DOI article:
Kern, Ulrike: Shaftesbury's Dictionary of Terms of Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56525#0025
24
ULRIKE KERN
There is nothing insolent in Fréart’s glossary, a list of only six Italian terms of art.31 Shaftesbury does not tell
us what exactly he found so tactless about it. It is true that he complained about Fréart’s impertinence to criticise
Raphael, but this was in a context unrelated to any lexical discussion.32 Since Shaftesbury aimed for a considerably
more extensive list of art words, he might have taken offence at the Frenchman’s comment that ‘it would be but
a kind of Pedantry to make any farther Glosses’33 Shaftesbury called Fréart a pedant, and meant by this that the
Frenchman would be someone who imposed his academic proficiency on others.34 He considered pedantry as un-
gentlemanly and ‘a breach of the harmony of public conversation’.35 Shaftesbury must thus have intended to make
his dictionary of art terms unsuspicious of obsessiveness, bookishness and solipsism. This may be an important
reason why he began to add notes and instructions and why his list of words was arranged thematically rather than
alphabetically. However, he must have considered the possibility that Fréart only employed the argument of ped-
antry to justify the almost trivial scope of his glossary of six words. Shaftesbury neither made use of this fact for
criticising his French model, nor did he take up any of the six words of Fréart’s list into his own account.
Fréart built on terms from Italian art theory, Shaftesbury’s Dictionary compiled words with Greek,
Latin, French and Italian origins. He announced that his Dictionary would include words that were ‘new
coined (with apology)’.36 Shaftesbury’s excuse may have referred to the problem of finding a translation that
conveys the exact meaning of the foreign word, since the original meaning of a word is necessarily distorted
by the act of translation. Together with his apology, Shaftesbury also intended to point out that artistic and
scholarly readerships usually have their strength in different languages, the ones in the modern, the others in
the ancient. He argued that the translations would be
... sewing either for such artists in a modem way as are not scholars in the ancient, or for such scholars in the learned
and ancient way as are not acquainted with the foreign modem tongues, viz. Italian or French.37
Shaftesbury may have made the translations not only as a help for his readers, but perhaps also for his
own search for inherent meanings of artistic words that he borrowed from these languages. Fréart seems to
have been more outspoken in this respect, when he remarked that he had difficulties, while looking for trans-
lations for Italian art terms, to find words, as he put it, ‘...that are purely ours’ (‘purement franęois’ in the orig-
inal) and that would express ‘the barbarisms, which custom has as it were naturaliz’d amongst our painters. ’38
He had difficulties to find words that would covey the same meaning to his language as the original word
and not sound unpleasantly when used in a more sophisticated language than artists’ everyday talk. For this
reason, Fréart thought it would be more helpful to explain the terms rather than to give a pure translation.39
Shaftesbury often reverted to a similar method of adding meaning by providing comparative terms.
THE DICTIONARY AND TERMS OF PICTORIAL COMPOSITION: ‘GROUPS’AND ‘MASSES’
Shaftesbury had an ambiguous attitude towards French art theory, but there was no way around it when
he wanted to discuss terms of pictorial composition. Little on pictorial composition was to be found in
ancient rhetoric, but much in French art theory. Compositional terminology had been discussed and employed
31 That is: estampe, tramontani, élèlve, esquisse, attitude, pellegrin, which Evelin returns into their Italian, or seemingly Italian,
form: stampi, tramotano, elevato, schizzo, attitudo, pellegrino.
32 Shaftesbury/Rand, pp. 132, 155. Cf. Paknadel, op. cit., p. 90.
33 ‘...it would be but a kjnd of Pedantry to make any farther Glosses." Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [a4r];
‘... ce seroit une espece de Pedanterie de gloser ainsi par- tout’, idem, Idée de la perfection..., s. p. [éivr],
34 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 16.
35 For an account of the origination and notion of pedantry in early modem English thought, see S. Shapin, ‘A Scholar and a Gentle-
man’: The Problematic Identity of the Scientific Practitioner in Early Modern England, “History of Science”, 29, 1991, pp. 279-327, for
the quotation, p. 302.
36 Shaftesbury/Rand, pp. 7-8.
37 Ibidem, p. 7. Cf. Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [sig. a]: A Friend of mine, ... advertis’d me of certain
obscure Italian Terms, which I had made use of in my Discourse', the understanding of which would doubtless be veiy difficult to many, who were
not acquainted with that Tongue, and that one should strive to render things as clear- and intelligible to the Reader as was possible.’
38 Cf. Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [alv],
39 See U. Kern, The art of translating foreign art terms, [in:] Des mots pour la théorie, des mots pour la pratique. Lexicographic
artistique. Formes usages et enjeux dans I Europe moderne, ed. M.C. Heck in cooperation with M. Freyssinet and S. Trouvé, Montpellier
2018, pp. 423-35, esp. p. 429.
