Leonardo’s Amorphous Imagery and the Arcimboldo Outcome* NEVET DOLEV Mathis ic the shins wih pated ee 1, Sakae, Mdm Nh enV. I Introduction CATTERED AMONG the best known of Leonardo's writings are a few (all too familiar and) overlapping passages in which painters are advised to stimulate the imagination and derive ideas by looking at amorphous, evocative objects, for example, ‘clouds’. In the elusive and indeterminate shapes of such celestial phenomenon, where a more prosaic and pedestrian mind would only see the likelihood of rain, the painter can perceive ~ as also in stained walls or veined stones: ~ something which at one and the same time seems to be something else: “figures in violent action’, ‘landscapes’, actually ‘whatever he looks for.) In a somewhat similar fashion, albeit demanding much more rigorous exertion on the part of Asa ibute w the memory of Eugenio Bat the present esay was made posible by the example of his innovative and sim= bang scholanhip. His sejour in Jerse in 1982 became a taming point in oye hs plimage’ to the Holy Land was ‘made only forthe ake of at history. and yet he was ate believer I shoul like to thanks fens an followers Cabrils Feet Picealug and Carlo Peres for ther houndlessgeneronty, encouragement and invaksble sgeetons. 1 we“ cloud as paradigm and generic name forte objects Sained wal, chimps of cart, speckled stone, et.) Which Leonardo fer per devare Fingegno'. For reference wo the pertinent Leonardo tens, ae note 9 belo ‘A numberof notes ad drawings rom shout 128 test to Leonardo's recccapation vith ision (misturs), "las material of is own invention with which he aimed a imitating the colour and design of ser preious stones CHC. Pedic, Lamar A Say in Chronology and Sipe London, 1973 (New Vork, 1982) p52 34 well as bs Ruhter Commentary Lp. "Lanardo ds Vinci, Tats on Painting, (ae and annotated by AP McMahon), Princeton NJ. a946, Val pe pect $0 108 9. The experience of ind imagery n amorphous objects ina old human iself and was widely documered fom sity ‘on, Whether Renaisine commentators based their obertions on cater source, most promancraly De Soma in Arde. The Complete Wort, rasated and edited by W. Ross], Oxford, 1931, Vel I, 4660-461} 0 pon in-hand expercnec canner be scorned, Sigicantly Looard wa the fist to eat sch fantnyzing 0 the atl iakng ofa By comtemporary haha agcot Inthe Renaisance, projection of meaning on extemal stilt wat recorded ~ among others by Leon Bates Aber ce below p13); Lorenzo de" Mesii, Comment spr ln demas sont cf. Peet, Lorene an! Leonardo othe sound of bel’. ALY jou. V. 147). The unnamed teacher of Giowann! Fontana who saw horsemen, tein the clouds dedicated book to Jacopo Bellini, Mantepna'stather-n-aw, CY. C. Gilbert lian go0-1jo0. Somes and Donne, New York, B. 174. For Mantegna's peopled clouds, sce M. Mei, Andis Monten ex Hiamintr, New York. 1953; 63> R, Ladhthorrn, Manges, Oxon, 986, . $e. For A. Dow, GB AmeninyE, Tear, se blow p. 1315. Vast below 335-4 Michelangelo ass Love i the beauty ofthe bcloved seal or rather the poojecton of tn incr feelings Plea elle Love, ay «yes truly ce the beauty to which Lapire ori have it within me when wherever I Took lee her face carved CE Dav Sonimers Muhlangelo nd the Language oft, Princeton, NJ, 1981, . 491 note 60. The waning sateen century was liscinated by halls ‘inated projection on exter snl which regarded as asympiom of madnew or melancholy” CX Rober Barto, Aastomy 9 Mey, London, 98, Vol 1, p. 445: Thomas Nase, "The Terron ofthe Night or a Discourse om Apparitions it The Unfoeunate Tre, Harmondsworth, 1972, p. 2178 Scores of Jacobean dmatis pevanac i the gps of obra melancholy read thei dchisions into clouds. CEN. Doles "Such Shaping Phantsiy in Noms ad Varin nr omar, 1983.NEVET DOLEV the imagination, a later generation of Mannerists was to ‘recognize’ an Emperor's head in a heap of vegetables’ or ‘discover’ a fool's cap in a hollowed-out coconut.’ In a plethora of works dating from the later part of the sixteenth century, artists took projection’ one very decisive step beyond Leonardo's mere ‘seeing’ and actually incorporated the object which generated imaginative processes. Almost literally applying Leonardo's precepts, a Florentine master ‘discerned’ or ‘read into’ the veins of lapis lazuli the waves which washed the port of Livorno, adding landscape details in a variety of other stones.” Inlike manner, a statuette of the Hydra was made when nine branches of piece of coral ‘beck. coned to’ an artist to sculpt their extremities into the heads of the monster.