bounds of chisftirude. We assume that landscapes and sil lites are appropritely desined only for ezeain spaces ~peivace, gallery or muscum, pecet—in which exrtan uses and certain nections to chem are appopriae. This ‘culural azrangemear, Lowever, itself an example of imeracton of virtual space, format and socal space. 6. AY IMAGE LN REAL SPACE: THE AZTEC COATLICUE inthis section I wil consider an image predominency significant in terms of real spatial values, the colossal Aztec Coatlicue, ot Serpent Skiet, which first stood in the central precincr of Tenochtitlan (Figure 3), and is novr in the Museo “Antropologico in Mexico City. Ihave chosen it, and have chosen to discuss it fit, because it isa rich example ofthe articulation of the values of real space, buralso because cae experience ofthis extraordinary sculpture helped set me on tive path that led to this book, ‘The Coatlicne (Figures 4 and s)s one of ee principal survivors of the destruc- tion in e521 of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now under Mexico City) by the small army of Herzando Cortez and the lfes he hed gathered on his march to.central Mexico. The sculpture was buried, then unearthed in 790 when the ‘Zocalo in Mexico City was repaved. Ac that point che Coatlicue began to pley ‘an important ole in fe formation of Mexican national and culeuralconscious- ‘nes, Interesting as these questions of modern use may be (2nd also explainable in real spatial terms as they may be), Iwill eoncencrate on explaining why the sculpture might have been made as it was for its ist space of use. ‘The great mass of voleane stone necessary to establish the subsiunive presence ‘of this terrible deity ine place of Aztec origin also made it possible for her pows- ‘ers to be ritually addressed and supplicated, Such stones ere often columnar, bat this one has been quauried, that i, cut squared from live rock, inthis case with ‘wood and stone cools and teansported to the temple precinct without whee's or draught animals, neither of which the Aztecs used. The Coatlfcue is thus one swith the stones of the ent and like the stones ofthe structures in its precinct. "Not only is che material identity ofimage, mountain and sacred siructures possibly significant, but the working and transportation of the great stone ~ like the ‘working and transportation of all the stones usd in building the precinct~ csplay ‘the power ro command and organize labour on behalf ofthe people and the gods. “The squaring ofthe stone is also allimportant because ic provides the conditions {for the planar presentation ofthe image, and for ies integration with the planar directional order ofthe sacred place in which it stood. "The shaft of volcanic stone from which Coatlicue was carved is about 2.5 metres (8 fect 6 inches) high, This shaft is irregularly shaped, although from the front it looks like a stable rectangle of sturdy proportions, about 8:5 counting the armsin che width, When viewed from the side, the bloc tits lightly forward and looms over anyone standing before it, so thatthe simplest personal spatial 6. AW IMAGE IN REAL SPACE: 4B 4 Caan (Serpe Ski, sees toe enon Anise, eign sas re ‘in} co Naclonal de Antropoogiy Meco Cisy Onpeite 5 Corl, back (6. AN IMAGH DS REAL SPACE: 47 INTRODUCTION 8 adécess to the images filled wit threat and poctent. The back ofthe shaft (Fig- ture 5) slopes even more shaxply toward the Font, xing ike the stairway oF impossibly steep temple platform fzom the broad foundation of the outsized clawed fet in a teuncated wedge to the mask at the cop. Coatlieue, identified by her skit of living snakes, combines the powers of several deities, and is thus what I shall define in Chapter 4 as. an icon. Coatliene was the mythic mother of Huitzilopochtl (THurnmsingbird Lei’ or South's the ‘south ito che lefeof one facing west, pethaps like she esing sun), the parton war, fire andl sun god ofthe Azcecs. Like all Aztec deities (including Fiitailopochtli), CCoatiiese could have many aspects Here she is associated with earth, water and sect, butalso clearly with sacrifice and the death necessary toe. Four roads along the cardinal directions led into the great square ofthe sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan, centre both of the city and ofthe Aztec empire (Figure 3). Through substitution (Chapter 4) and the planar arrangement (Chapters) ‘of iconie elements, Coaliene’s powers were located as fully as possible in this, centre, established by Fiuitalopochel himself, and the various sacred platforms in ite great square all respecte the cardinal alignment. The dominant direction ‘was ease and west, an axis defined by the rising of thesun on the vernal