Basic laws of linguistic and visual semiotics: From the Paleolithic to Picasso

1. Basic laws of linguistic and visual semiotics: From the Paleolithic to Picasso Lecture given in Valladolid (Spain) 4th of April 2006 Wolfgang Wildgen, Bremen (Germany)

2. Table of contents • Part I: The Evolution of a Protolanguage or The evolutionary baseline of symbolic behavior • Part II: Symbolic Evolution in the late Paleolithic: Dynamics and Complexity • Part III: Referential and abstract art after the Renaissance • Part IV: Intertextuality and Metasemiosis: Velasquez interpreted figuratively by Picasso

3. Part I The Evolution of a Protolanguage or The evolutionary baseline of symbolic behavior

4. The plausible time span of a protolanguage is 2 my to 300.000 y. • A protolanguage must categorize events and actions (by proto-verbs) and must discriminate stable entities (by proto-nouns). • The question arises, if temporal, dynamic, quantitative, qualitative relations between them can be mastered and to what degree. • I will argue that there are intrinsic complexity barriers which could have blocked the elaboration of the protolanguage for a long (evolutionary) time-span, e.g. 2 my to 300 ky.

5. Representation of actions/events and involved stable entities • The action-concept GRASP involves two stable entities: the body (the hand) and the object. Every point on the lines in Fig. 2 is an attractor, i.e., the perception of a stable entity in the 30 msec window (cf. Pöppel, 1998). The whole schema should fit into the 3 sec window, e.g., in the sentence: The father took the book (from the table) • Catastrophe schema of GRASP. The book The father (has the book) The father Catastrophe of capture (took)

6. One may distinguish three ways of grasping: • the force-grip (e.g., of a branch) • the precision-grip (e.g., of a small tool) • the refined grip (e.g., of a needle) finger force-grip finger thumb object thumb precision-grip Topological difference between power grip and precision-grip.

7. A manual dynamic archetype of an assumed protolanguage • The GRASP schema constitutes a structured (bivalent) action schema with a long evolutionary history and includes a manner specification categorized on topological cues. As the distinction between several precision grips shows, more elaboration appears as soon as more precise manipulations on objects and instruments are developed.

8. Beyond the grasp-scenario Object (pebble) Substractedpiece Instrument Agent Conjecture: With the elaboration of a rich culture of artefacts and a selection on the proficiency of the species in this field, a richer schema of action emerged which could be used to improve artefact related communication.

9. Conclusions for Part I The grammar of a protolanguage specifies three hierarchically scaled levels of primary categorization: • Stable entities (no change in the perceptual and classificatory time window and recurrence as pattern (statistical relevance), • dynamic aspects of entities in change and motion (inchoative, egressive, durative), and • a bivalent GRASP-schema with qualitative change (capture or emission); this starts the valence hierarchy. In this perspective, syntax is a consequence of the complexity increase due to a richer lexicon (more differentiations) and a parsimonious organization of the lexicon via a relational structuring and a quick combinatorial production and analysis of more complex utterances.

10. Part II Symbolic Evolution in the late Paleolithic Dynamics and Complexity

11. Auditive versus visual symbolization • The use of color-pigments by humans can be assumed since 700 ky (south Africa). • The first realistic drawings show their derivation from natural arm- and hand-movements. • Very early the dynamic aspect is a basic goal of „art“. i.e. the picture re-animates the depicted and contains a magic of animation.

12. Dynamics in drawing techniques The drawing of a horse(Peña de Candamo)

13. Grotte Chauvet Battle between two rhinozeros (ca. 30ky B.P.)

14. A group of chasing lions; Grotte Chauvet

15. A bison which turns ist head in attack; Grotte Chauvet The human observer or agent mostly remains implicit or is hidden in the shape of an animal (or a dancer having clothes resembling the animal)

16. Appearance of humans in the context of chase and warfare Levante-art in Mesolithic Eastern Spain; ca. 9-8 000 BP

17. Methonymic abstraction A natural path of abstraction uses partial representations, as shown in the sequence below. Such a process may be spontaneous depending on the actual needs or occur in a historical process due to the established knowledge of a symbolic representation. Sketch of a deer’s head Contours of a deer’s head Giant deer

18. A list of abstract symbols With the loss of iconic cues and further symbolization, the picture become context dependent memory cues standing for abstract messages. This evolution finally leads to writing. Tectiform symbols: 1-16; 1-10 Dordogne ( Les Eyzies) 11-16: Northern Spain (Altamira, Castillo, u.a.) Vulva-like symbols 17- 23

