Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Michael Jacobs "Everything is Happening: Journey into a Painting" (Granta Books)





The story of a friendship is the frame for a dying man's life-lusting memoir, nested into his last travelling adventure in search of meaning inside a painting.

The narration of a life-long obsession becomes a mystery investigation, truncated by death and touchingly completed by the author's best friend, and at the same time reaches the worlds of politics and philosophy, through the recalling of the Civil War in Spain, through loving memories of Anthony Blunt as a great teacher and as a scapegoat of philistine nationalism, and through an attempt at defining the nature of art as life, far from the "sunless" arid interpretations of the academic currents Jacobs encountered during his studies as art historian. By the way, his brief treatment of the way his peers have misunderstood Foucault is a pearl of concision and hilarious in its own way.
A book bursting with love - for art, for friends, for freedom of thought and interpretation, for Spain, Italy and South America, for people. I guess it will stay with me more than I thought it would.

EDIT: I left out the book's many shortcomings, such as the self-consciously embarrassed elitism of the Oxbridge alumni condemning the mass tourism that is nothing else than a side effect of accessibility of art, well, you know, to the masses; or the incredible provincialism of the British intellectual élites in the way they still live the Mediterranean as exotic dreamland without ever really engaging with it. There is a description of the crisis, the corruption scandals in Spain and of the Indignados protests that may look as politically conscious, but betrays a substantial hauteur, with Jacobs shaking his head at the plight of the protesting masses before proceeding to a luxurious cocktail on a rooftop bar with a curator quite on the aristocratic side of Spanish society. Vulliamy's remark, in the coda, that his liberally Marxist friend brought the rage of the protesting masses with him inside the museum for a while, well, that would be comical if it were not infuriating.

However grating, though, these shortcomings don't subtract from the general tone of honesty of the book; instead, seem to contribute to it. Imperfect as everybody else, these two men are not afraid to expose themselves for whom they truly are in the interest of a better understanding of art and of its meaning and appreciated that more than I would have a rigorously correct analysis devoid of interior truth.

Herbert Read "The Meaning Of Art" (Faber & Faber)




First published in 1931, revised in 1949 and reprinted by Penguin as a "Pelican" blue paperback reference for many years. Our copy has 64 black and white photographic plates. Sir Herbert Read was a distinguished English professor of Fine Arts in many university posts, a former curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a published poet as well. In this book, he wrote a useful guide to the understanding and "appreciation of pictures and sculpture by defining the elements which go to their making". He presents "fundamental terms such as 'beauty', 'harmony' and 'pattern'" so viewers and critics of art may "use them with precision in their judgements".

"A large part of the book is devoted to a compact survey of the world's art, from primitive cave drawings to Jackson Pollock; an exposition designed to show the persistence of certain principles and aspirations throughout the history of art." Read summarizes "the essence of such movements as Gothic, Baroque, Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism and Tachism." - from the Penguin jacket notes

While a little dated, this book is a classic for university students of art and art history, and it's a good starting point for non-artists who wish to learn about this field from an expert.
Many other art history books are more lavishly illustrated and readable, but this is still an excellent academic introduction.

Frank Zöllner "Leonardo" (Taschen)




Although the high-end books of Taschen have always been extremely good, I believe they have outdone themselves this time. It is a wonderful compilation of all the paintings, sketches, and drawing of Leonardo, including amazing close-ups of some of the paintings that let you really appreciate his technique and mastery. The images have excellent quality and the additional information given is also useful to put the images into historical context. I don't think I need to go into how incredible Leonardo was as a painter, engineer, etc., but you will definitely be amazed by the contents of this book.

Definitely a keeper for your home library.

Martin Kemp "Art In History" (Profile Books)






In the blurb on the inside, it says "Art has always been part of history. But we often think of it as outside history. When we look at a painting by Raphael, Rembrandt, or Rubens it speaks to us directly, but it's also a historical document, part of a living world. Renowned art historian Martin Kemp takes the reader on an extraordinary trip through art, from devotional works to the revolutionary techniques of the Renaissance, from the courtly Masters of the seventeenth century through to the daring avant-garde of the twentieth century and beyond.

