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Book Chapter
Arms Akimbo: Kinesic Analysis in Visual and Verbal Art
BOLENS, Guillemette
Reference
BOLENS, Guillemette. Arms Akimbo: Kinesic Analysis in Visual and Verbal Art. In: Leslie
Atzmon. Visual Rhetoric and the Eloquence of Design. Anderson, South Carolina : Parlor
Press, 2011. p. 169-204
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:19315
Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.
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VISUAL
RHETO tvIC AND
THE ELOQUENCE
OF DESIGN
LESLIE ATZMON, EDITOR
Parlor '-ess
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com
The Visual Rhetoric series publishes work by scholars in a wide variety of
disciplines, including art theory, anthropology, rhetoric, cultural studies,
psychology, and media studies.
OTHER BOOKS IN 7 -RIES
ial: A Practil
fat
; of Composition and
Writing tl',c
Commune
t, edited by C,
, -- Tid an ° e R. Richards (2008)
Ways of Seei... a, ,:ays of Speaking. .J1e Integration of Rhetoric and Vision
in Constructing the Real, edited by Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Sue Hum, and
Linda T. Calendrillo (2007)
Parlor Press LLC, Andersoi , „
Carolina, USA
nr/OET
ILL'ilPT7771
V
IFILffiVA
.CINV TVIISIA
SISIrTNY
DirgNIN
:0g -TATINV
SNYV
169
According to the Oxford English Dictic-lry, kinesic communication is
communication effected nonv illy th )dy movements and gestures.
Kinesis is an aspect of human behavior studied by social scientists and
a nthropologi in real-life situations) But the perception and understanding
:d in art also relies on kinesic intelligence. My purpose in
of bodies p
ore the way in which v is- - 1 -nd verbal artifacts convey
this essay is
'c information, both she
ight on and reinforcing
complex'
based on a definition of
tves
and
values.
My
argu
cultural no
4sky in "Elaborated Knowledge:
kinesic int : ig,ence offered by critic Ell(
Pictures": "Human kiric intelligence is our sense of the
Reading Kin.
relationship ui parts of the h -- -Ian body to the whole . . and the spatial
understanding of the relati
limbs tc )rso their relative lengths and
ive exten on and
L al orientation" (1996, 159).
bulk and
that kinesic analysi may be usefully applied not only
Spolsky d(
to real boune.
bodies in art as vfl
°ate on one particular gesture:
this essay, I
the arm akimbo.
e English wor T
rnbo is defined as an arm gesture
and ti
in which the hand is placed on th(
+w is turned outward.
Sociocultural st
s reveal that th
nrpretatic )f gestures such as this
relies on cul
y established systems of signification.' A single gesture
may have V ■
iaried meanings that are dependent on the time, place,
)ntex t in which it is performed. The arm akimbo can be
and the IN oa
read as an e ression of rela - satisfaction, anger, surprise,
defensiveness 'efiance, threat, hi_ —
___ list is not exhaustive. It may
al -- be intent, 'el as a sexually orien
)(gnal. In many Western cultures
he
pc c- --1 be coded
'uctive and flirtatious when one
at - is set ;
:o a
e the cur
the chest or the hip. In contrast,
° ive when both ham
squarely placed on an upright
it is read
bo are closely connected with
torso. These io variations of arms
performar
nf gender semiotics, the former case being often construed as
latter as virile.'