equinox, the beginning of spring, masked by a great festival, Coatliue’s image must-have stood in some association with its main temple platforms, ewin cred mountains coupling the rites of Fuitalopochei and those of the much older and more properly indigenous mountain, storm, rain and water god Tlaloc. in Figure 3 this win temple is shown at the top, the disk of he rsing son just visible berween its two halves. The temple of Hutzlopochalis to our right. The double strectare is identified in the Cortez map as ‘the temple where they sacrifice” and the ‘zompant or skull rack, is shown on the lowes, westem side ofthe precinct. According to the mythical account, Huitzilopochtlihad no father. While ‘Coatlieue was tending the shrine in a state of penance on the sacred mountain. ‘of Coatepec (Se-pent Mountain), 2 ball of feathers fell on her breast and she became pegnant. Hl many chile, sometimes identified withthe seas, chinking she had been dishonoured, took arms against her and decapitated her. That is hhow she shaven in the scolcuse, with large coral snakes coiling up out ofthe neck from which her head has been severed. Asif to join the necessary polari= fies of cosmic lfeand death, Huitzlopockll was born fully armed at the moment ofthis grisly mariide. He hile hissibtngs, hi sister Coyolxauqui chief among them. (A large round relief showing in profile the dismembered Coyolxaugqai swas found atthe foot af the temple platform of Huitslopochti, justas Hutzlo ppochtliis describ as having thrown her body down from Coatepec.} The story ofthe bzth of Huitzilopochti has beea explained as giving mythic form to the ‘riginative rising from the carth ofthe sun, powerfel enough ro banish the stars and hide or vate the waxing and waning moon; but ata more properly cosmogo- nic level it mighemizan that when one god became the sun, and gave orientation tothe earth from his centre, the other gods died or were banished oc at a more political level it eight mean tha the principal Aztec deity no onty defined the ‘world from his centre, bur that, in becoming central he asserted dominion over alllocal deities, at once absorbing their powers and demanding tribute. For the Aztecs, che rising ofthe sua could not be taken for granted. The ages of time were called ‘sunt’ andthe completion ofa cycle ofsotarand citual years wwas the oceasion of geest anxiety. Human sscrifce continually nourished he sun, Coatlicue is shown as having herself ben sscrificed so thatthe sun might be boen (and so that the sua, and pechaps the culers who identified with the sun, tight be strong and powerful). The sculpeure allows this titanic generative force to be faced, addressed, and sacrificed ro, thus to be sustained or increased. Coatlcue isnot slain, bu ather lives inher having been slain; the blood-serpents cling rom che ribbed wound of her neck taen ma canfromt each other, farming ‘anew full-face mask oct of their profiles, a single horcible countenance with double fangs and bifid tongue. These confronted profiles obey an anthropo- morphic symmetry chat governs the whole frontal view ofthe sculpture, «schematic epmmetry that makes her apparent as humas, a ‘great woman’, and scares her attributes with maximum fuliness. Coaticue’s clavicle and slack breasts are set ‘out with vive descriptiveness, bur the nourishing nipples of her breasts are concealed by a necklace of heets and hands, from which hangs a skull, frontal and cental, ts are echoing the shape of her beeasts, is compasscirular eyes like those of the confronted heads of che snakes above. Behind this sk wo more serpents are knocte, forming belt supporting che skier that gives the deity her name. Coatlcue’s arms are flexed upwards, and from her cuffed wrists, perhaps because her hands have also been severed, coiled sexpents aris, like ‘those forming the head, but smaller, as ito strike, They face us on ether side, ‘above papee strips rendeced in stone beneath the cuffs covering her forearms. er joins, elbows, and shoulders, cruxes of movement and lf, are emblezoned ‘and protected by “demon face’ masks, moch like the ones on sacrificial knives and atthe joints of che earch monster, Tlaltecubel (arch Lor, with whom Coatliene share atributes (and whose image is on ber under side). Ihe snakes replacing head and hands above are gushing blood, then perhaps the snake berween her taloned feets menses, othe poster of menses, once again the blood ‘of che mothee sacrificed ro the birch ofthe Aztec patron deity ‘The subsidiary side vews of he image ae identical ro one another, athooch rotated, symmetrical eletve tothe same axis governing the major front surface. Because the two snakes whose profiles form her face