Roger Fry called Aubrey Beardsley ‘The Fra Angelico of Satanism’. What do you think this means, and how appropriate is it?
When we think of Satanism, we think of
its representation of rebellion, mysticism and sorcery. It can be seen as an
honour for Roger Fry to place such a paradox as “The Fra Angelico of Satanism”
on Beardsley’s reputation, encapsulating the essence of the fragile monk-like
character that was to produce decadently grotesque, demonic, erotic
illustrations, but somehow in a way that simultaneously absorbed and projected his
humorous, graceful and earnest demeanour. He was as David Colvin suggests in his book title; A slave to Beauty[2]. It is my aim in this essay to analyse some of Beardsley’s most
renowned works and see how they might appropriate Roger Fry’s bold words
towards his way of working and living.
The 1880s onwards, was a period of revolt against the high order society
and values of the Victorian era. The great depression of 1880 saw peoples moods
becoming pessimistic, with culture very much censored and the economy suffering
through competition with foreign trade, a wave of criticism was to be placed
upon the countries situation; Artists and writers of the uprising Avante Garde
movement used their talents to satirize and reject the current restrictions. The
prime example of Aubrey Beardsley’s risqué, works which portrayed the more
daring and humorous side of his persona, as well as his most decorative and
detailed work is his illustrations for Oscar Wilds play Salome; completed in 1894[3] after much reworking, suggested by Wilde. These works exemplify one of
the main issues explored and satirised by the Avante Garde which was the
delicate subjects of sexuality and gender roles. Oscar Wilde’s interpretation of Salome was
that of a mysterious female fatale, who makes suggestive advances towards John
the Baptist, but after rejecting her is executed, leading to the famous finale
of Salome raising the decapitated head of John and kissing it. It is important
to consider that through the history of art, Salome was depicted pictorially as
an idealised biblical character with soft feminine features. However Beardsley
upturned this realist tradition by favouring abnormality over normality; depicting
Salome as a powerful, grotesque, androgynous, crone like character which was
seen as severely radical in Victorian society. There are four key illustrations
which represent this notion clearly; these are the woman in the moon, the
peacock dress and two versions of the Climax. At the same time the decadents
were working, other groups such as the women’s movement were revolting against
male superiority and patriarchy. Beardsley is the epitome of pessimism,
creating works of criticism and decedent subjects. Knowing his life would be
short caused by TB and regular haemorrhaging, Beardsley immersed himself in his
work and the turn out of work is significantly vast. We could suggest that he
lived his life in relation to the subjects found in his work; he lived a life
of decay. Here we can see a development of our understanding in that Roger
Fry’s quotation applies to Beardsley’s honourable intentions of standing up for
women, change and liberation of the “new woman”[4], it is the execution of his subject matter that validates the likeness
to a satanic process; in other terms, just like a holy man such as Fra Angelico
painting demonic images to portray the ills of the world and in turn provoking
a response from the masses. But when we think about it, this execution of his
work was a thought out, clever way to revolt in the Victorian era.
Victorian society may have frowned upon Beardsley’s honest and frank
works, but what they were not to know is that this new developed style of
illustration and even more so its political content, was to represent a major
step forward towards the shift into the 20th Century. Fra Angelico could be
described as one of the most famous Florentine artists who helped shape the renaissance
in Italy through being a significant predecessor to Michelangelo. Aubrey Beardsley
can be placed in the same category as Fra Angelico, in that he was a
significant character in developing art but instead of portraying biblical
stories and illustrations in a conformist way, Beardsley saw an opportunity to
use this radical innovation to not only develop art but simultaneously change
societies viewpoints entering the 20th century; therefore Roger
Fry’s quote does seem appropriate to a point when we think about how much a
taboo his subjects were in 19th century Britain. However to use the
term Satanism suggests a certain aggression among other characteristics that
Beardsley certainly did not withhold. Falkenheim suggests that Fry thinks of
Beardsley’s personality as it would be revealed in his art, quoting Fry, “If we
are right in our analysis of his work, the finest qualities of design can never
be appropriated to the expression of such morbid and perverted ideals: nobility
and geneality of design are attained only by those who, whatever their actual
temperament, cherish these qualities in their imagination”[5]. Beardsley was an excentric and obviously his personality was no doubt
going to be evident in his works, but we must also realise what Beardsley’s
intentions were; not only were his drawings about self expression, but they
were imperative in the pioneering stages of Art Nouveau and reacting against
the repressed cultural situation of Victorian England. It is important to note
that Beardsley’s style is totally non realistic. Rejecting the high art of the
times, creating 2dimensional, line orientated drawings were the foundations of
the developing art nouveau style as well as the platform for which his themes
could emerge from, such as creating elongated, non idealised, androgynous
characters and also rejecting a sense of high art materialism. We understand it
now to be appropriate within modern society and can appropriate the use of the
word Satanism as it applies to Beardsley subject interest.
