Le poème d'Erasmus Darwin
En 1789, Josiah
Wedgwood avait envoyé à son ami, le
savant et poète Erasmus Darwin, la
« première copie parfaite »
qu'il était parvenu à réaliser en
céramique du vase de Portland : Darwin (le futur
grand-père de Charles Darwin) avait aussitôt
intégré une digression sur la fabrique de
Wedgwood, Etruria, et sur le vase de Portland, dans une
section, consacrée à la céramique, de
l'immense poème qu'il était en train de
composer, The Botanic Garden. L'ensemble parut en
1791-1792 dans une édition illustrée de
planches de William Blake. Voici cette digression :
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Etruria ! next beneath thy magic hands |
© Agnès Vinas |
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Here by fall'n columns and disjoin'd arcades, |
© Agnès Vinas |
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There the pale Ghost through Death's wide portal
bends |
© Agnès Vinas |
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With smiles assuasive Love Divine invites, |
© Agnès Vinas |
|
Immortal Life, her hand extending, courts |
Credits : Barbara Mc Manus |
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Beneath in sacred robes the Priestess dress'd, |
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Part I, « The Economy of Vegetation », Canto II, lines 291-340 |
On voit que la lecture d'Erasmus Darwin est nettement
allégorique. Une note très
développée de 120 pages s'en explique. Elle est
illustrée par quatre gravures de William Blake.
NOTE XXII - PORTLAND VASE
Gravure de William Blake, dans la première édition américaine de 1798 |
The celebrated funereal vase, long in possession of the
Barberini family, and lately purchased by the Duke of
Portland for a thousand guineas, is about ten inches high and
six in diameter in the broadest part. The figures are of most
exquisite workmanship in bas relief of white opake glass,
raised on a ground of deep blue glass, which appears black
except when held against the light. Mr. Wedgwood is of
opinion from many circumstances that the figures have been
made by cutting away the external crust of white opake glass,
in the manner the finest cameo's have been produced, and that
it must thence have been the labour of a great many years.
Some antiquarians have placed the time of its production many
centuries before the christian aera ; as sculpture was said
to have been declining in respect to its excellence in the
time of Alexander the Great. See an account of the Barberini
or Portland vase by M. D'Hancarville, and by Mr.
Wedgwood.
Many opinions and conjectures have been published concerning
the figures on this celebrated vase. Having carefully
examined one of Mr. Wedgwood's beautiful copies of this
wonderful production of art, I shall add one more conjecture
to the number.
Mr. Wedgwood has well observed that it does not seem probable
that the Portland vase was purposely made for the ashes of
any particular person deceased, because many years must have
been necessary for its production. Hence it may be concluded,
that the subject of its embellishments is not private history
but of a general nature. This subject appears to me to be
well chosen, and the story to be finely told ; and that it
represents what in ancient times engaged the attention of
philosophers, poets, and heroes, I mean a part of the
Eleusinian mysteries.
These mysteries were invented in Aegypt, and afterwards
transferred to Greece, and flourished more particularly at
Athens, which was at the same time the seat of the fine arts.
They consisted of scenical exhibitions representing and
inculcating the expectation of a future life after death, and
on this account were encouraged by the government, insomuch
that the Athenian laws punished a discovery of their secrets
with death. Dr. Warburton has with great learning and
ingenuity shewn that the descent of Aeneas into hell,
described in the Sixth Book of Virgil, is a poetical account
of the representations of the future state in the Eleusinian
mysteries. Divine Legation, Vol. I. p. 210.
And though some writers have differed in opinion from Dr.
Warburton on this subject, because Virgil has introduced some
of his own heroes into the Elysian fields, as Deiphobus,
Palinurus, and Dido, in the same manner as Homer had done
before him, yet it is agreed that the received notions about
a future state were exhibited in these mysteries, and as
these poets described those received notions, they may be
said, as far as these religious doctrines were concerned, to
have described the mysteries.
