Value

Paul Nash
Nocturnal Landscape
1938
oil on canvas
Manchester Art Gallery

Giovanni Battista Naldini
Figure Studies
before 1591
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Jean-Marc Nattier
Venus withholding Cupid's Bow
ca. 1745
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille

Eglon van der Neer
The Nursery Visit
1664
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Cesare Nebbia
Women and Child with Harvest
ca. 1590
drawing
(study for fresco)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Jost de Negker
Capture of Belgrade by the Turks
1522
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Universitätsbibliothek, Heidelberg

Niccolò Nelli
Emperor Claudius
ca. 1550-70
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Ole Jørgen Ness
Portrait
1998
oil on canvas
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

Ben Nicholson
Feb 18, 54 (Azure)
1954
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Dirk Hidde Nijland
Harbor Head at Vlissingen
1927
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Georg Netzband
Demons at the Grave
(illustration to Faust)
1949
woodcut
Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome

Werner Neuhaus
Happiness and Envy
ca. 1925
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Niccolò di Segna
St Catherine of Alexandria
ca. 1340
 tempera on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of Domenico Nicolini of Venice
1579
woodcut and letterpress
(angel with laurel wreath)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

attributed to Nicoletto da Modena
The Spinario
(after antique sculpture)
ca. 1500-1510
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Axel Nilsson
Amaryllis and Woman
1940
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

In defining a work of art as a "man-made object demanding to be experienced aesthetically" we encounter for the first time a basic difference between the humanities and natural science.  The scientist, dealing as he does with natural phenomena, can at once proceed to analyze them.  The humanist, dealing as he does with human actions and creations, has to engage in a mental process of a synthetic and subjective character: he has mentally to re-enact the actions and to re-create the creations.  It is in fact by this process that the real objects of the humanities come into being.  For it is obvious that historians of philosophy or sculpture are concerned with books and statues not in so far as those books and statues exist materially, but in so far as they have a meaning.  And it is equally obvious that this meaning can only be apprehended by re-producing, and thereby, quite literally, "realizing" the thoughts that are expressed in the books and the artistic conceptions that manifest themselves in the statues.

Thus the art historian subjects his "material" to a rational archaeological analysis at times as meticulously exact, comprehensive and involved as any physical or astronomical research.  But he constitutes his "material" by means of an intuitive aesthetic re-creation,* including the perception and appraisal of "quality," just as any "ordinary" person does when he or she looks at a picture or listens to a symphony.

*However, when speaking of "re-creation" it is important to emphasize the prefix "re."  Works of art are both manifestations of artistic "intentions" and natural objects, sometimes difficult to isolate from their physical surroundings and always subject to the physical processes of aging.  Thus, in experiencing a work of art aesthetically we perform two entirely different acts which, however, psychologically merge with each other into one Erlebnis: we build up our aesthetic object both be re-creating the work of art according to the "intention" of its maker, and by freely creating a set of aesthetic values comparable to those with which we endow a tree or a sunset.  When abandoning ourselves to the impression of the weathered sculptures at Chartres, we cannot help enjoying their lovely mellowness and patina as an aesthetic value; but this value, which implies both the sensual pleasure in a peculiar play of light and color and the more sentimental delight in "age" and "genuineness," has nothing to do with the objective, or artistic, value with which the sculptures were invested by their makers.  From the point of view of the Gothic stone carvers the processes of aging were not merely irrelevant but positively undesirable: they tried to protect their statues by a coat of color which, had it been preserved in its original freshness, would probably spoil a good deal of our aesthetic enjoyment.  