Along the way we encounter the great names of art history: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; Vermeer and Velasquez; Picasso and Pollock. We get under the skin of the many 'isms', schools, styles, and epochs. We see the complex sweep of art history with its innovations, collaborations, rivalries, break-throughs, and masterpieces. Above all, Kemp puts art in context; art isn't about disembodied images, art itself is history."

So in just 233 pages, it covers a wide ground which is partially its strength as an introduction to art history and partly its weakness. Such sweeping overviews tend to miss out some corners of art history and this one resolutely sticks to painting rather than the other arts. However, it was an enjoyable fairly quick read and I would recommend it. Just one caveat, the pictures of selected artworks are all monochrome so to get a full appreciation of them I would certainly go to the various online art museum sites.

Michael Baxandall "Painting and Experience in 15th Century Italy" (Oxford)






Now, this takes me back to the days back in the seventies I did an Open University Art course. The book came out in 1974 in paperback and was part of selected reads for the second level course I studied on art history which I combined with one on the history of the Renaissance.

In essence, this a fairly quick read - short and sweet. His concept of the "period eye" is the stand-out feature of his argument, suggesting the links between everyday social and visual practices and high art. One only wishes the book was longer, as he passes over some tantalizing concepts and analyses of specific artworks with some haste. However, the course work I did and using other sources, filled out most of the gaps. A good read if you love art.

John Ruskin "On Art and Life" (Penguin)




John Ruskin (1819-1900), gave us impassioned critique of a society obsessed with getting and spending that struck a chord that has continued to reverberate with thoughtful individuals across the political spectrum. Ruskin was a seer in both senses of the word: an acutely perceptive observer of art, architecture, literature, and Nature, and an uncannily prescient Cassandra who warned of developing threats - moral, social, economic, cultural, and environmental - to human life and happiness.

Ruskin's politics were something of a paradox. A forceful critic of greed, the profit motive, the degradation of labour, and economic injustice, he was also a staunch believer in hierarchy and authority.

"John Ruskin, the nineteenth-century British writer with the most wide-ranging influence on contemporary thought, has gone unread for a long time. His ideas have lived through the words of other writers while his own works are ignored. Their style suited an age that found the forty mile-per-hour speed of the railway frightening, that never dreamed of multi-tasking, channel surfing, and sound bites. Reading was then a majestic activity in pace and status, total attention demanded by it and total attention given it. We have lost that patience and those skills, so Ruskin's prose seems difficult, and we avoid it. That is our loss". Phyllis Rose.

Some quotes from Ruskin:

"Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, without assistance or combination, water is the most wonderful. If we think of it as the source of all the changeableness and beauty which we have seen in clouds; then as the instrument by which the earth we have contemplated was modelled into symmetry, and its crags chiselled into grace; then as, in the form of snow, it robes the mountains it has made with that transcendent light which we could not have conceived if we had not seen; then as it exists in the foam of the torrent, in the iris which spans it, in the morning mist which rises from it, in the deep crystalline pools which its hanging shore, in the broad lake and glancing river; finally, in that which is to all human minds the best emblem of unwearied unconquerable power, the wild, various, fantastic, timeless unity of the sea; what shall we compare to this mighty, this universal element, for glory and for beauty? or how shall we follow its eternal changefulness of feeling? It is like trying to paint a soul.!

I’m a big believer in reading primary texts. I get a little sick at the idea of studying a philosopher without reading the works of that philosopher, but I’m realistic enough to know that for the general reader, primary texts aren’t always a good option. They’re often too long or too involved for someone just looking for a passing familiarity, and so we end up relying on secondary sources. If this little book from the Penguin Great Ideas series is typical, this series is a great way of filling the need for primary texts for the general reader. Plus, with its lovely embossed cover, this book is a thing of beauty.