feminine
C :..EMETTE BOLENS
170
My putpc
in this essay is to explore kinesic
communication in art and to
hlight the complexity and cultural weight
of such a commonplace gesture as the arm akimbo. Kinesis in visual arts
concerns the ways in which bodies' shapes and structures organize space and
communicate information, whether in. a painting or a website.° In order to
explore kinesic cominunicatio in art, I practice the type of analysis named
"thick desc a" by an.ht alt gist and ethnographer Clifford Geertz
in The It .pre ion of Cultures (1973, 3 30), In his discussion of Geertz's
theory, cttn st,i't'fgang Iser explains that the procedure of thick. description
is "an iinfo of the implications of the manifest, which thus becomes all
7chestrated " (7900, 160-61):
the more
Readily
'a.. a matter not
much of grasping what
they repres.-: as of spotligi what they imply. There is
always a gap between what is anifest and what is implied
in either saying or doing something .... By revealing the
observable manifestations thick description establishes
a semiotic web of intern:Li t features, which we are given
to read. (2000, 160 61)
Thick description of kinesic communication entails
that we pay attention to the visual rhetoric that informs the representation
of gestures and postures. As will be illustrated shortly, a gesture's thin
description is a "superimposition of concepts on what one is given to
observe" (Iser 2000, 161). By contrast, a thick description of kinesic data
in art involves, an analysis of the way in which a given image organizes
bodies spati. thereby inducing complex inferences. These inferences are
ced. by the picture's visual rhetoric. I use the notion of rhetoric because,
nee image ' discuss, recurring visual features function as pictorial tropes,
which oscilit a. between literal and figurative levels. Kinesic communication
takes place a eeween the literal, and the figurative and. requires a rhetorical
awareness of what separates and also connects the two. Kinesis pertains to
both regittf
I entails a continuous back-and-forth movement between
the literal
7'LC 11 reality. of the gesture and the figurative, semiotic impact
produced b 1 le represented body. In other words, the arm akimbo in art
is never just a sitter's limb touching his or her hip; it inevitably conveys
more than a sheer anatomical fact. In the 'artworks selected in this essay, the
arm akimbo is an eloquent bodily sign that elicits a variety of inferences.
-
-
ARMS
•: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL ANC
171
Meanwhile, these i cees cannot be detached from the physical
anchorage of the represented limb. A brusque t-anslation of the gesture into
.1 gesture and its figural
T1, "what it represents"
performance of kinesic
t ned
implications are inextri
corn Enunication, which takes place in the it ay between the represented
body and its viewer., The arm akimbo in art ,eohibits a dissociation of its
corporeal visibilit rn the meanings it evokes for the onlooker. In order to
analyze accuratel !sic corm :ation in general and the arm akimbo
istantly in balance
our a. ee,
,sary to n
in particular, it is
te inferen.
bet en visible corporeal facts a
ions
The first part of this essay L ,:evote(.: to thick
of images in which the arm akimbo expresses male power through body
expansion. A diachronic reading of the akimbo pose from the Renaissance
twenty-first century—over time and across media—reveals a rhetoric
painting as well as 'n
le power. I discuss this rhetoric in a Ren '.s
—an,
and I nropo,
uotographic irna t4e of 1950s telev;sion icon
1 form of
etoric of power as body eLpa ion also plays out in th v''
ogo
designs.
emporary webs ite and two contempc
e rhetoric of artworks
After highlighting sit
.r
iations in the visual
created in different eras and media, I
rhetoric of oil paintings belonging to the nat o,ater histc al period spanning
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I have selec images that share
common visual tropes. In these images, the spatial impact of the arm akimbo
gesture is exte through the sitter's gaze / means of artifacts that
trespass visual ---adaries. Gloves, in partice...ar, play a significant role in
each portrait. Th Tecurrence of motifs such as gloves is an important cue
in our capacit) entify cultural tropes despite historical distance and to
read a visual 'then c based c 'zinesic communication. Indeed, the semiotic
)rtraits is partially based on their kinesic
value of gloves in irly m
#1, e1r are held (str ,-nuously or loosely),
treatment, that is on the way in wh
by the very hand
r conspicuously), and used ' `
displayed (disc l
set akimbo
resit intelligence
s essa), I
1: he second part
of Beryn, the first
.eenth-century
lade
develops a peculiar
the word akiriwo Tk
-s the i -7. that kinesic
vhich ultimate'
ir teractl is and, on the
hand, pe
lonymot
sui ling text that
rhetoric of gt
iunication, on
JILLEMETTE BOLENS
172
, ;mac disambiguation. As Beryn will show, it is a challenge
other, escapee
"c.: data '.co words. This task differs from spelling
to translate nuance°
ing of a gesture, as, for
c' ceptu,
out t le culturally es
" A thin description like this
sp
example, that "the ar
simply superimposes the ,ncept pride (cc the akimbo gesture.
