© 2005 Sarah Wallin
Disasters in Art By Sarah Wallin
“The City of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius Across the Bay” Source: Hall, Jennie. Buried Cities, Complete [e-book]. Project Gutenberg. EText-No. 9628. 10 August
2004. Image 2. 15 August 2005. <http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/9/6/2/9628/9628-h/9628-h.htm>.
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
Disasters in Art
Synopsis
Societies throughout time have responded to death in various ways.
Through mourning traditions, people have managed to cope and find acceptance
with the inevitability of death. But when death comes on a massive and
destructive scale, taking numerous lives in an instant, mourning can take on a
bitter and angry shade. Sometimes these waves of destruction are wielded by the
hand of fellow men, as in the case of war; however, at other times, death is dealt
to the human race by the hand of nature, by the very planet we call home, in
tremendous and terrifying displays of might. And when the earth rumbles and
rages against us, often we are left with a sense helplessness and insignificance,
for how often destruction comes when we are not expecting it! Even so, as ages
pass, the events surrounding these natural disasters – the gargantuan power of
nature, the heroism of mankind in the face of insurmountable odds, and the
related, almost mythic illustrations available for us in present times – are kept
alive for generations through a society’s artwork.
It is to three of history’s great disasters we will turn, in this survey of
artwork that has kept alive our strange fascination with natural destruction. The
art of these disasters – the sinking of the Titanic, the horror of the Black Death,
and the destruction of Pompeii – spans the centuries and cultures, making plain
that numerous societies have been, and continue to be, impacted by the events of
past civilizations.
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
Titanic When one thinks of the story of the RMS Titanic and its fateful journey in
April of 1912, the popular film of 1997 by James Cameron, entitled “Titanic”,
probably most vividly comes to mind. However, this film, with all its technical
wizardry, romance, and (debated) historical accuracy, was only another in a long
line of similar films. The first we will consider is the 1953 film by the same name,
directed by Jean Negulesco. In a brief, written narrative at the beginning, the film
boasts of its historical accuracy, claiming that the dialogue itself was taken from
personal accounts and existing records of the events that had transpired on
Titanic’s fateful voyage. The personal angle of the story, however, revolves
around the bitter struggle of a divorcing couple with their two children, a
drunken priest suspended of his duties, and a college boy attempting to woo the
snobbish daughter of the aforementioned couple; the film also details the small
mishaps that together eventually led to Titanic’s demise. Each of these characters
seems to be running from or running to life, and when the esteemed liner hits an
iceberg, their fates converge in one climactic and devastating moment.
I personally found this version of the tale to be more emotionally stirring
and riveting than the 1997 version, though it has been speculated that the reason
James Cameron steered clear of blatant historical accuracy was because it had
been done so many times before (Internet Movie Database forums). Granted, the
final moment when the ship sinks into the sea is quite abrupt in the 1953 version
and perhaps a strange sight to modern viewers who expect to see Titanic break
into two, but it wasn’t until the wreckage of the ship had been studied, some
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
thirty years after the earlier movie, that the evidence of that breakage had been
established.
Following the inspiration of the 1953 film, in 1955 narrative historian
Walter Lord published a novel on the disaster entitled, A Night to Remember.
Basing his work on his own careful investigations, the book charts the ship’s last
hours “with meticulous accuracy”. “[T]his powerful book puts the tragedy of the
Titanic in human terms… The story is truly extraordinary because it all
happened and the drama of the author's narrative-style makes it all the more
gripping” (“Tribute to Walter Lord”). And it was this groundbreaking, gripping
novel that inspired a film in 1958 by the same title, a film that has been acclaimed
“by critics and fans to be the most accurate of several movie portrayals of the
disaster” (Wikipedia “A Night to Remember”).
