December 8, 2008 -- Two of Balzac's novellas, The Unknown Masterpiece and Gambara (published in 2001 by the New York Review of Books as one book) are about the process of creating art and the extremes such can reach, leading the artist to madness; but the question is, will the extreme reach of the process result in perfection of the art? Will seeking perfection drive you crazy? (Uh, yes.) And who decides perfection? The artist or the audience?
In The Unknown Masterpiece, Balzac imagines a young Nicolas Poussin and the older Pourbus (court painter to Marie Medici) coming together in the studio of an older, made-up painter named Frenhofer. Balzac's creation, Frenhofer, has incredible talent and insight into the artistic process. There is a simply wonderful scene in which Frenhofer adds a dab here and a smudge there, and lightness here, shadow there, to bring a previously lifeless portrait by Pourbus to life. Although I am no artist, I think the passage could be followed as a painting course instruction and equally as an inspiration. Frenhofer's quest for perfection in painting a woman has in fact served as inspiration to artists including Picasso and Cezanne (Picasso chose his own studio in Paris based on the location of the fictional Frenhofer's atelier). And the painter's point to young Poussin that "it's only the last stroke of the brush that counts" could serve for writers and musicians as well. Well-ended is well-done (and can make up for a lousy middle).
There is other advice offered for painting that I also found applicable to writers and musicians, and really to anyone thinking about an issue and seeking to clarify an arguable position (isn't that what writers do? And musicians? Argue that their view on the world as presented by their work, is tenable and persuasive and real?). The advice is offered to Poussin by Pourbus: "Practice and observation are everything to a painter....Work while you can! A painter should philosophize only with a brush in his hand!"
So you writers and musicians and artists, work on your art and express your work through your art, observe and report and deliver the sum of your observations. If you follow your own thoughts that grow out of your own observations, your work will be original and true and persuasively real. But don't wait for perfection to reveal itself in your work...I won't tell you what disaster awaits if you insist on perfection. You have to read this novella to find out.
Gambara also explores the artistry of a genius. Gambara is a musical genius with one serious flaw: unless he is drunk, he takes himself too seriously and rejects all interpretations of music other than his own. A man hot for his beautiful wife tries to help Gambara (and in the process, win the wife) but the artist insists on his integrity and his sobriety. The story doesn't end well for him (and actually, a bit unsatisfactorily for us as well, leaving too many questions unanswered).
There are long, long passages about music in Gambara that I found much less engaging than the passages about painting in The Unknown Masterpiece. There is, however, a lot more humor in this novella, presented via the side characters. A Neapolitan chef devoted to the art of original cooking is a really funny creation of Balzac and would kick derriere on Top Chef.
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