DOI article:
Kern, Ulrike: Shaftesbury's Dictionary of Terms of Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56525#0023
22
ULRIKE KERN
citations about art.14 Contrary to Fréart, Roger de Piles and Dryden, however, Shaftesbury did not use Junius
exclusively, but referred directly to ancient rhetorical writings. His interest in Italian literature, too, seems to
be mostly grounded in works that are concerned with ancient writings.15
An example for Shaftesbury’s direct reference to ancient rhetoric may be the rhetorical term ‘hyperbole’
that he transferred to his discourse on art. He introduced ‘hyperbole’ as a word meaning a deliberate, exag-
gerating deviation of a given proportion in order to clarify its sense and importance, ‘as in N. Poussin’s figure
and perspective piece of the Samaritan Woman, where a pointing finger is longer than the whole head or face.
How agreeable this part! ’16 Given the rather small size of Poussin’s figures in their landscape setting, this ex-
ample of a ‘hyperbole’ may be visually less powerful than Shaftesbury describes it with words.17 Yet he also
built on ancient rhetoric to create new art terms: ‘plastics’, for instance, also the title of his essay, is a neol-
ogism from the Greek with the extension to mean imitation of plastic, that is concave and convex forms.18
Shaftesbury’s Dictionary, though fragmentary, should be regarded as the first systematic and profound
attempt of a compilation of art terms in England. Earlier occupation with art terms were either made in so-called
‘hard-word dictionaries’, in the context of which they were treated as uncommon words of the English language,
or in explanatory glossaries as appendices to art treatises.19 Shaftesbury approached the terminology not so much
from an artistic perspective, but as a literary person and with a deep interest of an ethical and philosophical
notion of art and its aesthetic language.20 He surely had an intention to explain the meaning of art terms and to
translate them from antiquity, but he also seems to have wanted to understand their origin and moral conno-
tations. The words ‘rhyparography’ and ‘rhyparographer’, for example, which he noted in the Dictionary, are
derived from Pliny.21 Yet he also modernised the term, and used it in a similar sense as it had been introduced in
Edward Phillips’ ‘hard-word dictionary’, the New World of Words of 1678. Phillips mentioned the word in a sec-
tion with the title ‘Collection of such affected words from the Latin or Greek, as either to be used warily, and
upon occasion only, or totally to be rejected as Barbarous, and illegally compounded and derived’.22 Shaftesbury
contrasted ‘rhyparography’ with ‘decorum’.23 Accordingly, he used it for the Flemish artist Adriaen Brower and
his humoristic depictions of peasants and scenes of low life. Yet he also called ‘babaric’ subjects of Catholic art
such as crucifixions and martyrdoms ‘rhy paragraphic’. This is more surprising, since the subjects may be cruel,
but the ways in which they are depicted, can be elegant and aesthetically pleasing. Shaftesbury even thought
that these subjects diminished the mastery of Raphael and his praise for his champion was consequently slightly
dimmed in contrast to Bellori’s account of the Urbinian master.24
To clarify this meaning of the term ‘rhyparography’ which includes subjects from histories and high
genres, an explanation and perhaps an example would have been needed in Shaftesbury’s Dictionary. We
may assume that he had an intention to add this kind of information, since the fragment of the Dictionary
already includes explanatory footnotes. A problem which follows from there, however, is the question
which contents would have been included in the discussions of the Plastics, and which ones in the Diction-
14 F. Junius, De pictura veterum libri tres, Amsterdam 1637.
15 Especially Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, Leonardo Agostini, Gemme antiche. Vasari and Bellori are
only referred to with regard to Raphael; Paknadel, op. cit., p. 80-81.
16 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 153.
17 For a discussion of words from ancient rhetoric, such as ‘hyperbole’ and ‘ellipsis’ see Dob ai, op. cit., I, p. 54. An example of an
‘abuse of hyperbole’ in the Plastics, p. 155, is a discussion of Salvator Rosa whose figures Shaftesbury thought were too big and destroyed
the greatness of the landscape. Hyperbole is introduced as an opposite of ellipsis, but with a similar aesthetical aim to convey verity to the
spirit; see Paknadel, op. cit., pp. 141-143.
18 Paknadel, op. cit., p. 75. Shaftesbury used ‘plastic arts’ for painting and for sculpture as parts of ‘materia plastica’; Dobai,
op. cit., I, p. 74. The basic idea, perhaps transferred from Galileo Galilei, is that the optic perception of a haptic forni is at the bottom of the
aesthetic effect; Dobai, op. cit., I, p. 71.
19 The first book of this kind is Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabetical!, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding
of hard usuali English wordes, borrowedfrom the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French. &c., London 1604. For more about Hard-word diction-
aries see R.W. Bailey, Images of English. A Cultural History of the Language, Ann Arbour 1991, pp. 35-38.
20 Paknadel, op. cit., p. 138.
21 Shaftesbury/Rand, op. cit., p. 179; cf. H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, (LSJ), rev. and ed. H. Stuart
Jones, with the assistance of R. McKenzie, Oxford 1940, pfijioę, URL: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atex-
t%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*r%3Aentiy+gi'oup%3D17%3Aentiy%3Dr%28u%2Fpos [seen on 10/04/2020],
22 Phillips, op. cit., s. p. [sig. Eee],
23 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 167.
24 Ibidem, pp. 136-137. See also Dobai, op. cit., I, pp. 79-80. Paknadel, op. cit., p. 154, seems to generalise Shaftesbury’s dis-
cussion of the temi by ar guing he would have regar ded Dutch artists in general as ryparograpers.
