The Artistic Personality: A Systems Perspective

When considering the relationship between personality and a given occupation or vocation, we usually assume the relationship remains invariant over time. One might assume, for instance, that the temperament and traits that distinguished military leaders in the 5th century BCE would be the same traits as those belonging to warriors in the Middle Ages, or in our own times. Yet the changes throughout history in the social and economic status of soldiers, and in the technology of warfare, suggest that the personalities of men (or women) attracted to a military career will be quite different in each period. This variability is very obvious in the case of artists. Until the end of the 15th century in Europe, when even the greatest artists were considered to be merely craftsmen and when works of art required the collaboration of several individuals, the typical artist did not display the eccentric, fiercely independent qualities of the "artistic personality" that we now take for granted. In the words of an eminent sociologist of art, "The artist's studio in the early Renaissance is still dominated by the communal spirit of the mason's lodge and the guild workshop; the work of art is not yet the expression of an independent personality" (Hauser 1951, pp. 54-55). By the middle of the 16th century, however, several artists had become celebrities , in part, because now that painting in oils on canvas was the favorite medium of expression they could work alone, and also because their status had been elevated by such stars as Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. Thus, Vasari, who in 1550 published the biographies of the "most eminent artists" in Italy, complained that Reproduced with permission of