Gaspard de la Nuit: Humor, the Eau-Forte, and the Chiaroscuro VignetteAuthor(s): Dana MilsteinSource: College Literature, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Spring, 2003), pp. 137-161Published by: College LiteratureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112723Accessed: 26/07/2010 21:33

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Gaspard de la Nuit: Humor, the Eau-Forte, and the Chiaroscuro Vignette

Dana Milstein

Precursors of literary genres are often

snubbed by contemporary readers.

Skimming over dedicatory prefaces, their

unfamiliar names generally appear as a mor

tuary list of unknown influences on the

renowned author with whose text we prefer to begin. Such is the case, for example, with

Aloysius Bertrand. Considered the father of

the modern prose poem, Bertrand made

every concession possible to eternalize his

name and text, Gaspard de la Nuit (1842). His

fear of being forgotten permeates his dedica

tion to Victor Hugo, wherein with pessimistic

clairvoyance he proclaims "[t]he little book

that I dedicate to you will have suffered the

fate of all that dies, after, perhaps for one

morning, having amused the court and city, which are amused by so little" (1994, 15).

Despite Maurice Ravel's piano pieces, Antonio Giacommetti's guitar suite, and an

adapted performance by the NewYork City

Dana Milstein is in the

Department of French at

CUNY, The Graduate Center.

She has published and presented

papers primarily on comparative

art and literature of the nine

teenth century.

138 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

BaUet,1 today Bertrand's name and texts remain virtuaUy unknown, save a

brief and ambivalent homage made by Baudelaire in the preface to his Petits

poemes en prose. In the manner of Bertrand's prose poems, Baudelaire propos

es a text that is "poetic, musical without rhythm or rhyme, unconventional

enough to adapt itself to lyrical movements of the soul, to undulating rever

ies, to shocks of conscience" (1975, 1. 276; my translation). Instead of likening his text to the musical idiom, Bertrand applied a

painterly rhetoric to his works. In the closing Unes of his preface to Gaspard de la Nuit, the fictional Gaspard bequeaths his manuscript to the author, Louis

Bertrand. Explaining the parturition of style in the text, Gaspard suggests that

"This manuscript wiU teU [readers] how many instruments have tried my lips before arriving at the one that renders the note pure and expressive, how

many paint brushes have been used on the canvas before seeing born there

the shadowy aurora of chiaroscuro" (1994, 11). This ekphrastic metaphor aUudes to a sequence of artists and styles that Bertrand dabbled in while per

fecting his manuscript. Composed of short literary sketches or vignettes, Bertrand's text is more in keeping with the technique of etching than with

painting. Surreptitiously, Bertrand utilizes engraving as a metaphor for trans

ferring images from original plates onto paper as "poetic" impressions or lit

erary prints.2 His personal iUustrations for his text reflect engraving tech

niques, and his instructions to the printer stipulate engraved or iUuminated

motifs of a fantastic or anachronistic nature.3 InitiaUy, Bertrand's amateur

experiments with this new writing genre reflect an interest in the grotesque and capricious engravings of a seventeenth-century group labeled "I

Bamboccianti." As his emerging style matured, and he became acquainted with the Parisian literary scene (and thus, more modern views of humor and

art), Bertrand replaced the burlesque humor of the Bamboccianti with a

more complex aesthetic of dualism, or the oxymoron. Encountering the

engravings of Jacques CaUot and Rembrandt, he later subtitled his text

Fantaisies a la maniere de Rembrandt et de Callot after these two artists, whose

theories of etching conformed to the new and more profound antithetical

dynamic present in his writing. Furthermore, presupposing linked evidence

to techniques of chiaroscuro, etching, and to Rembrandt and CaUot in these

literary impressions, it becomes obvious that Bertrand's aesthetic objective is

to rescind traditional relationships between original and copy, and to annihi

late barriers imposed between the author, text, and reader.4 The fruition of

this objective, coupled with the oxymoronic dynamic of the text, is a unique aesthetic that characterizes the modern prose poem.

Dana Milstein 139

Titular Evolution: Bamboccio and the Question of Humor

Modern critics and contemporaries of Bertrand often argue that the

author made a poor decision in his subtitle Fantaisies a la maniere de Rembrandt

et de Callot. It is easy enough to find rapports between specific Callot etch

ings and certain prose poems. With Rembrandt, however, it is harder to cor

relate any specific work to the poems. "The Rembrandtesque elements orig inate more from the impression created by this great artist's etchings than

from an awareness of his vision," writes Renee Hubert (1964,83). Embracing this perspective, scholars have created a corpus of literature that is lopsided in

its abounding references to Callot works and stinted explanations of

Rembrandt. Approaching the text in this manner has permitted the injudi cious conclusion that there is little logical relation between the entire text

and any specific corpus of engravings by Callot or Rembrandt. Perhaps it is

Bertrand's own comments upon his text that have resulted in the authority of this assumption. Envisaging his work, Bertrand extends his allusions to Art

beyond Rembrandt and Callot to other artists including Van Eyck, Albrecht

Diirer, and Lucas Van Leyden. Many critics thus incorrectly assume that

Rembrandt and Callot play a less significant role in the text than first

thought. Scholars including Renee Hubert and Max Milner have empha sized the rapport between individual poems and specific engravings, but

inadequate explanation has been provided for Bertrand's particular choice of

subtitle and its relation to the entire text. Bertrand mentions other artists to

emphasize that his text is not a literal illustration of Rembrandt's and Callot's

works. Rather than transposing specific works into his prose poems, which

would be an imitation of style, the subtitle cleverly reveals that Bertrand

chooses to work "in the manner" of these two artists.

The distinction between style and manner is important, yet often

ignored.5 Style, a metonymical term for the instrument used to write (stylus), relates the text to a specific characteristic of another work. Transposition of

style is mere imitation; it is the conversion of visual image into verbal phras es. Manner, a term

belonging to the artistic lexicon, suggests a

reproduction

of taste or principles taken from another artist. Manner confines itself to a

thematic reproduction of imagination, design and shade.6 Writing in the

manner of Rembrandt and Callot, Bertrand did not desire an identifiable for

mal relationship between his prose poems and their works. What Bertrand

was imitating was the method or procedure of design and shade utilized by these two artists. Bertrand's use of the word Fantaisie in the subtitle is anoth

er adoption from artistic terminology. In painting and music,fantaisie denotes

a work in which the artist's caprice and imagination take precedence over

stylistic rules; the painter/composer is left to treat his subject matter liberal

ly without respecting traditional approaches. Thus, the phraseology of

140 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

Bertrand's subtitle indicates merely an improvisation on CaUot and

Rembrandt's methods and themes. In order to elicit this relation, we must

backtrack along the path from which this subtitle evolved.