John Bulwer reads in the
Pride is the r mar y
r the Art of Manual Rhetoric ( 1644)
's Chirot
arm akimbo, i
voted to the meaning of gestures. It
c en
is the first English tr
ion of
7 language based on the assumption,
offers a systematic ell
entury," that: "gesture could serve
"widely entertained i_ th _ seven
26).' This treatise of hand rhetoric
as a universal language" (Kendon
aki
} or aprank, and to rest the
explains that, "To set the arm
n of pride and ostentation,
e is an
hand upo,_
turned-in back c
1974, 219), Bulwer provides
-id of an orator" (B i
unbeseeming ti
a remarkably L .embiguous moral and so_ la] interpretation of the arm
-edieval Interlude and Tale of Beryn plays
akimbo. In stark contrast, t"
rt of deli y in a story based on semiotic
°
with actors' ai
c ambiguities. On the one hand, uncommon lexical
untie$ a
tature of kinesic communication. On
:e the (H
- in Bt ry,
interactina nrotagonists are capable of
to the plot
tlie oL-er, it is c,
cinesic signals. I will argue
ó inferences from aml
drawing mul''
n
in
Beryn also concerns the
of kinesic comm
the amb
peculiarity of gestures in this
reception of the t..
and h Ts
r,
ropensity
to
dramatize
their demeanor 11.t npt
narrative and th
esic information described in the text. ; act
the reader to visual
wavily
on the reader's capacity to produce dynamic
of reading Bery
nesic communication. The supplement of meaning
mental images
on in real situations is
that imbues all pe -ptions of kinesic coin:
thus produced by the semiotic event of visu i. . estures mentally while
reading Beryn— - text that thematize" eitf,aketaity of expressing kinesic
nuances and '1' r :racies by mea s
.
KIN , ; IN VISUAL RHETORIC
While C..: arm akimbo is rare in medieval art, it is
pervasive in tie - 'cl'-abethan and Jacobean portraiture of male aristocrats.
iteenth- and seventeent' century portraits of powerful
T' prevaler
probably were commonly
s akimbo suggests that
with t
WS AKIMBO: HINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
113
un arstood interpretations of this gesture. Joaneth Spicer, curator of
ance and baroque art at the Walters Art Gallery of Baltimore, argues
in "The Renaissanc , Elhnw" that:
uct:--- f purposeful gestures will usually
in of generally accepted societal
F collective experience—otherwise
; whic
recognized—and which convey an
they wouldn't
mpression which the sitter is content to give off, seen
Al- etic
- igh the prism of the individual artist's
;
sensibilities. (1992, 85)
The arm akimbo is prominent in Hans Holbein the
Younger's 1537 mural depicting Henry VIII in his London residence,
in's akimbo influence ro7 be traced back to Italian
Whitehall Palace. T
-vn'h an arm akimbo over
art: Donatello scuipt: .;'avid Victorious st - rt o in 1430. Andrea del
)9, and a second
Goliath's head in
73- ®75, and Hans Holbein
portrays his Young David akin
paints an. akimbo St. George towering above the dragon in 1522.
ax 1 iolbein the Younger represents Henry VIII standing akimbo, he is
_.loping an early modern iconography.
but its
.)y e
it
mural was de:
II
con
issioned
nown thanks to a co
gene , :• •mpos •
sents Henry VIII
from 7.emigius va_ L _input in 1667. The car
s third wife, Jane Seymour, with the Icing's parents, Henry VII
_d. ' nother source of
and Elizabeth of York, standing in the bacl<
c iginal drawing
is the Chatswo :t Cartoon, a r
inform,
it Gallery. It contains the
Nations
'ved and is now i
,
Henry VII. Henry VIII's
se—on representin Henry nI and hi
'nced many times in olation from the group. "Three
portrait was also
16th century in date, are of immense importance in
full length versi
original" (Strong 1967, 44). 7
mg of the impact of
conveying to us se
° Figure 1).