Among the historically accurate details that Walter Lord raised in his
work was the question of which song concluded the final performance of the
Titanic Band, for, prior to the book’s release, it had been a long-held tradition
that “Nearer My God, To Thee” deserved that stirring honor. However, based on
a detailed, personal account of a survivor, an operator named Harold Bride, the
last tune had been accredited to “Autumn”. According to George Behe,
“Whereas it had always been assumed that Bride was referring to the Episcopal
hymn of that name, Walter suggested [in a 1986 sequel] that Bride had in
actuality been referring to ‘Songe d'Automne,’ a waltz by Archibald Joyce that
had been popular at the time of the Titanic's sinking” (“Music of the Titanic’s
Band”). This, coupled with countless other conflicting accounts, have made it
difficult to ascertain with any certainty, which tune was being played as the ship
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
sank. Nonetheless, George Behe makes a case for the hymn “Nearer My God, To
Thee” by relating the following story of bandmaster Wallace Hartley:
“Elwane Moody, a well-known Leeds musician, was a close friend of Wallace
Hartley and had just completed twenty-two Atlantic crossings with him on the
Mauretania. In fact, Hartley had asked Moody to accompany him on the Titanic,
but Moody had declined.
Not long before the Titanic's maiden voyage, Moody asked Hartley, "What
would you do if you were ever on a ship that was sinking?"
Hartley looked thoughtful for a moment and replied:
‘I don't think I could do better than play "O God, Our Help In Ages Past" or
"Nearer My God, To Thee.’
Later, after the disaster, Moody said, ‘When I read the statement in the papers
that he had gone to his death leading the band in "Nearer My God, To Thee," I
believed it. If it had been some other hymn I might not have done so, but as it is I
can quite believe it. It is just what he would do.’
Lewis Cross, bass viol player on the Celtic, was another friend of Wallace
Hartley who once spoke with him about the possibility of a shipwreck. Hartley
smiled and said, ‘Well, I don't suppose it will ever happen, but you know music
is a bigger weapon than a gun in a big emergency, and I think that a band could
do more to calm passengers than all the officers’” (“The Music of the Titanic’s
Band”).
Whether or not “Nearer My God, To Thee” was truly the last song to ring
in the air as Titanic sank, it was one of several other hymns passengers recalled
hearing, along with ragtime and patriotic tunes, and it’s simple and profound
implications of escaping the tragedies of this earth will remain a symbol of the
poor souls lost to the frozen depths.
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
Paintings and photographs have also played a role in keeping these
images of Titanic’s disaster before us, images such as the original artwork of
Regina Wuchner – her contemporary image of the survivors in their lifeboats, for
example, and the image of the pristine deck of the great ship. On a lighter note,
however, the story of this tragedy has also been turned around in a witty comic
published by George Lucas in congratulations of Cameron’s unprecedented
success with his version of the film, “Titanic”.
The Black Death
The horrors of the Black plagues of fourteenth- through seventeenth-
century Europe, with its enormous death toll and mysterious origins (to the
people of the time), naturally evoked a host of disturbing and provocative
artwork, then and now. Engravings of the time period depict such images as
skeletons alongside kings who are attempting to ward them off, death carts filled
with shrouded bodies on their way to the pits, and pious monks shunned for
contracting the disease, as evidenced by the red boils on their faces. Later
artwork also depicts vivid scenes of ravaged city streets filled with bodies and
pestilence, evoking a sense of abandoned chaos and bitter destruction.
Perhaps one of the most complex works of art depicting both the plague
and its cultural implications is a contemporary play written by Naomi Wallace,
called “One Flea Spare”. The title and broader concept were inspired by a poem
of John Donne called, “The Flea”, which is a stunning and complex example of
the Renaissance fascination with the pestilent insects and their audacious
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
capabilities of mixing blood, thereby uniting, for example, a man with his lover
(see WzDD's HSC Info Page “Overall Explanation”).
According to Eric Marchese in his account of “One Flea Spare” for the
Orange County Register, “During the horrendously hot summer of 1665, the
upper-class Snelgraves, William…and Darcy…discover that 12-year-old Morse
Braithwaite…and Bunce…a sailor, have been hiding in their cellar. In close
confinement, as William puts Bunce to work as his servant, issues of class spring
up immediately, and the Snelgraves' strained marriage opens the door for a
seething, subtextual attraction between Bunce and Mrs. Snelgrave. The character
of Kabe…the plague guard assigned to patrol the Snelgraves' neighborhood, is
the only link these four inhabitants have with the outside world, and all four use
whatever means are at hand to bargain with him…There's the cruelty each
individual must endure and that of the universe, as demonstrated by the
virulence of the plague, whose symptoms are described in graphic detail” (27
May 2005).