ULRIKE KERN
citations about art.14 Contrary to Fréart, Roger de Piles and Dryden, however, Shaftesbury did not use Junius
exclusively, but referred directly to ancient rhetorical writings. His interest in Italian literature, too, seems to
be mostly grounded in works that are concerned with ancient writings.15
An example for Shaftesbury’s direct reference to ancient rhetoric may be the rhetorical term ‘hyperbole’
that he transferred to his discourse on art. He introduced ‘hyperbole’ as a word meaning a deliberate, exag-
gerating deviation of a given proportion in order to clarify its sense and importance, ‘as in N. Poussin’s figure
and perspective piece of the Samaritan Woman, where a pointing finger is longer than the whole head or face.
How agreeable this part! ’16 Given the rather small size of Poussin’s figures in their landscape setting, this ex-
ample of a ‘hyperbole’ may be visually less powerful than Shaftesbury describes it with words.17 Yet he also
built on ancient rhetoric to create new art terms: ‘plastics’, for instance, also the title of his essay, is a neol-
ogism from the Greek with the extension to mean imitation of plastic, that is concave and convex forms.18
Shaftesbury’s Dictionary, though fragmentary, should be regarded as the first systematic and profound
attempt of a compilation of art terms in England. Earlier occupation with art terms were either made in so-called
‘hard-word dictionaries’, in the context of which they were treated as uncommon words of the English language,
or in explanatory glossaries as appendices to art treatises.19 Shaftesbury approached the terminology not so much
from an artistic perspective, but as a literary person and with a deep interest of an ethical and philosophical
notion of art and its aesthetic language.20 He surely had an intention to explain the meaning of art terms and to
translate them from antiquity, but he also seems to have wanted to understand their origin and moral conno-
tations. The words ‘rhyparography’ and ‘rhyparographer’, for example, which he noted in the Dictionary, are
derived from Pliny.21 Yet he also modernised the term, and used it in a similar sense as it had been introduced in
Edward Phillips’ ‘hard-word dictionary’, the New World of Words of 1678. Phillips mentioned the word in a sec-
tion with the title ‘Collection of such affected words from the Latin or Greek, as either to be used warily, and
upon occasion only, or totally to be rejected as Barbarous, and illegally compounded and derived’.22 Shaftesbury
contrasted ‘rhyparography’ with ‘decorum’.23 Accordingly, he used it for the Flemish artist Adriaen Brower and
his humoristic depictions of peasants and scenes of low life. Yet he also called ‘babaric’ subjects of Catholic art
such as crucifixions and martyrdoms ‘rhy paragraphic’. This is more surprising, since the subjects may be cruel,
but the ways in which they are depicted, can be elegant and aesthetically pleasing. Shaftesbury even thought
that these subjects diminished the mastery of Raphael and his praise for his champion was consequently slightly
dimmed in contrast to Bellori’s account of the Urbinian master.24
To clarify this meaning of the term ‘rhyparography’ which includes subjects from histories and high
genres, an explanation and perhaps an example would have been needed in Shaftesbury’s Dictionary. We
may assume that he had an intention to add this kind of information, since the fragment of the Dictionary
already includes explanatory footnotes. A problem which follows from there, however, is the question
which contents would have been included in the discussions of the Plastics, and which ones in the Diction-
14 F. Junius, De pictura veterum libri tres, Amsterdam 1637.
15 Especially Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, Leonardo Agostini, Gemme antiche. Vasari and Bellori are
only referred to with regard to Raphael; Paknadel, op. cit., p. 80-81.
16 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 153.
17 For a discussion of words from ancient rhetoric, such as ‘hyperbole’ and ‘ellipsis’ see Dob ai, op. cit., I, p. 54. An example of an
‘abuse of hyperbole’ in the Plastics, p. 155, is a discussion of Salvator Rosa whose figures Shaftesbury thought were too big and destroyed
the greatness of the landscape. Hyperbole is introduced as an opposite of ellipsis, but with a similar aesthetical aim to convey verity to the
spirit; see Paknadel, op. cit., pp. 141-143.
18 Paknadel, op. cit., p. 75. Shaftesbury used ‘plastic arts’ for painting and for sculpture as parts of ‘materia plastica’; Dobai,
op. cit., I, p. 74. The basic idea, perhaps transferred from Galileo Galilei, is that the optic perception of a haptic forni is at the bottom of the
aesthetic effect; Dobai, op. cit., I, p. 71.
19 The first book of this kind is Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabetical!, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding
of hard usuali English wordes, borrowedfrom the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French. &c., London 1604. For more about Hard-word diction-
aries see R.W. Bailey, Images of English. A Cultural History of the Language, Ann Arbour 1991, pp. 35-38.
20 Paknadel, op. cit., p. 138.
21 Shaftesbury/Rand, op. cit., p. 179; cf. H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, (LSJ), rev. and ed. H. Stuart
Jones, with the assistance of R. McKenzie, Oxford 1940, pfijioę, URL: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atex-
t%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*r%3Aentiy+gi'oup%3D17%3Aentiy%3Dr%28u%2Fpos [seen on 10/04/2020],
22 Phillips, op. cit., s. p. [sig. Eee],
23 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 167.
24 Ibidem, pp. 136-137. See also Dobai, op. cit., I, pp. 79-80. Paknadel, op. cit., p. 154, seems to generalise Shaftesbury’s dis-
cussion of the temi by ar guing he would have regar ded Dutch artists in general as ryparograpers.