The Arcades Project - Operi

ism of his works, but through a more highly mechanized technique, which does
not necessarily dirninish his artistic activity. None of this prevents the author
from going on to say: "What is unfortuna.te [my italics] is not that today's photographer
believes himself an a.rtist; what is unfortunate is that he actually has at
his disposal certain resources proper to the art of the painter:' Wladimir Weidk,
Les Abeilles d'Aristie (Paris), pp. 181-182, 184 ("I1Agonie de l'art"). Compare
Jochmann on the epic poem: "The general interest which such a poem excites,
the pride with which an entire people repeats it, its legislative authority over
opinions and sentiments-all this is grounded in the fact that it is nowhere taken
as a mere poem:' [Carl Gustav Jochmarm,] Uber die Sprache (Heidelberg, 1828),
p. 271 ("Die Riiekschritte der Poesie"). [Y9,lj
In the period around 1845, illustrations arc already appearing in advertisements.
On J nly 6 of this year, the Societe Generale des Annonees, which handled publicite
for Le Journal des debats, Le Constitutionnel, and La Prcsse, puhlishes a prospectus
that says: "'We call . .. your attention to the illustrations which, for some
years now, a great many husinesses have heen in the hahit of joining to their
announcements. The power of captivating the eye hy the form and disposition of
the letters is perhaps less decisive than the advantage to be gained hy filling ont an
often arid exposition with drawings and designs." P. Datz, I-listoire de la publicite,
vol. 1 (Paris, 1391), pp. 216-217. [Y9,2]
In his "Morale du joujou" , Baudelairc mentions, together
with thc stercoscope, the pheuakistiscope. ""The phenakistiscope, which is older, is
less well known. Imagine some movement or ot.her-for example, a dancer's or a
juggler's performance-divided up and decomposed into a certain numher of
movements. Imagine that eadI one of these movements-as many as twenty, if you
wish-is represented by a complete figure of the juggler or dancer, and that these
are all printed round the edge of a circular piece of cardhoard.' Baudelaire then
descrihes the mirror mechanism that enahles the viewer to see, in the twenty
openings of an outer circle, twenty little figurcs moving rhythmically in a continuous
action. Baudelaire, L)Art romantique (Paris), p. 146.7 Compare Y7a,1.
[Y9a,1]
It was the pantograph, whose principle is equally at work in the physiognotrace,
that undertook to transcrihe automatically a linear scheme originally traced on
paper to a plaster mass, as required hy the process of photosculpture. Serving as
model in this process were twenty-four simultaneous views taken from differcnt
sides. Gautier foresees no threat to sculpture fro:m this process. What {all prevent
the sculptor from artistically enlivening the mechanically produced figure and its
grouud? "But there is more: for all its extravagance, the ecntury remains economi­
(al. Pure art seems to it something expensive. With t.he cheekiness of a parvenu, it
sometimes dares to haggle over masterworks. It is terrified of' marble and
hronze . ... But photoseulpture is not so daunting as statuary . ... Photoseulpturc
is used to modest proportions and is eontent with a set of shelves for pedestal