* The coral was an ‘object saturated with a meaning of its own; displaced into the work of ar by virtue of which it obtained iconographical significance, it at once became also an image. Refuting the proverbial neutrality of media and retaining its original identity, it presented itself as a ‘cosa marina’; at the same time it acquired a new, and ‘other’ meaning in its representational capacity as a compo- nent element in a work of art. The partially unworked coral which is read simultaneously as the carrier of two divergent meanings made the work into a double image or a visual pun, Arcimboldo’s allegorical paintings are the quintessential expression of this Mannerist preoc- cupation with metaphor and metamorphosis. Dipping his brush into a palette of identifiable objects which are rendered with impeccable verisimilitude, his paintings are, in many re spects, but the equivalent of works which actually incorporate objects. Both the real coral which became the Hydra and the painted coral in Arcimboldo's personified Water function on two levels~a literal as well asa figurative. As what happens when looking at ‘clouds’, the eye oscillates between secing image and object. The awareness of object momentarily eclipses that of image, and vice-vers Virtually unprecedented, the late Renaissance witnessed the creation of a prodigious quantity of mostly decorative at in which the very objects which generated the creative process became an integral part of the work. The projective processes relevant to their inception were basically those proferred by Leonardo, but the objects — anything but fleeting ‘clouds’ or clumps of earth were naturalia curisa ~ weirdly shaped pearls, corals, shells, and the like. I refer to them 2s ‘media-objects’ ~ this is to differentiate them from media in the conventional sense of the word, and to emphasise their unorthodoxy and retention of “object-ness’. Thanks to invar~ iable alterations which involved their being added to or slightly modified, they were accomo- dated to their new representational role, that is, anchored in an explicit iconographical gestalt. By contrast, the objects ~ ‘clouds’, veined stones ~ which Leonardo offered painters for con- templation were to be left to lead a life of their own in their natural habitat, untrammelled by artistic presence. In Leonardo's world of mostly commissioned art, the creative minds whose unique prerogative it was to ‘discover’ representational matter embedded in ‘ideated’ matter. were to hamess the free-floating, imagination to comply with demands imposed upon them from without: ‘If you have fo invent some scene...’. Having 4 prior’ or preordained subject matter in mind, painters were encouraged to mentally superimpose those images which were iconographically expedient to them on objects which were vague and ill-defined, That pur- pose having becn accomplished, the ‘cloud’ relinquishes its role in the creative process, leav- ing no trace of itself materially or thematically. The work of art is to sever all ties with the « Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Ridif Has Venunms, 1390. See The Anambodo Ef, Milan, 1987. p- 16s. All ofthe Arcimboldo paintings referred to i this paper are reproduced ints book, hereafter cited a Anh | Nanenkop, 1536, reproduced in R. Frtz, Die Geftse aw: Kolomas ix Mitelowopa, 1250-1820, Mainz, 1983, ph ghost « Projection s defined by modem psychologists 2 ‘the placing ofan inner image ito the ouside word [Feat to an ane biguows stimulus’ CEE: Kes, Pychonalyl Expoesicnsin A, New Vo, 1967, pp. t13, toy. Pat to poyehodiagnortc the Rorachach inkblot tet cons of the merpreution of accidental J nonspectic forms. CEH. Ronchuch, Prediage New York, 195%, p. 13: The most important qualty of the inkblos is cheir unfamiliar structure’ which ints imagination and fray’, See E.G. Schacheel, Expenennal Foundation of Ronchachs Tes, London, 196, pp, ‘Anonimous, The Por of Ltome, commess in pltre dare, reproduced nF Bors, Fence del Ci * Anonimous, Heras andthe Hp, orgy contained inthe twelfth ches i the Kertham works in coral See J vor Schloser, Dic Knutand Wanderanumcm der Sptatsone, inet, Rome, 1974 pl 2. 2 Ambras alongwith other P61. fg 49, 130LEONARDO'S AMORPHOUS IMAGERY AND THE ARCIMBOLDO OUTCOME ‘object which acted as a stimulus. A ‘speckled stone’ is only useful ‘per destare l'ingegno' — not asa ‘found’ Madonna. For all the apparent similarity between Leonardo's theory which probed the relevance of finding iconography in image-inducing objects and Mannerist actual enlistment of evocative objects as ‘al / ready-made" iconography, virtually no attempt has been made to relate the ‘wo. On the contrary, between the writing and the artefacts ‘falls the shadow" (T.S. Eliot). As we shall see: 1. The specific objects which Leonardo offers ‘per destare lingegno’ are not given to be incorporated into works of art for a variety of reasons. 