georges didi huberman, confronti... - lensbased.net

History of Art, Practice 45so to speak, from its original world so that, as ‘‘remains,’’ it could bepassed down to posterity and transmit itself as such (tradere) . . . whichis to say as immortal object. We see that, from the standpoint of acertain history, the most immortal objects are perhaps those that havebest realized, best achieved their own death. Fifteen centuries afterPliny, Vasari, considered by all the true founder of the history of art,delivered simultaneously his celebrated ‘‘law of the three phases’’ ofthe arts of design or drawing (arti di disegno) and the assertion that hehimself was writing in a time when art in general had already broughtits auto-teleology to its end:[H]aving made a distinction and division, in order not tomake too minute a research, into Three Parts, or we wouldrather call them ages [età], from the second birth of thesearts up to the century wherein we live, by reason of thatvery manifest difference [manifestissima differenza] that is seenbetween one and another of them. In the first and most ancientage these three arts are seen to have been very distantfrom their perfection [queste tre arti essere state molto lontanedalla loro perfezione], and, although they had something of thegood, to have been accompanied by so much imperfection[tanta imperfezione] that they certainly do not merit greatpraise; although, seeing that they gave a beginning andshowed the path and method to the better work that followedlater, if for no other reason, we cannot but speak wellof them and give them a little more glory than the worksthemselves have merited, were we to judge them by the perfectstandard of art.Next, in the second, it is manifestly seen that matters weremuch improved [si veggono manifesto esser le cose migliorateassai], both in the inventions and in the use of more design,better manner, and greater diligence, in their execution; andlikewise that the rust of age and the rudeness and disproportion,wherewith the grossness of that time had clothed them,were swept away. But who will be bold enough to say thatthere was to be found at that time one who was in every