Such a play inspires us to dig deeper into the human aspect of surviving
in a world ravaged by disease, where class structure and former sensibilities are
stripped away.
Pompeii
Artist Eleanor Antin, in commenting on her contemporary photographic
series, “The Last Days of Pompeii”, stated, “I have this love affair with the past…
You can find anything you want by going back to the past. You don’t even have
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
to look. The metaphors start erupting all over the place. I've always loved the
past because of the relations that I could make as an artist with the present”
(Art:21). Indeed, Antin’s work adds a colorful modern flair to the images of
Pompeii, of the leisurely inhabitants rolling in their wealth right up until the
devastating moment when Vesuvius erupted spectacularly in 79 C.E.
Many paintings are notable in their depiction of Vesuvius in all its
majestic fury, and of the total ruin of two major cities as a result of that fury. In
both The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum by John Martin in 1821 (black
and white), and The Last Day of Pompeii by Karl Brulloff in 1833 (color), the
inhabitants of Pompeii can be seen in mid-flight with ash and fire at their backs,
their faces contorted with horror and despair. Whereas Antin’s photographs give
us affluence followed by quiet despair, these two painters give us a sense of
urgency as the dead lay in the streets and as the volcano’s fury vibrantly
consumes them (circulating the borders of the image and funneling in toward the
people) in their pointless flight toward the coast.
An important literary gift to this subject is Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel,
The Last Days of Pompeii of 1834. Not unlike the tragic romance depicted upon the
backdrop of Cameron’s Titanic disaster, Lytton’s work “focuses on a virtuous
young Roman man, Glaucus, who is stuck in a love quadrangle with a beautiful,
equally virtuous young lady, a blind slave girl, and a sinister Egyptian who
beguiles the lovely young lady. In the background is a turmoil of religious and
social problems, with a deadly volcano smoldering behind it all. Then, a murder
is committed -- and Glaucus is arrested for the crime, and sentenced to be sent
into the arena. When Vesuvius blows, will any of them survive?” (E. A Solinas,
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
reviewer on Amazon.com < http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-
/158715739X/104-7705786-7181564?v=glance>).
Lytton is known for his lush, Victorian writing style that many, perhaps
younger, readers often find excessive and dense. Yet, even for the novel’s
flowery language and complicated romantic struggle, Lytton “provides a
catalogue of such structures of cataclysm and crisis. After building towards the
volcano's eruption, The Last Days of Pompeii then devotes considerable space to
presenting it in detail. Bulwer-Lytton follows Pliny the Younger [the established,
historically accurate, eyewitness account of the event]” (Landow “Bulwer-Lytton
Punishes Pompeii”). The book inspired a miniseries adaptation for TV in 1984,
directed by Peter Hunt, which is still held in high esteem, and artist George
Halse sculpted a lovely image in marble of Nydia the Blind Flower Girl, from
Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii (1860), further adding life to the well-loved story.
Concluding Thoughts
In the words of George Landow, this vast array of artwork “present[s]
human beings suddenly assaulted by powerful forces – forces that exist on a
scale far vaster than the human – that threaten to destroy them. The structure or
situation in which these people find themselves, moreover, immediately
separates their old, everyday existence from the new terrifying one that has just
sprung into being” (Landow “Bulwer-Lytton Punishes Pompeii”). Furthermore,
artwork that springs to life as we recall these overwhelming terrors seeks to find
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
a meaning or a metaphor in the event, and, at the same time, celebrates the
creative adaptability of mankind on this ever-changing earth.
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Works Cited Titanic:
A Night to Remember. “A Tribute to Walter Lord” [online]. The Titanic Historical
Society, Inc. 22 August 2005. < http://www.titanic1.org/people/walter-lord.asp>. “A Night to Remember” [online]. Wikipedia. 22 August 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_To_Remember>. “A Night to Remember (1958)” [online]. Internet Movie Database. 22 August 2005.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051994/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9bmlnaHQgdG8gcmVtZW1iZXJ8ZnQ9MXxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8Y289MXxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1>.