In an Ironic state of reversal, his works were to cause stirrings about
his private life such as sexual deviations he may have possessed, such as
homosexuality and even incest which may have been fuelling his works. However,
was this just the Victorian society repressing these kinds of deviations,
sweeping them under the rug and in denial that they ever occurred? Beardsley
takes his ideas one step further by identifying and exploring issues such as
lesbianism, which in Victorian England was vastly unheard of as women had close
companions, women were never considered as lovers because women were not
considered to have sexual appetites. However in an attempt to upturn this
notion, Beardsley produced a drawing suggesting such deviations, entitled Black
Coffee[6]. Therefore we can see how Beardsley commenting is on this, bringing it
to the fore, questioning and creating a basis for Victorian social conditions
not to be totally reconsidered but certainly rethought in the eyes of the
public, who in Beardsley’s eyes we see as withholding these repressions just to
conform to society. Furthermore this contributes to questioning the sexual
freedom and expression of self for women, which men feared would give women a
sense of domination, liberation and superiority. Another subject Beardsley
explored was the controversial idea of women not performing and conforming of
her role as a mother. He made illustrations depicting foetuses which were
demonic looking; another reference to his satanic comparison in his art; things
that were totally abhorrent to nature and the “correct” way of life. In the
interest of women and as an extension of their repressed want for liberation, Beardsley
created these drawings as a kind of exemplary voice for women, they were meant
to enjoy giving birth and looking forward to bearing child after child. After
all, this was a woman’s life and work. However, because the medical conditions and
equipment weren’t advanced, the cases of deaths whilst giving birth were very
high, leaving women with anxieties about the whole process, which is the kind
of expression Beardsley portrays in his drawings. One thing Fry cannot accuse Beardsley
as being, is a prude, his drawings were as unnatural as his subjects matter it
would so seem within the Victorian society. If anything else the Victorian
society should have been thankful to Beardsley for opening up room for debate
and raising these issues. Even though many works fell victims of censorship,
their latent desires and anxieties, it was these drawings which acted as an
innovator of not only a new art movement, but providing people with a new
sensibility in the Victorian period.
Beardsley’s’ focus upon erotica in art seems to be identified in most of
his works. We have seen the influence in Salome and examples of other erotic
subjects he brought to the fore. But if there was one set of drawings that was
to really confront the idea of eroticism lying dormant within the polite
public, it would be his brazenly executed Lysistrata drawings. Beardsley,
who had already secured himself a maverick type reputation through the creation
of his unreserved illustrations of Salomé, decided to; in the last year of his
life privately illustrate Lysistrata. Sturgis suggests, “The nexus between art,
scandal and publicity was one which Beardsley recognized and relished”[7], we have seen this to be true; with his earlier works he had much more
of a dauntless attitude towards breaking the boundaries when it came to
publishing his work. So why now would he without censors declare his works too
obscene for the public and thus not publish them with the same sensibility as
before; proudly without reserve? Could this maybe answer more of our questions
about Fry’s declaration of Beardsley as the “Fra Angelico of Satanism”? Lysistrata
is Greek comedy written in 411bc by Aristophanes[8]. An outline of the story is as follows, during the Peloponnesian war,
Greek women conjured up a bribe towards their partners who were fuelling the
continuation of the war. This bribe was, which is very fitting to Beardsley’s
artistic interest, was that the women would take a period of chastity,
depriving their partners of sex until they agreed to call a peaceful end to the
war. The illustrations depict the men of war with enlarged penises, due to the
chastity being forced upon them. These
works can be seen as the indicator of Beardsley’s sense of humour and whit,
which was as inherent in his art as it was his personality. However, going back
to the idea of him working on these drawings privately, and in addition to this
build up of a “fra Angelico” type persona within his art, soon after the
Lysistrata drawings were made Beardsley converted to Catholicism. Leonard
Smithers, Beardsley’s publisher, was ordered by him to “I implore you to destroy
all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings...by all that is holy all obscene
drawings”[9]. It is interesting to consider why Beardsley, who was such a ruthless,
pioneering artist of art nouveau, would convert to a more reserved and
righteous way of life. One notion we could suggest as to why it may be, is that
we must remember that Beardsley’s health at this time was declining rapidly,
was a retreat to God for Beardsley a final cry for help by coming to terms with
the actuality of his disease? Were his perverse drawings that were corrupting
the public and as fry would describe, his satanic ways propelling his premature
death in the eyes of Beardsley?
