Mnemosyne: The Parallel Between Literature and the Visual Arts

by Mario Praz

In 'Mnemosyne' Mario Praz explores and exhibits that close relationship between the arts-based on the unitive sense of reality and experience... that has been apparent intermittently for the 25 centuries since Simonides. It shows how widespread this phenomenon has become over the centuries.

'Mnemosyne' is really a tour down the centuries through galleries, libraries, churches, gardens, and salons, which at every point opens up surprising and penetrating views.

Genres: Art, Philosophy

261 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 1970

About the author

Mario Praz was an Italian-born critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, "La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica" ("The Romantic Agony" 1933) - written in 1930 - was a comprehensive survey of the erotic and morbid themes that characterized European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries. He was Professor of Italian Studies at the Victoria University of Manchester, 1932-1934. He taught English literature at the University of Rome from 1934 to his retirement in 1966. In 1962, Queen Elizabeth II made him a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE).
His works of art criticism include an Illustrated History of Interior Decoration, a study on Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, and numerous essays. His last residence, an apartment in Palazzo Primoli, has become a museum, and is open for visits in Rome.

Reviews

[Kevin Fitzpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"AN AXIOM of idealistic philosophy recorded by E.M. Forster proclaims: 'A work of art...is a unique product. But why? It is unique not because it is clever or noble or beautiful or enlightened or original or sincere or idealistic or useful or educational--it may embody any of those qualities --but because it is the only material object in the universe which may possess internal harmony. All the others have been pressed into shape from outside, and when their mould is removed they collapse. The work of art stands up by itself, and nothing else does...Ancient Athens made a mess--but the "Antigone" stands up. Renaissance Rome made a mess--but the ceiling of the Sistine got painted. James I made a mess--but there was "Macbeth." Louis XIV--but there was "Phedre." (Praz, pg, 3).

So begins Mario Praz's desultory and rather predictable glance at the intersection between the visual arts and Literature from the 1620s to the midpoint of the twentieth century. Entitled "Mnemosyne: the Parallel Between Literature and the Visual Arts," and encompassing seven chapters, with accompanying photographs of examples of the visual arts, this effort does serve as a primer for those interested in the intersection among the arts, with quite pertinent things stated from all areas of the arts. Indeed, the main criticism in regards to subject matter covered is the almost complete lack of references to Art outside of the European field. It is as if the whole rest of the world (which also is characterized by this interstitial relationship between fields of Art) doesn't exist. As this is an excerpt from "The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts" that was delivered in the year 1967, perhaps we can extend some forgiveness due to the benighted state of understanding that was in existence in regards to World Art that was present in the Academy at the time. One can only hope that this sort of myopia is not present in Art History fields today. However, even with that caveat, this work, though comprehensive and somewhat insightful in sections, seems to 'miss the boat' in its encounter with both the literary and the visual aspects of its subject matter. For the references to literary works (perhaps due to space constraints) is more than slightly cursory in nature, and one also gets the impression that the treatment of the visual arts is blunted by brevity and a less than inquisitive point of view. Maybe it was the mood I read it in (a distinct possibility), but this book did not really impress me or enlighten me in any really 'true' manner. Evidently Mr. Praz was an expert in literary criticism (his "The Romantic Agony," a survey of Romantic literature, is well-known), but in this lecture he missed his mark, according the lights of this reader.

[Lazarus P Badpenny Esq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering discussions about content to self-evident, Praz concentrates on artistic forms in this study of the relationship between the visual arts and literature. Hence the curl in Pope's Rape of the Lock becomes analogous to the Rococo spiral and so forth. Often architecture is the clue providing axiomatic starting points for literature as well as the visual arts. Praz works chronologically and given the undertone of disapproval for modern art (these were lectures given in 1967 so for 'modern' read abstract painting) surprisingly it is the later chapters which are amongst the most convincing.

[Fray Juan de la Miseria · Rating 1 out of 5]

una basura infumable lo he dejao por la mitad me cago en dios