The Myth of Progress: Finding a Treasure
December 31, 2007
My great grandfather Greacen Black was a “collector” around the late 19th and early 20th century.
His collection seemed to have no rhyme or reason; he just collected anything that took his fancy. Many of the artifacts later went to the Gisborne, Napier and Christchurch Museums but his book collection stayed in our family.
In 1999, my family was considering selling part of the library and asked Mobrays’ of Otaki to assess some of the collection. One of the books in the library was called A Series of Etchings by James Barry Esq. from his original and justly celebrated paintings in the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce, Adelphi.
The auctioneers failed to find any references at all to this book and could not tell me anything of its origins. I had a feeling that it was valuable, as they said to me that if I ever wanted to reproduce the book they would be happy to assist. It was not until 2006 that I started doing some research on the book and discovered that what was called the Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce was now called The Royal Society of Arts.
By researching on the Internet I found copies of the etchings in the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, but no other references to this book. I contacted the archivist, Nicola Allen, at the Royal Society, and told her of the book and was very surprised to find that the only copy they knew of was in the British Library.
They were able to tell me the history of the book and also send me information on the paintings in what was called the Great Room of the RSA.
A Brief Description of the Background of the Book
The Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce was founded in 1754 and was like an intellectual think tank of what we now know as the Enlightenment in London. Its members were the social and intellectual elite of the time. In 1774 the society moved into a house purchased for them called the Adelphi, designed by the wealthy architects Robert and James Adam, containing a Great Room for the purpose of holding meetings to discuss the great ideas and inventions of the time. The walls of the Great Room were considered right for embellishment. Ten of the foremost artists of the time including James Barry were invited to paint pictures to adorn the walls. But, for some reason, they rejected the invitation.
However, in 1777, Barry came forward and volunteered to undertake the entire job of decorating the Great Room, with paintings analogous to the views of the institution. He volunteered to do this and worked for five years without pay, though he had expectations of recovering his costs from ticket sales to viewings of the room and the subsequent sale of etchings of the paintings. He produced six large paintings illustrating the progress of human knowledge and culture. The Society paid only for the materials and his models.
The whole process of doing these paintings involved the society approving subject matter. Barry came from a poor Irish background and he was recognized for his artistic talent and patronized by Edmund Burke who funded Barry to study the great masters in Italy for four years. But Barry had his own strong political views and he insisted, among other things, on inserting some Irish figures of note in the paintings, which got up the noses of the British. For this, and other writings which strongly attacked some members of the society which he believed were persecuting him, he was expelled from the Society and was in fact the only person to have ever been expelled from the Society.
He lived and died in poverty the rest of his life, though he continued to make additions and modification to the paintings until he died. He concentrated on producing etchings of the paintings as he wished them to be, not as he painted them in the Great Room. Unfortunately, just before his death, a number of his friends arranged an annuity of 120 pounds per annum which would have seen him right, but he died in 1806. His sister published 400 copies of his revised etchings of the Great Room paintings and various other etchings in 1808. She sold the books and this is the book that turned up in my great grandfather’s library.
In the intervening 200 years not many copies of this book seem to have survived. There is no record of one of them ever being sold.
A Fabricated Mythology
The first is called Orpheus, and represents as he saw it, “mankind in a savage state, exposed to all the inconvenience and misery of neglected culture, and embraces the story of Orpheus” who is the first prophet of the new way of life.
The second picture is called Harvest Home or Thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus representing in the idyllic garden of Eden idyllic agricultural rural life.
The third Picture is called The Victors at Olympia and represents the idealized Roman and Greek civilization, showing off the first Olympic athletes as the pride of the patriarch. In other words, here are the noble warriors celebrating their bodies in sport and the old man looking upon them fondly knowing they have conquered the world.
The fourth is called The Thames and portrays the great navigators Drake, Raleigh, Cabot, and Cook who were the heroes of the Empire and glorified discovery, conquest and trade.
The fifth painting is called The Distribution of Rewards by the Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce. It is a who’s who of the ruling elite, the intellectual aristocracy ruling London, England at the time, immortalizing themselves as the pinnacle of human achievement.
The last painting is called Elysium or The State of Final Retribution in which all the great figures of history are brought together on the abyss between heaven and hell, at the moment of Final Judgment, symbolically selecting the champions of the New Age and rejecting the perpetrators of the Old.
In total the pictures are a completely fabricated new mythology selecting at will characters from the old mythologies and together portraying an inevitable progress of civilization in which England took its rightful place at the head of this progress thereby justifying its conquest of the world.
Continual Growth Leads to Collapse
What is fascinating in New Zealand now, in the 21st Century is that these ideas were embedded in the original European settlement and colonization and have been unquestionably accepted as the basis for the masses’ perception of reality and normality.
The new mantra one hears on the media these days is “moving forward”; everyone is moving forward. Just another word for progress that justifies any action by a CEO or manager or politician. For this reason, we need to examine the deep roots of moving forward or progress because by any objective or any analysis of where the world is moving, it is not looking good.
