Glory! Unamuno, Life 3.14
Why do we make art? To send signals? Signals of what? Of the fact that we matter, beyond whatever situation we occupy at any given moment. In brief, of our glory. Unamuno finds everyone⸺artists, writers, sinners, saints, and God himself⸺loving glory as an expression of personal immortality.
Ante
este terrible misterio de la mortalidad, cara a cara de la esfinge,
el hombre adopta distintas actitudes y busca por varios modos
consolarse de haber nacido. Y ya se le ocurre tomarlo a juego, y se
dice con Renán, que este universo es un espectáculo que Dios se da
a sí mismo, y que debemos servir las intenciones del gran Corega,
contribuyendo a hacer el espectáculo lo más brillante y lo más
variado posible. Y han hecho del arte una religión y un remedio para
el mal metafísico, y han inventado la monserga del arte por el arte.
Y
no les basta. El que os diga que escribe, pinta, esculpe o canta para
propio recreo, si da al público lo que hace, miente; miente si firma
su escrito, pintura, estatua o canto. Quiere,
cuando menos, dejar una sombra de su espíritu, algo que le
sobreviva. Si la Imitación
de Cristo es
anónima, es porque su autor, buscando la eternidad del alma, no se
inquietaba de la del nombre. Literato
que os diga que desprecia la gloria, miente como un bellaco. De
Dante, el que escribió aquellos treinta y tres vigorosísimos versos
(Purg. XI.
85-117), sobre la vanidad de la gloria mundana, dice Boccacio que
gustó de los honores y las pompas más acaso de lo que correspondía
a su ínclita virtud. El
deseo más ardiente de sus condenados es el de que se les recuerde
aquí, en la tierra, y se hable de ellos, y es esto lo que más
ilumina las tinieblas de su infierno. Y
él mismo expuso el concepto de la Monarquía, no sólo para utilidad
de los demás, sino para lograr palma de gloria (lib.
I, cap. I). ¿Qué más? Hasta
de aquel santo varón, el más desprendido, al parecer, de vanidad
terrena, del Pobrecito de Asís cuentan los Tres Socios que
dijo: adhuc
adorabor per totum mundum! ¡Veréis
como soy aún adorado por todo el mundo! (II Celano, 1, 1). Y hasta
de Dios mismo dicen los teólogos que creó el mundo para
manifestación de su gloria.
Before
this terrible mystery of mortality, face to face with the Sphinx, man
adopts different attitudes, seeking various means of consoling
himself for having been born. Perhaps it occurs to him to take life
as a game, and he says, with Renan (†), that the universe is a show
God gives himself. We must serve the intentions of the great
chorus-leader, contributing our part to make the spectacle of his
show as brilliant and varied as possible! These folk have made art a
religion, a cure for metaphysical illness, and have created the
absurdity that is art for art's sake.
And
it is not enough for them. The person who tells you that he writes,
paints, sculpts, or sings for his own amusement, if he gives the
public access to his work, lies. If he signs his writing, painting,
statue, or song, he lies. At the very least he wishes to leave behind
a shadow of his spirit, something that survives him. If the Imitation
of Christ (‡) is anonymous, this is because its author,
seeking the eternity of his soul, ceased to worry about that of his
name. Men of letters who affect to despise glory lie egregiously.
Boccaccio informs us that Dante, who wrote thirty-three verses
condemning the vanity of worldly glory in no uncertain terms
(Purgatory 11.85-117), loved honors and ceremony more,
perhaps, than the austere virtue which he celebrated would allow. The
most ardent desire of those Dante condemns is that they be remembered
here, in the earth⸺that people speak of them. This desire is what
casts most light on the darkness of his hell. And the poet himself
was not above expounding the theme of monarchy, not only as a service
to others, but for the palm of glory he would receive (*). What other
examples can we find? Even the holy man of Assisi, poor and seemingly
quite remote from worldly vanity, is remembered by his three
companions to have uttered, "I shall be adored by the entire
world! You will see how I am already beloved by all!" (⁑).
Theologians tell us that even God himself created the world to
demonstrate his glory.
---
(†) Joseph Ernest Renan (1823-1892 CE) began life in a little French village in Brittany, the son of a fisherman and a tradesman's daughter. He went to Catholic seminary, developed an interest in medieval scholasticism, and moved thence into academic study of religion and humanities, particularly as they relate to the sciences. His work includes a biography of Jesus famous already in his lifetime (Life of Jesus, published in 1863), though he never took orders as a priest (becoming, in his own words, a prêtre manqué). He is also remembered for an essay or published lecture discussing What is a Nation? (published in 1882). The allusion to life as a great festival or dance led by God comes from the fourth volume of his History of the Origins of Christianity, which is titled The Antichrist.
(‡)
A book published anonymously in Latin, in the early fifteenth century
(circa 1418-1427 CE). It appeared in manuscript form
(handwritten in copies circulated informally) in the Netherlands, and
is generally credited to Thomas à Kempis, a canon regular who was
part of the Modern Devotion, an order of Catholic monks and nuns that
arose from widespread desire to reform medieval monasticism. Thomas'
name appears on several of the manuscript copies of his book, and his
writing style is known from other works. The book is intended as a
manual for Christian devotion, exhorting believers to pattern their
own lives after that of Christ as portrayed in the New Testament.
(*) Dante
wrote a Latin treatise On Monarchy defending the
secular authority of the Holy Roman emperor from the spiritual
authority of the Pope (who claimed, in the tradition of Gregory the
Great, to overrule the emperor). Unamuno cites the passage of that
treatise in which Dante provides the reader with his motives: tum
ut utiliter mundo pervigilem, tum etiam ut palmam tanti bravii primus
in meam gloriam adipiscar; "in
order that I might be a useful light unto the world, and take
possession of the palm of glory belonging to such an
achievement" (On
Monarchy, 1.1.5).
(⁑)
Unamuno cites the Second Life of Saint Francis, an
account of the medieval saint composed by Thomas of Celano
(circa 1185-1265 CE), who was himself a Franciscan.