On 12 September 1828, Le Provincial published three of Bertrand's prose

poems with a note by the author proposing to publish a corpus of pieces in

the same genre under the title Les Bambochades. More often than not, this

original title has been glossed over by contemporary scholars and briefly summarized as a reference to Peter van Laer, (caUed "il Bamboccio"), a

Dutch painter from the first half of the seventeenth century. Max Milner

provides some elaboration, characterizing van Laer's work as depicting pop ular rural or burlesque scenes using a technique prevalent in Rome during the first half of the seventeenth century. Bertrand borrowed from van Laer's

work the notion of creating provocative and lively scenes that evoke a

humorous response, as Milner explains.7 Certainly this claim is valid; howev

er, a more specific clarification is warranted for Bertrand's choice of title.

Because "il Bamboccio" names a specific individual whose birthplace,

Haarlem, is elaborately depicted in Book 1 of Gaspard de la Nuit, "The

Flemish school," it is assumed that Bertrand's Bambochades refer to this par ticular artist. Oddly however, Bertrand mentions van Laer's name neither in

the second preface, nor among the poems of the "Flemish School." In

"Haarlem," for example, an altogether different group of Flemish artists is

catalogued: "Haarlem, that wonderful Bamboccio which sums up the

Flemish school, Haarlem painted by Jan Brueghel, Peter Neefs, David

Teniers, and Paul Rembrandt" (1994, 21). What does the absence of van

Laer's name signify? In fact, Les Bambochades is a title that refers not to Peter

van Laer, the reputed "Bamboccio," but to an entire group of seventeenth

century artists labeled "I Bamboccianti." Several Haarlem-born artists in

addition to van Laer belonged to this circle, including Jan Miel and Dirk

Theodor Helmbreker, with whose work Bertrand would have been familiar.

Conclusively, Bertrand's pluralized title, les Bambochades, refers to the aes

thetic theory propounded by this group rather than to the reputation and

work of a single artist.

Bamboccianti painters practiced what was considered a pictorial genre, a

minor art form. Concerned with the mundane and realistic episodes of daily

life, their works often depicted grotesque or ridiculous characters and scenes

whose nature went counter to the traditional themes of painting. Bamboccianti scenes detail quotidian life, obscenities, and unconventional

situations including ladies pissing, dogs eating vomit, merry-making, brawls, and masquerades. Painting in this manner was inappropriate in a time when

neo-classicist aesthetic tradition reigned. Because they resisted the accepted rule that beauty in Art comes from elevating an idea into a contemplative,

Dana Milstein Hi

sublime, or divine image, the Bamboccianti were labeled as practicing a

lower, minor art form.

Disagreeing with the vilification of this group by other contemporaries, two art critics of the time, G. B. Passeri and F. Baldinucci, nonetheless noted

the important contributions the Bamboccianti made to art:

The Bamboccianti similarly depict those actions of the populace in brief

paintings: merry-making, brawls, and masquerades of carnivals. Their fig

ures, meeting in the breadth of a palm's span, are so lively and so well col

ored, and so brilliantly accompanied by landscaping or animals that each

work seems, as Passeri says, to show all the avenues from an open window,

not generally found in only one canvas. We mustn't forget painters of this

sort, but retrieve several works by Peter [van Laer] to study verism and tinc

ture; although others have argued that his works are rendered vile by their

comic nature. (Briganti 1950, 25; my translation)

Creating in the Bamboccio manner entails panoramic capturing of a brief, chaotic moment in which the frank, absurd truths?a multitude of men and

animals, all manners of costume and gesture?are displayed to the viewer as

a curiosity. This hodge-podge of exaggerated characters, attitudes, and situa

tions magnified into a single episode?yet still absurdly incongruous?rep resents the grotesque. The viewer must laugh at the bizarre or fanciful image

placed before him, deeming it a capricious travesty. The poem "Haarlem" best illustrates Bertrand's use of the Bamboccianti

grotesque. Haarlem, described as a bambochade, is depicted as a multifarious

environment: "And the canal where the blue water trembles, and the church

whose golden glass glows, and the stoel where linen dries in the sun, and the

roofs green with hops" (1994, 21). Here, nature in the form of flowing water

and hop vines, the spirituality and glory of the church, and peasant life all

appear peacefully intertwined in a spring milieu. Further magnifying the set

ting, Bertrand presents a series of different moments that could not exist

simultaneously. Birds catching raindrops have replaced the sun that was dry

ing peasant linens; the lively magistrate and florist ponder prosperity, loss, and

love; and a carnival of music, drinking and feasting appears to ensue. No

definitive ambiance can be created, and it appears as if several temporal set

tings have been superimposed onto a single stage. The reader, confused by this almost cubistic conglomeration of capricious detail, is confronted with a

grotesque moment. Bertrand had succeeded in finding a literary equivalent of the Bamboccianti caprice.

By February 1828, Bertrand had completed most of the "Flemish

School" and other pieces in the same manner, and still intended to group them under the burlesque title les Bambochades. About 20 of these works were

to be published, and Bertrand was working as chief editor of Le Provincial,

142 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

where he remained until June. Five months later he departed for Paris. WhUe

sojourning in Paris, Bertrand frequented the salons of Victor Hugo and

Charles Nodier, and expanded his knowledge of art and foreign literature.8

In August 1829, the editor to whom he had entrusted les Bambochades went

bankrupt. Recurring iUness and depression over his unpublished masterpiece left Bertrand isolated and in financial difficulties during the foUowing

months. It was at this period that he began further acquainting himself with

another engraver's work?namely, that of Jacques CaUot:

Bertrand lived for a while in financial difficulty, and it was in a miserable attic that he passed hours contemplating the world depicted in each work

of CaUot: devils, beggars, and hanged people. He perceived them, however,

to be quite like their master engraver, with a preoccupation for the pictur

esque. (Sprietsma 1926, 127; my translastion)

In aU Ukelihood, Bertrand was already familiar with CaUot's work. A print connoisseur such as Bertrand must have encountered him in the more than

8,000-print coUection avaUable to the public in Dijon's cabinet. Enriched by

revolutionary war spoils, the works of more than 140 artists were represented,

including the Bamboccianti, CaUot, and Rembrandt.9 Nevertheless, it had not

yet occurred to Bertrand to incorporate CaUot's or Rembrandt's work into

his text. Content with the Bamboccianti burlesque, it was not untU his stay in

Paris that Bertrand reevaluated the aesthetic at work in les Bambochades.

Drastic changes were

occurring when Bertrand arrived in Paris. The

Parisian literary milieu of 1828 was experiencing an upsurge in the avail

ability of translated foreign literature, particularly from England and

Germany. Around this time, the name E.T A. Hoffmann began circulating in

reviews and articles. Creator of the fantastic genre, Hoffmann was greatly admired by Charles Nodier, whose salon Bertrand was then frequenting.10

InitiaUy, very few of Hoffmann's works were available in French; however, by December 1829, the first four parts of Fantasiestucke in Callots Manier had

appeared in a deluxe iUustrated edition by Renduel. Bertrand had already returned to Dijon by this time; hence, we cannot assume that his Hoffmann

inspired subtitle, Fantaisies a la maniere de Rembrandt et de CaUot, originated with this publication. Prior to the Renduel edition, however, an article

appeared in Le Globe on 2 August 1828 that compares Hoffmann to CaUot.

