German Romanticism and English Art by William Vaughan (review)

338 Books Science within Art. Lynette I. Rhodes. Exh. cat. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, U.S.A., 1980. 72 pp., illus. Paper. Reviewed by David R. Topper· The title of the exhibition is precise, but wrong, or, at least, misleading. It was inspired, the Foreword explains, by a previous show organized by Cyril Stanley Smith [I] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the spirit of Smith's work on the history of materials, the exhibition was organized 'to illuminate the role which art has played in the discovery of material properties' [po 8].The objects assembled (vases, pots, cups, plates, swords, helmets, tunics, pictures and sculptures) were to be viewed from the viewpoint of media. Hence Rhodes' text deals mainly with techniques (dyeing, etching, gilding, glassblowing, lacquering, bronze casting, porcelain making). As well, a thesis is advanced: 'Long before man could articulate the information in scientific terms, he had a vast working knowledge of the behavior of materials under chemical, thermal, and mechanical treatment' [po 8]. In brief, the artist's workshop was a proto-laboratory. But, surely, both conceptually and practically the firing of clay pots is exceedingly remote from scientific investigations of atomic structure. When discussing an ancient Egyptian bowl, for example, Rhodes remarks that the 'craftsman who fashioned the well-balanced bronze 'Bowl with High Neck' was not aware of the complex crystalline structure that accounts for the strength and malleability of bronze, but he clearly understood how to manipulate these unseen factors' [po 58]. In other words, recalling basic differences between science and technology, as often pointed out in Leonardo, the title would correctly read 'Technology within Art'. The technology of materials, however, was only part of the exhibition. The remainder of the artifacts were pictures of an anatomical, botanical and zoological character, but inspection of them again reveals the title to be misleading. The source of the problem of the title is a misunderstanding of what constitutes science and art. The exhibited painting by John James Audubon of two peregrine falcons with bloodied beaks pecking at their prey will probably appeal only to naturalists. Should, therefore, this picture be viewed as 'Science within Art', as a physiological study of falcons? The answer is 'No'. Rhodes, in fact, asserts that Audubon's pictures 'are uneven in technical control and scientific accuracy' [po 29].The artist, instead, was depicting their behavior and character; in other words, he was painting what is often called a psychological portrait, in this case of birds. But, if this be 'science', then why are none of the Museum's splendid portraits of humans included in the show? As with birds, so with plants. Consider the 'Large Flowering Sensitive Plant' from R. J. Thornton's The Temple ofFlora, a three-volume work completed in 1807. Rhodes notes that 'the book offers little oflastingscientificimportance' [p, 27]. Perhaps the picture was included because its subtitle mentions the taxonomic system of Linnaeus. Drawings of skeletons, flayed muscles, cross-sections of the brain and so forth seem appropriately placed in a 'Science within Art' exhibit. I imagine that most visitors to the exhibition viewed the 16th-century drawings of skeletons by G. B. Franco as scientific illustrations for the purpose of revealing skeletal structure. But Rhodes writes 'Franco was more interested in the artistic idealization of the human body than in scientific accuracy [po 15]. The misleading title of the exhibition and the inappropriate artworks selected for it are examples of the confusion in the minds of many persons, especially in the art world, about what is the essential meaning of the terms science. technology and the visual arts. Reference 1. C. S. Smith, Materials and the Development of Civilization and Science, Science p. 908 (14 May, 1965); Matter versus Materials: A Historical View, Science p. 637 (8 Nov., 1968);·Dept. of History, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9, Canada. Art, Science, and Technology: Notes on Their Historical Interaction, in Perspectives in the History of Science and Technology, D. H. D. Roller, ed. (Norman, Oklahoma: Univ. Oklahoma Press, 1971) pp. 129-165; On Art, Invention and Technology, Leonardo 10, 144 (1977). From A to Z: A Folk Art Alphabet. Karen M. Jones. Mayflower...