The 98-page book contains just two essays by Ruskin: “The Nature of Gothic” from The Stone of Venice and “The Work of Iron in Nature, Art, and Policy,” a lecture Ruskin delivered in 1858. My only complaint is that there’s no actual context or introduction provided. Just a few pages of basic biographical and historical information would have made this a perfect little introduction to Ruskin.

Leon Battista Alberti "On Painting" (Penguin)




This small short volume is more of a re-read for me - the last time i read it was when i was doing my Open University studies way back in the late seventies and early eighties - it being one of the set books. I had taken the Art Foundation course and followed it with the second level course on The Renaissance before moving on to other subjects such as the later Enlightenment period. It was a pleasure to re-read this without the focus of having to write essays.


“Painting possesses a truly divine power in not only does it make the absent present (as they say of friendship), but it also represents the dead to the living many centuries later, so that they are recognised by spectators with pleasure and deep admiration for the artist.”

As this extract shows; Alberti was passionate about painting; he believed it was the truest medium to express the beauty of the natural world. He wanted to ensure that its practitioners were well aware of their responsibilities and that they would have the necessary skills to do their art justice. He wrote On Painting in 1435 as a relatively young man of thirty years old and would have been amazed that this short treatise would be his most famous work. This was at the dawn of the Italian Renaissance in Florence and it was the first publication on the technique of painting. Alberti was well aware that he was writing an original work and also that it would be a teaching manual for students of painting, however it proves to be much more than this, as Alberti includes much of his philosophy on life which makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the Italian Renaissance.

There are three sections to the treatise; book one proves to be the most difficult to read as Alberti is intent here on providing a theoretical background. It is ground breaking stuff as he applies the science of mathematics to the art of painting. He is intent on laying the ground rules of geometry, which he believes is essential for would be painters to master. He has a firm grasp of perspective and we can follow his methods in establishing a vanishing point. It is not quite so easy to follow him through his explanation of how the eye sees different shapes and how these are to be measured and transferred onto a painting. He uses Aristotelian optical science with its emphasis on rays of light emitting from the eye, which was a feature of medieval optical science and which reads very strangely to us today, but his thoughts can be followed well enough. Book two serves as an instruction to painters on how to look at objects and transfer these visions with the skill of his hand onto a painting. There is much detail on the effects of light, proportions of the body, the correct facial expressions to be used and the use of colour, which is all fascinating stuff. Reading this felt like being in a 14th century classroom with Alberti standing out front and lecturing me on the how to be a painter. Book three deals with the personal qualities that are required to produce a work of art, it also provides some pointers as to how to capture the beauty of a subject and finally the importance of an artists work to society.

Alberti’s ideas on the perfection within nature is found everywhere in this treatise. He constantly encourages his students to look, really look for those perfect forms that are everywhere apparent. The aim of the artist should be to express those perfect forms, to demonstrate how everything fits together in a harmony created by God. According to Alberti everything in the world was well ordered and it was man who challenged this order with his actions and by his reactions to the ravages of fortune. It was the painter who was best placed to restore that harmony by his art.

Alberti’s advice to his students is to concentrate on Historia (history paintings) because there they will find subjects that are worthy of their art. This of course to a medieval man could mean subjects from classical times. Typically as a renaissance man; Alberti continually refers back to writers, philosophers and historians from ancient Greece and Rome. In a way this is second hand because he would have only known of painters from Greek antiquity from reports from historians, as no paintings from that era survived. A Christian artist then is encouraging his students to study the works and ideas of pagan artists and maybe to use pagan subject matter. At the time of writing “On Painting” nearly all the surviving paintings from the early renaissance are religious paintings, but there is no advice on how to depict religious subjects, which is curious because the cult of the Virgin Mary was in full swing at that time. Masaccio and Masolino had finished decorating the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence with frescoes that Alberti would have seen. They were much admired by artists of the time and studied for their realistic depiction of biblical figures and their use of perspective and yet Alberti does not mention them. Alberti was a painter himself, but no paintings by him survived , probably due to him becoming a architect and his first major architectural commission was in 1446 for the facade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence.

