A Symbolic Portrait of DescartesAuthor(s): Roger HinksReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Oct., 1939 - Jan.,1940), p. 156Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750205 .Accessed: 23/04/2012 03:31

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156 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

A SYMBOLIC PORTRAIT OF DESCARTES

Allegorical portraiture, as a general rule, takes one of two forms : the subject of

the portrait either appears in his own person, accompanied by female figures typifying his virtues and other moral and intellectual attributes; or he is represented en travesti, as a personification of his own mental nature in a mythological guise. Examples of both types are so numerous that it is unnecessary to specify them. A much rarer kind of symbolic portrait shows the subject per- forming an act which, though purely meta- phorical and not ' historical,' epitomizes a whole chapter of his spiritual life. A good example of this class is the terracotta model by Robert Guillaume Dardel in the Wallace Collection, representing Descartes piercing the Darkness of Ignorance.' (P1. 3Ia)

The philosopher is shown bestriding a cloud and gazing fixedly downwards in the direction of the sun, whose rays are already breaking through. On the base is the signa- ture DARDEL Iv.; and near by we can read the first line of a couplet, the rest of which is obliterated: IL PERqA DE L'ERREUR

L'CPAISSE OBSCURIT..

As usual, the text provides the key to the meaning of the group : without this poetic auxiliary we might, indeed, have identified the figure as Descartes by the ordinary means of iconography; but we could hardly have interpreted the somewhat obscure symbolism of the nebulous mass through which the philosopher half emerges. Yet the cloud is not a mere adjunct: it is the whole point of the composition. In

were represented on coins independent of their hus- bands. On the other hand Queen Mary, as is well seen in Greenwich, is generally less in the foreground than her husband, William. A French medal, of a non-representative character, shows Louis XV and the Infanta of Spain facing each other. The artist, Le Blanc, has emphasized the childlike character of the bridal couple, whereas a medal by B. Duvivier, commemorating the birth of the Dauphin, shows the head of Marie Antoinette in profile almost covered by the king's.

1I am indebted to the Keeper of the Wallace Collection for the photograph reproduced here, and for his kind permission to publish it. The terracotta is described and illustrated in Mr. J. G. Mann's Catalogue of Sculpture in the Wallace Collection, (ig3r), no. S 61, p. 24f., pl. 16. Dardel (1749-182 ) exhibited this composition in the Salon de la Correspondance in 1782, under the title Descartes perGant les tinebres de l'ignorance. The completed figure entitled Descartes dibrouillant les chaos was purchased by the Soci6t6 des Amis des Arts. In 1793 Dardel exhibited a com- panion-piece called Newton dicouvre et montre la Viriti.

plastic treatment it descends from the clouds of Bernini, but its aesthetic function is quite different. In the St. Theresa and the Cathedra Petri, Bernini used masses of cloud to define the celestial region where the mystical event takes place; they form a kind of abbreviated landscape, but they do not play a central part in the actual drama. In Dardel's composition, on the other hand, the cloud is one opponent in a psychomachy between Science and Error: Descartes, although appearing in his own person, is Science personified-and not merely the individual author of the Discours de la M6- thode-because the artist has chosen to place him in a mythical context; and the cloud and the rays of sun symbolize Ignorance and Enlightenment, not in the usual anthropo- morphic form (as, for instance, in Mantegna's Allegory of the Virtues and Vices in the Louvre) but in the emblematic shape im- agined (though in how different a sense!) by the author of The Cloud of Unknowing.

ROGER HINKS

THE MONARCH'S CROWN OF THORNS

I. THE WREATH OF THORNS IN PARADISE REGAINED

In presenting to Jesus the good things of this world, the Satan of Paradise Regained

declares that high actions are possible only to one who has wealth and position. Jesus rejects Satan's argument :

What if with like aversion I reject Riches and Realms ? Yet not for that a Crown, Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns, Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights To him who wears the Regal Diadem, When on his shoulders each mans burden lies : For therein stands the office of a King, His honour, Virtue, Merit and chief Praise, That for the Publick all this weight he bears.

(II. 457-65)- As a parallel to this presentation of the difficulties of the ruler, commentators give the passage in which Prince Henry addresses the crown as it lies on his father's pillow :

O polish'd perturbation! golden care! That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night!

(Second Part of King Henry the Fourth IV. 5).

Many other authors have spoken in a like

31

]P~Ld~~h1 14 !i ~ ii~iii~iiiiiii................ ........ D)ANTIVS N IVA I ENVS

h- Dante and Galen Medallions, from D. Stolcius, Hortulus Hermeticus, 1627 (p. 153)

a--R. G. Dardel, Symbolic Portrait of Descartes. Lon- don, Wallace Coll. (p. 156)

b-Ferdinand of Aragon c-Philip II and Queen and Isabella of Castille Mary

d- Ptolemaic Coin e-Nero and f-Septimius Severus g-Ugo and Parisina d'Este Agrippina and Julia Domna

Coins. British Museum (p. 155)

i-The Monarch's Crown. From Saavedra Fajardo, Symbola Christiano - Politica, 1659 (p. 158)