Composed by Jean-Jacques Ampere and borrowing heavily from a German

biography by Julius Edouard Hitzig, Hoffman is described as possessing

A vigorous imagination and lucid mind, a bitter melancholy and an inex

haustible verve for buffoonery and extravagance. Imagine a man who

designs with a steady hand the most fantastic figures, rendered ... in the

strangest scenes, simultaneously shivering, dreaming and laughing?in

Dana Milstein 143

short, who composes like Callot ... and you will have an idea of Hoffmann.

(Sprietsma 1926, 45; my translation)

The comparison to Callot probably went unnoticed by the broad public who

had yet to hear of Hoffmann's Fantasiestucke in Callots Manier. It is not incon

ceivable, however, that Bertrand had come across this title during discussions

of Hoffmann at Nodier's salon. Recognizing strains of the fantastic in his still

unpublished work, and already obsessed with engraving as a mimetic medi

um, Bertrand set to work researching and reediting his prose poems a la

maniere ^'Hoffmann. After a brief return to Dijon, Bertrand permanently set

tled in Paris. By January 1833, he had entered into negotiations with

Renduel to publish his revised manuscript, Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantaisies a la

maniere de Rembrandt et de Callot.

Bertrand and the Fantastic Genre: Metaphysical Laughter

What revelation did Hoffmann's title, together with Callots and

Rembrandt's engravings, provide that warranted a drastic change in

Bertrand's title les Bambochades! Simply, the burlesque comedy of the

Bamboccianti no longer satisified Bertrand's aesthetic demands as a nine

teenth-century writer and, more importantly, no longer seemed to him an

adequate vehicle of modern humor.

Undoubtedly both the Bamboccianti and Callot belong among artists of

caricature. However, a significant difference distinguishes the works of an

artist like van Laer from one like Callot. Bamboccianti paintings, as described

above, depict quotidian scenes that gently satirize the living conditions of the

common people. Because their works imitate scenes from ordinary life, the

Bamboccianti belong to a mimetic aesthetic that remains faithful to Nature.

Such depictions may be described as the comique ordinaire or, as Baudelaire

defines it, le comique significatif The viewer laughs in amusement at the plight of another man; in other words, he laughs at something visibly present to any viewer. Callots engravings, by contrast, play on the uncertain boundary of

theartrical, illusory motifs by focusing on masquerades, pantomime and cos

tume. In Callot's work, "figures are disposed with concern for harmonious

staging, graceful bearing and rhetorical gestures (Chappell 1986, 2). In the

Two Zanni (1616), for example, two characters from the popular Italian the

ater appear in the foreground, their poses based on stylized ballet movements.

Generally appearing at festivals and carnivals, these zanni performed for a

diverse group of gentility. A close inspection of the engraving reveals the

nobles to be as much, if not more, involved in the spectacle as the fore

grounded performers. To the immediate left, two gentlemen couples non

chalantly dance, and a noblewoman listens to her companion while clutch

ing a pantaloon. A central group seems to impersonate the theatrical. To the

144 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

extreme right, a

pantaloon leans upon a noblewoman's knee, and a proces

sion-like carriage moves off. No aspect of the painting appears ordinary.

Humor is created by an uncanny mingling of the aristocracy and the dancers.

The viewer remains uncertain of whether the true spectacle lies in the fore

grounded pantomime, or in the aristocratic theatrical occurring behind the

players. The scene depicted is unnatural, and the double nature of aristocrat

ic life, not visible to the ordinary spectator, is satirized.

Opposing le comique ordinaire, CaUot's prints define the true grotesque. By

presenting a theatrical exhibition in which expected social class and individ

ual behavior are thrown into question, CaUot creates an original spectacle rather than mimicking a realistic scene. CaUot's work, Baudelaire would have

claimed, belongs to the realm of fe comique absolu.11 The viewer amuses him

self not by understanding any moral reality, but rather by grasping the intu

itive glimpse of an alternative truth provided by the artist. Consequently, humor arises not from the satire of an

ordinary man in a mundane setting,

but out of the artist's triumph over Nature in creating an iUusion.

CaUotian humor abounds in Gaspard de la Nuit. "Le Macon," for exam

ple, presents the reader with an unusual situation. The text opens from the

single perspective of Abraham Knupfer, who is given a panoramic view of

the city: "The mason Abraham Knupfer sings, his trowel in hand on the airy

scaffold, so high that, reading the Gothic verses on the great beU, he levels

with his feet both the church with thirty flying buttresses and the city of thir

ty churches" (Bertrand 1994, 22).The reader first notices the immediate sur

roundings on which Knupfer is stationed?a gothic church with grotesques, where he reads verses inscribed upon the beU. Oddly, Bertrand has situated

Knupfer, a Jewish mason, on the church, where he gaily sings. The Jew's body is sublimated above both the great church and the Catholic city below.

Expanding his gaze onto this city, noble constructions such as a fortification,

palaces, and cloisters first appear. Following is a rather uncanny description of troops and veterans. Bertrand describes a horseman whose weapon would

have been anachronistic in relation to the costume of that period. Retired

soldiers attack an artificial wooden bird placed upon a May Pole, displaying

contempt for their city or perhaps for the amorous carnival ensuing. The set

ting is destabilized by the simultaneous depiction of a scene of love and cel

ebration with a scene of war and chaos, aU under the scrutiny of a religious outcast. As with CaUot's work, an absurdly incongruous situation is magni fied by an unusual perceiver. No moral is expressed. Bertrand merely creates

a tableau in which characters and their respective actions are aU scrambled

and reapportioned?or "leveUed."

Bertrand changed his title to highlight the CaUotian humor in his text,

and to indicate an homage to Hoffmann's Fantasiestucke in Callots Manier.

Dana Milstein 145

Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that Callot s engravings were not the pri

mary influence on Hoffmann's own particular notion of humor. Desiring to

evoke a relationship between his "fantasy pieces" and engraving, Hoffmann

chose Callot as the artist most exemplary of this aesthetic, but more influen

tial upon Hoffmann's theory of humor was Jean-Paul Richter, whom

Hoffmann so admired that he requested him to write the Introduction to

Fantasiestucke. Hoffmann emphasizes that Richter's "humorous" introduction

should be placed before his preface, which is essentially an accolade to Callot

and his style. Here, Richter takes precedence to Callot. Hoffmann's letters

reveal that his tribute to Callot's works developed as an after-thought upon

completion of the text: "[t]he addition 'in the manner of Callot' I weighed

thoroughly; with it I gave myself leeway for variety. ... Do leave the title as

once decided upon, and don't be too timid in such matters, my dearest

friend" (Sahlin 1977, 205). Hoffmann, like Bertrand, had originally intended

a different title for his text.12 These title changes, post-dating completion of

both authors' texts, provide evidence that their idea of humor evolved from

other sources. In Hoffmann's case, that source was Jean-Paul Richter; and

subsequently, it is Richter's influence upon Hoffmann's notion of humor that

abounds in Bertrand's text.

