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The hand in art
( GUEST EDITORIAL
J
The Hand in Art Claude E. Verdan, MD Guest Editor University of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
eeducating a handicapped hand can be counted among the noblest tasks of the medR ical profession. It deals with one of the most essential
functions of the human body, one that supersedes and conditions all the others. Indeed, prehension and sensitivity (Fig. I)-its two characteristics-are the main components of any manifestation of life, from the unicellular organisms to the higher mammals. In the former, the prehensive function is accounted for by phagocytosis, and sensitivity, by mysterious alterations of their intrinsic electric loads. Birds, for their part, resort to a combination of prehensive movements through their beaks and claws; mammals use their jaws and teeth, as well as their paws; elephants, their trunks and tusks. The hands of the primates and hominids master the two elementary functions of prehension and sensitivity. But only the human hand is capable of a third function-expression-which is so familiar, indeed inherent, to us that we too often tend to forget it (Fig. 2). Together with the face and the voice, the hand is essential to human communication (Fig. 3). The experiment done by American researchers and reported by Robert Merle (Le Propre de l'Homme; Paris, Fallois, 1989) is quite significant in this respect. A female chimpanzee pup brought up with a little girl of the same age, in the same family, by a nurse who related with it through sign language managed to express itself, through sign language, with 500 different words. Quite an achievement! And while it thus learned to express itself, its humanization progressed, with all the consequences-good and badinduced by the various connections it developed with its surroundings. This experiment shows the essential part played by the hand as a means of expression and relationship with other people. When the hand is injured, the consequent functional handicap-partial or total deprivation not only of its first two basic functions, but also of the third
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Claude E. Verdan, M.D., Musee de la Main de I' Homme, 17 Rue du Bugnon, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.
one-is a predicament that can drastically and understandably alter the person's psychic balance . We all know that the loss or diminution of an everyday means of communication-the voice, writing, or even the telephone-puts us in an unbearable state of inferiority. Similarly, when the hand is injured and suffers a functional handicap-deprived partially or totally not only of its first two basic functions but also of the third one-the result may be temporary or permanent nervous breakdown. The part played by the hand therapist and reeducator, the kinesitherapist or ergotherapist, then becomes essential; it usually follows the surgeon's part, but it can and should sometimes intervene before surgery. When dealing with a given pathological status, and therefore getting to know it in the smallest detail before an operation, the reeducator can relate more closely to the case and can more adequately intervene in the chain of therapies that follow surgery. There is a further aspect to consider when faced with an anatomical or functional defect. The hand is not only an instrument of communication, a way to convey meaning in describing through gestures the shape or number of objects, or in mimicking practical actions of everyday life. It also knows how to express feelings-the warmth of welcome transmitted through the pressure of a friendly handshake, the sweetness of love revealed through a caress. It equally well expresses rebellion through an upraised clenched fist (Fig. 4) or victory through the "V" sign formed by the extended forefinger and third finger (Fig. 5). The innumerable nuances of feeling that can thus be revealed are demonstrated, for instance, in the mudras of the sacred dances of India (Fig. 6). Feelings derive from emotion. And emotion can also be expressed through art (Fig. 7) . The hand is therefore at the core of any artistic creation, including music-with the exception of singing. The hand molds the clay that becomes pottery, holds the sculptor's hammer and burin, the engraver's stiletto, the sketcher's pencil, charcoal, pastel, or red chalk crayon, the painter's brush. The hand holds the violonist's bow, plucks the strings of July-September 1990
129
FIGURE 1. Albrecht Durer (1471- 1528): Study of Hands. The two elementary characteristics of any hand are prehension and sensitivity.
FIGURE 5. crete).
130
Claude-E. Verdan: The Victory (con-
JOURNAL OF HAND THERAPY
FiGURE 4.
(concrete).
Claude-E. Verdan: The Rebellion
FIGURE 6. Mudras express feelings in sacred dances of India.
FIGURE 2 (above). Jan Vermayen (7500- 1559): Portrait of Erard de la Marek. Only the human hand is capable of a third function, expression. FIGURE 3 (right). Domenikos Theotokopulos EI Greco (1541- 1614): EI Cabellero de la Mana en el Pecha. The hand expresses feelings.
FIGURE 7. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528): Praying Hands. Emotion is expressed through art, and art is created by the hand.
FIGURE 10. Diana Vandenberg (1959): The Seventh Day (poster 62 x 93 em).
