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PARTISAN REVIEW
Germany, I once overheard an official guide explain that the struggle
between the gods and giants depicted in the frieze was a struggle between
capitalists and oppressed workers; the Met's texts were a
great
improve–
ment.
Yet what made the exhibition so rewarding was not the abundant,
fascinating information provided, but the vigorous, energetic reliefs
themselves. Part of their appeal was, of course, their fragmentary state.
The contrast between the crisp, bold naturalism of the best preserved sec–
tions and the soft transitions of ruined passages was often dramatic and
enriching; a single muscular arm, a leg, or a headless but sturdy torso
emerging from barely legible surroundings could appear more expressive,
to our eyes, than a complete figure, especially a complete figure carved
with the rather flashy, hyper-accomplished illusionism of the Hellenistic
period. The warm color and weathered surfaces of the ancient marble also
added a good deal. But the real excitement came from the pervasive lively
rhythm that flickers through the entire ensemble, pulsing against the im–
plied geometry that underlies each panel. You became enthralled by the
abstract relationships of parallel curves of floating drapery or the com–
pressed arcs of straining arms. Not all of the panels, as they have come
down to us, were equally satisfying, but in purely sculptural terms, the
best were dazzling, able to speak eloquently, both spatially and in terms of
narrative, across more than two thousand years.
The Met's elegant installation, which isolated coherent "phrases" of
the Telephos story, no doubt distorted the intent of whoever carved the
frieze in the first half of the second century B.C. Purists may object, but
since the original edifice seems to have looked a lot like the Vittorio
Emmanuele monument in Piazza Venezia that Romans disparage as "the
typewriter," I'm not sure that was a bad thing.
One of the delights of the great Poussin retrospective seen in Paris in
the fall of 1994 was a spectacular array of works on paper, from finished
presentation drawings to intimate studies.
Poussin: Works on Paper,
organ–
ized jointly by the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and the Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, and seen at the Metropolitan this winter was a glori–
ous footnote to the retrospective: sixty-five first-rate drawings by the
master, drawn from collections assembled by Poussin's friends and patrons
in his lifetime and kept together ever since.
Like many of his contemporaries, Poussin used drawing not simply as
a way of learning about the world or recording his perceptions, but as an
essential part of the careful preparation of his intellectually and visually
complex paintings. Some of the most absorbing - and often the freshest,
most beautiful - drawings in the show allowed you to watch Poussin test
ideas, explore alternative compositions, and examine the dramatic possi-