In the same letter that defends his reference to Callot, Hoffmann explains that "Humor swings his scepter of fun, but he crowns with thorns, and the

mesmerized sleeper is threatened with sharp daggers" (Sahlin 1977, 205). Humor is created not out of joy, but out of its inversion?grief. Grief arises

when the least anticipated situations affect the least suspecting individuals.

This moment may be either comic or tragic in nature. Either the degrada tion of the aristocracy through participation in inappropriate amusement, or

the ennobling of a wretch, for instance, creates an unsuspected

moment for

the reader. The reader is shocked by this kind of travesty, and from this inver

sion of the sublime and grotesque humor evolves.13

Hoffmann's statement metaphorically outlines the complicated theory of

Humor proposed by Richter:

Humor, as the inverse sublime, annihilates not the individual but the finite

by contrasting it with the idea. It knows no individual foolishness, no fools,

but only folly and a mad world; unlike the common joker, delivering side

swipes, it does not single out a particular folly; rather, it hauls down the

great, but?unlike parody?in order to put it next to the small, and raises

the small, but?unlike irony?in order to put it next to the great and thus to

annihilate both, because in the face of infinity all is equal and nothing. (Casey 1992, 250)

Here, Humor arises out of a contrast and union between two dualities, the

Finite and the Idea. The "Finite" defines that which already exists in a per

146 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

feet state without need of amendment. The "Idea" impUes something stiU in

progress and thus incomplete. EssentiaUy, Richter s terms may be substituted

by their sister concepts, the "sublime" and the "grotesque." Baudelaire posits this same theory of the comic by stating that laughter requires two presences in conflict. The

peculiar oxymoronic nature of comic art, which [Baudelaire] treats as a

contradiction in terms, represents in boldly exaggerated form, Uke a good

caricature, the dualism of art itself, the contradiction inherent in aU artistic

creation, as in mankind?at once diabolical and divine, real and ideal, ugly

and beautiful, temporal and enduring, inferior and superior. (Hannoosh

1992,3)

Given the logical equation then, Richter (and Baudelaire) suggests that

the subUme and the grotesque must meet through an inversion of status. The

sublime is not degraded for purposes of satirical imitation?what Richter

labels Parody?but in order to commensurate it with the grotesque.

Likewise, the grotesque is elevated to balance this shift. The convergence of

these antipodes annihUates both, and proves that everything is simultaneous

ly equal and nothing. It is essential, before continuing, to point out that

Richter s concept of humor is more elaborate than Hugo's weU-known

notion of the sublime and the grotesque. For Hugo, "The real results in the

natural combination of two types, the sublime and the grotesque, which

intersect in the drama, just as they intersect in life and in creation.True poet

ry, or complete poetry, exists in the harmony of opposites" (1933, 60; my

translation). While two corresponding duaUties are necessary to achieve

Humor, for Hugo no dialectical inversion or annihilation is necessary. The

grotesque is not the inverted sublime, but rather an ugliness content to exist

as a harmonious opposite. Indeed, Hugo's definition seems representative of

the parody and irony that Richter argues against. Bertrand's work (via

Hoffmann) is thus more in Une with Richter s notion of the comic as an

absurdity or negation of understanding rather than Hugo's theory of humor, which inspires gravity and moral improvement.

For nineteenth-century aesthetes, art too was divided in two parts that

result in "the convergence of two fundamental points: topicality and durabil

ity" (Baudelaire 1975, 1. 352; my trasnslation). Baudelaire postulates that

"Beauty is always of a dual composition, even though the impression it pro duces is single. It consists of an eternal, invariable element and a relative, cir

cumstantial element" (Hannoosh 1992, 261). These elements correspond

respectively to Reason and Emotion, the Finite and the Idea, or the Sublime

and the Grotesque. Bertrand maintains that art is achieved by two conditions:

feeling, represented by God and Love, and reason, signified by Satan.14 Gaspard reflects upon this theory when recounting his tale to the narrator: "This

Dana Milstein 147

adventure gave me pause to reflect. I reflected that since God and Love were

the primary conditions for Art, that which is feeling in art, Satan could well

be the second of these conditions, that which is reason in Art" (Bertrand

1994, 9). Determining these conditions for Art, Gaspard embarks on a search

for Satan. Unnoted by Gaspard, the reader does not ascertain until the con

clusion that Gaspard himself is the Devil. Gaspard searches for his inner Self, a component that must unite with God or the sublime. The meeting of these

two conditions results in an annihilation of duality, permitting the realization

that Art exists only "in the bosom of God" (11). Based on this aesthetic, this annihilation occurs through a dialectical

inversion of the sublime and the grotesque. The end result is what Baudelaire

defines as an explosion of the comique absolu: writer and reader enter the

realm of the fantastic, or merveilleux. Unlike Hoffmann, whose Fantasiestucke

centralizes itself around the theme of the grotesque to facilitate the use of the

fantastic,15 Bertrand (though equally concerned with the fantastic) exhibits

an obsession with the dialectical equation of Art. While Hoffmann was con

tent to rely solely upon Callot as the artist most representative of his theory of humor, Bertrand required a second artist who would represent the sub

lime?hence, the addition of Rembrandt's name to his subtitle.

The choice to juxtapose Callot and Rembrandt as representative of the

two conditions of art is explained in Bertrand's second preface to Gaspard de la Nuit:

Art has always two contrasting sides, a medallion whose one face, for exam

ple, bears the likeness of Paul Rembrandt and the reverse that of Jacques Callot. Rembrandt is the white-bearded philosopher, who corkscrews him

self into his retreat; who gathers his thoughts in meditation and prayer; who

closes his eyes to wrap himself in thought; who communes with the spirits

of beauty, science, wisdom, and love; and who wastes away delving into the

mysterious symbols of nature. Callot, on the other hand, is the mercenary

soldier, braggart and licentious, who struts about the square, who is noisy

in the taverns, who caresses the gypsy girls, who swears only by his sword

and his blunderbuss, and whose only other care is waxing his moustache.