are complete, Coatlicue also has an identical faceto the rar (Figates). The necklace of hearts and hands is tied beeween her square, coiledsnake shoulders, and there i a lage skull at ‘the waist, The ange of the block asa whole, a pair ofsuperimposed feather apr- ‘ons, and the shape ofthe great taloned feet principally distinguish the front and back faces respectively major and minor. Coatieveis thus whole ins liteally supernatural way, possible because a feestanding planar surface has a back and «front. Notonlyisone fce of her image set out with the same clarity end uaifor- rity asthe ther, but Ccatlene literally faces in both directions, and ifone face isrelacively more empowered {with hands, breasts talons), the same image still ‘sees before and behind, ro the east and o the west, along lines defined by the planae sucfaces ofthe block of stone itself. ‘The anthropomorphic symmetry of Coatlicue’s presentation involves hec in 2 larger social spatial o-der of interpenetrating cosmic, myehic and political significance, set out according to interlocking planat principles of alignment, division and bounding, We do not know exactiy where in the sacred precinct 6. AN IMAGE IN REAL SPACE: vie azTEC COATHCUE 49 | ‘Renan, Landscape with Faractad (Winter Landscape, e1648-so. Per, ink and wash on paper, 66% 25.8. (Git ein). Fogg At Maneorm, Harvard Universi, Cambridge, Mas. so Coatlicue stood, although the must have been associated in some way with the Great Temple. In any case, a version ofthe significant spatial order of which she ‘and her rituals were certaaly a part was repeated on the bottom of her image. ‘There, whereircould never have been seen while the sculprure stood in place, is the image of the earch monster lahlcecubli. Visible or aot this image completed. the powers of ee larger image, placing itn contact noc just with the earth but swith the central, oriented and bounded earth ofthe sacred precinct. The under= sides of cher images from the temple precince beac similar images. lahltecubtli 4s shown with areibutes of Taloc. This potent deity of cain and storm, so whom half of the Great Temple was dedicated, mingled, like Coatlicue herself, powers ‘of life and death, Thahleecubtli-Tlaloc has skulls a its joints and extremities, but is also in a birth posture, bearing a glyph meaning ‘earth’ and ‘ceation’, Asif ‘to mark the core ofthe planar and axial image of Coatlicus, whose location oa the face ofthe earch Tlahlteculs image both states and sanctifies, a feathered shield with a quiacunx over the torso ofthe hidden image shows the four direct- jonsand the centre. The head of thisdeity sro the minor ‘back’ side of Coatlcue, and the act of birch is toward her front, perhaps because she was in the east, facing west, as Huiteilopochtl cose from the earth in the east each day co begin his westward daily course across the heavens, aloag the path of he uablinking, living death-gaze of his mutilated butevee-regenerative mother. Thus the image cof Coatlicue embodies, substirutively and in powerful ateributes set out in a planar order integral with larger rival, social, political and finally cosmic planar ‘order, the paradoxical forces of the earch, which is the womb of life and the abode of death both for humankind and forthe sun. Coatlicue was associated swith che west she faced, in ks turn associated both with ifeand death, butgives birch from the east. 7. VIRTUAL SPACE AND THE PRINAGY OF REAL SPACE. {As [have stated, and as we shall soe in derail in Chapesr 6, possibilities for the evelopment of virwal space arise whenever an imagers put on a surface, and ‘these possibilities are expecially highly developed in cetaintaditions. The pen ‘drawing by the seventeath-centory Dutch painter Rembrandt (Figure 6) belongs to one of these tradicioes, When wesee this drawing we donot just sea tiny bit ‘of paper with a few ma:ks on it (much less do we see the reproduction of tiny Dit of paper and few marks onthe larger page of a printed book) Instead we se the eonras of ak and paper as.an optical contrast of lighe and dark surfaces. “la oF ‘theough’ this bicof paper and by means of these few macks we mightsay ‘hat wo soe col till ister landeeape,a quiet iey-ilver sky, and snowcovered sround,againse whose blank brightness objects standin dack, dormant contrast. Rembrandt has mot sully exploited our eapaity tose cece dimensions in ‘ovo; thatis, he as created a virtual space out ofthe surface ofthe pape,a space ac once evidently deserptive but perhaps imaginary, into which our eyes may scem to enter, 28if through the fame ofthe lel rectangle of paper. He has also ‘cansformed the qualves of the simple materials he used into