Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Renaissance and Rhetoric tacens
Rhetoric is usually studied from the viewpoint of Aristotle: persuasion, based upon
erroneous logical deduction (enthymeme). Aristotle mentioned other considerations
relevant to rhetoric, other means of persuasion, including the deportment of the
rhetor, the audience, etc. Rhetoric is a large subject, with other special
considerations including invention, memory, figures, tropes, etc.
However, other rhetoricians such as Cicero, Quintilian, Longinus, etc. have
emphasized other aspects of rhetoric that are of central importance to Renaissance
art. The deportment of the rhetor, his very gestures, use of his eyes, facial
expressions (of emotions), arms, and hands are very persuasive. Gestures, however,
are silent.
When the rhetor uses vivid, life-like descriptions to "paint a scene", this is so
persuasive that the term "enargia" (vividness, actuality) is used to name this
rhetorical technique. Sometimes this is referred to as "figuration": giving an
outward, visible shape to emotions, thoughts or memories. The term "ekphrasis" is
used in this sense.
Alberti discusses the use of a "witness" in paintings. The figure of a "witness"
functions as a means of focusing (through gesture, eyes, facial expression, etc.)
the viewer on an very important idea in a painting. Just as the rhetor uses
"apostrophe" to turn from one topic or person to another, the painter makes his
figures turn away from the pictorial space they inhabit, instead to the viewer.
Thus the viewer of a painting feels as though he/she is in the present of the
scene depicted: what Alberti calls "istoria" (the shared emotions of a culture).
Similarly, the use of
"linear perspective"
has the ability to fool (persuade) the viewer that the painting is reality, not a
painting. Linear perspective is in itself a form of "trompe l'oeil". This
ability to fool or persuade the viewer is precisely what Plato objected to, as
proportions were distorted in "linear perspective", thus departed from Plato's ideal
of "truth". Thus a "rhetoric tacens", a silent rhetoric not focused upon written or
spoken text, rather a "rhetoric tacens" that becomes central in a "performative
rhetoric". A "rhetoric tacens" that becomes the focus of art, perspective
theatre design, dance, music, architecture, sculpture, costume, palace gardens, etc.
This discussion focuses upon the rhetoric tacens (silent rhetoric) found in art.
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