On My Illustrations of Goethe’s ‘Faust’

Leonardo, zyxwvutsrqpo Vol. 8, pp. 235-237. Pergamon Press 1975. Printed in Great Britain zyxwv ON MY ILLUSTRATIONS OF GOETHE’S ‘FAUST’ Peter Lipman-Wulf* 1. Introduction zyxwvutsrq In an article on illustration, Stuart W. Little says: ‘In the last two decades the illustrator has watched a world of rapidly changing perspective zyxwvut . . .’ and ‘ . . . color photography was the first great agent of change and then television’ [l]. Although I recognize the impact of these new means of providing visual experiences, I do not believe that they can replace hand-made illustrations of literary works. Numerous artists still apply their talents in this way in order to fill the need of many people for story-telling imagery. For example, much of Picasso’s graphic work is of this character. Children begin to scribble at an early age and after they reach two years begin to draw vaguely recognizable figurative shapes [2]. In the West the interest shown by some adults in different types of nonfigurative or abstract art may be related to their early childhood enjoyment of scribbling. As children mature, their interest shifts to representational figurative drawing and painting, perhaps because they are encouraged in this direction by their parents and teachers. However, few children maintain an interest in making any kind of art objects by the time they reach adolescence. Surveys have shown that adults generally prefer representational figurative subject matter, whether in the form of paintings, illustrations or comics. Such subject matter also is still of primary concern to most artists, as is demonstrated by works of, recent decades that are classified as, for example, Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art and New Realism. While many of the young and old appreciate the depiction in a picture of subject matter with which they are familiar, they are particularly pleased if it tells a story. Narrative art, however, appeared rather late in the history of art. Narrative aspects are found in the frescoes of Pompeii [3] and they are clearly evident in art at the beginning of the Middle Ages, as for example, in the Bayeux tapestries. Then and later, many walls of churches Artist living at Whitney Road, Sag Harbor, L.I., NY 11963, U.S.A. (Received 29 zyxwvuts December 1973.) were covered with depictions of stories taken from the Bible. In the Middle Ages appeared books of bound parchment sheets in which texts, mainly biblical stories, were lettered patiently by hand. Illuminated manuscripts of this time contain both decorative letters and illustrations. When the printing press was introduced, woodcuts were made for illustrations and later engraved metal plates. Illustrations were generally prepared at book size. Malraux [4] has written on the scaling down of works of art through photographic reproduction, which leads to monotony, but he fails to take into account the art of book illustration. Stories told solely by means of illustrations began to appear during the Renaissance period. The reader will find historical reviews of such story-telling in Refs. 1 and zy 5. During the past 16 years I have been fascinated by the possibilities of illustrating literary classics and I have produced the portfolios of illustrations listed in Ref. 6. 2. Illustrations for Goethe’s ‘Faust’ (Parts I and 11) I shall describe the illustrations that I have made for Parts 1and I1of Goethe’s Fuust, by far my most ambitious portfolio [6]. This literary classic has been a source of inspiration for numerous artists. The legend of Faust, on which Goethe based his play, is the subject of a well-known etching by Rembrandt and of illustrations by, among others, Delacroix and Gustav DorC. The legend as developed by Goethe is a complex interweaving of philosophical and metaphysical ideas with a mythological and medieval background. There are four principal actors to be depicted by an illustrator, Faust, Mephistopheles, Helena and Gretchen, although in Part I1 there is a host of minor ones. Part I consists of several loosely knit scenes and in Part I1 there are five acts, each of a distinctive nature. Since there are many changes of scene but few stage directions in the play, one is forced to concentrate on the character and roles of the principal actors. Since my...