To conclude our ideas as to what Roger Fry meant when he described
Beardsley as “The Fra Angelico of Satanism” we know that throughout Beardsley’s
short career he was a bohemian decadent, eccentric artist who certainly for
those who didn’t know him would of thought him to be so abhorrent as to go as
far as satanic, definitely in the reserved times of 19th century
Britain. However we have also seen that Beardsley’s intentions were not as
satanic at all, but if anything we should aim our appraisals at Beardsley for
opening up art and building the foundations for politics to be explored through
art, and in essence creating a sensibility amongst the public of a more
tolerant and equivocal attitude towards art. We could some up Beardsley’s
achievement of his unique art and also his life in three words, style, humour
and fortitude. Beardsley- “My present idea is to apply the decorative style to
modern life, modern dress, modern costume, and see how far it can be done in
black and white... The everyday life I see is offensive to me. I know that some
people are disgusted with my work... But it’s only my present mood, and I must
express it”[10].
Bibliography:
Calloway, S. Aubrey Beardsley, Harry N. Abrams, 1998.
Calvert,H.
Aubrey Beardsley: the masks of ambiguity, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1995.
Falkenheim.J.V,
Roger Fry and the beginnings of formalist
art criticism, Yale, 1945.
Fletcher,I. Aubrey Beardsley, Twayne Publishers, 1987.
Navarre.J, the Publishing History of Aubrey Beardsley's Compositions for Oscar
Wilde's Salomé, Universal-Publishers, 1999.
Sturgis,M. Aubrey Beardsley: a
biography, Overlook Press, 1999.
Snodgrass,C. Aubrey
Beardsley, dandy of the grotesque, Oxford University Press, 1995.
Slessor,C.
The art of Aubrey Beardsley,
Silverdale Books, 2004.
Wilson.A,
N, the Victorians, Hutchinson, 2002.
Zatlin,L,G. Aubrey
Beardsley and Victorian sexual politics, Clarendon Press, 1990.
Further reading: Articles-
Jstor
Thomas Mackenzie and the Beardsley Legacy
Author: Colin White, Source: The Journal of Decorative
and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 7, Illustrated Book Theme Issue (Winter, 1988)
Published by: Florida International University Board of Trustees on behalf
of The Wolfsonian-FIU
The
"Dance of the Seven Veils". Salome and Erotic Culture around 1900 Author:
Udo Kultermann, Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 27, No. 53 (2006), pp.
187-215, Published by: IRSA s.c. Accessed: 19/02/2011 07:24
[1] Chris Snodgrass, Aubrey
Beardsley, dandy of the grotesque, Oxford University Press, 1995, the
University of Michigan.pp163.
[2] Colvin, D, Beardsley. A, Aubrey
Beardsley: a slave to beauty, Welcome Rain, 1998.
[3] Navarre.J, the Publishing
History of Aubrey Beardsley's Compositions for Oscar Wilde's Salomé,
Universal-Publishers, 1999.pp189
[5] Falkenheim.J.V, Roger Fry and the beginnings of
formalist art criticism, Yale, 1945, pp107.
[6]
Heather Calvert, Aubrey Beardsley: the masks of ambiguity, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1995. Pp30.
[10]
Chris Snodgrass, Aubrey
Beardsley, dandy of the grotesque, Oxford University Press, 1995, the
University of Michigan. Pp210.
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