Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
NYRB Classics (2001), Paperback, 160 pages
Description
A New York Review Books Original One of Honoré de Balzac's most celebrated tales, "The Unknown Masterpiece" is the story of a painter who, depending on one's perspective, is either an abject failure or a transcendental genius--or both. The story, which has served as an inspiration to artists as various as Cézanne, Henry James, Picasso, and New Wave director Jacques Rivette, is, in critic Dore Ashton's words, a "fable of modern art." Published here in a new translation by poet Richard Howard, "The Unknown Masterpiece" appears, as Balzac intended, with "Gambara," a grotesque and tragic novella about a musician undone by his dreams.
User reviews
LibraryThing member DieFledermaus
The two stories included in this edition by NYRB complement each other very well - both feature intense, obsessive artists who skirt the line between genius and madness. There’s something of a rambling style, where the focus is initially on a character who meets the artist, and hints of
In The Unknown Masterpiece, we follow Nicolas Poussin circa 17th c. as he goes to meet the court painter Porbus. Both were real people but they can’t compare - as characters or artists - to Frenhofer, an old artist who Poussin meets at Porbus’ studio. Frenhofer monologues about the lack of a lifelike spark in Porbus’ painting and proceeds to touch it up, bringing the picture to life - to the amazement of Poussin and Porbus. Poussin is impressed and is impatient to see Frenhofer’s magnum opus, a portrait that he has worked on for years and won’t display. He tries to tempt Frenhofer with his mistress Gillette, driving a wedge between the couple, but soon learns that though Frenhofer may be a genius, he is definitely crazy.
Gambara is similar - rich Italian nobleman Andrea Marcosini encounters Gambara, a penniless composer, and his selfless wife Marianna; Gambara creates beautiful music but also has a horribly dissonant opera that he has labored over for years. Gambara is also prone to passionate speeches on music. Some of it is odd - his speculation on the science of music - and some probably won’t be generally appealing as it goes on longer thatn The Unknown Masterpiece (I like opera and therefore didn’t mind Gambara’s blow-by-blow account of first his unperformed masterpiece Muhammad, then Meyerbeer’s then-popular-now-forgotten opera Robert le Diable but that may bore some readers). However, Gambara’s obsession dominates the book, even though some of the plot is devoted to Andrea’s and Marianna’s reactions to the artist.
Frenhofer and Gambara are both quintessential Romantic artists but the descriptions of their masterpieces, which show them to be deluded to the other characters, mark them as avant-garde modernists to contemporary readers. Picasso was inspired by the description of Frenhofer and his portrait sounds like nothing so much as an all-but abstract painting. Gambara’s music is unpleasantly harsh - but piles of musical masterpieces were originally dismissed as dissonant garbage. Did wonder if it was just a chromatic late-Romantic sound or full-on atonal. Both artists are working from an intense personal inspiration after years of work and sacrifice. Their obsession has possibly reached the point of madness and both are isolated and dismissed. Their madness today, though, would fit an artistic stereotype and their art would get a shrug.
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melodrama, as in both stories women are sacrificed to the madness of the artist. In some ways this structure is reminiscent of a couple of the other Balzac works that I read - melodramatic plots, too-good women, rambling trips with other characters before getting to the main plot, characters with all sorts of burning obsessions. But the other ones I read tended to examine society and relationships - people were obsessed with money, love or status. Here, both characters are obsessed with art. The background issues pale in comparison with their overly exuberant passions. Balzac’s depiction of the possible craziness of the artist is masterfully done. It’s also interesting to speculate what inspired him as well as compare the art described to contemporary painting and music.In The Unknown Masterpiece, we follow Nicolas Poussin circa 17th c. as he goes to meet the court painter Porbus. Both were real people but they can’t compare - as characters or artists - to Frenhofer, an old artist who Poussin meets at Porbus’ studio. Frenhofer monologues about the lack of a lifelike spark in Porbus’ painting and proceeds to touch it up, bringing the picture to life - to the amazement of Poussin and Porbus. Poussin is impressed and is impatient to see Frenhofer’s magnum opus, a portrait that he has worked on for years and won’t display. He tries to tempt Frenhofer with his mistress Gillette, driving a wedge between the couple, but soon learns that though Frenhofer may be a genius, he is definitely crazy.
Gambara is similar - rich Italian nobleman Andrea Marcosini encounters Gambara, a penniless composer, and his selfless wife Marianna; Gambara creates beautiful music but also has a horribly dissonant opera that he has labored over for years. Gambara is also prone to passionate speeches on music. Some of it is odd - his speculation on the science of music - and some probably won’t be generally appealing as it goes on longer thatn The Unknown Masterpiece (I like opera and therefore didn’t mind Gambara’s blow-by-blow account of first his unperformed masterpiece Muhammad, then Meyerbeer’s then-popular-now-forgotten opera Robert le Diable but that may bore some readers). However, Gambara’s obsession dominates the book, even though some of the plot is devoted to Andrea’s and Marianna’s reactions to the artist.