(Bertrand 1994, 14)

A certain inversion ensues between the two artists. Callot, who was born into

an aristocratic family, is here reduced to a gruff and pompous dandy. This

degradation is in keeping with Callots depiction of the grotesque. In fact at

one point, Callot portrays himself among disfigured Gobbi, intentionally

inverting his nobility as a deformed, comic figure. Rembrandt, by contrast, is

the philosopher or dreamer who envisages the deformed or common as sub

lime. In more than 30 self-portraits done over his lifetime, Rembrandt

appears not as an artisan, but as a compendium of aristocratic and holy fig

148 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

ures?as a burgher, Democritus, St. Paul, and in armor or aristocratic cloth

ing. Rembrandt's works can be characterized as an attempt "to catch the

awkward truth," (Schama 1999, 9) and this is exhibited primarily by the end

less attempts of self-portraiture as various personae. The motif of double

inversion of the subject (in this case, the artists' role reversals), defines a comic

moment: "Distorting the subject while maintaining a likeness sufficient to

ensure recognition, caricature both preserves and alters it in one same image"

(Hannoosh 1992,75).

Gaspard de la Nuit: Callot and Rembrandt

Were I to open for you the sliding door to the magic lantern of my imag

ination, you would see yourself in many poses. (E.T. A. Hoffmann, letter to

Hippel 28 May 1796)

For CaUot, who had lived in Rome during the blossoming of baroque

theater, theatricality and pageantry were most significant. Reacting against Mannerism, CaUot was

moved by what could be caUed a Baroque concern for heightened persua

sion of the beholder. [He] practiced a new style combining a return to

verism in color and drawing, a preference for compositions reminiscent of

Florentine High Renaissance exemplars of good disegno, and restrained

gestures and expressions. (ChappeU 1986, 4)

Working "in the manner of" CaUot's etchings, Bertrand creates a series of

vignettes characterized by magnified figures placed in varying reliefs, or on

various stages.

The subject matter of La Chanson de Masque recalls the grotesque motif

in CaUot's Les Bohemiens. Irony abounds with the unfolding plot of an undig nified processional making its fervent pilgrimage towards death. Like CaUot's

bohemiens, this "band of poor beggars, fuU of adventure, carries nothing other

than future hopes."16 A mock crowning of the Harlequin foUows after this

buffoon regales them with what would have been a poor man's supper.

Undertaking to feast their monarch, the company performs a mock pageant in which the nobleman is played by the haggard and the phony, and in which

libidinous pleasure conquers the joy shared by romantic lovers. In this drama, aristocratic games and riches are deemed boring, and placed offstage behind

the curtain. Instead, the spectacle revolves around a masquerade predominat

ed by dancing and singing. As the ephemeral spectacle unfolds, the text

becomes part of the ronde being enacted by the figures. Reading the lines, we

are obliged to engage in the dance, repeating the refrains "let us join hands"

and "let us sing and dance" along with the fictitious characters (Bertrand

1994, 94).17 Cleverly, Bertrand removes any definable boundary between

simulacrum of the text and real action.18 By subtly involving us in this musi

Dana Milstein 149

cal text, fictitious images become threaded with fabricated memories. The

uncertainty of whether the reader has engaged in actual or imagined action

delineates the deconstruction of position between reader and text. This

marks the moment of Humor the text accomplishes.

Similarly characterized by the grotesque and inspired by a fifteenth-cen

tury stringed instrument used primarily in consort music, La Viole de Gamba

parallels the "manner of" Callot's Balli di Sfessania. Conceived in three dis

tinct planes, Callot's composition conveys qualities of an Italian Comedy set

in action upon a specific stage. Masked comedians gesticulate rapidly in the

foreground, unconcerned with performing. In the middle ground, a more

conservative spectacle entertains onlookers. The stage and scenery compose the background, adding a three-dimensional quality to the piece.

Set in three reliefs disjointed from each other by stars, Bertrand's stanzas

can be analyzed as an improvisation upon Callot's spectacle. In the fore

ground, the instrument becomes animated by an interior comedy. The direc

tor's first strum upon the instrument results in an improvised piece played

independently of the orchestrated music intended. In the middle ground, a

comedy in three acts ensues. Anger abounds in Act I, in which Barbara scolds

Pierrot for clumsiness. Farce dominates Act II with the characters harmo

niously staged in the pantomime of mocking poor Monsieur Cassandre.

Finally, Act III is marked by disillusionment when Harlequin abducts

Pierrot's goods. The absurdity of the drama is accentuated by the mish-mash

of a troupe of characters who have no specific link to each other; accord

ingly, the narrative dramatic function is preempted by the visual image of the

characters.19 In the background, the moment of real action occurs?the

director expresses distress in discovering a broken string. Like Callot, Bertrand is more concerned with improvisation upon a theme and the par

ticipation of the spectator in that theme than with a historically credible per formance. Mirroring the middle-ground drama, Bertrand divides La Viole de

Gamba into three acts?the anger of the director, the imaginary perform ance, and the director's disillusionment. Multiple reliefs are created by corre

sponding visual and auditory immediacy of a text to the interior drama.

Bertrand uses this metatext to lead the reader into this mysterious realm so

that he can appreciate the synesthetic effects. By entering the text to observe

the embedded spectacle, the reader participates in the vignette, and the bar

rier between illusory and real action is annihilated.20

Unlike Callot, Bertrand does not intend to capture an historical event.

His purpose, working in Callot's manner, is to magnify in a single page a

multiplicity of actions and figures that would not meet in a real context.

There are not, as Hubert claims, "arbitrary limitations in [Bertrand's] uni

verse" (1964, 80). Ultimately, perspective is displaced by restructuring the

150 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

panoramic "glance" as a

multiple rather than single vision. Creating a scope

of visibiUty, Bertrand intends, as does CaUot, for the surreal to evolve out of

an impossible game of "pin the tale" on the absolute perspective. Bold color

schemes and aggressive lines, present in the form of textual relief and com

bined antithetical forms and themes, mark several of the prose poems as

vignettes in CaUot's manner.

La Chasse may be the one prose poem that contains both

Rembrandtesque and CaUotian technique. The work begins in CaUot's man

ner by depicting a typical aristocratic hunt. Kinetic activity is projected by man into field, animals, and horns that become animated participants in the

pursuit. Like CaUot's etching, aU action is suffused in the middle ground of

the work, and the observer is drawn into the text. Halfway through the work, at the cathartic moment, the chase is inverted. It is now man who is being tracked down to the death, ravaged by the violent act of his kin. The strug

gle reverts toward the exterior. Contrasted with the former iUusory chase, the

moving figures appear to jump out of their textual confinement. By shock

ing the reader with this twist of events, the narrator provides us with an inte

rior perspective?we are given the honor of pronouncing the (fictitious)

blessing for the dead and the curse for the damned.

UnUke CaUot, Rembrandt's style of engraving is less concerned with

magnitude and relief as a technique. Instead, drama is created in Rembrandt's

work primarily through shading, using a technique known as chiaroscuro.