portrait
is
one
of
th
Gi
The Walker Art
in's Henry VIII akimbo bears a kinesic resemblance
ioning
v - .1)site home page design of the defunct
to the no long
ex.htm) (Figure
.akimb03.c
bo 3 (htt /
Internet compa •
is figurative an the home page
2 and Figure 3). T )e sure, the pi : .
rthular nature of
t
is not, but this very fact enables me to h4
pansion .serves to express
kinesic data. In both renderings, spatia'
GUIL E ETTE af
Figure 1 .
A r Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII, after 1537, oil on canvas,
2 7 x 134.6 cm, © Walker Art Gallery, ,Tational Museums Liverpool,
United Ki
success and power. The text at the center of the home page reads: "Internet
success stories b ''t here." The company is announcing that the customer
will he empo.,--2 1 her connection to akimbo 3. This phrase at
the center of the L e page is surrounded by four smaller captions whose
spatial distribution echoes the form of the background image with smaller
units surrounding a larger caption. The background image is made up of
a central ova' si ,e with seven similar smaller shapes connected to it by
straight lines. T1- ackground image behind the central shape forms a tilted
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND KR' ,
175
akimbo
nteetVwt
Idepasx,0,,,mt,
tnterriet s
built
ess stories
...cmcc,ror new
opportunities
Figure 2.
Home page of the website akimbo 3.
Figure 3.
Contact page of
rectangular area whose sla- , f-xl position emphasizes the fact that the smaller
ovals extend beyond ' '
1 - of this area; they cross over the boundaries
of this rectanguk
ile being firmly connected to the central body
by means of the s
ines. The spatial organization of the captions and
the visual vocabular, f the background design communicate an expansion
iiniscent of extended limbs. The visual rhetoric of the design confirms its
tual rhetoric: aki,
pronounces itself an expanding source of power.
1
irase "Success stories built here" echoes the visual
i of Henry VL
3rtrait as a purposeful monarch. The composition
painting, which is visually and rhetorically dominated by the king's
)ad shape, can like be read as spatial expansion signifying success and
wer. The comf -* (..1 connections among Henry's limbs and costume
-
GUILLEMETTE BOI ENS
176
r g ad elements I described on the akimbo
ornaments correlate v h
:ked knees, a stance that is
t
3 home page. 1-Y
angled out. I-a.s q are turned outward, as
evocative of two a,
is a dagger held l; the cord of its sheath in H:: .-y's left hand. Just above
es and is framed by his
dagger, Henry's codpiece Fr(
th ,ommel (
fringes. Power is here associated with sexual potency, and spatial
gi
'ece as much as by his
ex, _ion is signified by the king's pad&
d ay his surcoat, form a
legs and dagger, His shoulders, greatly en
is arms seem to support
line that stretches horizontally on both °
this line of force. enry's bod' expands ..,atially through his limbs,
codpiece, dagger, and clothing, right arm is akimbo, but the shade
under his hand suggests that tea latter is actually not resting on the
monarch's side. The king pushes his akimboed arm even further from
his torso, thus amplifying his intense physical expansion.
The outline of the king's shoulders and arms
becomes more intelligible when compared to the logo of another
the design company Akimbo Design (http://www .
website corr
Akimbo-Design') / 1— -;ure 4). 8 In this logo (http://
design-ageni
i the figure's bent arms are
corn/Akimbo-Des
www.design-av
IR
they
are
practically
at right angles. The design's
ed
so
ms
ex
lakes this feature more visible.
lish
a
Because the arms a— basic lines, the visual impact of
l Furthermore, both arms are
akimboed arms in this image is ei
echo the angles shaped
akimbo, and the angles formed by I
by the figure's remarkably wide crotch. The angles of the elbows are
in sharp contrast with, the logo's circular frame and with the figure's
perfretly round "ri in the same way as the angles carmed by the crotch
, per c ar limit of th 1- The figure's large
cc
II's in his portrait.