Now as these were emblematic exhibitions they must have been
as well adapted to the purposes of sculpture as of poetry,
which indeed does not seem to have been uncommon, since one
compartment of figures in the shield of Aeneas represented
the regions of Tartarus. Aen. Lib. X. The procession
of torches, which according to M. De St. Croix was exhibited
in these mysteries, is still to be seen in basso relievo,
discovered by Spon and Wheler. Memoires sur les
Mysteres par De St. Croix. 1784. And it is very probable
that the beautiful gem representing the marriage of Cupid and
Psyche, as described by Apuleus, was originally descriptive
of another part of the exhibitions in these mysteries, though
afterwards it became a common subject of ancient art. See
Divine Legat. Vol. I. p. 323. What subject could have
been imagined so sublime for the ornaments of a funereal urn
as the mortality of all things and their resuscitation ?
Where could the designer be supplied with emblems for this
purpose, before the Christian era, but from the Eleusinian
mysteries ?
1. The exhibitions of the mysteries were of two kinds, those
which the people were permitted to see, and those which were
only shewn to the initiated. Concerning the latter, Aristides
calls them « "the most shocking and most ravishing
representations ». And Stoboeus asserts that the
initiation into the grand mysteries exactly resembles death.
Divine Legat. Vol. I. p. 280, and p. 272. And Virgil
in his entrance to the shades below, amongst other things of
terrible form, mentions death. Aen. VI. This part of
the exhibition seems to be represented in one of the
compartments of the Portland vase.
Gravure de William Blake, dans la première édition américaine de 1798 |
Three figures of exquisite workmanship are placed by the
side of a ruined column whose capital is fallen off, and lies
at their feet with other disjointed stones, they sit on loose
piles of stone beneath a tree, which has not the leaves of
any evergreen of this climate, but may be supposed to be an
elm, which Virgil places near the entrance of the infernal
regions, and adds, that a dream was believed to dwell under
every leaf of it. Aen. VI. l. 281. In the midst of
this group reclines a female figure in a dying attitude, in
which extreme languor is beautifully represented, in her hand
is an inverted torch, an ancient emblem of extinguished life,
the elbow of the same arm resting on a stone supports her as
she sinks, while the other hand is raised and thrown over her
drooping head, in some measure sustaining it and gives with
great art the idea of fainting lassitude. On the right of her
sits a man, and on the left a woman, both supporting
themselves on their arms, as people are liable to do when
they are thinking intensely. They have their backs towards
the dying figure, yet with their faces turned towards her, as
if seriously contemplating her situation, but without
stretching out their hands to assist her.
This central figure then appears to me to be an hieroglyphic
or Eleusinian emblem of MORTAL LIFE, that is, the
lethum, or death, mentioned by Virgil amongst the
terrible things exhibited at the beginning of the mysteries.
The inverted torch shews the figure to be emblematic, if it
had been designed to represent a real person in the act of
dying there had been no necessity for the expiring torch, as
the dying figure alone would have been sufficiently
intelligible ; - it would have been as absurd as to have put
an inverted torch into the hand of a real person at the time
of his expiring. Besides if this figure had represented a
real dying person would not the other figures, or one of them
at least, have stretched out a hand to support her, to have
eased her fall among loose stones, or to have smoothed her
pillow ? These circumstances evince that the figure is an
emblem, and therefore could not be a representation of the
private history of any particular family or event.
The man and woman on each side of the dying figure must be
considered as emblems, both from their similarity of
situation and dress to the middle figure, and their being
grouped along with it. These I think are hieroglyphic or
Eleusinian emblems of HUMANKIND, with their backs toward the
dying figure of MORTAL LIFE, unwilling to associate with her,
yet turning back their serious and attentive countenances,
curious indeed to behold, yet sorry to contemplate their
latter end. These figures bring strongly to one's mind the
Adam and Eve of sacred writ, whom some have supposed to have
been allegorical or hieroglyphic persons of Aegyptian origin,
but of more ancient date, amongst whom I think is Dr.
Warburton. According to this opinion Adam and Eve were the
names of two hieroglyphic figures representing the early
state of mankind ; Abel was the name of an hieroglyphic
figure representing the age of pasturage, and Cain the name
of another hieroglyphic symbol representing the age of
agriculture, at which time the uses of iron were discovered.
And as the people who cultivated the earth and built houses
would increase in numbers much faster by their greater
production of food, they would readily conquer or destroy the
people who were sustained by pasturage, which was typified by
Cain slaying Abel.
