Archaeologisms

[Originally published in Cahiers d'art 1, no. 7 (1926): 177 (see p. 180).For a brief presentation of this text, see the editors' introduction.]

The Greek miracle was alive. Sleeping under the foundations of the Parthenon of Maurras and Winckelmann were kouroi with Khmer smiles; archaeology woke them—archaeology, which has overturned the museums. Parricide daughter of humanism, archaeology presides over digs which present us with the Thinite dynasties of Egypt, precolumbian America, the ancient empires of China. If it removes Minos's halo of legends, it is in order to give him back his palaces, their treasures, their frescoes.

We thus no longer go to the museum like our fathers did. If Louis Aragon and Jean Lurçat brought their top hat and bowler back to Madrid, they would still neglect the Prado, but they would go in search of Altamira.

In museums our fathers summoned the moderns to compare them with the ancients; it is there again that we summon the ancients to compare them with the moderns: the two are equal. Racine is quite far from Euripides, but things are beginning to come clear.

However, we have joined to this broader knowledge the disgrace of artistic liberalism: enough of worthless eclecticism! Our sensibility, liberated from all altruistic concerns, aspires to more rigorous laws.

To contribute to this research we propose, in these Cahiers, documents taken from diverse civilizations. The scientific apparatus will be reduced to references.

And those who expect to return to the source will find fog . . .

Translated from the French by Matthew Tiews