Clamores horrendos
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| - | "[[Clamores Horrendos ad sidera tollit]]" is a phrase by [[Virgil]] in his account of the [[Laocoon]], referenced by [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] and commented upon by [[Charles Bell]]. | + | "[[Clamores Horrendos ad sidera tollit]]" is a phrase by [[Virgil]] in his account of the [[Laocoon]], referenced by [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] and commented upon by [[Charles Bell]] in his "[[Essay on Expression]]." |
| - | :"Note also the expression in all the figures of another circumstance, the [[torpor]] and cold numbness of the limbs induced by the serpent venom, which, though justifiably overlooked by the sculptor of the Laocoon, as well as by Virgil—in consideration of the rapidity of the death by crushing, adds infinitely to the power of the Florentine's conception, and would have been better hinted by Virgil, than that sickening distribution of venom on the garlands. In fact, Virgil has missed both of truth and impressiveness every way—the "morsu depascitur" is unnatural butchery—the "perfusus veneno" gratuitous foulness—the "clamores horrendos," impossible degradation; compare carefully the remarks on this statue in Sir Charles Bell's "[[Essay on Expression]]", (third edition, p. 192) where he has most wisely and uncontrovertibly deprived the statue of all claim to expression of energy and fortitude of mind, and shown its common and coarse intent of mere bodily exertion and agony, while he has confirmed [[Payne Knight]]'s just condemnation of the passage in Virgil." --''[[Modern Painters]]'' | + | :In his book The anatomy and philosophy of expression as connected with the fine arts, Bell argued that Laocoon as he is portrayed in the sculpture could not have roared like a wounded bull, not for the reasons proposed by Winckelmann or by Lessing but for anatomical reasons. The muscles needed to roar are those of the chest. But the chest is also the place where the muscles which have insertions in the arms, and which provide strength to the arms, have their fixed origin. When the arms are strenuously engaged, as Laocoon's certainly are, the ability of the chest to produce a roar, or any violent expiration, is compromised by the work which the chest is already doing for the arms. Hence, says Bell: |
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| + | ::"that most terrible silence in human conflict, when the outcry of terror or pain is stifled in exertion; for during the struggle with the arms, the chest must be expanded or in the act of rising; and therefore the voice, which consists of the expulsion of the breath by the falling or compression of the chest, is suppressed. The first sound of fear is in drawing, not expelling, the breath." | ||
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| + | Therefore, Bell concludes, "Laocoon suffers in silence", not because to portray him otherwise would have robbed him of dignity, nor because what is permissible in a verbal representation was impermissible in a visual one, but because the sculptor's design was "to represent corporeal exertion, the attitude and struggles of the body and of the arms", an act which would have permitted nothing more than "a low or hollow groan". --[[William Schupbach]] | ||
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"Clamores Horrendos ad sidera tollit" is a phrase by Virgil in his account of the Laocoon, referenced by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and commented upon by Charles Bell in his "Essay on Expression."
- In his book The anatomy and philosophy of expression as connected with the fine arts, Bell argued that Laocoon as he is portrayed in the sculpture could not have roared like a wounded bull, not for the reasons proposed by Winckelmann or by Lessing but for anatomical reasons. The muscles needed to roar are those of the chest. But the chest is also the place where the muscles which have insertions in the arms, and which provide strength to the arms, have their fixed origin. When the arms are strenuously engaged, as Laocoon's certainly are, the ability of the chest to produce a roar, or any violent expiration, is compromised by the work which the chest is already doing for the arms. Hence, says Bell:
- "that most terrible silence in human conflict, when the outcry of terror or pain is stifled in exertion; for during the struggle with the arms, the chest must be expanded or in the act of rising; and therefore the voice, which consists of the expulsion of the breath by the falling or compression of the chest, is suppressed. The first sound of fear is in drawing, not expelling, the breath."
Therefore, Bell concludes, "Laocoon suffers in silence", not because to portray him otherwise would have robbed him of dignity, nor because what is permissible in a verbal representation was impermissible in a visual one, but because the sculptor's design was "to represent corporeal exertion, the attitude and struggles of the body and of the arms", an act which would have permitted nothing more than "a low or hollow groan". --William Schupbach
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