Gravure de William Blake, dans la première édition américaine de 1798 |
2. On the other compartment of this celebrated vase is
exhibited an emblem of immortality, the representation of
which was well known to constitute a very principal part of
the shews at the Eleusinian mysteries, as Dr. Warburton has
proved by variety of authority. The habitation of spirits or
ghosts after death was supposed by the ancients to be placed
beneath the earth, where Pluto reigned, and dispensed rewards
or punishments. Hence the first figure in this group is of
the MANES or GHOST, who having passed through an open portal
is descending into a dusky region, pointing his toe with
timid and unsteady step, feeling as it were his way in the
gloom. This portal Aeneas enters, which is described by
Virgil, patet atri janua Ditis, Aen. VI. l. 126
; as well as the easy descent, facilis descensus Averni.
Ib. The darkness at the entrance to the shades is
humorously described by Lucian. Div. Legat. Vol. I. p.
241. And the horror of the gates of hell was in the time of
Homer become a proverb ; Achilles says to Ulysses,
« I hate a liar worse than the gates of
hell » ; the same expression is used in Isaiah,
ch. xxxviii. v. 10. The MANES or GHOST appears lingering and
fearful, and wishes to drag after him a part of his mortal
garment, which however adheres to the side of the portal
through which he has passed. The beauty of this allegory
would have been expressed by Mr. Pope, by « We
feel the ruling passion strong in death ».
A little lower down in the group the manes or ghost is
received by a beautiful female, a symbol of IMMORTAL LIFE.
This is evinced by her fondling between her knees a large and
playful serpent, which from its annually renewing its
external skin has from great antiquity, even as early as the
fable of Prometheus, been esteemed an emblem of renovated
youth. The story of the serpent acquiring immortal life from
the ass of Prometheus, who carried it on his back, is told in
Bacon's Works, Vol. V. p. 462. Quarto edit. Lond. 1778. For a
similar purpose a serpent was wrapped round the large
hieroglyphic egg in the temple of Dioscuri, as an emblem of
the renewal of life from a state of death. Bryant's
Mythology, Vol II. p. 359. sec. edit. On this account
also the serpent was an attendant on Aesculapius, which seems
to have been the name of the hieroglyphic figure of medicine.
This serpent shews this figure to be an emblem, as the torch
shewed the central figure of the other compartment to be an
emblem, hence they agreeably correspond, and explain each
other, one representing MORTAL LIFE, and the other IMMORTAL
LIFE.
This emblematic figure of immortal life sits down with her
feet towards the figure of Pluto, but, turning back her face
towards the timid ghost, she stretches forth her hand, and
taking hold of his elbow, supports his tottering steps, as
well as encourages him to advance, both which circumstances
are thus with wonderful ingenuity brought to the eye. At the
same time the spirit loosely lays his hand upon her arm, as
one walking in the dark would naturally do for the greater
certainty of following his conductress, while the general
part of the symbol of IMMORTAL LIFE, being turned toward the
figure of Pluto, shews that she is leading the phantom to his
realms.
In the Pamphili gardens at Rome, Perseus in assisting
Andromeda to descend from the rock takes hold of her elbow to
steady or support her step, and she lays her hand loosely on
his arm as in this figure. Admir. Roman. Antiq.
The figure of PLUTO can not be mistaken, as is agreed by most
of the writers who have mentioned this vase ; his grisley
beard, and his having one foot buried in the earth, denotes
the infernal monarch. He is placed at the lowest part of the
group, and resting his chin on his hand, and his arm upon his
knee, receives the stranger-spirit with inquisitive attention
; it was before observed that when people think attentively
they naturally rest their bodies in some easy attitude, that
more animal power may be employed on the thinking faculty. In
this group of figures there is great art shewn in giving an
idea of a descending plain, viz. from earth to Elysium, and
yet all the figures are in reality on an horizontal one. This
wonderful deception is produced first by the descending step
of the manes or ghost; secondly, by the arm of the sitting
figure of immortal life being raised up to receive him as he
descends ; and lastly, by Pluto having one foot sunk into the
earth.
There is yet another figure which is concerned in conducing
the manes or ghost to the realms of Pluto, and this is LOVE.
