DOI article:
Jaźwierski, Jacek: "The Judgement of Hercules": Shaftesbury at the Crossroads of Art Theory
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56525#0033
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JACEK JAŻWIERSKI
able to link together two fields of his concern: art theory and moral philosophy. It also allowed him to set the
hierarchy of values both between art theory and the morals as well as within art theory alone.
In the notes to his never completed treatise Plastics, Shaftesbury wrote that his aim was “to twist, as it
were, and interweave morality with plasticks, that supreme beauty with this subaltern; those high and severe
maxims with these curious and severe in their kind.”4 Shaftesbury’s predilection for moral philosophy did not
recede with the rise of his interest in painting and art theory. At the end of his life, Shaftesbury virtuoso did
not ceased to be first and foremost a man of morals. In the Preface to the Second Characters, he admitted that
the essays are in fact of the inferior significance. “The subjects which he [the author] here treats are presumed
(he knows) to relate no further than to the ordinary pleasures and diversions of the fashionable world. But
however they may have been rated if our author should by good fortune have been able to render them more
speculative, or in reality more suitable to a taste and judgment than they have hitherto passed in the world,
he may have reason perhaps to be satisfied with his attempt.”5 Aware of the secondary character of painting,
Shaftesbury aimed at elevating it towards moral philosophy as its practical exemplification. This was the
main aim of the Hercules project. “Such a piece of furniture might well fit the gallery, or hall of exercises,
where our young Princes should learn their usual lessons.”6 Shaftesbury’s reform of painting, therefore, can-
not be separated from his efforts to reform morals.
In accordance with his moral vision of the aims of art, Shaftesbury believed that pictures are created
in artist’s mind and that the execution of the “real design” is only of secondary importance. Painter’s “idea
before his hand”, as he noted in Plastics.1 He shared this belief with such writers on art as Franciscus Junius,
Giovanni Bellori or André Félibien. It was also congruent with his mostly Platonic outlook.8 But the idea of
painting as intellectual undertaking took quite a radical turn in his commission of Hercules. Now the inventor
and executioner were two different persons. Shaftesbury neither could paint nor he considered painting wor-
thy of a gentleman9 but he was a painter because he invented the story with its moral meaning, disposed it in
imagination as well as ensured that the painting would be properly executed by providing de’ Matteis with
detailed instructions contained in his treatise. In other words, he invented and disposed in mind and words
what the actual painter was supposed only to execute.10 The inferiority of execution is also emphasized by the
fact that de’ Matteis was entrusted with this commission despite his poor track record as historical painter.
The decisive factor must have been his command of French which, with Shaftesbury’s lack of Italian, made
the communication between two men, so crucial in the case of this commission, possible.
In the Introduction to his Judgment o f Hercules, Shaftesbury defined what in his opinion constituted
a “real” painting or a “tablature” as he called it, by which he meant a genuine work of art. “By the word Tab-
lature (for which we have yet no name in English, besides the general one of Picture) we denote, according to
the original word TABULA, a Work not only distinct from a mere Portraiture, but from all those wilder sorts
of Painting which are in a manner absolute, and independent; such as the Paintings in Fresco upon the Walls,
the Ceilings, the Stair-cases, the Cupolo’s, and other remarkable places either of Churches or Palaces.”11 It
was the concept of a picture which departed from the Italian Renaissance ideal of fresco in maniera grande
and was replaced by the French concept of tableau - a history painting with the figures usually smaller than
life, perfected by Nicolas Poussin. The word “wild” used by Shaftesbury to describe the frescoes is interest-
ing. Samuel Johnson defined it in his Dictionary as, inter alia, something “merely imaginary” as opposed
to “such a one as may be easily put in execution” but also as something made “without consistent order and
plan”.12 “Absolute”, in turn, means “unlimited”13, and “independent” - impossible to grasp visually at once.
4 Second Characters, p. 9. In his Dictionary, Shaftesbury juxtaposed the word ethic with art terms: heroic, epic and poetic. Second
Characters, p. 179.
5 Second Characters, p. 3.
6 Letter Concerning Design, [in:] Second Characters, p. 26.
7 Plastics, [in:] Second Characters, p. 142.
8 For Shaftesbury’s aesthetic theoiy see R. Uphaus, Shaftesbury on Art: The Rhapsodic Aesthetic, “Journal of Aesthetics and Ait
Criticism”, 27, 1969, pp. 341-348 and D. Townsend, Shaftesbury's Aesthetic Theory, “Journal of Aesthetics and Ait Criticism”, 41, 1982,
pp. 205-213.
9 Shaftesbury also thought that none of contemporary painters deserved nobility and that Godfrey Kneller was knighted wrongly.
J. Barrell, The Political Theory of Painting from Reynolds to Hazlitt, New Haven-London 1986, p. 17.
10 Letter Concerning Design, [in:] Second Characters, p. 18.
11 Judgment of Hercules, pp. 3-4.
12 S. J ohnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London 1785, vol. 2, sv. Wild.
13 Ibidem, vol. 1, sv. Absolute.
JACEK JAŻWIERSKI
able to link together two fields of his concern: art theory and moral philosophy. It also allowed him to set the
hierarchy of values both between art theory and the morals as well as within art theory alone.
