Sunday September 6, 2009
‘Endless forms most beautiful’
By KEE HUA CHEE
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had such a profound effect on society that even artists were drawn to its proposals and controversies.
IN his epic book On the Origin of the Species, Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) proposed that man shared a common ancestor with apes instead of appearing fully formed and perfect. It took a while but his theory of “natural selection” became widely acknowledged and accepted in his lifetime.
The publication of his book, in 1859, came to be seen as a victory of scientific methodology and rational thinking over pseudoscience. In fact, by the end of his life, Darwin was held in such high esteem he remains only one of five non-royal personages to be granted a state funeral in the 19th century and honoured with burial in Westminster Cathedral near Sir Isaac Newton and John Herschel.
Darwin’s influence: Robert Farren responded to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution with Duria Antiquior (An Earlier Dorset). Many artists in the latter half of the 19th century were affected by the theory. – Photo courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum Among the many events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of the Species is an exhibition that presents a new perspective on Darwin’s world-shaking theory: the artistic responses to it.
Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts is currently on exhibit at Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Britain. The exhibition takes its title from the last sentence of Darwin’s book: “... from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
“Today, science and art are considered separate domains of intellectual and creative achievements but in Darwin’s day, his revolutionary idea of natural selection had a profound effect on artists,” says Jane Munro, co-curator of Endless Forms and senior assistant keeper of paintings, drawings and prints at the Fitzwilliam.
With some 200 exhibits from 100 institutions across the world, Endless Forms juxtaposes paintings, drawings, sculptures and early photographs with stuffed creatures, botanical teaching diagrams, preserved birds and insects, fossils, minerals, various specimens, and even maps of geological stratification.
While Darwin knew he had shaken religion and scientific thinking to their foundations, he probably never realised his effect on art. Few today are aware his work directly and indirectly affected such renowned painters as Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and the French Impressionists generally.
A stunning example is Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged 14, a bronze statue that caused a stir when shown in 1880 because, as polite society pointed out in scandalised tones, it had a very simian, monkey-like appearance and looked like something that belonged in a museum of medicine or natural history instead of a museum of the arts. Even more telling: the Little Dancer was shown inside a glass display case like a preserved specimen!
And in 1879, a popular but scandalous series of pictures depicting imaginary humans procreating with animals was, tellingly, called Les Darwinesques!
Endless Forms is divided into seven sections, beginning with Darwin’s Eye, showing the traditions of natural history and illustration that influenced the young Darwin and the visual stimuli he drew from fine arts.
The History of the World features grand landscapes and scenes of prehistory inspired by the then fledgling science of geology and palaeontology. On show are paintings of Noah’s ark and the flood representing the biblical view as well as scenes of natural forces at work, like erosion through volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes, water and fire that shaped and reshaped the earth. A 1850 painting by 19th century British artist Robert Farren entitled Duria Antiquior (An Earlier Dorset) features marine dinosaurs that are eerily accurate images of modern fossil records, down to huge eyes the size of saucers!
The Struggle for Existence section marks Darwin’s theory about the ruthless, relentless conflict among species that leads to “natural selection” – a phrase that gave rise to that oft-quoted expression, “survival of the fittest”.
American artist and ornithologist, John James Audubon’s (1785-1851) paintings of violence in the seemingly serene world of birds and Sir Edwin Henry Landseer’s (1802-1873) brutal, melancholic animal paintings are shown alongside Victorian photographs and prints that showed that the physically and mentally strong members of mankind stood the best chances of passing on their genes to the next generation.
In the minds of the public, Darwin is closely identified with the concept of “humans descending from apes”, and the exhibition’s The Descent of Mankind section examines the artistic responses to this theory of human evolution.
Normal anxieties and irrational fears are played out among the dark, sometimes hilarious and often fantastical depictions of human prehistory by such artists as Britons G.F. Watts (1817-1904) and Odilon Redon (1814-1916).
The Animal Kin section asks the pressing question, “Do we share emotions like love, anger, hate, sympathy or joy with animals?” Some pictures show the kinship between man and our ape-like ancestors while others demonised them.
The Darwin, Beauty and Sexual Selection section highlights Darwin’s notions of beauty in nature, especially in courtship leading to sex. The focus is on birds, as Darwin believed they were the “most aesthetic creatures after man”. On show are parallel displays of birds, men and women flaunting their best physical assets. The fact that, among most bird species, it is the female that chooses her mate became one of the most controversial and disturbing aspects of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection for those Victorian times, and, some say, led to the emergence of the “dangerously liberated” new woman.
Finally, the Darwin and Impressionism section presents a radical interpretation of the theory by some of the 19th century’s greatest artists as many were keen Darwinians. This group of important paintings and sculptures provide a sensational and thought-provoking conclusion to Endless Forms.
‘Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts’ is on exhibit at Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum until Oct 4. The museum is located on Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RB, England. For inquiries, e-mail fitzmuseum-enquiries@lists.cam.ac.uk, call +44-1223-332 900 or go to fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk.
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