19. Part III Referential and abstract art after the Middle Age

20. The pictorial order depends on the space in which the content is represented:In the case of the church S. Isodoro in Leon (shown below) the order of the apostles is partially linear (4+1+4), two apostles are placed in the corners below. Judas stands in the diagonal (see right picture, below). St. Isidoro, Leon (around 1180)

21. The representation may be three-dimensional as in sculptures shown during the Semana Santa (before Eastern) or in theatrical representations with living persons, which sit around a table, as in passion plays or “living” sculptures enacted during the Semana Santa in Spain; Three-dimensional representation of the Last Supper in a portable sculpture used during the Semana Santa in Leon (Spain) - here in the cathedral of Leon (Photo by the author in 2006)

22. Leonardo classical solution. His „Last Supper“ after the renovation Grouping: 3 + 3 +3 + 1 + 3 +3; dynamics of a wave Santa Maria delle Grazie, Mailand 1598

23. Implicit force-fields and the organization of content The force fields in Leonardo’s “Last Supper”: Horizontal, vertical, diagonal (spiral). Correspondence with the geometrical perspective

24. The basic content complexes organized in Leonardo’s painting • The table in the foreground. • The perspective of the dining room, the windows, the landscape visible through the window, the subdivision of the background into three equal sub-fields. • The arrangement of 12 apostles (grouped by 4 x 3) on both sides of Jesus. • The gestures (body poses) and glances of Jesus and his apostles superimpose a further dynamical structure The blending of these different content complexes constitutes the central message of the painting.

25. Cross-cultural dynamics of the central motive: group on a table The only things properly conserved are: • The activity of eating with the mouth helped by hands and eventually instruments. • The size (approximate) of the human group that comes together for a common meal. • The central position of a leader. • The (cultural) variability concerns the room, table, chairs, dishes, the kind of food, and the composition of the group (its social structure). Two different pathways of cultural variation: • The path of pictorial abstraction. I will show that it does not coincide with the kind of abstraction, which is fundamental for language. • The path of intertextual deformation, mainly in the direction of satire or parody.

26. Reanalysis of a classical painting by de- and reconstruction Andy Warhol, “The Last Supper”, 1986

27. Classical „abstract“ paintings The painting has a (deformed) rectangle (like a table) in its center and further objects on it, at it, around it; it thus shows a formal correspondence to Leonardo’s “Last Supper”. Instead of persons, dishes, bread one can only distinguish color-surfaces. Some pseudo-motions replace the action gradients (glance, hands moving). Wassily Kandinsky, “Rotes Oval”, 1920

28. Formal comparison with Leonardo’s painting • It is clear that Kandinsky doesn’t cite any content of Leonardo’s painting (whereas Warhol does). But there are basic laws of figural composition that are in vigor in both paintings. • In other cultures, some of these principles may not be observed and, as in the case of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar, one may ask what the common human base for pictorial expression is (what a Universal Picture is). • Cultural variation must be seen in comparison with cross-cultural communalities or even with universal features.

29. Conflict between an artist and the religious authorities A central picture in Buñuel’s film “Viridiana”. The film was criticized by the Vatican and forbidden in Spain

30. Part IV Intertextuality and Metasemiosis Valesquez interpreted figuratively by Picasso

31. Comparison of the two paintings • Difference of format and color • Size of Velasquez • Replacement of figures (right, bottom) Las Meninas, Picasso, 194x260 17.8.1957 Las Meninas, Diego Velasquez 1656 (318x276)

32. Valence analysis of the pictures The painting of Velasquez has three stages: • In the foreground five persons are placed (I neglect the dog). The central group is defined by the Infanta and the meninas, Maria Agustina Sarmiento and Isabel de Velasco. pattern : 3 + 2 = 5. • In the stage just behind them stands the painter himself and in the shadow, Marcela de Ulloa and Diego Ruiz de Ancona (1 + 2 = 3). • In the third stage one can see the queen’s quartermaster José Nieto and in the mirror the royals, who observe the scene (1 + 2 =3). The entire valence is: 5 + 3 + 3 = 11 (including the dog 12). Picasso’s first painting reproduces the valence of Velasquez.