He precedes the descending spirit on expanded wings, lights
him with his torch, and turning back his beautiful
countenance beckons him to advance. The ancient God of love
was of much higher dignity than the modern Cupid. He was the
first that came out of the great egg of night, (Hesiod.
Theog. V. CXX. Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p.
348.) and is said to possess the keys of the sky, sea, and
earth. As he therefore led the way into this life, he seems
to constitute proper emblem for leading the way to a future
life. See Bacon's works. Vol. I. p. 568. and Vol. III. p.
582. Quarto edit.
The introduction of love into this part of the mysteries
requires a little further explanation. The Psyche of the
Aegyptians was one of their most favourite emblems, and
represented the soul, or a future life; it was originally no
other than the aurelia, or butterfly, but in after times was
represented by a lovely female child with the beautiful wings
of that insect. The aurelia, after its first stage as an
eruca or caterpillar, lies for a season in a manner dead, and
is inclosed in a sort of coffin, in this state of darkness it
remains all the winter, but at the return of spring it bursts
its bonds and comes out with new life, and in the most
beautiful attire. The Aegyptians thought this a very proper
picture of the soul of man, and of the immortality to which
it aspired. But as this was all owing to divine Love, of
which EROS was an emblem, we find this person frequently
introduced as a concomitant of the soul in general or Psyche.
(Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 386.) EROS, or divine
Love, is for the same reason a proper attendant on the manes
or soul after death, and much contributes to tell the story,
that is, to shew that a soul or manes is designed by the
descending figure. From this figure of Love M. D'Hancarville
imagines that Orpheus and Eurydice are typified under the
figure of the manes and immortal life as above described. It
may be sufficient to answer, first, that Orpheus is always
represented with a lyre, of which there are prints of four
different gems in Spence's Polymetis, and Virgil so describes
him, Aen. VI. cythara fretus. And secondly, that it is
absurd to suppose that Eurydice was fondling and playing with
a serpent that had slain her. Add to this that Love seems to
have been an inhabitant of the infernal regions, as exhibited
in the mysteries, for Claudian, who treats more openly of the
Eleusinian mysteries, when they were held in less veneration,
invokes the deities to disclose to him their secrets, and
amongst other things by what torch Love softens Pluto.
| Dii, quibus in numerum, &c. Vos mihi sacrarum penetralia pandite rerum, Et vestri secreta poli, qua lampade Ditem Flexit amor. |
In this compartment there are two trees, whose branches
spread over the figures, one of them has smoother leaves like
some evergreens, and might thence be supposed to have some
allusion to immortality, but they may perhaps have been
designed only as ornaments, or to relieve the figures, or
because it was in groves, where these mysteries were
originally celebrated. Thus Homer speaks of the woods of
Proserpine, and mentions many trees in Tartarus, as
presenting their fruits to Tantalus ; Virgil speaks of the
pleasant groves of Elysium ; and in Spence's Polymetis
there are prints of two antient gems, one of Orpheus charming
Cerberus with his lyre, and the other of Hercules binding him
in a cord, each of them standing by a tree. Polymet.
p. 284. As however these trees have all different foliage so
clearly marked by the artist, they may have had specific
meanings in the exhibitions of the mysteries, which have not
reached posterity, of this kind seem to have been the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life, in sacred
writ, both which must have been emblematic or allegorical.
The masks, hanging to the handles of the vase, seem to
indicate that there is a concealed meaning in the figures
besides their general appearance. And the priestess at the
bottom, which I come now to describe, seems to shew this
concealed meaning to be of the sacred or Eleusinian
kind.
Gravure de William Blake, dans la première édition américaine de 1798 |
3. The figure on the bottom of the vase is on a larger
scale than the others, and less finely finished, and less
elevated, and as this bottom part was afterwards cemented to
the upper part, it might be executed by another artist for
the sake of expedition, but there seems no reason to suppose
that it was not originally designed for the upper part of it
as some have conjectured. As the mysteries of Ceres were
celebrated by female priests, for Porphyrius says the
ancients called the priestesses of Ceres, Melissai, or bees,
which were emblems of chastity. Div. Leg. Vol. I. p.
235. And as, in his Satire against the sex, Juvenal says,
that few women are worthy to be priestesses of Ceres.