July-September 1990
131
FIGURE 8. Auguste Rodin (7840-7977): The Hand of God. The hand may become itself the object of an artistic creation .
the guitar or the harp. It plays the flute or the trum~ pet, touches piano or organ keyboards; it even holds the conductor's baton and blends the sounds of the many instruments required to perform a symphony in wonderful harmony. The hand is the privileged tool that helps to express human feelings. It may also itself become the object of an artistic creation. The hand, in its form or representation, can convey the emotion the artist wants to express. One can judge painters' or sculptors' talent by the way they render hands. Are they
FIGURE 9. ble).
132
JOURNAL OF HAND THERAPY
given not merely a resemblance or an anatomical identity but made to show emotion, to live and "talk," to say what the artist feels deep inside? Hands can be made to exude beauty-a difficult concept to define. Actually, beauty is beyond definition. It is, in Rene Huygues' description, "a firebird perching where it will," but first, it is a dialogue, an exchange process between a human being and an object observed or felt. This object can be material or immaterial-it may live in the onlooker's imagination-but it always has a definite shape, a shape that can only be one of the expressions of Universal Energy materialized in the object itself or in the representation of it executed by the artist's hand (Fig. 8) . The "artist-hunter" feels an irrepressible need to capture things and beings, make them his own, in giving them a shape or a face through his creative skill. His hand becomes thus the vector in this aesthetic dialogue-the artist simultaneously seducing and possessing his environment, as if he himself were to draw, from the energies surrounding him, sources that in their diversity bring him all the ingredients necessary for his existence. Hence the kind of frenzy so often observed among artists for whom nothing else counts but this appropriative process (for example, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and others). Maybe the urge toward artistic creation means a return toward the far-away origins of Fundamental Energy that prevailed at the very beginning when the world materialized in coherent agglutination of successive amalgamations of atoms and molecules, essential to the formation of any shape, as well as to the building up of life. Artistic creation, through the medium of the hand, should then be considered a real "transubstantiation" as expressed by the Carrara marble sculpture by MariaSuzanna de Faykod, a French artist of Hungarian origin (Fig. 9) . With the 5th century Be Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, we agree that "Hand is Man." But we could also state, some 2500 years later looking toward the 21st century of our era, that through the plastic arts, the Hand brings us proof that Spirit can shape Matter, which in turn reveals Spirit (Fig. 10).
Maria-Suzanna de Faykod: Transsubstantiation (Carrara mar-
J
The Hand in Art Claude E. Verdan, MD Guest Editor University of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
eeducating a handicapped hand can be counted among the noblest tasks of the medR ical profession. It deals with one of the most essential
functions of the human body, one that supersedes and conditions all the others. Indeed, prehension and sensitivity (Fig. I)-its two characteristics-are the main components of any manifestation of life, from the unicellular organisms to the higher mammals. In the former, the prehensive function is accounted for by phagocytosis, and sensitivity, by mysterious alterations of their intrinsic electric loads. Birds, for their part, resort to a combination of prehensive movements through their beaks and claws; mammals use their jaws and teeth, as well as their paws; elephants, their trunks and tusks. The hands of the primates and hominids master the two elementary functions of prehension and sensitivity. But only the human hand is capable of a third function-expression-which is so familiar, indeed inherent, to us that we too often tend to forget it (Fig. 2). Together with the face and the voice, the hand is essential to human communication (Fig. 3). The experiment done by American researchers and reported by Robert Merle (Le Propre de l'Homme; Paris, Fallois, 1989) is quite significant in this respect. A female chimpanzee pup brought up with a little girl of the same age, in the same family, by a nurse who related with it through sign language managed to express itself, through sign language, with 500 different words. Quite an achievement! And while it thus learned to express itself, its humanization progressed, with all the consequences-good and badinduced by the various connections it developed with its surroundings. This experiment shows the essential part played by the hand as a means of expression and relationship with other people. When the hand is injured, the consequent functional handicap-partial or total deprivation not only of its first two basic functions, but also of the third
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Claude E. Verdan, M.D., Musee de la Main de I' Homme, 17 Rue du Bugnon, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.
