Beauty is the Shape of Love. The Origins of Norwid’s Concept of Beauty

Abstract

The key concept of Norwid’s work of the years 1845-1851, sometimes called the Promethidion period, is the concept of love. It lies at the base of almost all of the poet's reflections, then dominated by ethical problems. The period was also marked by a particularly frequent occurrence of religious motifs. Drawing on biblical texts, the poet tried to express his opinion regarding many social, political and aesthetic problems which he thought the most important then.

It was at the start of Norwid’s wanderings as an emigre that the question of love acquired unprecedented significance. One of the contributing factors was his imprisonment in Berlin in the middle of 1846. His prison experiences were a violent shock to the young poet, as is poignantly evidenced by an illuminated psalter called [Modlitewnik dla Włodzimierza Łubieńskiego}.

A work where a very prominent place is given to love (beside the notions of work and beauty) is Promethidion. Rzecz w dwóch dialogach z epilogiem (1850), which came to be recognized as one of the poet’s most important pieces only after his death. Its passages on love in the dialogue Bogumił are closely linked with the poem Psalmów-psalm (1850), which is a kind of promise of a poetic “treatise about art”. It is therefore in Psalmów-psalm that we should look for an explanation of Norwid’s celebrated formula that beauty is the shape of love.

In parts six and seven of Psalmów-psalm Norwid drew on the most famous biblical texts dealing with the “gospel of love”. Basing on the protestant Gdańsk Bible he made a poetic paraphrase of some extracts from the Song of Songs and St. Paul’s Hymn of Love (1 Co. 13). Of the many aspects of love shown by the Apostle, Norwid emphasized most strongly its immortality. Norwid is close to St. Paul in thinking that love is inseparably linked with truth and good. Even the poet’s mistakes bear witness to the power and prestige of the authority of the Apostle, whom Norwid regarded as “the greatest Christian sage”: on several occasions Norwid ascribed to St. Paul the statements of other biblical authors, for instance the words “In love there can be no fear” (1 Jn. 4.18) and “Love is strong as death” (Sg. 8.6). Thus there is much to be said for the view that Norwid’s idea of love is closer to that of St. Paul than to that of Plato. Hence the Apostle’s Hymn of Love can be taken as an expression of Norwid’s own views.

In his paraphrase of the passages from Solomon’s Song of Songs Norwid highlighted the motif of seeking the beloved’s face, also known from the Book of Psalms and in his opinion evidencing the incarnating power of love. The some motif stands out very clearly, too, in Promethidion (the hymn of Bogumił). Antoher notable point about Canticum Canticorum is the connection of love with beauty. There are frequent references there to the lovers’ beauty, both moral (spiritual) and aesthetic (bodily). This is in accord with Norwid’s postulate concerning the ethical and at the same time divine and human nature of beauty.

Norwid granted the highest attributes of love (and beauty) to the Virgin Mary, whom he contrasted with the “sinful woman” of Capernaum, traditionally identified with St. Mary Magdalene. But it was not the Mother of our Creator but the sinner, also regarded as a perfect beauty, that was made by Norwid into a symbol of art. As the perfect embodiment of “spiritual sensuality”, she was to him an evidence (supported by the authority of the Gospel) of the incarnating and sanctifying power of love.

Regarding its spirituality as the ultimate standard of the value of art, Norwid invoked the masterpieces of ancient art, such as the statue of the “Dying Gladiator” and the renowned Belvedere torso of Hercules.

Through his biblical references the poet displayed the two aspects of love that he thought the most important: its power to sensualize (incarnate, give shape to) the spirit (in the two lovers of the Song of Songs) and its power to spiritualize the body (shape, matter) (in Mary Magdalene). The first aspect provides Norwid with an argument for the possibility of developing the fine arts in Poland; the second in his opinion expresses the very essence of creative work. But the condition is that love should always take the foremost place, as the highest value in the teachings of St. Paul and the “greatest commandment’’ of Jesus Christ.

We have to remember that Norwid’s ambition was not to create a new system of aesthetics but to make Poles see the essence of art and its position in the nation’s life. His reflections were influenced by his travels and studies abroad, especially in Italy, his wide reading, direct experience of the masterpieces of European art and contacts with men of art and letters. We can say, therefore, that of all the outstanding poets of his time Norwid was best prepared to speak on the subject of art.