LiteraUy translated as the oxymoron "light-dark," chiaroscuro is a technique in which extreme contrasts between light and dark shades create a dramatic

effect. Realistic scenes are easily emphasized through this technique of

Baroque iUusionism, in which the eye must acknowledge the emerging fig ures moving against the background. Chiaroscuro "demonstrates that somber

colors don't tend towards non-colored obscurity, but rather transform the

localized color of objects and characters, contrast the light of bright colors,

and give the painting a dramatic tension, a profundity and exceptional inte

riority" (Alpers 1991, 85; my translation). The exchange of perceptions between the interior and exterior creates a heightened sense of motion and

fluidity between various subjects. By juxtaposing extreme opposites of Ught and dark and displacing subject and perspective, Rembrandt creates a rupture or nervous tension, leaving an awkward or absurd ambience with the viewer.

Throughout Gaspard de la Nuit, Bertrand implements the technique of

chiaroscuro to unsettle the reader's perspective. Movement and displaced per

spective is used primarily to blur the relationship between reader, narrator,

and characters; or, to erode the barriers between interior and exterior, sub

ject and object, or original and copy in the text.

Dana Milstein 151

L'Ecolier de Leyden, for example, is a subterfuge used to confuse the

boundaries between reality, history, and fiction. The epigram?recounting the Spanish and French invasion of Dutch land?opens with the theme of

guarding oneself against counterfeit.21 Given certain details of costume and

chattel, the setting opens in a sixteenth-century money-lending house. As the

narrator, a poor student, waits for his loan, he ponders the unethical manner

by which goldweighers prosper. Disgusted by Monsieur Blazius's suspicion of

his pawned object, the narrator turns his attention to the oriental box that

houses the weigher's scales. The appearance of this foreign object, likened to

a spider crouching for attack, mesmerizes the student. He fantasizes that

Blazius is forced to return to God what has been gained through deception. Fantastic images such as spiders and odd tulips awaken and recede with the

closing of the box. Humbly and without complaint, the student takes his

money and leaves.

The poem itself is most likely a transposition of Rembrandt's etching, fan

Uytenbogaert, The Receiver-General. Long known as The Goldweigher, the etch

ing depicts a scene strongly reminiscent of Bertrand's text. Composed as an

act of gratitude to Jan, the Receiver-General, the work is actually a historic

document. Captured in this image is Rembrandt's humble dispute over two

paintings done for the king, for which he had not been properly compen sated. Jan, an admirer of Rembrandt's works, intervened and arranged full

compensation for the paintings. Christopher White speculates that The

Goldweigher was etched in thanks for Jan's assistance (1964, 50). In this genre scene in which Jan's portrait appears as the central figure, a sense of forebod

ing or caution permeates the picture. Distrust coupled with an expectation of honest work radiates from the weigher's eyes into those of the servant

child kneeling before him, and he clutches the pouch that the child seems

eager to take from him.

The Goldweigher may be a metaphor of Rembrandt's own relief as he

humbly accepted his payment from the treasurer. Yet the comparison between Rembrandt's image and Bertrand's text opens an additional possi

bility for interpretation. Who is the apprentice first depicted in Rembrandt's

portrait as a servant, then depicted in Bertrand's text as a poor student from

Leyden? In fact, Bertrand's text is an interpretation of Rembrandt's genre scene in terms of biographical metaphor. The son of a miller's family,

Rembrandt was removed from this lowly environment to begin an appren

ticeship with Jacob van Swanenburgh, an "undistinguished local architectur

al painter" (White 1964,13). The "poor student of Leyden with holey stock

ings and breeches," narrator of Bertrand's text, alludes to Rembrandt's status

during his youth. Bertrand's ability to create confusion between original and

copy, simulacrum and real, is masterly. Based on a Rembrandt etching, which

152 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

is itself based on a historic incident, L'Ecolier de Ley den becomes a journalis tic narration rendered during the artist's actual experience. Which of the

three resources?the text, the etching, or

experience?evolved first? Is

Rembrandt a fictitious character or a historic person? The text eliminates

space-time parameters by crossing the fabricated drama of our minds with

real life drama. In a chiaroscuro manner, authenticity is ruptured. In L'Alchimiste, Bertrand aims to destabilize the reader's confidence in

first-person textual narrators. Reading the hermetic wisdom of Raymond

LuUy,22 the narrator attempts to decipher the mystical writings independ

ently of instruction. The presence of divine inspiration or revelation, neces

sary to disentangle hermetic metaphor, is absent from the alchemist's mind.

A salamander appears amidst the chemical apparatus, but its attempts to dis

tract the alchemist from continuing his efforts go unnoticed. This creature,

which should be perceived as a symbol of having achieved purity, is instead

viewed as a nuisance. Indeed, even the distiUation equipment begins to

whistle strongly, trying to guide the student in the right direction. But the

alchemist remains incognizant, unaware of the truth surrounding him and

trying to capture his attention. Frustrated, he continues his studious efforts

in vain.

Aside from displaying fantastic imagery, this vignette is intended to be an

aUegorical sketch. Taking the epigram's advice, the reader must acquire Bertrand's wisdom "by bonds, which are very obscure and entangled" in

order to "find evidence and truth" in the text (1994, 30). A specific context

can be grasped from the alchemical imagery. The reference to LuUy, the

appearance of the salamander, and the use of a retort in chemical experi

mentation aU hint that the alchemist is attempting to solve the process of

chemical and spiritual distiUation. In chemical terms, distiUation involves

condensing a solution to increase its purity; but spirituaUy, the distiUation

process symbolizes transcendence of the psyche to the most sublime level

possible. In this state, the psyche is freed of sentimentality, and cut off from

emotion. The salamander, known to resist the flames of temptation, appears as a symbol of this purification from passion. In rudimentary terms, distiUa

tion is the process of "getting the human out of the way" in order to tap into

one's creativity (Hauck 1999, 124). The bleak weariness of the determined student recaUs Rembrandt's

Student with a Light. Seated in pitch dark, the shape, much less the features, of

the figure barely appears outlined by a coruscating candle. The lack of mate

rial visibUity suggests that neither man's logic, nor the book he is pondering, can reveal concealed wisdom. Only through a transcended psyche, here sym boUzed by the flame (the exclusively discernible object on the print) is the

PhUosopher's Stone?or Art?obtained.

