The Fate of Paintings: He Who Has Beheld Beauty

2020/07/13

The subtitle "He Who Has Beheld Beauty" is borrowed from the translation by the poet Shungetsu Ikuta, who died young, of the poem "Tristan" by the 19th-century Bavarian classical poet August von Platen.

The poetic metaphor of a soul captivated by beauty being led toward death was directly embodied in the character of the writer Aschenbach, the protagonist of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice".

The motif will surely be fully conveyed if one recalls the opening of Luchino Visconti's masterpiece film, where the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 envelops the protagonist as he rests on the deck of a steamboat.

This book depicts how paintings from all times and places have been discovered or have undergone various vicissitudes through the gaze of the "viewer" throughout history, via the movements of the people and society involved in those eras. It is a narrative that stands apart from art history, which primarily discusses the painter's temperament and the technical skill of the work.

In addition to the painters themselves, a wide range of participants involved in the periphery of the works appear, including models within the paintings, collectors, politicians, patrons, and the media. Everyone is one "who has beheld beauty," and this sometimes moves not only the fate of the work but also the gears of history.

Famous paintings from the Northern Song dynasty, which circulated throughout China after leaving the last emperor Puyi during the Xinhai Revolution, returned to the Palace Museum in Beijing during the Cold War following Zhou Enlai's decision to prevent their outflow to the United States. What was the sorrow of the cardinal who commissioned Caravaggio, who was also a criminal, to paint "The Calling of St. Matthew"? Ichiyo Higuchi, another contemporary woman reflected by Kiyokata Kaburaki in his masterpiece "Tsukiji Akashicho"—the episodes hidden behind the canvases will surely evoke a new perspective on these famous paintings.

In addition to using abundant color illustrations, great effort was put into the bookmaking, including the cover, design, and layout. It is a book for which I hope to receive evaluation as a physical paper publication, rather than just as "information".

The work used for the cover, "The Painter's Children in the Japanese Room," is by the 19th-century Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny. Through the vision of a far-off "Japan," along with the strange tale in the final chapter of the painter's connection with a Japanese diplomat, I want to consider the mysterious power of painting as a representation that acts upon history.

The Fate of Paintings: He Who Has Beheld Beauty

Shinzo Shibasaki

Genki Shobo

240 pages, 2,800 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.