Frenhofer and Gambara are both quintessential Romantic artists but the descriptions of their masterpieces, which show them to be deluded to the other characters, mark them as avant-garde modernists to contemporary readers. Picasso was inspired by the description of Frenhofer and his portrait sounds like nothing so much as an all-but abstract painting. Gambara’s music is unpleasantly harsh - but piles of musical masterpieces were originally dismissed as dissonant garbage. Did wonder if it was just a chromatic late-Romantic sound or full-on atonal. Both artists are working from an intense personal inspiration after years of work and sacrifice. Their obsession has possibly reached the point of madness and both are isolated and dismissed. Their madness today, though, would fit an artistic stereotype and their art would get a shrug.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
In his essay 'The Death of the Author,' William Gass fires off a machine gun at Roland Barthes, and Balzac, thanks to Barthes's "S/Z", is taken out as collateral damage. "Balzac relishes [bourgeois] stereotypes and pat phrases and vulgar elegancies; his taste is that of the turtle which has found
I thought that was harsh, but really, this is pretty mediocre stuff, saved by the fact that it's fun to think about. These are two stories ("Gambara" is the second) about artists who fail in their art because they try to make the art too theoretically sound, too philosophically reflective, too didactic.
That is, these are two philosophically reflective, didactic stories about how artists who are philosophically reflective and didactic ultimately fail as artists. Really, Honore? Well yes, really, because *if he had noticed that his stories insist that these particular stories must be garbage, he would have broken his own rules.* The only way to write stories is unconsciously, with genius, which means no caring about things like internal intellectual consistency, form, or craft. So although the stories themselves are intellectually incoherent, they are *also* intellectually coherent.
This is the kind of paradox that you only get from people like Balzac, whose greatness is due entirely to his being willing to write constantly, whether he has anything to say or not. Balzac is a drudge. These two stories are about geniuses who, through an excess of drudgery, have betrayed their genius.
Perhaps, in these stories, an excess of genius led Balzac to betray the drudgery that makes him great.
So, fun to talk about, but pretty dull reading, especially when the artists start talking about their art. I'll take James' stories about artists any day.
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itself in a robust soup; he, too, would flatter the reader, the public, the world which receives him until it receives him well and warmly; and Roland Barthes, for all his fripperies like like on a sleeve, for all his textual pleasures... is no better, accepting a pseudoradical role as if it were the last one left in the basket... Balzac is more moral the way more money is more money; his is the ultimate hosanna of utility; however hard his eye, his look will land light." I thought that was harsh, but really, this is pretty mediocre stuff, saved by the fact that it's fun to think about. These are two stories ("Gambara" is the second) about artists who fail in their art because they try to make the art too theoretically sound, too philosophically reflective, too didactic.
That is, these are two philosophically reflective, didactic stories about how artists who are philosophically reflective and didactic ultimately fail as artists. Really, Honore? Well yes, really, because *if he had noticed that his stories insist that these particular stories must be garbage, he would have broken his own rules.* The only way to write stories is unconsciously, with genius, which means no caring about things like internal intellectual consistency, form, or craft. So although the stories themselves are intellectually incoherent, they are *also* intellectually coherent.
This is the kind of paradox that you only get from people like Balzac, whose greatness is due entirely to his being willing to write constantly, whether he has anything to say or not. Balzac is a drudge. These two stories are about geniuses who, through an excess of drudgery, have betrayed their genius.
Perhaps, in these stories, an excess of genius led Balzac to betray the drudgery that makes him great.
So, fun to talk about, but pretty dull reading, especially when the artists start talking about their art. I'll take James' stories about artists any day.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
The mother of social realism, according to some, was Honore de Balzac. Balzac was the first author to write fiction focused on all social strata of French society. His extensive body of work spans both the July Monarchy and the Restoration era. Between 1799 and 1850, the works that he labelled La
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Comedie Humaine was written. There are 95 books, short tales, and articles in this comilation of prose. The short story "Maître Frenhofer," which is now known as The Unknown Masterpiece, was first published in the publication L'Artiste. Later, it became a component of La Comedie Humaine. Young Nicolas Poussin visits painter Porbus in his studio at the start of the narrative. Old master Frenhofer, who is beside him, offers insightful commentary on the expansive tableau that Porbus had just completed. The image depicts Mary ofEgypt, and while Frenhofer sings her praises, he hints that the work seems unfinished. Show Less
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
1831 - Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu
1837 - Gambara
Physical description
160 p.; 7.97 inches
ISBN
0940322749 / 9780940322745
Local notes
also with "Gambara," a novella. FRENCH TITLE: Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu