Proto-Surrealism
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Proto-Surrealism is a term used for
Definition
Surrealism is a 20th-century art movement. André Breton, a French poet, known as one of the core founders of the Surrealist movement, wrote two manifestos that define surrealism.[2] Many current art critics and historians aim to identify characteristics which enable works of art to be categorized as surrealism. These identifying elements include automatism and a spirit of spontaneity, hyper-realistic dreamlike scenes, psychology and mythology as themes, a focus on dreams, psychoanalysis, fantastic imagery, a break from imagery, illogical juxtapositions, distorted figures, and personal iconography.[1] Proto-surrealism doesn't adhere to Breton's strict definition of surrealism and its guidelines.
Artists
During the Late Renaissance and Baroque era there was a prevalence of artwork and imagery created that shared aspects of surrealism. In particular, the work of artists like Hieronymus Bosch and Giuseppe Arcimboldo are credited by modern surrealists as being influential to the surrealist movement.
Hieronymus Bosch
A Dutch artist during the late 15th and early 16th century,
In Bosch's most famous work - the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" - the three panels show scenes that depict Heaven, Earth, and Hell.[3] The far left panel showcases a scene from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Here God stands between the two while an assortment of real and mythological creatures crawl out from a hole below. Above the trio, there is a building that sits in the middle of a lake while various other mythological creatures roam above and around the structure. In the midst, a fantastical landscape begins to melt into the background. The large middle panel shows a scene of numerous nude humans dancing, swimming, riding animals that are both real and mythical and suggestively cavorting.
Moving to back of the panel, there are many structures with fish-like creatures flying above them, humans and human-like beings in and around the structures, and other beings interacting around the space can be seen. Throughout this middle panel, there are gigantic birds, humans inside crustacean-like creatures, caves, and an assortment of other activities and objects in the scenes. However, the panel that Bosch is most likely remembered for is the far-right panel, depicting hell. This panel contains very detailed imagery; a large knife blade protrudes from between two massive ears of pig dressed in a nun's garments while attempting to kiss a man's cheek, a man's hollow body cavity merges with a tree, and a bird-like creature that appears to swallow humans whole while excreting its human waste into a pit of other fallen humans.
Behind all this action, there are crowds of naked bodies that disappear into an ominous red pool and cities that appear to be burning and melting into the dark and misty background. The vision is dark and violent. According to Dr. Nils Büttner, author of Hieronymus Bosch: Visions and Nightmares, this panel depicts a "prototype of everything we understand as Hell," and "Other people came up with images of Hell, but nothing so fantastic."[5] The erotic scenes, wild strange monsters, fantasy fruits, and illogical juxtapositions lead some art historians to credit Bosch as being the forefather of the surrealist movement.[6]
Bosch's Christ in Limbo, features another hell-like scene with a giant humanoid creature who guzzles humans whilst other mythological creatures roam about with various human interactions. to his drawing of The Listening Wood and the Seeing Field, an ink drawing which displays two ears in a forest and a field full of eyeballs as an owl sits in a hollow tree,
The surrealist qualities and elements found throughout much of Bosch's work have led some to title him as a proto-surrealist. In fact, in his first Surrealist Manifesto, Andre Breton dubbed Bosch as a forerunner to Surrealism, saying Bosch's work was "a strange marriage of fideism and revolt... the singer of the unconscious" and that his composition was "the example of automatic writing."[3]
Arguments against Hieronymus Bosch's title of Proto-Surrealist
Arguments against calling Bosch a proto-surrealist usually fall in line with art historian Walter Bosing's comments. Bosing writes in his book, Bosch, that "...the tendency to interpret Bosch's imagery in terms of modern Surrealism or Freudian psychology is anachronistic. We forget too often that Bosch never read Freud and that modern psychoanalysis would have been incomprehensible to the medieval mind... Modern psychology may explain the appeal Bosch's pictures have for us, but it cannot explain the meaning they had for Bosch and his contemporaries. Bosch did not intend to evoke the subconscious of the viewer, but to teach him certain moral and spiritual truths, and thus his images generally had a precise and premeditated significance."[9]
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
A 16th-century Italian court portraitist,
Others
Below are a few examples of artists who produced work that could be labeled as proto-surrealist.
Artist | Work |
---|---|
Pieter Huys |
The Temptation of St. Anthony [14] |
Wenzel Jamnitzer |
Etching from Perspectiva corporum regularium 1568[15] |
Giovanni Battista Braccelli |
Bizzare di Varie Figure 44[16] |
Pieter Breugel the Elder |
Temptation of Saint Anthony[17] |
Hans Baldung Grien
|
The Ages of Woman and Death[18] |
Joos de Momper |
From a series of four seasons in anthropomorphic landscapes: Allegory of Winter[19] |
References
- ^ ThoughtCo. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "André Breton | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ a b c Cohen, Alina (24 April 2018). "Why Bosch Is Used to Describe Everything from High Fashion to Heavy Metal". Artsy. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ISBN 978-3-7913-8205-0.
- ^ Cohen, Alina (24 April 2018). "Why Bosch Is Used to Describe Everything from High Fashion to Heavy Metal". Artsy. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- ^ "Hieronymous Bosch - The Complete Works - hieronymus-bosch.org". www.hieronymus-bosch.org. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- ^ "The hearing forest and the sighted field by Hieronymus Bosch: History, Analysis & Facts". Arthive. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "St. Anthony's Fire -- Ergotism". MedicineNet. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- OCLC 45329900.
- S2CID 170771712.
- ^ "History of Art: Renaissance - Arcimboldo". www.all-art.org. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Afterword (18 January 2011). "Giuseppe Arcimboldo: The prince of produce portraiture | National Post". Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "Giuseppe Arcimboldo: The prince of produce portraiture". Nationalpost.
- ^ "The Temptation of Saint Anthony". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "Perspectiva Corporum Regularium,1568". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "Причудливые узоры — Просмотр — Mировая цифровая библиотека". www.wdl.org. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- JSTOR 3191348.
- ^ "The Ages of Woman and Death - The Collection". Museo Nacional del Prado. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ hoakley (24 November 2018). "The Four Seasons: Before Poussin". The Eclectic Light Company. Retrieved 23 April 2019.