Sat. VI. the figure at the bottom of the vase would
seem to represent a PRIESTESS or HIEROPHANT, whose office it
was to introduce the initiated, and point out to them, and
explain the exhibitions in the mysteries, and to exclude the
uninitiated, calling out to them, « Far, far
retire, ye profane ! » and to guard the secrets of
the temple. Thus the introductory hymn sung by the
hierophant, according to Eusebius, begins, « I
will declare a secret to the initiated, but let the doors be
shut against the profane ». Div. Leg. Vol.
I. p. 177. The priestess or hierophant appears in this figure
with a close hood, and dressed in linen, which fits close
about her ; except a light cloak, which flutters in the wind.
Wool, as taken from slaughtered animals, was esteemed profane
by the priests of Aegypt, who were always dressed in linen.
Apuleus, p. 64. Div. Leg. Vol. I. p. 318. Thus Eli
made for Samuel a linen ephod. Samuel i. 3.
Secrecy was the foundation on which all mysteries rested,
when publicly known they ceased to be mysteries ; hence a
discovery of them was not only punished with death by the
Athenian law ; but in other countries a disgrace attended the
breach of a solemn oath. The priestess in the figure before
us has her finger pointing to her lips as an emblem of
silence. There is a figure of Harpocrates, who was of
Aegyptian origin, the same as Orus, with the lotus on his
head, and with his finger pointing to his lips not pressed
upon them, in Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 398, and
another female figure standing on a lotus, as if just risen
from the Nile, with her finger in the same attitude, these
seem to have been representations or emblems of male and
female priests of the secret mysteries. As these sort of
emblems were frequently changed by artists for their more
elegant exhibition, it is possible the foliage over the head
of this figure may bear some analogy to the lotus above
mentioned.
This figure of secrecy seems to be here placed, with great
ingenuity, as a caution to the initiated, who might
understand the meaning of the emblems round the vase, not to
divulge it. And this circumstance seems to account for there
being no written explanation extant, and no tradition
concerning these beautiful figures handed down to us along
with them.
Another explanation of this figure at the bottom of the vase
would seem to confirm the idea that the basso relievos
round its sides are representations of a part of the
mysteries, I mean that it is the head of ATIS. Lucian says
that Atis was a young man of Phrygia, of uncommon beauty,
that he dedicated a temple in Syria to Rhea, or Cybele, and
first taught her mysteries to the Lydians, Phrygians, and
Samothracians, which mysteries he brought from India. He was
afterwards made an eunuch by Rhea, and lived like a woman,
and assumed a feminine habit, and in that garb went over the
world teaching her ceremonies and mysteries. Dict. par
M. Danet, art. Atis. As this figure is covered with clothes,
while those on the sides of the vase are naked, and has a
Phrygian cap on the head, and as the form and features are so
soft, that it is difficult to say whether it be a male or
female figure, there is reason to conclude,
- that it has reference to some particular person of some particular country ;
- that this person is Atis, the first great hierophant, or teacher of mysteries, to whom M. De la Chausse says the figure itself bears a resemblance. Museo. Capitol. Tom. IV. p. 402.
In the Museum Etruscum, Vol. I. plate 96, there is
the head of Atis with feminine features, clothed with a
Phrygian cap, and rising from very broad foliage, placed on a
kind of term supported by the paw of a lion. Goreus in his
explanation of the figure says that it is placed on a lion's
foot because that animal was sacred to Cybele, and that it
rises from very broad leaves because after he became an
eunuch he determined to dwell in the groves. Thus the
foliage, as well as the cap and feminine features, confirm
the idea of this figure at the bottom of the vase
representing the head of Atis the first great hierophant, and
that the figures on the sides of the vase are emblems from
the ancient mysteries.
I beg leave to add that it does not appear to have been
uncommon amongst the antients to put allegorical figures on
funeral vases. In the Pamphili palace at Rome there is an
elaborate representation of Life and of Death, on an ancient
sarcophagus. In the first Prometheus is represented making
man, and Minerva is placing a butterfly, or the soul, upon
his head. In the other compartment Love extinguishes his
torch in the bosom of the dying figure, and is receiving the
butterfly, or Psyche, from him, with a great number of
complicated emblematic figures grouped in very bad taste.
Admir. Roman. Antiq.