one-is a predicament that can drastically and understandably alter the person's psychic balance . We all know that the loss or diminution of an everyday means of communication-the voice, writing, or even the telephone-puts us in an unbearable state of inferiority. Similarly, when the hand is injured and suffers a functional handicap-deprived partially or totally not only of its first two basic functions but also of the third one-the result may be temporary or permanent nervous breakdown. The part played by the hand therapist and reeducator, the kinesitherapist or ergotherapist, then becomes essential; it usually follows the surgeon's part, but it can and should sometimes intervene before surgery. When dealing with a given pathological status, and therefore getting to know it in the smallest detail before an operation, the reeducator can relate more closely to the case and can more adequately intervene in the chain of therapies that follow surgery. There is a further aspect to consider when faced with an anatomical or functional defect. The hand is not only an instrument of communication, a way to convey meaning in describing through gestures the shape or number of objects, or in mimicking practical actions of everyday life. It also knows how to express feelings-the warmth of welcome transmitted through the pressure of a friendly handshake, the sweetness of love revealed through a caress. It equally well expresses rebellion through an upraised clenched fist (Fig. 4) or victory through the "V" sign formed by the extended forefinger and third finger (Fig. 5). The innumerable nuances of feeling that can thus be revealed are demonstrated, for instance, in the mudras of the sacred dances of India (Fig. 6). Feelings derive from emotion. And emotion can also be expressed through art (Fig. 7) . The hand is therefore at the core of any artistic creation, including music-with the exception of singing. The hand molds the clay that becomes pottery, holds the sculptor's hammer and burin, the engraver's stiletto, the sketcher's pencil, charcoal, pastel, or red chalk crayon, the painter's brush. The hand holds the violonist's bow, plucks the strings of July-September 1990
129
FIGURE 1. Albrecht Durer (1471- 1528): Study of Hands. The two elementary characteristics of any hand are prehension and sensitivity.
FIGURE 5. crete).
130
Claude-E. Verdan: The Victory (con-
JOURNAL OF HAND THERAPY
FiGURE 4.
(concrete).
Claude-E. Verdan: The Rebellion
FIGURE 6. Mudras express feelings in sacred dances of India.
FIGURE 2 (above). Jan Vermayen (7500- 1559): Portrait of Erard de la Marek. Only the human hand is capable of a third function, expression. FIGURE 3 (right). Domenikos Theotokopulos EI Greco (1541- 1614): EI Cabellero de la Mana en el Pecha. The hand expresses feelings.
FIGURE 7. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528): Praying Hands. Emotion is expressed through art, and art is created by the hand.
FIGURE 10. Diana Vandenberg (1959): The Seventh Day (poster 62 x 93 em).
July-September 1990
131
FIGURE 8. Auguste Rodin (7840-7977): The Hand of God. The hand may become itself the object of an artistic creation .
the guitar or the harp. It plays the flute or the trum~ pet, touches piano or organ keyboards; it even holds the conductor's baton and blends the sounds of the many instruments required to perform a symphony in wonderful harmony. The hand is the privileged tool that helps to express human feelings. It may also itself become the object of an artistic creation. The hand, in its form or representation, can convey the emotion the artist wants to express. One can judge painters' or sculptors' talent by the way they render hands. Are they
FIGURE 9. ble).
132
JOURNAL OF HAND THERAPY
given not merely a resemblance or an anatomical identity but made to show emotion, to live and "talk," to say what the artist feels deep inside? Hands can be made to exude beauty-a difficult concept to define. Actually, beauty is beyond definition. It is, in Rene Huygues' description, "a firebird perching where it will," but first, it is a dialogue, an exchange process between a human being and an object observed or felt. This object can be material or immaterial-it may live in the onlooker's imagination-but it always has a definite shape, a shape that can only be one of the expressions of Universal Energy materialized in the object itself or in the representation of it executed by the artist's hand (Fig. 8) . The "artist-hunter" feels an irrepressible need to capture things and beings, make them his own, in giving them a shape or a face through his creative skill. His hand becomes thus the vector in this aesthetic dialogue-the artist simultaneously seducing and possessing his environment, as if he himself were to draw, from the energies surrounding him, sources that in their diversity bring him all the ingredients necessary for his existence. Hence the kind of frenzy so often observed among artists for whom nothing else counts but this appropriative process (for example, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and others). Maybe the urge toward artistic creation means a return toward the far-away origins of Fundamental Energy that prevailed at the very beginning when the world materialized in coherent agglutination of successive amalgamations of atoms and molecules, essential to the formation of any shape, as well as to the building up of life. Artistic creation, through the medium of the hand, should then be considered a real "transubstantiation" as expressed by the Carrara marble sculpture by MariaSuzanna de Faykod, a French artist of Hungarian origin (Fig. 9) . With the 5th century Be Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, we agree that "Hand is Man." But we could also state, some 2500 years later looking toward the 21st century of our era, that through the plastic arts, the Hand brings us proof that Spirit can shape Matter, which in turn reveals Spirit (Fig. 10).
Maria-Suzanna de Faykod: Transsubstantiation (Carrara mar-