– Erwin Panofsky, from The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline (1940)

Pattern Making

Anonymous German Artist
Repeat Pattern with Roses and Pinks
16th century
woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Virgil Solis
The Muse Terpsichore
before 1562
etching and engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anonymous Artist
Pressmark of the Heirs of Andreas Wechel, Frankfurt
1631
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Johann Baptist Homann
Flags of all the Seafaring Nations of the World
ca. 1700
hand-colored engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Albert Klingner
National-Zeitung
(newspaper)
ca. 1900
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Josef Sattler
Ex Libris Paul Voigt
ca. 1900
lithograph
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Koloman Moser
Jakob and Josef Kohn Furniture Company
ca. 1902-1906
lithograph (poster)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Franz Wiegele
Model Study
1908
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ernst Lübbert
Tolstoi
1911
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

C.F. Clarke
Moonlight in Winter
1912
photogravure
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Charlotte Wankel
Standing Figure
1926
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Alexander Rodchenko
Dynamic Column
1935
gelatin silver print
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern

Esteban Vicente
Número 4
1949
collage and mixed media on panel
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern

Alphons Freijmuth
Portrait of Pieter Holstein
1972
acrylic on canvas
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands

Quique Company
ACTV
ca. 1987-93
screenprint
(poster for discotheque)
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern

Cy Twombly
Lepanto VII
2001
acrylic paint, crayon and graphite on canvas
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Cleopatra

     How shall I plead my cause, when you, my judge,

     Already have condemned me? Shall I bring

     The love you bore me for my advocate?

     That now is turned against me, that destroys me,

     For love once past is at the best forgotten,

     But oftener sours to hate: 'twill please my Lord

     To ruin me, and therefore I'll be guilty.

     But could I once have thought it would have pleased you,

     That you would pry with narrow searching eyes

     Into my faults, severe to my destruction, 

     And watching all advantages with care

     That serve to make me wretched? Speak, my Lord,

     For I end here. Though I deserve this usage,

     Was it like you to give it?

Antony                                 Oh, you wrong me

     To think I sought this parting, or desired

     To accuse you more than what will clear myself

     And justify this breach.

                         *             *           *

Ventidius                                 O Siren! Siren!

     Yet grant that all the love she boasts were true,

     Has she not ruined you? I still urge that,

     That fatal consequence.    

Cleopatra                          The consequence indeed,

     For I dare challenge him, my greatest foe,

     To say it was designed . . .

– John Dryden, All for Love (1677)

Pattern Making

Anonymous German Artist
Virgin and Child
with Emblems of the Four Evangelists
15th century
hand-colored woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist
Battle Scene
ca. 1475-1500
hand-colored woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous Italian Artist
Acanthus Frieze
ca. 1550-1600
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ignazio Danti
Ornamented Inscription
ca. 1575-85
fresco
(text element - Salento Peninsula map)
Galleria della Carte Geografiche, Musei Vaticani, Rome

Hans Rogel
The Crucifixion
ca. 1580
hand-colored woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous Artist
Pressmark of Eustache Vignon of Geneva
1602
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Giovanni Battista Galestruzzi after Polidoro da Caravaggio
Frieze of Roman Artifacts
before 1677
etching
(after exterior fresco in Rome)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Karl Schmidt
Diagrams for Half-Spiral Staircase
ca. 1825-35
drawing, with added watercolor
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Ethel Reed
Miss Träumerei
(novel by Albert Morris Bagby)
1895
lithograph
(poster - proof before lettering)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Helmuth Macke
Haystacks in Sindelsdorf
ca. 1909
tempera on cardboard
Museum Penzberg, Germany

Alfred Wickenburg
Diana and Actaeon
1921
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Paul Strand
Fern, New England
1928
platinum print
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Hugh Henry Breckenridge
Italian Fruit Dish
1931
oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Lee Krasner
Abstract no. 2
ca. 1946-48
oil on canvas
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern

Patrick Caulfield
Still Life Ingredients
1976
screenprint
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Piotr Müller
House of an Art Collector
2010
installation (painted wood)
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands

Charmion  

     He bid me say, he knew himself so well,

     He could deny you nothing if he saw you,

     And therefore –

Cleopatra              Thou wouldst say, he would not see me?

Charmion

     And therefore begged you not to use a power

     Which he could ill resist; yet he should ever

     Respect you as he ought.

Cleopatra                            Is that a word

     For Antony to use to Cleopatra?

     Oh that faint word, 'respect'! How I disdain it!

     Disdain myself, for loving after it!

     He should have kept that word for cold Octavia,

     Respect is for a wife: am I that thing,

     That dull, insipid lump, without desires,

     And without power to give 'em?