Behe, George, compiler. Bandsmen on board Titanic's older sister, the Olympic. “The
Music of the Titanic's Band” [online]. George Behe’s Titanic Tidbits. 9 February 2002. Titanic Historical Society. 22 August 2005. <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Carpathia/page3.htm>.
Behe, George, compiler. White Star Line Music Book Cover. “The Music of the Titanic's
Band” [online]. George Behe’s Titanic Tidbits. 9 February 2002. Titanic Historical Society. 22 August 2005. <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Carpathia/page3.htm>.
Cook, Scott, compiler. Titanic Congratulatory Ad [online]. Cloth Monkey. 17 May 2005.
22 August 2005. <http://www.clothmonkey.com/artifacts.htm>. Hamilton, Maxx and Mike Szymanski. “Most Expensive, Most Successful Wins 'Titanic'
Oscar Race” [online]. 8 December 2004. Zap2it. 22 August 2005. <http://www.zap2it.com/movies/features/scenes/story/0,1259,---23872,00.html>.
“Titanic (1953)” [online]. Internet Movie Database. 22 August 2005.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046435/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9dGl0YW5pY3xmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=2;ft=78;fm=1>.
“Titanic (1997)” [online]. Internet Movie Database. 22 August 2005.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9dGl0YW5pY3xmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=78;fm=1>.
Wuchner, Regina. Zeichnung der Überlebenden in ihren Rettungsbooten. Titanic-Bilder.
22 August 2005. <http://www.titanicy.de/Bilder/titanic-bilder.htm>. Wuchner, Regina. Das Bootsdeck der Titanic. Titanic-Bilder. 22 August 2005.
<http://www.titanicy.de/Bilder/titanic-bilder.htm>.
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
Wuchner, Regina. Der Eisberg, der die Titanic versenkte?. Titanic-Bilder. 22 August
2005. <http://www.titanicy.de/Bilder/titanic-bilder.htm>.
Black Death: An Illustration from a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript [online]. Jonathan H. Hsy.
University of Pennsylvania. 22 August 2005. <http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jhsy/bd.html>.
“Bubonic Plague and the Black Death” [online]. William Shakespeare Info. 22 August
2005. <http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-bubonic-plague-black-death.htm>.
FitzRoy-Dale, Nicholas. “WzDD's HSC Info: 2Unit Related English: John Donne The
Flea” [online]. 22 August 2005. < http://lardcave.net/tig/hsc/2eng-donne-flea-comments.html>.
“One Flea Spare”. By Naomi Wallace. Dir. Patricia L. Terry. Chance Theater Repertory
Company, Anaheim Hills, CA. May 21 - June 12, 2005. Schneegurt, Mark A. “Black Death Art”. Biology 103 - Microbes and You [course
website]. Lecture 14, Witchita State University. 22 August 2005. <http://webs.wichita.edu/mschneegurt/biol103/lecture14/plague_art.jpg>.
“The Black Death” [online]. 22 August 2005. <http://batgirl.atspace.com/plague.html>.
Pompeii: Antin, Eleanor. “The Last Days of Pompeii” [interview, online]. Art:21, PBS.
< http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/antin/clip1.html#>. Antin, Eleanor. “The Last Day”. The Last Days of Pompeii, 2001. Art:21, PBS.
<http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/antin/art_pompeii.html#>. Brulloff, Karl. The Last Day of Pompeii. The Russian Museum, St-Petersburg, Russia. Halse, George. Nydia the Blind Flower Girl, from Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii.
Conway Collection, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, London. Landow, George P. “Bulwer-Lytton Punishes Pompeii”. Brown University. 22 August
2005. < http://www.victorianweb.org/art/crisis/crisis1e.html>. Martin, John. The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. University of Manchester,
© 2005 Sarah Wallin
United Kingdom. Purl, Linda. The Last Days of Pompeii. “Linda Purl’s Career Photo Gallery…Movies,
TV, Stage” [online]. www.LINDAPURL.net. 22 August 2005. <http://www.lindapurl.net/gallery/career/pomp1.htm>