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The Painted Sermon: the Self-Portrait of Thomas Smith
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
Extract
The character, modes, and forms of artistic expression in any epoch are in many ways governed by prevailing intellectual and philosophical points of view. What is considered ‘ good taste ’ by the patron of painting, poetry or music will often seem quite incredible to future generations because intellectual bases of perception and appreciation change so inexorably and often so quickly. If the final judgment about what is satisfying (not to mention ‘ beautiful ’) in a work of art must finally be left to each individual to decide for whatever reasons he feels important, this in no way alters the fact that a work of any period can be seen to exhibit aspects that are characteristic of its creator and audience. By studying a selection of works from a historical period, we are able better to understand not only the works themselves, but at least some particular characteristics of those who produced them, and those for whom they were intended. In a comparative study of the arts we will most quickly reach productive ends using what Erwin Panofsky terms an Iconological approach, a search for ‘ intrinsic meaning and content ’. This angle of vision looks to underlying principles to reveal important generalizations about attitudes of nations, periods, classes, or religions, or philosophical persuasions ‘ unconsciously qualified by one personality and condensed into one work ’. The scholar's work becomes synthetic, rather than just analytic. In the search, one must recover and ponder the ‘ intrinsic meaning ’ of every document of civilization available which relates to the work under consideration. Panofsky mentions specifically the areas of politics, poetry, religion, philosophy, and social tendencies of personality, period and country.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976
References
1 Panofsky, Erwin, Meaning in the Visual Arts (New York: Doubleday, 1955), pp. 57–8Google Scholar.
2 Panofsky, Erwin, Studies in Iconology (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), p. 7Google Scholar.
3 Panofsky's essay ‘Iconography and Iconology: An Introduction to the Study of Renaissance Art’ appears in both Meaning in the Visual Arts and in Studies in Iconology. There are several interesting differences in terminology between them, though, which seem to indicate that Panofsky altered some of his ideas about methodology during his career.
4 Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts 01608. The artist is listed as Thomas Smith; school as American, 17th century; subject, Self Portrait; material and construction, oil on canvas; dimensions, 24½ (h) × 23¾ (w) in inches; Acc. No. 1948.19.
5 Dresser, Louisa, XVIIth Century Painting in New England (Worcester, Mass.: Worcester Art Museum, 1935)Google Scholar. Miss Dresser has written in pencil in the Worcester Museum's copy of her work: ‘This Bermuda origin was pure suggestion on the part of F. L. Weis and should, I think, best be ignored.’ She speaks at greater length about this problem, and ones like it in ‘Portraits in Boston, 1630–1720’, Journal of the Archives of American Art, 3 and 4 (07–08, 1966)Google Scholar.
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7 In XVIIth Century Painting Miss Dresser speculates that the flag in the foreground with the crescent is of the Barbary pirates, active during the century.
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17 Martz, Louis, The Poetry of Meditation: A Study of English Religious Literature of the 17th Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954), p. 14Google Scholar.
18 Martz, , The Poetry of Meditation, p. 15Google Scholar.
19 It is worth noting that many of the poetic ‘Contemplations’ of Anne Bradstreet are of the same form as Smith's poem, and conform to the three-step religious meditation discussed by Martz. See, for example, number 4:
Then higher on the glistering sun I gazed,
Whose beams was shaded by the leafy tree;
The more I looked the more I grew amazed;
And softly said, ‘What glory's like to thee?
Soul of this world, this universe's eye,
No wonder some made thee a deity;
Had I not better known, alas, the same had I.
The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse, ed. Ellis, J. H. (1867, rpt. 1932)Google Scholar.
20 The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry, ed. Miller, Perry (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1956), pp. 225–6Google Scholar.
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22 Ironically, just as we sense an element of vanity in Mather's self-reported struggles with fallen nature, there is an ever-present undertone of vanity implicit in the very act of self-portraiture; a vanity so roundly condemned by John Wilson, in the passage quoted above.
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