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Art

To the modern reader the choice of a blacksmith to personify Art may come as a surprise. But in Aristotle the term Art is defined as "a state concerned with making, involving a true course of reasoning."[9] Oresme makes the same point: art "est habit factif avecques vraie raison."[10] As Paul Oskar Kristeller makes clear, "the Greek term for Art (techne ) and its Latin equivalent (ars ) do not specifically denote the 'fine arts' in the modern sense, but were applied to all kinds of human activities which we would call crafts or sciences."[11] Aristotle's definition of Art "as a kind of activity based on knowledge" had a lasting influence.[12] Oresme follows Aristotle in giving building (architecture) as an example of Art.[13]

Yet the choice of a personification of Art in Figure 33 is a blacksmith, a craft mentioned neither in Aristotle's text nor in Oresme's translation. The clues for the selection of a blacksmith derive from a gloss by Oresme on the definition of Art:

C'est ou .vi.e livre de Methaphisique ou il appert la difference entre accion et faccion. Car accion est operacion qui demeure en celui qui la fait, si comme veoir ou entendre. Et faccion est celle qui passe en aucune matiere dehors, si comme edifier, forgier, etc.


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(It is in the sixth book of the Metaphysics that the difference between doing and making is revealed. For doing is an operation that remains within the one who does it, as in seeing or hearing. And making is one that passes into some external material, as in building or forging.)[14]

The word forgier appears in the glossary of difficult words in the entry for faccion : "Faccion est operacion qui passe en matiere dehors, si comme est edifier, forgier et teles choses" (Making is an action that passes into external matter as in building, forging, or such things).[15] Oresme's addition of the word forgier to the standard definition emphasizes the meaning of the term art to connote the skill or know-how needed to make things by transforming raw materials into finished products. It is characteristic of his efforts to provide the reader with familiar, specific examples of abstract ideas. Furthermore, Oresme may have also judged that the single figure of a blacksmith was visually more compelling in personifying Art than a mason or other craftsman associated with construction of a building.

Yet Oresme may have chosen a blacksmith for other reasons. In primitive cultures, smiths enjoyed high status and, because of their association with fire and the power to make useful objects by chemical processes, were considered magical, heroic, and in some instances, royal or divine beings.[16] Familiar examples from Greek and Roman mythology respectively are the gods Hephaestus and Vulcan. In medieval society, blacksmiths were valued members of the community who made all manner of iron and steel implements necessary for carrying on pursuits of peace and war. On the negative side, blacksmithing was looked down on as a dirty and menial kind of work. Because Oresme had a scientific mind, the blacksmith who had technological knowledge of chemical processes may have had special appeal. Certainly to the contemporary reader the blacksmith vividly translates the Aristotelian notion of Art. The smith's techniques based on practical knowledge enabled him to produce useful objects from raw materials.[17]

The Jean de Sy Master's depiction of the vigorous blacksmith is one of the liveliest scenes of the entire cycle. Dressed in a short violet tunic and whitish apron, the bearded blacksmith concentrates as he fashions a red-hot implement that rests on the anvil. The bellows and hot coals on the forge identify his pursuit, while tools of the trade set on a rack above his head further specify the nature of his activity. The smith's clenched hand and upraised arm gripping a hammer convey his inner absorption with his craft. Except for the bright red accents of the coals and the implement being forged, the colors are muted against the dark blue background to convey the sense of an enclosed interior space. All in all, the illuminator has produced an expressive personification of Art entirely consistent with the meaning of the term.


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