McIsaac_ElectiveAffinities - iSites

Tableaux Vivants and Triviality 155
threatened by, the similarity of their aesthetic production to consumer culture,
causing them to distinguish between aesthetically inferior consumer goods
and an "appropriately" classicizing art. Not only concerned with literature, the
aesthetic tenets of German neo-classicism can be viewed also as a critical, if
defensive, response to the champions of this burgeoning consumer culture.'^
As in the literary context, the boundary between art and fashionable commodity
was reinforced by gestures that can be interpreted in gendered terms.
As an act of masculine defiance toward the commodity culture surrounding
it, "true art" establishes itself by repudiating aesthetic sensibilities deemed to
be changeable, whimsical, quotidian, entertaining, in short: feminine."" The
disavowal of non-masculine quotidian, entertaining, and/or commercial qualities
valorizes "true" art and literature, and ensures lower forms bearing those
feminized qualities always remain on the other side of a hierarchical divide.
A notable high/low distinction accompanied the fashionable tableaux
vivants. Despite their proliferation in aristocratic and educated circles, theories
of tableaux vivants locate their origins elsewhere, either in the distant, south
European past and/or the lower classes. In an article in the Abend-Zeitung, for
instance, Bottiger points to ancient traditions in Italy as predecessors of the
Goethezeit tableaux.'^ Similarly, in his Italienische Reise, Goethe expounds
the belief that tableaux vivants originated as a popular expression of common
Neapolitans.'* Later, these popular origins remained tied to tableaux vivants'
function as aristocratic entertainment. Indeed, Goethe first pondered tableaux
vivants during his initial stay in Naples, where he encountered the future Lady
Hamilton's "living pictures." This performance and the larger Neapolitan context
were again brought to mind when, following his excursion to Sicily, Goethe
was taken on a tour of Lord Hamilton's secret archaeological collection, where
Goethe and Hamilton come upon the gold-rimmed, black box Hamilton had
once used for her tableaux vivants (HAll: 403). After describing the stage,
Goethe explains,
Hier ist der Ort, noch einer andern entschiedenen Liebhaberei der Neapolitaner
uberhaupt zu gedenken. Es sind die Krippchen (presepe), die man zu Weihnachten
in alien Kirchen sieht, eigentlich die Anbetung der Hirten, Engel und
Konige vorstellend, mehr oder weniger voUstandig, reich und kostbar zusammen
gruppiert [...]
Da mag man nun manchmal aueh lebendige Figuren zwischen die Puppen
mit eingemiscbt haben, und nach und naeh ist eine der bedeutendsten Unterhaltungen
hoher und reicher Familien geworden, zu ihrer Abendergotzung aueh
weltliche Bilder, sie mogen nun der Gesehichte oder der Diehtkunst angehoren,
in ihren Palasten aufzufuhren. (HAll: 331-32)
In this passage, Goethe inscribes a prehistory to the ruling-class forms that,
by stressing their origins in popular nativity scenes, marks tableaux vivants as
appropriated cultural forms.'^ As if to underscore the notion that tableaux vivants
are somehow foreign to or outside of the upper classes, Goethe mentions