2. Where he docs write about those very objects (corals, etc.) which were to be used in pro~ fusion, his interest in them is almost exclusively ‘scientific’. 3- The great variety of formal documents (contracts, etc.) which deal with these objects in an art context usually ignore their projective potential 4. Even in the rare cases in which artists are known to have had access to Leonardo's note- books and describe situations involving projection in writings of their own (for example, ‘reading’ subject matter into veined stones), Leonardo is overlooked. 5. Theoretical tracts written in the late Renaissance which touch upon the issue of projection 6on external stimuli (‘clouds’, ‘macchie¥) do not trace their imagery to the most prominent Renaissance adherent to the subject, namely, Leonardo. Thus, ‘Arte’ and ‘Pittura’ in Doni's Disegno ponder the nature of animals, men and ‘altre fantasticherie’ seen in the ‘clouds’ or in “una macchia d’un paese’. Armenini traces ‘chimere’ to the ‘subtle consideration’ of ‘mac~ chie’ on walls; elsewhere, virtually paraphrasing Leonardo, he compares the rough sketch (‘macchia’) to the first draft of a poem, both of which must be revised and perfected." Several decades later, Emanuele Tesauro envisages the sky as an empty canvas on which Nature ‘draws’ the objects of its ruminations." 6. Finally, in their exhaustive rescarch into imaginative processes, modem art historians — while always reverting to Leonardo's ‘precetti’ = have neglected to study the evident link between a theory which attempted to account for images whose genesis was in projective proc esses and Mannerist manifold application of such techniques, at least in the decorative arts.” This is not to say, by any means, that we shall discover a causal or even indirect relationship between the two. As we shall sec, Leonardo did not mean to advocate the inclusion of non- art objects, nor did the many works in which evocative objects were used need the influence of his writings. On the contrary, we have every reason to believe that the Dutch jeweller who ‘ead into’ the peculiar and unpredictable protrusions and cavities of a baroque pearl a pious pelican which Christ-like feeds its enamelled offipring with ruby blood," did not know any- "Forte definition, mpietions and we ofthe term "machi se E. Butt, L’Ant-Rinacment, Milano, 1989, Vol. I, pp. 629 ote 72; Pedkets, Lemard da Vin on Painting: A Lost Book (Lie A), Berkey and Low Angels 1964. P32. ete Jo (nee aftr Cte Lab A), frmacchie ofthe German stone’ ee C. Peet, Richter Commentary. Wak. lef 349 and thc ey Bp Pooks ‘entuell nthe present volume, For the word acelin the wit af Celin, Leonard and Arco, ce low P36 rote 49513675146, noe 6, respectively, AF Doni, Digs in Paola Barocehi, Sit dA del Cinque, Mitano-Napli, 1971, Tomo L pp s84s:88¢ M. Kirin, Mannan ad Inia, Slsburg 192, G8, Armenini, De en Prt dls Ptr (1987), New Vork, 1971, pp 195, 73-73. Speaking about shiz, which acording to Armenia p. 73, are synonymous with "macchie', Vateh says that they “embody potental and impeseet ideas chia! ete finished paintings as descrpions ae to definitions. CE Leatrce Menebshn, Paane, Benedeto Vans Dac swan and Cau, canto Art Thay Kn bor 1982-9. 112 Emanucle Tesuro, canna sso, quoted in . Gilman, The Cus Penpetive: Lira and Poi it in the Svetenth Gentry, New Haven 1978, p69; M. Klonsky (ed), Speaking Piaures, New York, 1975, p. 1 Ml. Paz, Stu m Scene Genay mae, Rome, 1964p. 18. " Modem eeicarch on the sabject of so-called ‘images made by chance” inthe European art of the Renaianes inch, among tothe, the mastery esay by H.W. Jason, “The “Image made by Chance” in Renatonce Taough in Bays it Honor o Pony, New York, 196, pp 254-66; Samanes, Micon, op. ct, EH. Gombvih, and fluo, Praceon, Ni}, {op Bt; E, Hats," Maga enon into, n Mean soo, acura dE atts. Rome, 96s, epecaly pp. yee "ML Owange,"A Colleton of Renassance Jewel atthe Aelita of Cheapo tn The Consens CXXIN-CNS ilaetion on p 7. 