Art History Novels by Female Writers

Visuality and Desire in Art-Related Novels by Three Female Writers: Chevalier, Dunant, and Vreeland

by  Vinia

delivered at NTUT Symposium on July 22, 2009.

Abstract

 

In the literary scene across the Atlantic, the past decade witnesses the emergence of a new type of novel that deals with the subject matters related to arts: artworks, artists, and the art world, and three female writers have made a special contribution to the development of art-related novels with their exploration into the issue of visuality and desire in the art world as well as in reality. These novelists include Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999) and The Lady and the Unicorn (2003), Sara Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus (2003), and Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999).

Every writer has chosen a piece of visual artwork as the central theme for her novel and then weaves the plot around this focal point. Chevalier works on the painting entitled “Girl with the Pearl Earring” by the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, and in The Lady and the Unicorn she elaborates on the meaning of a series of six tapestries woven of wool and silk in the fifteenth-century Flanders. Dunant comes up a story with the Renaissance masterpiece “The Birth of Venus” (1480) by the Italian painter Botticelli. In contrast, Vreeland “pictures out,” or makes up, a fictional painting presumably created in the seventeenth-century Holland and attributed it to Vermeer.

In weaving fascinating plot around the central point, these novels foreground the issue of senses, along with the desires aroused by these senses. For example, in the tapestry-cycle entitled “The Lady and the Unicorn,” five of the tapestries depict the five senses respectively: taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch, and the sixth tapestry portrays the phrase “A mon seul desir,” which means “to my only desire.” Echoing with the theme of seduction and love in the tapestries, the novel displays a love story in a parallel development: the creation of an artwork and the construction of femininity.

Further exploration of the issue of sense-aroused desires and their fulfillment is taken up by Chevalier in her novel entitled Girl with a Pearl Earring. In this novel, a young maid is sitting as a model for the painter Vermeer to create a portrait. In a relation of reciprocal gazing between the artist and his object of portrayal in a studio setting, the girl realizes that her self-identification is hinged on the pivotal ways the painter pictures her:

In art, she is the focus of attention—through sight--on the canvas, and in life, she is the object of sensuous desires for a man. However, as a man, the painter’s desires for her are sublimated through artistic creation, and the girl can only step down from the role of the muse in art to a maid in reality when the painting is completed and she ceases to be the object of gaze for the painter.

The supposition that the gaze of the artist is always male is challenged in Dunant’s The Birth of Venus, in which a woman, who has been deeply inspired by the spirit of “new birth” inherent in Botticelli’d painting entitled “The Birth of Venus,” strives for an independent new life as a female painter at a church in Italian Renaissance. Depicting the intricate relationship between senses and desires, this novel explores the realm of creativity and imagination embodied in the life of a female artist.

Furthermore, the view that posits the viewer as the holder of the possessive gaze is dismantled in Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue, which describes the magic power of this fictional masterpiece of painting from the perspectives of different owners in the past three and half centuries. In various human circumstances, including natural disasters, theft, anonymity and even the Holocaust, this painting engendered a special power through its beauty: With the sight of the girl in the painting all the viewers can feel the urge to love and to feel gratitude.

At this point, the desire aroused by the sight of the painting turns from object-oriented into value-oriented: the longing for peace and love, and by so doing, the novel illustrates well another aspect of sense-solicited desires portrayed in arts. It also explores the possibility of depositing the power and the strength of “gaze” onto the artwork itself: It is the artwork, rather than the human beings, that has embodied the “gaze” that sustains the ordeals of various times and circumstances to pass on abiding human values in a reciprocal gazing relationship with human eyes.

These art-related novels by female writers not only deal with the subject matters related to the creation and appreciation of arts but also chart out a mental map of “senses and desires” in the deepest hearts of men, women, artists, and art-viewers. By so doing, the room of art history, often occupied by male viewers and critics, has been renovated and remodeled by each of these female writers according to her unique insights into her own story.

Key words: art-related novel, male gaze, gaze, object of desire, senses and desire

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interpretation and Translation of John Berger's Art Criticism

"Contextual Simulation”:
A Strategy Deployed for Interpretation and Translation of John Berger's Art Criticism

by  Vinia

Published in Taoyuan Journal on July 31, 2009

Abstract

As one of the most prominent art and cultural critics writing in English today, John Berger (1926~) is noted by his profound and unique insights into the field of arts as well as contemporary world culture. Being composed in a condensed and poetic style, his writing posits a very difficult task for the translator.

The challenge lies in three aspects: first, his/her familiarity with the cultural background knowledge of the world in which Berger’s essays are situated; secondly, his/her acquisition of the professional background knowledge specific to the issues discussed in Berger’s art/cultural criticism; thirdly, his/her reading abilities to read into words (and pictures) and to read between the lines of this particular author.

To tackle these problems, this paper proposes a training method tentatively called “contextual simulation,” which involves three steps: reconstructing a “context,” “simulating” life experience, and "recreating” author’s intended meaning.

To reconstruct a context for the text to be situated in accurate temporal/spatial coordinates, the translator will endeavor to acquire cultural and professional background knowledge with recourse to multi-media materials, such as films, art posters, CDs and DVDs, as well as verbal references.

Then, the translator shall exercise his/her imagination and senses to “frame” him/herself within that reconstructed context and try to “experience” the events described in the text in order to obtain his/her own “simulated” life experience of the events.

At last, based on the simulated life experience, the translator shall decide on the interpretation most approximate to the author’s intention possible and submit his/her interpretation to the examination of the testing stone, i.e., the cultural/professional context of the text.

Originally developed for the interpretation and translation of John Berger’s art criticism, this strategy is characterized with its stress on the vital role of cultural/professional background knowledge and simulated life experience required to arrive at an adequate understanding, deep appreciation, sound interpretation and acceptable translation of a very difficult and meaningful text. It can then be deployed in the rendering of other authors’ writing across cultural/language boundaries.

Key words: John Berger, translation of art criticism, cultural background knowledge, professional background knowledge, contextual simulation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~