Angus Trumble - The Finger

ALSO BY ANGUS TRUMBLE

A Brief History of the Smile

A HANDBOOK

Angus Trumble

FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX

NEW YORK

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited

187 Grattan Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

mup-info@unimelb.edu.au

www.mup.com.au

First published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

New York, 2010

This edition published 2010

Copyright 2010 by Angus Trumble

All rights reserved

Illustration credits appear on pages xixvi.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

The finger: a handbook / Angus Trumble.

Australian ed.

Bibliography.

Includes index.

9780522857696 (hbk)

Fingers in art. FingersSocial aspects.

306.4

Designed by Jonathan D. Lippincott

Printed by Griffin Press, SA

In memory of my mother,

Helen Trumble

ESSE QUAM VIDERI

Turners palm is as itchy as his fingers are ingenious.

Sir Walter Scott to his friend the artist James Skene, April 30, 1823

The white hand like a ladys, with taper fingers and filbert nails, delicately tinged with rose-color, that guided the inspired pen from midnight until midday, was never aching and cramped.

Temple Bar on Honor de Balzac, The New York Times, January 5, 1879

The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916

Unknown sculptor, Fragment of the Colossus of the Emperor Constantine the Great (right hand), c. 307312, marble; Rome: Musei Capitolini DeA Picture Library/Art Resource, New York.

Henry Fuseli (17411825), The Artist Moved to Despair by the Grandeur of Antique Fragments, 177879; red chalk, sepia wash on paper; Zrich: Kunsthaus. Photo: Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown sculptor, Prima Porta statue of the Emperor Augustus, c. 2017 B.C.E. , marble; Rome: Musei Vaticani, Museo Chiaramonti, Braccio Nuovo. Photo: Vanni/Art Resource, New York.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (14751568), The Creation of Man (detail, after restoration), 150812, ceiling fresco; Rome: Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, Cappella Sistina. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Matthias Grnewald (14551528), The Isenheim Altarpiece (front, central panels closed), 151216, oil on panel; Colmar, Alsace (France): Muse dUnterlinden. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, New York.

Combel; Cabrarets, Lot (France): Grotte de Pech Merle. Photo: Wolfgang Ruppert/Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown maker, Proto-Magdalenian period (c. 14,000 B.C.E. ), Silhouette of a Hand with Dots, earth pigments; cave painting near the entrance to the Women and Bison section; Cabrerets, Lot (France): Grotte de Pech Merle. Photo: Wolfgang Ruppert/Bildarchiv Preussischer.

Egon Schiele (18901918), Self-Portrait with Spread Fingers (detail), 1911, oil on wood panel, 27.5 34 cm.; Vienna: Wien Museum Karlsplatz. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Nicolas de Largillirre (16561746), Study of Hands, c.1715, oil on canvas, 65 53 cm.; Paris: Muse du Louvre. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Domenikos Theotocopoulos, called El Greco (15411614), The Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest, Probably Don Juan de Silva, c. 157784; Madrid: Museo del Prado. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Pablo Picasso (18811973), Guernica, 1937, oil on canvas, 349 776 cm.; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid.

Pablo Picasso (18811973), Guernica (details), 1937; oil on canvas, 349 776 cm.; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (14751568), The Creation of Man (detail, after restoration), 150812, ceiling fresco; Rome: Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, Cappella Sistina. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown sculptors (Japan, Kamakura period), Elevenheaded, thousand-armed standing statues representing versions of Avalokitevara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion (detail), 1254, gilded wood; Kyoto, Japan: Sanjusangendo.

Workshop of Hans Memling (1425/401494), Salvator Mundi, 147599, oil on wood, with integral frame, 10 in. (27.3 cm.) diameter; painted surface 8 in. (20.3 cm.); New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art 1931 (The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 32.100.54). Photo The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown icon painter (Russia), Christ Pantocrator, first half of the eighteenth century, tempera and gold on panel; Collection Maurits Martens. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown sculptor (China, Five Dynasties, 90760 C.E.), Bodhisattva Avalokitevara with a Thousand Arms, wood, 160 120 50 cm.; Paris: Muse des Arts AsiatiquesGuimet. Photo: Thierry Ollivier/Runion des Muses Nationaux/Art Resource, New York.

Jan Brueghel the Elder (15681625), after Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 152569), The Woman Taken in Adultery (detail), c. 1600, oil on oak panel; Munich: Bayersiche Staatsgemldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek. Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown metalworkers, German (Lorraine, thirteenth century), Reliquary Arm, c. 1230, silver over oak, gilt bronze, appliqu plaques: silver-gilt, niello, and cabochon stones, 25 6 4 in. (64.8 16.5 10.2 cm.); New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1947 (The Cloisters Collection, 47.101.33). Photo The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, New York.

Pointing baby. Photo: DK Images. Jo Foord Dorling Kindersley.

William Hogarth (16971764), A Family Party (detail), 173035, oil on canvas, 21 29 in. (53.3 75 cm.); New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.58).

William Dobson (161046), Portrait of the Streatfield Family (detail), c. 1642, oil on canvas, 42 49 in. (106.7 125.7 cm.); New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.241).

Andrea Soldi (170371), The Sculptor John Michael Rysbrack with His Terracotta Statue of Hercules (detail), 1753, oil on canvas, 45 35 in. (114.8 90.9 cm.); New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1976.7.75).

Leonetto Cappiello (18751942), Le Jaeger: Compte Juste; ARS, New York. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, New York.

Unknown maker(s) (Iran-Azerbaijan), Abacus; formerly in the collection of the Muse de lHomme (Gift of M. de Saint-Barthlemy). Photo Muse de Quai Branly/Scala/Art Resource, New York.

Paul van Somer (active 1577/781621/22), Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie (detail), c. 161920, oil on canvas, 81 48 in. (206 123 cm.); New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.598).

Anthony Van Dyck (15991641), Ann Carr, Countess of Bedford (detail), c. 1637, oil on canvas, 53 42 in.; Petworth House (Lord Egremont)/National Trust.

Joseph Wright of Derby (173497), Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart. (detail), 1781, oil on canvas, 58 81 in.; London: Tate Britain.

Joshua Reynolds (172392), Miss Mary Hickey, 1770, oil on canvas, 30 25 in.; New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1976.7.188).

Joshua Reynolds (172392), Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in Congreves Love for Love, c. 1771, oil on canvas, 30 24 in.; New Haven: Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.67).