Continual growth can only lead to collapse. The entire capitalist society is heading faster and faster in that direction, propelled by the concept of inevitable progress and growth, as opposed to sustainable living within our means.
It is worth noting that the whole series of paintings by Barry is called the Progress of human knowledge and culture. It is the word and concept of progress that is key, and its implementation and adoption as the key myth of modernity has been the great justifier of change, while masking who benefits and who pays. The concept of progress has three key elements: The Dark Past, The Bright Future, and The Map from One to the Other.
Orpheus; the Natural State of Savage Man
In the first painting titled Orpheus Barry characterizes the dark part, which he describes as “the natural state of the savage man - “full of fraud, violence and disorder.” People are armed with clubs and “clad in the spoils of wild beasts”. They are strong and able to fight tigers and lions but lacking in cultural knowledge or wisdom to prevent nature having its revenge.
Key images of this state include two horses, one of which is being run down by a tiger, which Barry describes as representing “the want of human culture that is evil which extends even beyond our species.”
On the other side of the river a woman is milking a goat with children at her feet, but a lion is sizing them up for dinner. Humans are portrayed as on the same level as animals which are perceived as beastly, wild and evil. Moreover, they have no proper defenses.
So here we have a universal image of the past from which we must progress, characterized by danger, ignorance and a lack of culture. Orpheus, who in Greek mythology made the rocks and trees dance to his music is characterized here as much more, he is the messenger from the gods instructing the wild savages on legislation, philosophy, poetry and music.
In one hand Orpheus has the lyre (a phonetic irony) and in the other a scroll, showing “the mundane egg.” In reference to Lucretius, who wrote De Rerum Naturae (On the Nature of Things), the mundane egg is the origin of the world and the growth of the human soul.
In the foreground, a sacrificial lamb is bound on a kindled fire with a dagger lying next to the lamb; the symbols of sacrifice to the gods. Orpheus is surrounded by a crowd of entranced savages with their clubs and skins. What is noticeable about the savages is the look on their faces, which is characterized by looking up in awe and wonder, mouths slightly open, expression entranced, and what this establishes without reference to Christianity is the male voice of power, reason, culture and art being supreme.
It was Barry’s hope that the state of women would be advanced much as the state of slavery would be abolished, but that this advancement would come through male power. Prominent, is a woman with a dead fawn over her shoulder as she leans on her male companion. for Barry this symbolizes the lowly state of culture where women still hunt.
Perhaps the most enduring icon in the painting is the cave, as there is no other dwelling portrayed in the picture. “Do you want to take us back to the Cave?!” is still the rallying cry of the Captains of Industry when anyone dares to question the wisdom or logic of perpetual economic growth.
This concept of progress that Barry bases the whole series on has been one of the most successful marketing strategies in the history of capitalism. The reason it is so powerful is that history always paints the past and exaggerates the negative, the violent, and the people that have made changes are always identified as Progressives, and the changes they make always termed as progress.
There is such a bias that the universally embedded concept of progress is linked to the concept of time itself.
The popular concept of evolution (”Darwinian Theory”) has within it an axiomatic understanding of progress. The notion is buried in our concept of evolution that as time moves on we are constantly getting better at the business of living and improving our condition. As we will see in this analysis of these paintings of progress this notion does not always hold true and in fact, from our modern perspective, our civilization and the world itself is in a very sad state of affairs, “Earth Inc. is near bankrupt.”
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[...] Gordon Jackman comes to the Free Articulator with a series on a rare book he found and why it’s important - find out more for yourself with the first part of The Myth of Progress. [...]
Excellent article and very lucky you didn’t auction it off not knowing how valuable the book is! Amazing images, too bad about their motives. Thanks for the read, Gordon.
Incredibly proud to have your participation in the Free Articulator, Gordon, and especially as the lead article in this most auspicious time of launching TFA 2.0.
Very much looking forward to the rest of the series, and the revelation it offers us. James Barry’s story is a fascinating one.
Wow, what an incredible find!
I really admire the immense detail and effort that has been put into this art work.
It must have been absolutely fascinating discovering where the book had come from and all.
Joel is right, lucky you didn’t auction it off unknown of the value let alone the insights it has to offer the world. The message that is coming across from this article and the ones to follow is a powerful one. The title of the article “The Myth of Progress.” is an eye opener on its own.
I think one of the most intriguing aspects looked at in this article is “Continual Growth Leads to Collapse.”
If a stone is constantly rolling then the plant life on it does not get a chance to establish itself, therefore not allowing it to grow and develop in a stable and structured manner.
The plant gets sick and damaged because it has not had chance to contemplate its surroundings in order to put up appropriate defences for the next league of growth. It just rots away.
People need to stop and think!
I’m very much looking forward to the rest of these articles.
[...] first of Gordon Jackman’s Myth of Progress articles, Finding a Treasure, was a particularly inspiring moment, the first article published in TFA 2.0 upgrade, was [...]