Dana Milstein 153

The pictorial language and fantastic iconography of Bertrand's vignette

allegorizes the author's own pursuit of Art. As the Philosopher's Stone of the

nineteenth century, Art can be obtained through the alchemical process of

purification. Important to this process is the annihilation of subject and iden

tity of the seeker. Bertrand, like Richter and Baudelaire, alludes to the com

mon alchemical credo that all things originate from the Divine, and can

achieve perfection only through the annihilation of dualities.23

Attempted identity elimination courses through the preface of Gaspard de la Nuit.24 Initially, the narrator's body is likened to a statue standing in the

Garden where the story opens. While he is meditating upon the statue?

which is of a priest sitting and reading?a Christ-like figure approaches and

distracts his attention. Unknown yet to the narrator or reader, it is Gaspard de la Nuit, Bertrand's poetic daemon. Retrieving a withered flower that has

escaped from the stranger's book, the narrator engages in a conversation

about Art and the quest for it. As Gaspard describes his experiences and

observations, it becomes increasingly apparent that his book?the book he

loans to Bertrand?is a notebook that records this alchemical quest. The

preface is merely a summary of that quest. Gaspard's adventures lead him to

hypothesize that Art is composed of two conditions?God and Satan.

However he later resolves?and hopes that the narrator will do the same

after completing his book?that true Art exists only with God, and that the

devil is a fabrication. The narrator is left with a manuscript, whose title is

Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantaisies a la Maniere de Rembrandt et Callot. As a data

repository of spiritual processes, the manuscript is the sole substantiation that

Gaspard has achieved his quest for Art.

The preface concludes with the narrator's discovery that Gaspard de la

Nuit is the devil; or alternatively, the second condition of Art. One page later, the reader learns that Gaspard is a pseudonym for Bertrand himself. Is it

Bertrand as Gaspard who plays the part of the alchemist, vigilantly attempt

ing to decipher the secrets of purification to obtain absolute Art? Be that as

it may, Gaspard determines that the second condition of Art?Satan?exists:

"[t]hey etch him in vignettes; they stitch him in novels; they clothe him in

plays. One sees him everywhere, as

clearly as I see you. Pocket mirrors were

invented that he might better trim his beard" (1994, 10).The implication is

that this second condition of Art, which can be seen simply by gazing into a

mirror, is a reflection of the author's psyche. Finishing his recollection, how

ever, Gaspard denies the devil's existence and deems that Art is perpetuated in the bosom of God, the only original creator. Inquiring after Gaspard the

next day to return his book, the narrator learns that Gaspard is the devil.Why then, had Gaspard denounced his own existence? Why, in other words, does

Bertrand make copious efforts to nullify his authority over the text, and real

154 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

locate the triumph of his works to God? The answer evades the reader until

s/he reads UAlchimiste. There the first-person narrator sits and ventures to

discover the secret of distiUation. Achieving this spiritual process would grant the secret of Creation?of true Art, but in this prose poem spiritual transfor

mation occurs without the author's recognition. Bertrand's abandonment of

true identity, and his acquisition of a new identity in the form of Gaspard, does not register in the author's mind as spiritual distiUation. Instead, the frus

tration of unproductive study is recorded in the manuscript. Later summarizing his completed manuscript to the narrator, Gaspard

proclaims that the devil doesn't exist. This afterthought is placed prior to the

text to delude the reader into confusing actual recorded experience for

prnlosophical fabrication, or the original for the copy. If, as Gaspard claims, his text retains an aura of chiaroscuro, this means that both conditions of Art

have been satisfied in the given work. In other words, this corpus of prose

poems is proof of the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone?Art. Given the

alchemical belief that the Philosopher's Stone can be obtained only by

renouncing the Ego, it becomes necessary for Gaspard (or Bertrand) to

renounce his own authority and identity, and to proclaim Art's existence

with God.25

Conclusion

An inquiry into the metamorphosis of the title (and subtitle) of Gaspard de la Nuit reveals the inteUectual expansion Bertrand experienced over sev

eral years. Beginning his work as a coUection of caprices, Bertrand intended

nothing more than a series of short, improvised sketches that were satiric in

nature. Progressively, however, this simple concept of Humor was

replaced

with a more complex theory along the lines of Richter s and Hugo's notions

of the subUme and the grotesque. In the manner of Rembrandt and CaUot, Bertrand's prose poems evolve as magnified sketches in which characters and

scenes osciUate between varying reliefs (or between the sublime and the

grotesque). This movement results in a distorted perspective for the reader

and the elimination of central authorial authority. By dividing the text into

brief images that are implanted as the authors fabricated memories, Bertrand

transforms his text into a process?an alchemical quest?whose goal is Art.

Consequently, the text becomes less identifiable as a literary object than as a

"mental process involved in aesthetic apprehension" (Scott 1988, 11).

Coupling the etching technique of Rembrandt and CaUot with Richter s

notion of Humor, Bertrand's poems become typified by what may be caUed

a neo-baroque aesthetic of the oxymoron?"briUiant darkness."26 Contained

in this aesthetic are the elements of suspended lyric, surreal juxtapositions,

Dana Milstein 155

and conscious jolts and disruptions that would come, through more famous

authors such as Baudelaire, to characterize the modern prose poem.

Unquestionably, these "croisements',' as Baudelaire calls them in the preface to his Petits poemes en prose, achieve what Hugo defines as the goal of all art:

The goal of art. . .is to open to the spectator a double horizon, to illumi

nate simultaneously the interior and the exterior of men; the exterior by

their discourses and actions; the interior, by their monologues; to intersect,

in a word, in the same tableau, the drama of life and the drama of the con

science. (Hugo 1933, 83; my translation)

Notes

Special thanks to Richard Sieburth and Royal S. Brown for their suggestions and aid in producting this text. This article is dedicated to Michael Adamcik.

1 Maurice Ravel composed "Gaspard de la Nuit: 3 poemes pour piano d'apres

Aloysius Bertrand." The music was set to a baUet in 1976 and made into a motion

picture of the same title. The work was later filmed for the Jerome Robbins Archive

by Amram Nowak Associates with the assistance of a grant from the National

Endowment for the Arts, at the NewYork State Theater on January 31, 1976, per

formed by members of the New York City BaUet. Antonio Giacommetti's piece is

entitled "Gaspard de la nuit : sette pezzi per chitarra."

2 For a broader explanation of engraving, see Hind:

Engraving may be broadly defined as the art of drawing or writing on any substance

by means of an incised line. By a natural transference from the abstract to the con

crete, the term may be referred to the work so performed, and by a further trans

ference, illogical, but stereotyped by usage, it is applied to an impression taken on

paper or some allied material, from the original engraved work. (Hind 1963, 1)

3 The 1980 GaUimard (French) edition of Gaspard de la Nuit, edited by Max

MUner, includes an Appendix in which notes by Bertrand on the manner of iUus

tration are included. Bertrand explains that "Le caractere general du dessin sera

moyen-age et fantastique," and that "plus il y aura dans l'encadrement de confusion

et de figures, plus il fera d'effet." 4 "To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of

art designed for reproducibUity. From a photographic negative, for example, one can

make any number of prints; to ask for the 'authentic' print makes no sense"

(Benjamin 1922,218). 5 Writing to a friend about his text, which has been prefaced by Richter,

Hoffmann concludes: "The real goal is reached with the words on the title page

"With a preface by Jean Paul," and he himself speaks in the preface of his manner (not

style)! I wiU say no more about it" (Selected Letters ofE.T.A. Hoffmann, 225). 6 These summarized explanations

are based on definitions taken from E. Littre,

Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangaise, cd-rom version (Paris: Redon, 1998). 7 This explanation is provided in Milner s French edition of Gaspard de la Nuit

(1980, 12).