131NEVET DOLEV. thing of ancient and Renaissance theories concerned with projecting meaning on the amor- phous as pertaining to creative processes. However, this is even less to say, as does H.W. Janson, that with one exception ~ (namely, the piemes imagées studied by BaltruSaitis, and apparently deemed unimportant enough to be relegated by Janson to a footnote)! ~ the concept of the chance image as a source of creative endeavor lay dormant from the time of Alberti and Leonardo until suddently put into practice in the eighteenth century by Alexander Cozens. ‘As we shall attempt to show, with the advent of Mannerism we meet artists who ‘found’ potential works of art in natural objects, works seemingly already ‘in progress’, or partially ‘made, and who, by bringing them to completion in conventional techniques, were prepared to share a co-authorship with Nature, For it was in the marrow of the Mannerist bone to sce in coral twigs a ‘ready-made’ Tree of Knowledge" and in the veins of stones the waves of the Red Sea crossed by painted Israclices.” Thus, before the landslide victory of the objet rouvé in the twentieth century over the holy cows of the classical heritage, it enjoyed its finest, albeit relatively ‘theory-less’ hour in the applied arts of Mannerism. Most conspicuously in the grottoes, gardens, jewellery and dec orative vessels for the table, works which pampered the prosperous and catered to their de- light in the bizarre and the multivalent, some of the ideas which seem to have had a stunted growth in Leonardo’s notebooks came to fruition. Among the writings one might find strewn the seeds which, watered by a torrent of Mannerist rain, came into full bloom. My humble contribution is in an attempt to walk the well-trodden path of ‘cloud’ passages ‘one step further to show how ~ and maybe why — Leonardo stopped short of coming to far- fetched albeit logical conclusions, those which only a later generation implemented or “dared” to draw; why we must wait rill the Renaissance ‘doth suffer a sea change’ and till a Mannerist artist carves a Christ whose ‘bones’ are literally of ‘coral made’,* TI Leonardo's ‘precetti’ and projective processes IN THREE interrelated passages Leonardo takes up an idea newly dealt with in the Renais- sance by Alberti and pertaining to the genesis of sculpture.** Sculpture had its origin when the "J Baltics, Aboation, Pans, 1957-38 quoted by Janson, op. ct, p. 264, note 5 * Franz Keller, “Origa Sin’ in Roderick Cameron, ‘Formes Naturelle, Oi no. 38, February. 1958p 2. "Anton Morar, ‘The Isles Crossing the Red Ses, in Lily von Sater, "Ein Schloss in Tol Ambros and cine Sumang lin DU: Jansaryfne, 1966. 8s, fig 28. Se ‘audi in Sure, op. ct, Index. * W. Shakespeare Tie Taper, 1 “LB. Albers, On Panag and on Super. edited and randated by C. Grayson, London, 1972, p. 121. Where primitive sculptors adapted tees tothe depiction of vanetyof subjects, modem architects ~ ung orthox mec and techniguer vate eneoutoged to make ‘columns [.] im imiation of ees, See LB, Alber, Tes Boks on Acted, tanlated by]. Leon, London, 1959, Book TX, i See C. Pert, Lamando de Vin. The Ray Pala at Romo, Camibidge, Mas. 1972.7. se and 6i: M. Kemp, Leonie si Vina, London, 19g, p. 188: Pere, Lib 4, p. 153. One s reminded of Danni’ deceased heroine who knew Geuis tact any naira Stone, or Tree’. See ‘An Anatomy ofthe World: The Second Anniverary’in Tic Complete Paty and Selesed Pro of Bin, Donne, edited by Charles Coffin, New York, 1952, p. 210. Donne may have been influenced by Petar whe sate bel "so" of his beloved in shadows, tones, clouds and inthe unk of irc tee (nel tronco d'un fag’). See Francesco Pets, Le Rime, acura di G. Carducci eS. Ferani, Florence, 1962, Soinet LXXIX. Inthe ancient work the suggestive shapes of tees seemed to lend themselves paticulaly into being carved sno dees, Alber quotes laarch’s desea of various god de fom an asortment of ees, such a3 Jupiter made out ofthe Trunk ofa Pearce (On cnet, WI, as pp. 165), Other mentions ofarboreal deities include The Old Testament Ish, 4415-19; Horace’ Oli: nus rams in The Sai ol Epis of Hone anslated by 8P, Bovie, Chicago, 1959, Li I-10,» 2: Pliny, Netal Hut andated by H. Rackham, Londen, 1945, Plinys comments on both tres as gods [XII 2] andeloud [tr] minimure projection). Anthropomiorphic ces ate quite commen especialy alte Renaissance art and ofen reflec the arboreal people who inhabited actual gardens fram 2 aly those ‘of Giowanns Rucelli and Couimo de’ Medic, gardens in which on toptna coerced living shrabs nto souming Burne shapes "Trecamen’ are widely illasated in horticultural resticy,emblemstic erature, patings dear te Mont, te Yea, ie logical subject, and wo on, and in descriptions of contemporary garden. Parccully relevant to. Alerts the Hypnos Polphis, edted by G. Poze and L.A. Cippon, Pada, 19,3 vole. Albert’s tame has been mentioned by more than ove scholar ‘with relation oan ery version of the romance (I, p 9" ia which clipped tres ase human shape {ll 1298) and convey, ‘aides the form of tees (il, 16). The tadition ofthe suggestive wee reaches an apoyce tn Arcimioldo's lose panting, The Year,