qualities ofthe prospecthe hs shown us. Other words might occur to other viewers 0 describe the sky Iealled “quiet and ‘icy-silver, orto describe the snow I called ‘blank? an “bright, but iis rest important that we feel such characterization to be legitimate and necessaey, and that Rembrande has made ws see these qualities of places and things in nothing more than the off-white ofa piece of paper. ‘The contrast between the actual sizeof Rembrandt's drawing and the great «expanse of Dutch sky and countryside it seems to shor ts may illustrate both the eneaning of virtual space as a category and the strength of our inclination ‘0 sce spaces in surfaces. But however much che illusion ofthe virtual space Rembrandt has made nay seer to have transformed ard even to have dened the bic of papee supposing it, that bt of paper st real space; that is, irexises inthe space we share with icand has meanings and values anda history ‘of meanings and values~ in that space (orn those spaces) ‘As we address the dawg apw, it eal spatial values, and, more specially, personal spatial valuss qualify the character ofthe vitual space atthe deepest level. Ieisin elation toe size of our bodies and hands thatthe drawings smal, portable and possessalie; itis in relation to our facing, that it faces, has a back ‘and froae, atop and bortom, a let and right, andit isin relation to our vestcal- ity thar the borizoncality of the landscape is meaningful, and tha the rectangle ‘of papes has been cropped. All these simple fearuesestablsh theevidenty ‘ight ‘way of looking at the drawing, Again, Rembrandt evidenly made the drawing as one might waite, onan upwaed-facing surface, so thatthe ink has paddled ‘and dried in ezrin ways, When hong vertically for modecn museum display the marks therefore seem suspended, free from gravity, which helps to meke the landscape seem hovering, distant, available only co sight. The drawing is cursive andl autographic, ike che signatare of leer, and in the abbreviated indications ‘of the objects and shadows inthe landscape we may sense che actual movements ‘of Rembrand'seye and hand in making them. Atte same time that iis distant, ‘this view was also evidendly made by a right-handed person, an the evident hand ‘and handedaess of Rembrandt give the deswing ‘personality’ and intimacy, alities enhanced by the fragility, even the ephexnerality, of the paper itself. The intimate scale ofthe marks complements the close viewing distance demanded by the small siz; and for al ies dazzling virtuoso ilusionism, which seems at 7. VIRTUAL SPACE AND THE PRIMACY OF REAL SPACE a 32 ‘once to seize the eve, che drawing mast be closely examined, ikea signature so often repeated that itis nor at once legible. ‘Not only does Rembrandt's drawing have the basic, personal spatial values [have just listed, and nor only sie the evident consequence of highly developed skin exploiting vstuality, but the paper itself, in addition to belg the support of the drawing is lao an artifecr, ifnora work ofart as we usualy think of one. Te (along with the ink used to make the deawing) isa product, wih a history ia fas own tight, Alikough the word "pape" itsclf looks back to ancient Egyptian papyrus heoogh Greek and Latin, modern paper came to the West from China, where it was invented, by way of the Arab world, and had only been in wse in Europe since the late Middle Ages, replacing parchment. In each episode of its historical life papermaking was (and is} the resule of the gathering and prepara- tion of matecials, the applicetion of specific technologies, and more or less local and personal processes and techniques ras also in each case adapted to cult ally specific purposes, which helped to shape and change. Rembrandeno doubt bought che paper, which might have been used for a number of purposes (and which must of course be genuine in order for the drawing upon ie ro be a Rembrandt’). The drawing may thus be placed in a number of economic- and technological-istorical concexts through inferences from irs most basi fea- ‘ures that could not be drawn jast by thinking about che character of the llus- ion, that i, of viral space as T have described it ‘At another level of zeal spatial significance, Rembrandt's drawing was made inand for certain social and institutional cizcumstances, which have themselves changed, The drawing was made withthe understanding that its virewes might bbe appreciated by a certain audience, an¢ chat, more or less directly, it might have value ina certain market. Such a sketch or sua, its elation ro some larger, more finished work notwithstanding, was made in citeummstances in which

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