In the notes to his never completed treatise Plastics, Shaftesbury wrote that his aim was “to twist, as it
were, and interweave morality with plasticks, that supreme beauty with this subaltern; those high and severe
maxims with these curious and severe in their kind.”4 Shaftesbury’s predilection for moral philosophy did not
recede with the rise of his interest in painting and art theory. At the end of his life, Shaftesbury virtuoso did
not ceased to be first and foremost a man of morals. In the Preface to the Second Characters, he admitted that
the essays are in fact of the inferior significance. “The subjects which he [the author] here treats are presumed
(he knows) to relate no further than to the ordinary pleasures and diversions of the fashionable world. But
however they may have been rated if our author should by good fortune have been able to render them more
speculative, or in reality more suitable to a taste and judgment than they have hitherto passed in the world,
he may have reason perhaps to be satisfied with his attempt.”5 Aware of the secondary character of painting,
Shaftesbury aimed at elevating it towards moral philosophy as its practical exemplification. This was the
main aim of the Hercules project. “Such a piece of furniture might well fit the gallery, or hall of exercises,
where our young Princes should learn their usual lessons.”6 Shaftesbury’s reform of painting, therefore, can-
not be separated from his efforts to reform morals.
In accordance with his moral vision of the aims of art, Shaftesbury believed that pictures are created
in artist’s mind and that the execution of the “real design” is only of secondary importance. Painter’s “idea
before his hand”, as he noted in Plastics.1 He shared this belief with such writers on art as Franciscus Junius,
Giovanni Bellori or André Félibien. It was also congruent with his mostly Platonic outlook.8 But the idea of
painting as intellectual undertaking took quite a radical turn in his commission of Hercules. Now the inventor
and executioner were two different persons. Shaftesbury neither could paint nor he considered painting wor-
thy of a gentleman9 but he was a painter because he invented the story with its moral meaning, disposed it in
imagination as well as ensured that the painting would be properly executed by providing de’ Matteis with
detailed instructions contained in his treatise. In other words, he invented and disposed in mind and words
what the actual painter was supposed only to execute.10 The inferiority of execution is also emphasized by the
fact that de’ Matteis was entrusted with this commission despite his poor track record as historical painter.
The decisive factor must have been his command of French which, with Shaftesbury’s lack of Italian, made
the communication between two men, so crucial in the case of this commission, possible.
In the Introduction to his Judgment o f Hercules, Shaftesbury defined what in his opinion constituted
a “real” painting or a “tablature” as he called it, by which he meant a genuine work of art. “By the word Tab-
lature (for which we have yet no name in English, besides the general one of Picture) we denote, according to
the original word TABULA, a Work not only distinct from a mere Portraiture, but from all those wilder sorts
of Painting which are in a manner absolute, and independent; such as the Paintings in Fresco upon the Walls,
the Ceilings, the Stair-cases, the Cupolo’s, and other remarkable places either of Churches or Palaces.”11 It
was the concept of a picture which departed from the Italian Renaissance ideal of fresco in maniera grande
and was replaced by the French concept of tableau - a history painting with the figures usually smaller than
life, perfected by Nicolas Poussin. The word “wild” used by Shaftesbury to describe the frescoes is interest-
ing. Samuel Johnson defined it in his Dictionary as, inter alia, something “merely imaginary” as opposed
to “such a one as may be easily put in execution” but also as something made “without consistent order and
plan”.12 “Absolute”, in turn, means “unlimited”13, and “independent” - impossible to grasp visually at once.
4 Second Characters, p. 9. In his Dictionary, Shaftesbury juxtaposed the word ethic with art terms: heroic, epic and poetic. Second
Characters, p. 179.
5 Second Characters, p. 3.
6 Letter Concerning Design, [in:] Second Characters, p. 26.
7 Plastics, [in:] Second Characters, p. 142.
8 For Shaftesbury’s aesthetic theoiy see R. Uphaus, Shaftesbury on Art: The Rhapsodic Aesthetic, “Journal of Aesthetics and Ait
Criticism”, 27, 1969, pp. 341-348 and D. Townsend, Shaftesbury's Aesthetic Theory, “Journal of Aesthetics and Ait Criticism”, 41, 1982,
pp. 205-213.
9 Shaftesbury also thought that none of contemporary painters deserved nobility and that Godfrey Kneller was knighted wrongly.
J. Barrell, The Political Theory of Painting from Reynolds to Hazlitt, New Haven-London 1986, p. 17.
10 Letter Concerning Design, [in:] Second Characters, p. 18.
11 Judgment of Hercules, pp. 3-4.
12 S. J ohnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London 1785, vol. 2, sv. Wild.
13 Ibidem, vol. 1, sv. Absolute.