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Abstract
Prior to changes that occurred in nineteenth-century attitudes, literature was widely considered superior to painting. This was especially true in academic circles, where artists were routinely judged on their fidelity to literary traditions. This study uncovers an aesthetic evolution in literature which frees painting from these prejudices. The progression of this evolution can be seen through observing a gradual change in the perception of art as it occurs in literary plots. Some nineteenth-century authors took a traditionalist stance in portraying art in their writings, as did Victor Hugo, since his work tends to follow attitudes seen in academic circles. Past critics have already noted a lack of descriptions of art in Hugo. The present study goes further by exploring the rare instances of paintings in his works. Each time one might expect a faithful description of a painting in the author’s literary corpus, he chooses not to provide one. Instead, the narrative eschews mimetic fidelity, and so painting remains subservient to literature.
Other authors were more daring in their attempts to describe art in that they broke away from the wide-spread elitist attitude common in literary circles. In Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, and Émile Zola, visual art is not only a mention, as in Hugo, but plays a central role, thereby defying social conventions. It no longer merely serves the plot, but is the plot. Still, in their writings, artists and their works are often portrayed in a negative light, a circumstance that stems partially from the influence of their German predecessor E.T.A. Hoffmann. But painting is still not free from literature’s superiority.
It is up to Proust to finally resolve this imbalance in the relationship of painting to literature. He does this by creating a metaphorical relationship which we call triangular or Proustian ekphrasis. Through this process, he activates a link between paintings and À la Recherche du temps perdu and in the process liberates painting from its subservient role to text by allowing the two mediums to intermingle and corroborate one another in a give-and-take relationship.