33. Schematic simplification with compact inner group including Velasquez - Triangulation of the figural groups • mixing of grey and colored surfaces • Artificial depth Las Meninas Picasso 3.10.1957

34. Spatial and configurational variations • Variations of the whole scene painted the 18.9/2.10/ and 3.10.57 regroup the participants using geometric contours. • In the painting shown (3.10.), the first and second stage are put together in a groupings of 3 (Velasquez, , menina Sarmiento, Infanta) + 3 (dog, menina Velasco, Nieto) + 4 (the others). The royals in the mirror are lacking. • Composition: 3 + 3 + 4 =10 (total valence)

35. Groupings and reanalysis Group without Velasquez, 17.9.1957 The central group around the infanta: valence =3 Bystanders: 2 + 2 +1

36. Partial representations (without the painter) • Two fields (yellow/black) intersect on the basic group: Infanta + dog (below). • Only the participants with eyes and mouth are central: Infanta (1) + circular „circonstants“ (3): dog and meninas. • The bystanders on the right (4) are in the background. • The composition is: 1 + 3 + 5 = 9.

37. Partial pictures with the participants at the right of the Infanta. Valence 4 (left) and 2 (right). Colors green, blue, red (yellow, white) Right groups, 24.10. and 8.11.1957

38. Reanalysis of the central person: Infanta Margarita Maria Infanta 14.9.1957, 100x81

39. Reanalysis of the interior of participants • The rough partinomy , i.e. the neigborhood of major recognizable parts is conserved. • The proportions are modified: bigger head, smaller fingers. • The irregular surfaces are reduced to more regular ones (polyhedrons, cf. the cubist program). • The smooth palette (silk and incarnate) is transformed by the use of simple colors.

40. Decomposition and geometrical transformation of a face Infanta, 6.9.1957; 46x37 Infanta, 27.8.1957 Rounding and segregation of arcs (parts of a circle) grey tones Decomposition of head and face into lines and characteristic contours

41. Summary of Picassos intertextual creations • Picasso first reorganizes the global space by changing the format (high to broad) • He flattens the inner space and simultaneously the color-space (color to grey) • He reanalyzes the complex groupings by partial groups thus reducing a global valence of: • 3 (central group) + 3 (dwarfs and dog) + 2 (background adults) + 1 first to subgroups, finally to the infanta. • The presence of the painter (metarepresentation) is mostly neglected. • The mirror effect (observing parents outside the room) is neglected. • The cubist parcels define subspaces in the painting.

42. General conclusions • Abstraction and realism are basic features of art since the Paleolithic period. • The configuration, its valence and the vectors of interaction (glance, hand movement, body postures) are basic constituents of any representation. • The management of space (interior and exterior space) and spatial semantics are a permanent challenge for visual artists. • The quality space (color, grey tones), lines and component surfaces) are the skeleton of the figural representation. The remain even of content is eliminated.

43. Bibliography Wildgen, Wolfgang. 2003. Die Sprache – Cassirers Auseinandersetzung mit der zeitgenössischen Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachtheorie, in: Sandkühler and Pätzold, 2003. Kultur und Symbol. Die Philosophie Ernst Cassirers. Stuttgart: Metzler: 171-201. ---, 2004a. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. ---, 2004b. Conceptual Innovation in Art. Three Case Studies on Leonardo da Vinci, William Turner, and Henry Moore, in: Frank Brisard, Michael Meeuwis und Bart Vandenabeele (eds.), 2004. Seduction, Community, and Speech: A Festschrift for Herman Parret. Amsterdam, Benjamins : 183-196. ---, 2004c. Éléments narratifs et argumentatifs de l’ «Ultime Cène» dans la tradition picturale du XIIe au XXe siècle. Espaces perçus, territoires imagés en art, ed. by Stefania Caliandro and Anne Beyaert, 77-97. Paris: L’Harmattan. ---, 2004d. The Palaeolithic Origins of Art, its Dynamic and Topological Aspects, and the Transition to Writing, in: Bax, Marcel, Barend van Heusden and Wolfgang Wildgen (ed.). Semiotic Evolution and the Dynamics of Culture. Bern, Lang: 117-153. ---, 2005.Visuelle Semiotik der elementaren Kräftefelder der Hände (Gestik) und der Augen (Blicke) in einigen Werken von Leonardo da Vinci und Barocci, in: Winfried Nöth / Anke Hertling (eds.),2005. Körper - Verkörperung – Entkörperung, Reihe: Intervall, Bd. 9. Kassel, Kassel University Press: 149-179.

44. Further materials on the topics evolution of language and visual semiotics may be found on my homepage:http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/homepages/wildgen.htmSome of them are unpublished and protected by the password: ling25 I thank Prof. Sabine Geck for the invitation to Valladolid