ULRIKE KERN
There is nothing insolent in Fréart’s glossary, a list of only six Italian terms of art.31 Shaftesbury does not tell
us what exactly he found so tactless about it. It is true that he complained about Fréart’s impertinence to criticise
Raphael, but this was in a context unrelated to any lexical discussion.32 Since Shaftesbury aimed for a considerably
more extensive list of art words, he might have taken offence at the Frenchman’s comment that ‘it would be but
a kind of Pedantry to make any farther Glosses’33 Shaftesbury called Fréart a pedant, and meant by this that the
Frenchman would be someone who imposed his academic proficiency on others.34 He considered pedantry as un-
gentlemanly and ‘a breach of the harmony of public conversation’.35 Shaftesbury must thus have intended to make
his dictionary of art terms unsuspicious of obsessiveness, bookishness and solipsism. This may be an important
reason why he began to add notes and instructions and why his list of words was arranged thematically rather than
alphabetically. However, he must have considered the possibility that Fréart only employed the argument of ped-
antry to justify the almost trivial scope of his glossary of six words. Shaftesbury neither made use of this fact for
criticising his French model, nor did he take up any of the six words of Fréart’s list into his own account.
Fréart built on terms from Italian art theory, Shaftesbury’s Dictionary compiled words with Greek,
Latin, French and Italian origins. He announced that his Dictionary would include words that were ‘new
coined (with apology)’.36 Shaftesbury’s excuse may have referred to the problem of finding a translation that
conveys the exact meaning of the foreign word, since the original meaning of a word is necessarily distorted
by the act of translation. Together with his apology, Shaftesbury also intended to point out that artistic and
scholarly readerships usually have their strength in different languages, the ones in the modern, the others in
the ancient. He argued that the translations would be
... sewing either for such artists in a modem way as are not scholars in the ancient, or for such scholars in the learned
and ancient way as are not acquainted with the foreign modem tongues, viz. Italian or French.37
Shaftesbury may have made the translations not only as a help for his readers, but perhaps also for his
own search for inherent meanings of artistic words that he borrowed from these languages. Fréart seems to
have been more outspoken in this respect, when he remarked that he had difficulties, while looking for trans-
lations for Italian art terms, to find words, as he put it, ‘...that are purely ours’ (‘purement franęois’ in the orig-
inal) and that would express ‘the barbarisms, which custom has as it were naturaliz’d amongst our painters. ’38
He had difficulties to find words that would covey the same meaning to his language as the original word
and not sound unpleasantly when used in a more sophisticated language than artists’ everyday talk. For this
reason, Fréart thought it would be more helpful to explain the terms rather than to give a pure translation.39
Shaftesbury often reverted to a similar method of adding meaning by providing comparative terms.
THE DICTIONARY AND TERMS OF PICTORIAL COMPOSITION: ‘GROUPS’AND ‘MASSES’
Shaftesbury had an ambiguous attitude towards French art theory, but there was no way around it when
he wanted to discuss terms of pictorial composition. Little on pictorial composition was to be found in
ancient rhetoric, but much in French art theory. Compositional terminology had been discussed and employed
31 That is: estampe, tramontani, élèlve, esquisse, attitude, pellegrin, which Evelin returns into their Italian, or seemingly Italian,
form: stampi, tramotano, elevato, schizzo, attitudo, pellegrino.
32 Shaftesbury/Rand, pp. 132, 155. Cf. Paknadel, op. cit., p. 90.
33 ‘...it would be but a kjnd of Pedantry to make any farther Glosses." Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [a4r];
‘... ce seroit une espece de Pedanterie de gloser ainsi par- tout’, idem, Idée de la perfection..., s. p. [éivr],
34 Shaftesbury/Rand, p. 16.
35 For an account of the origination and notion of pedantry in early modem English thought, see S. Shapin, ‘A Scholar and a Gentle-
man’: The Problematic Identity of the Scientific Practitioner in Early Modern England, “History of Science”, 29, 1991, pp. 279-327, for
the quotation, p. 302.
36 Shaftesbury/Rand, pp. 7-8.
37 Ibidem, p. 7. Cf. Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [sig. a]: A Friend of mine, ... advertis’d me of certain
obscure Italian Terms, which I had made use of in my Discourse', the understanding of which would doubtless be veiy difficult to many, who were
not acquainted with that Tongue, and that one should strive to render things as clear- and intelligible to the Reader as was possible.’
38 Cf. Fréart de Chambray, An Idea of the Perfection..., s. p. [alv],
39 See U. Kern, The art of translating foreign art terms, [in:] Des mots pour la théorie, des mots pour la pratique. Lexicographic
artistique. Formes usages et enjeux dans I Europe moderne, ed. M.C. Heck in cooperation with M. Freyssinet and S. Trouvé, Montpellier
2018, pp. 423-35, esp. p. 429.