DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0050
ART-HISTORY AS AN ACADEMIC STUDY
It is this effect on us of the work of art which Professor Housman, as he
told us in his inaugural lecture, Ends so conveniently recorded for him-
self in the bristling of his beard, though its importance I suspect lies far
more in the profound psychical disturbances which accompany such
physiological changes than in those changes themselves.
I have boldly used this word ‘ subconscious ’ although it bristles with
difficulties. What a pace the world has moved since Myers, when I was
an undergraduate, first launched the words ‘ subliminal consciousness ’!
In particular the Psycho-analysts, with whom I suspect aesthetic
enquirers will have increasingly to deal—the Psycho-analysts have given
us a very strange and disquieting picture of the contents of this long-
unnoticed companion of our conscious life. Now they are mainly con-
cerned with mapping out the most primitive and fundamental part of
this entity, with those emotional patterns which are laid down in the
first years of infancy. These may possibly one day be shown to have a
bearing upon the nature of artistic creation, but we are more particu-
larly concerned with another aspect, with those parts of the subconscious
being which have filtered down through our conscious life and consist of
the abiding residue of innumerable sensations, feelings, predilections,
aspirations, desires, judgments, in fact all those things which constitute
our spiritual life.
The mere length of time that an artist has lived has then inevitably
an influence on the work of art. When we look at the late works of
Titian or Rembrandt we cannot help feeling the pressure of a massive
and rich experience which leaks out, as it were, through the ostensible
image presented to us, whatever it may be. There are artists, and per-
haps Titian and Rembrandt are good examples, who seem to require a
very long period of activity before this unconscious element finds its way
completely through into the work of art. In other cases, particularly
in artists whose gift lies in a lyrical direction, the exaltation and passion
of youth transmits itself directly into everything they touch, and then
sometimes, when this flame dies down, their work becomes relatively
cold and uninspired.
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It is this effect on us of the work of art which Professor Housman, as he
told us in his inaugural lecture, Ends so conveniently recorded for him-
self in the bristling of his beard, though its importance I suspect lies far
more in the profound psychical disturbances which accompany such
physiological changes than in those changes themselves.
I have boldly used this word ‘ subconscious ’ although it bristles with
difficulties. What a pace the world has moved since Myers, when I was
an undergraduate, first launched the words ‘ subliminal consciousness ’!
In particular the Psycho-analysts, with whom I suspect aesthetic
enquirers will have increasingly to deal—the Psycho-analysts have given
us a very strange and disquieting picture of the contents of this long-
unnoticed companion of our conscious life. Now they are mainly con-
cerned with mapping out the most primitive and fundamental part of
this entity, with those emotional patterns which are laid down in the
first years of infancy. These may possibly one day be shown to have a
bearing upon the nature of artistic creation, but we are more particu-
larly concerned with another aspect, with those parts of the subconscious
being which have filtered down through our conscious life and consist of
the abiding residue of innumerable sensations, feelings, predilections,
aspirations, desires, judgments, in fact all those things which constitute
our spiritual life.
The mere length of time that an artist has lived has then inevitably
an influence on the work of art. When we look at the late works of
Titian or Rembrandt we cannot help feeling the pressure of a massive
and rich experience which leaks out, as it were, through the ostensible
image presented to us, whatever it may be. There are artists, and per-
haps Titian and Rembrandt are good examples, who seem to require a
very long period of activity before this unconscious element finds its way
completely through into the work of art. In other cases, particularly
in artists whose gift lies in a lyrical direction, the exaltation and passion
of youth transmits itself directly into everything they touch, and then
sometimes, when this flame dies down, their work becomes relatively
cold and uninspired.
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