I read the Penguin Classics edition which has an excellent introduction by Martin Kemp and a good translation by Cecil Grayson. The translation is from the Tuscan Italian text but with additions from a Latin text where they differ. The treatise itself is fairly short just 60 pages long, I suppose it would not appeal to the more general reader but to anyone interested in the Renaissance or the history of painting then this is a must read. It is a chance to read directly the thoughts of a cultured scholar of his times, who must also have been an excellent communicator. He did have his eye on posterity, but did not think it would come from his treatise, as he urges his students to include his portrait in their paintings. Alberti has the last word:

“This is all I have to say about painting in theses books. If it is such as to be of some use to painters, I would specially ask them as a reward for my labours to paint my portrait in their “historia”, and thereby proclaim to posterity that I was a student of this art and that they are mindful of and grateful for this favour.”

I have just watched the first episode of the art documentary on BBC 4 - The Renaissance Unchained.

Waldemar Januszczak challenges the traditional notion of the Renaissance having fixed origins in Italy and showcases the ingenuity in both technique and ideas behind great artists such as Van Eyck, Memling, Van der Weyden, Cranach, Riemenschneider and Durer.





Hieronymus Bosch - Garden of Earthly Delights
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Carola Hicks "Girl In A Green Gown : The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait" (Chatto & Windus)




I have seen thus a couple of times on my very rare excursions to London and is on display at London's National Gallery in the Sainsbury Wing. It had intrigued me each time i viewed it, and now I have read the perfect book on the painting and its history.

It is a small painting. Despite its age it shines brightly. A young couple hold hands in their bedroom. They are barefoot. She wears a beautiful green dress. The eye catches the deep red furnishings – the bed of course. A single candle flickers in the ornate chandelier. A bright-eyed little dog looks at us. Then there is the mirror. Someone is looking into the room just as we do. Are the couple inviting us to join them? The artist has inscribed his name, Johannes de Eyck, and the date 1434.

The Arnolfini Portrait was one of the first paintings acquired by the National Gallery. It is one of the best-loved.

It began life in an attic in Bruges. How did it find its way into Trafalgar Square? Who are the man and the woman? What does it “mean”? Why has it cast such a spell?

This is a short book. It is not the last word on the artist or the work, by any means. It will probably not satisfy the specialist. It will enrich the viewing experience of the millions who step out of a busy street and stand in front of it, like myself, when i have visited the gallery.

The author follows the trail from 15th century Flanders as it passed from hand to hand. Each chapter discusses each owner, who they were and their interest in art. Interspersed are short chapters on different aspects of the painting itself. She tells how the objects in the room show off the high status of the couple as well as the genius of the painter. The same objects may be found in religious work of the time by van Eyck and his contemporaries – the portrait is both secular and spiritual, domestic and holy. Techniques and style are explained but the erudite, inaccessible and “arty” is avoided. She notes a resemblance to Vladimir Putin, she delights in the dogginess of the terrier in the foreground. She covers questions of symbolism. We learn how it has been interpreted over time. She summarizes evidence on the identity of the couple. But this is all presented in a way that I found so easy to read.

The Arnolfini was not seen by the public until 1843. Previous to that it was held in Spanish palaces generally unnoticed perhaps except for years spent in a royal loo, where, well, it must have been noticed at least! Some of its first and most enthusiastic fans were the Pre-Raphaelites. She made me realise just how important van Eyck was to their work. The Arnolfini motifs recur again and again in Morris, Millais and the other brothers. They thought to reproduce it, but knew even they had not that talent.

The couple spent the First World War hiding in the London Underground; during the Second they vacationed in a slate quarry in Wales. They returned in May 1945 as one of the nation’s favourites, a splash of colour in a drab and grey era. Modern cartoonists and advertisers have used its iconic status, even Habitat once in 2006. For young couples today it symbolises marriage and true love. We cannot see it through medieval eyes, so to a degree it must always be a mystery. Quite so.

An epilogue by Carola’s husband tells us that she died before the book was published. The project and the painting helped her through her final illness. Art can do that.