156 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

8 Sprietsma notes that Bertrand was

particularly occupied by the following

writings: De IAllemagne of Mme de Stael, Shakespeare by Guizot, Schiller by Barante,

and le Cours de Litterature by Schlegel. 9 For further information, see Claudon (1993, 107). 10 Information here was taken from Schneider (1985, 145). Nodier, in an arti

cle of November 1830 entitled Du Fantastique en Litterature, labels Hoffmann the cre

ator of the fantastic genre, and divides his work into four principle themes: "folie et

puissance du mal, illusion et humour." 11 Le comique est, au point de vue artistique, une imitation; le grotesque, une crea

tion. Le comique est une imitation melee d'une certaine faculte creatrice, c'est a

dire d'une idealite artistique. . . .

Je veux dire que dans ce cas la (du grotesque) le

rire est l'expression de l'idee de superiority, non plus de l'homme sur l'homme, mais

de l'homme sur la nature. (Baudelaire 1975, 2.535)

12 The original accolade was to Hogarth, not Callot. 13

Hugo's "Preface to Cromwell" which outlines this new aesthetic of the sub

lime/grotesque, was published in 1827, just as Bertrand began on the poems that

would become Gaspard de la Nuit. 14 This duality is further elaborated by Baudelaire, who explains that Humor

(in the form of caricature), is double: "La caricature est double: le dessin et l'idee:

le dessin violent, l'idee mordante et voilee; complication d'elements penibles pour

un esprit naif, accoutume a comprendre d'intuition des choses simples comme lui"

(1975,2.529). 15

Unfortunately, this paper cannot concern itself with Hoffmann's use of

Callot; however, his decision to emphasize the grotesque is represented in the intro

duction of the Fantasiestucke: "Even in [Callot's] realistic depictions?the parades,

battle scenes, and such?lively facial characteristics give his figures and groups a dis

tinctive style?a peculiar familiarity, I might say" (1996, 5). 16

Inscription appearing on Callot's print, The Bohemians Marching: The Rear

Guard. 17 A ronde is a song in which one person sings the verses, and a refrain is repeat

ed by all participants while dancing in a circle.

18 For a description of the uncertain status of narrative and poetic authority in

Gaspard de la Nuit see Sieburth. Speaking in the context of duality between narrator

and interlocutor, Sieburth writes

"The specular identity of narrator and interlocutor (or of poet and devil, author and

reader) bears directly on the uncertain status of narrative and poetic authority with

in the work as a whole and, more specifically, serves to dramatize the difficulties of

distinguishing the simulacrum from the real, the derivation from the original."

(Sieburth 1985,239) 19 Diane Russell explains that "it would be impossible to piece together a

respectable comic company with the figures from Callot's Balli, since there is a pre

dominance of certain character types to the exclusion of others" (1975, 76). 20 This argument is a reassessment of Renee Riese Hubert's claim that the

synesthetic effects in this text "merely increase visual and auditory immediacy and,

Dana Milstein 157

unlike Baudelairean 'correspondances,' does not lead to some mysterious realm."

(1964, 78). Clearly, Bertrand intended the reader to appreciate both the immediate

synesthesia of actual textual description, and the corresponding "mysterious realm"

created in the iUusory action of that description. Denying the duplicity of texts is a

misunderstanding of CaUot's technique and intent, and thus an argument against

CaUot's influence upon the text.

21 This text appeared only in the first edition, and was later replaced by Captain

Lazare.

22 Raymond LuUy was a hermetic philosopher. He is most appreciated for the

theory expounded in the Ars Magna, which holds that there is no distinction between

phUosophy and theology, or Reason and Faith, so that even the highest mysteries may

be proved by means of logical demonstration (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1919). 23 The most important laws of alchemy originate from the Emerald Tablet,

believed to originate from Hermes (the EgyptianToth). A Hermetic philosophy out

lined on these tablets was carried down through modern times, and appeared dur

ing the late eighteenth century when alchemy and secret societies came into vogue.

The second law of tablet reads:

That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above

corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing.

And just as all things have come from this One Thing, through the meditation of

One Mind, so do all created things originate from this One Thing, through

Transformation. (Hauck 1999, 45)

24 Several suggestions have been proposed for the origin of Bertrand's charac

ter. Among the list of mimes and actors, I would like to propose a character from

Richter's novel Titan. In Richter's text, Count Gaspard de Cesara uses elaborate

tricks to create misunderstanding and mistaken identity. Indeed, the novel's theme is

the masque and mystery of konterfeis. The character seems not unlike Bertrand's and

requires further inspection as a possible source.

25 It is very difficult to summarize the components of alchemical philosophy without digressing from the main topic. Bertrand seems to replace the symbolic con

cepts of the One Thing and the One Mind respectively with Satan and God, or

Reason and Feeling. As Hauck explains, the One Thing is a theoretical substance

found everywhere. As the name of God, the One Thing represents Logos, Reason,

or the Ego. This One Thing, however, has no perceptible reality or form until it is

materialized by the action or thought of the One Mind, the "mind of the supreme

being." Bertrand systematically replaced this alchemical pair so that Satan (or

Gaspard, or Bertrand) assumes the guise of alchemy s "One Thing," while God is the

One Mind from which Satan (the One Thing) manifests itself. (Hauck 1999, 58). 26 It might be interesting to assess the use of this term with CoreneiUe's use of

"obscure clarte."

158 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

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Dana Milstein 159

Figure 1: Jacques CaUot, "The Two Zanni, 1616

Private CoUection

its pmtwTP duewn pfeim w h&naduftures w

Qj^f pct-tenr tirn auf &n hmet fuHtrtt.

Figure 2: Jacques CaUot, "La Bohemiens, 1619

Private CoUection

160 College Literature 30.2 (Spring 2003)

Stapine. Cap. *&rbt*w~~ '"TlTT^l'T!!?""" --^ Watpr "J v i. i ^v. - rra'uchma. Gumr&rma.

Figure 3: Jacques CaUot, "BaUi de Sfessania," 1619

Private CoUection

Figure 4: Jacques CaUot, "The Hunt," Private CoUection

? i

^ i <,"

Figure 5: Rembrandt van Rijn,"The Hunt," Private CoUection

Dana Milstein 161

Figure 6:

Rembrandt van Rijn "The Goldweigher, 1639

Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Figure 7:

Rembrandt vanRijn "Student with a Light," 1656

Teylers Museum, Haarlem