From Durer to Washington's teeth
John McEwen
THE SOUL OF THE EYE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PAINTERS AND PAINTING edited by Michael Levey
Collins, f18, pp. 289
If you like anthologies then this is a model of its kind. Into it Michael Levey has put the gleanings of a full life of looking at art and a full career of scho- larship, which took him, of course, to the pinnacle of his chosen field when he served as Director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986. George Eliot referred to her notebooks as quarries, and this book will surely serve as a quarry to writers and art lovers for years to come.
Like all scholars, Sir Michael is far too enquiring to be pompous or to lack a sense of fun. His foreword and annotations are the match of his fascinating selections. `Among the least appreciated freedoms of the imagination in its sampling of all the arts is the freedom to dislike. The greatest critics have inclined to be partisan and violently opinionated,' he reminds us; and in his openness to the views of poets, novelists and other 'amateurs' by art academic standards, he is very much on the side of the angels. 'A paragraph by Rilke, for example, seems to tell us more about Cezanne than tomes by learned professors of history' — which is a view given with the authority not only of an outstanding art historian but of a novelist with three books to his credit. Above all, he is on the side of the artist.
This lack of stuffiness makes an enter- tainment even of the entries, which are ordered alphabetically, regardless of whether the extract concerns a painter or a topic. Thus we find such surrealistic sequ- ences as 'Dail', 'Dealers', 'Death' and curiosities like 'Washington's Teeth' or `Imaginary Pictures by Real Painters'. Few of the titles extend for more than a page, and some only consist of a sentence. The authors stretch from Durer to Hockney, with sources as diverse as Borromeo's `Commentarius' and 'You're the Top': You're a baby grand of a lady and a gent You're an old Dutch master, You're Mrs Astor You're Pepsodent
(Qualifying for inclusion under 'Dutch Painting'). The honour of most mentions falls to Titian and Raphael.
With 259 entries one is spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a few samples to spice a review; but among the shorter extracts Constable and Fuseli both come well out of the following: Speaking of me he [Fuseli] says: 'I like de landscapes of Constable; he is always pic- turesque,of a fine colour, and de lights always in de right places; but he makes me call for my greatcoat and umbrella.
And there is George V on Turner: In the National Gallery . . . [King George V] confided to the director: 'I tell you what, Turner was mad. My grandmother always said so.'
Then there is the ticklish and topical question of picture restoration. Degas was dead against it: Time has to take its course with paintings as with everything else, that's the beauty of it. A man who touches a picture ought to be deported.
While Dr Johnson is just as outspoken when it comes to works of the imagination, a prejudice which still greatly restricts English taste: I had rather see a portrait of a dog that f know than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
As for the editor's interjections, they consist of a lively mixture of comment, from useful additions to heartfelt advoca- cy. On his advice I shall keep an eye out in future for Cosimo Tura and the 'too little appreciated' painters of Renaissance Fer- rara. And all admirers of that most artistic of our Kings, George IV, will applaud the warmth of the note — 'the most unfairly traduced of British monarchs' — appended to the charming story told by Lockhart in testimony of the good King's tact and respect when dealing with artists. My only regret is that no place could be found for Beachcomber or Sacheverell Sitwell (there is Osbert instead) — and surely Jeeves has something sage to offer? But all in all, a must for the art shelf or the bedside table.
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