Alexas                                             You misjudge:

     You see through love, and that deludes your sight

     As what is straight seems crooked through the water;

     But I, who bear my reason undisturbed,

     Can see this Antony, this dreaded man,

     A fearful slave who fain would run away,

     And shuns his master's eyes. If you pursue him,

     My life on't, he still drags a chain along,

     That needs must clog his flight.

Cleopatra                                       Could I believe thee! –

Alexas

     By every circumstance I know he loves.

     True, he's hard pressed by interest and by honour;

     Yet he but doubts, and parleys, and casts out

     Many a long look for succour. 

Cleopatra                                    He sends word

     He fears to see my face.

Alexas                                 And would you more?

     He shows his weakness who declines the combat,

     And you must urge your fortune. Could he speak

     More plainly? To my ears the message sounds:

     'Come to my rescue, Cleopatra, come;

     Come, free me from Ventidius, from my tyrant:

     See me, and give me a pretence to leave him!'

     I hear his trumpets. This way he must pass.

     Please you, retire a while; I'll work him first,

     That he may bend more easy.    

– John Dryden, All for Love (1677)

Wings

Peter Paul Rubens
Three Musical Angels
ca. 1615-20
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Rembrandt
The Phoenix, or, The Statue Overthrown
1658
etching, engraving and drypoint
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Greek Culture in South Italy
Winged Victory
3rd-2nd century BC
terracotta
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Jacques de Gheyn II
Fly
ca. 1600
watercolor on paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Cherubino Alberti
Winged Genius with Palm Branch
1608
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist after Bartholomeus Spranger
Holy Family with Angels
17th century
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Hans Burgkmair the Younger
Angel sealing the Pit
(series, Scenes from the Apocalypse)
ca. 1550
drawing
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert
Angels at the Empty Tomb of Christ
before 1655
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giorgio Vasari
Winged Victory with Prisoners
ca. 1540
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Battista Franco (il Semolei)
Birds and Insects
before 1561
etching and engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Girolamo Mocetto
Winged Allegorical Figure with Arrow
ca. 1495
drawing on vellum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of Theodor Rihel of Strasbourg
1568
woodcut and letterpress
(winged allegorical figure) 
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours
Mercury in Flight, after an Antique Fresco
ca. 1780-92
drawing
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques
des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Anonymous Artist
Half-Length Figure of Angel
17th century
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Anonymous Artist
Winged Genius with Poet
17th century
drawing
(design for lunette decoration)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous Artist after Aegidius Sadeler
Fortuna sailing atop Winged Sphere
ca. 1590
watercolor on paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

There is an interesting pamphlet by a minor painter called Henry Richter, published in 1817 – the year Constable exhibited Wivenhoe Park – which well illustrates the spirit of creative research that animated the young painters of the nineteenth century.  It is called Daylight: A Recent Discovery in the Art of Painting.  In this amusing dialogue the painter challenges the Dutch seventeenth-century masters, or rather their ghosts assembled at an exhibition, with the question: "Was there no clear sky in your day, and did not the broad blue light of the atmosphere shine then, as it does now?  I find it is this which gives the chief splendour of sunshine by contrasting the golden with the azure lights." 

Like Constable, Richter scrutinized the traditional formula handed down in the science of painting and found that if you tested pictures painted in that way they did not look like scenes in daylight.  He therefore advocated the addition of more blue in contrast to yellow in order to achieve that equivalence to daylight which had hitherto eluded art.

Richter's criticism was right, but he does not appear to have succeeded in producing a satisfactory alternative.  Perhaps he was not inventive enough to put his hypothesis to the test of a successful painting, perhaps he lacked the stamina for trying again and again, and so he disappeared into the oblivion of a tame and uninspired Victorian illustrator while Constable went on experimenting till he found those brighter and cooler harmonies which, indeed, took painting nearer to plein air.  

But the evidence of history suggests that all such discoveries involve the systematic comparison of past achievements and present motifs, in other words, the tentative projection of works of art onto nature, experiments as to how far nature can in fact be seen in such terms. 

– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)