The Non Finito. The non finito affords perhaps an
even deeper insight into the process of individ-
ualization than do problems of style. Unfinished Egyp-
tian, classical, and medieval works have come down
to us, but it can be said with complete confidence that
they were meant to be finished and remained incom-
plete for external reasons. With Leonardo and espe-
cially Michelangelo the non finito enters a new phase,
for it now results from internal rather than external
causes.
Never before had a tension existed between the
conception and the execution of a work. But now
self-criticism, dissatisfaction with the imperfect real-
ization of the inner image, the gulf between mind and
matter, between the purity of the “Platonic idea” and
the baseness of its material realization—often the sub-
ject of Michelangelo's sonnets—prevented these mas-
ters from finishing some of their works. They would,
however, never have claimed that unfinished creations
can be regarded as finished (Barocchi, 1962; Tolnay,
1964).
A shift from this position to one intimately con-
nected with expanding individualism culminates in the
nineteenth century in the unfinished work by Rodin
and others. Here the non finito is often due to a delib-
erate decision to bring the creative process to an end
at a moment of the artist's choice, so that the torso,
the roughly-hewn work, the half-finished picture, the
sketchy execution are the finished product. Rodin
commented on his Balzac: “The essential things of the
modeling are there, and they would be there in less
degree if I 'finished' more.” Thus the intentional non
finito requires a new form of self-analysis and intro-
spection, for the work results from a sophisticated
control of the act of creation. Moreover, if only half
is said and so much hidden and hinted at, the umbilical
cord between the work and its maker is never truly
severed. In consequence the personality of the artist
asserts itself in the work and through the work more
demandingly than in any other context and at any other
period of the history of art. By the visual evidence of
his “unfinished-finished” work the artist requests the
public to follow him even where his goal seems indis-
tinct or when he seems beset with problems peculiar
to him alone. And the public is prepared to respond
and pay due regard to the artist's genius, sure in the
conviction that all he creates is important and worth
the effort of interpretation and assimilation. Such con-
siderations would seem to blur the dividing line be-
tween art and artist. Similarly, some of the points made
in the part of this article on Individualism of Artists
might, with a slight change of emphasis, have found
a place in the present section.