riarke
part, as are Herr e
and -ady legs
as effectively as
In both images, to stand a nbo is t
ing t:ie visibility of one's
possible by setting arms akimbo and by in,.
crotch.
mess
--lenry's posture is easy to
The k'
h all th, -mic force of the word. To
, iggrasp: the le'
rge one's b , nid take up more r c can be performed and read
a signal of domination and threat. This reading is not relevant,
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC AMALYSIS Iii VISUAL MID VERSA
177
Figure 4.
Logo of Design Company Akimbo Design, © Ben Rigby.
however, in Akimbo Design's logo, whose cartoonish and hence
humorous quality deflates such an effect. The logo has, nonetheless,
the shape and loo )f a regulatory traffic sign. The visual efficacy of the
logo thus :Tes
_ rmiotic system intended to regulate behavior and
moven
ably, the logo intends to have the viewer stop and
pay attenLion, and it accomplishes this by activating humorously what
may be a codified response to the akimbo pose.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the crotch in the Akimbo
Design logo is not gendered. Indeed, neither the absence of a codpiece
(or of anything of the sort) nor the wearing of pants may be read as
a straightforward gendering signal in the context of Western, twentyfirst-ce 'ary visual rhetorics. Thus, I propose the hypothesis that the highly
visib
?t un-gendered crotch of the Akimbo Design figure suggests that
power
ty-first century is not inevitably bound to one d -minant
gender anymore. it is today imaginable that power may be male and Fen.ale.
Th return to Henry VIII, the background in his painting
increases the ir
iion of voluminous strength. His limbs and artifacts,
which are projcr
aware
densely packed torso, trespass a
number of vertical v ;L 11 line;
omposition. The dagger, for instance,
connects his crotch area to the cu. taia fold on the right and penetrates this
1.4111111M61•112111119S1111=111110rh.
GUILLEMETTE BOLENS
8
vertical line horiz( _ally with its pa ed end. In Holbein's original drawing,
coa f Henry VIII's father, Henry VII. It is
7
this line is forr
noteworthy that tT r duces the detail of a vertical the e transgressed
by the king's dp7 ,,, r, eves –lough the literal identity of Li; ep j ect being
transgressed has been is o boundary-crossing expansion is
T•.! page as well as to that in a picture
comparable
parable to -17
(http://www.legendsofameelea.com
7 per
of George R
both
photos-ghosts/GeoLger,eeves.jpg). In this image, Superman's arms .
akimbo. The backs of his hands with highlighted knuckles are preserled
to the viewer. Because his arms are set on his hips with fisted hands.,
V7:ime of space covered by his body is augmented, forcing his elbow::. .'io
out of the picture frame. His crotch also trespasses the picture's
Lame, and Superman's external
derwear," characteristic of this hero's
sartorial makeup, increases the
:Hi his crotch and pelvic area despite
1950s decorum.
The typography of the word SUPERMAN, flying at
full speed through space, seems also ready to burst out toward the viewer,
mimicking Superman's style of transportation. Sim: 1 the typography of
2ems to imitate
the ukimbo 3 logo (in the upper-right corner of Fig
the spatial dist
of a human body. The logo is made up- of a lowercs&
a with thr 7. s placed at the "elbow" of the letter. The "elbow"
G. the first letter of the word akimbo is thus expanded by the three dots,
akin
--- 'ndinE mbs. Returning to George Reeves, in the logo's design
m m's tc , he S fills up its frame maximally, echoing Reeves's
akimboed hod, 1 ay in which the S inflates its size to occupy the entire
space of the logo's ame typographically confirms the desired visual effect
of the very body it serves to mark. The logo symboli— iperman's body
and signifies, i z 1L of itself expar 1 ° ;, and thus powerful impact of
the hero's phy: c
y anotl
- ay of
ising that "success stories are
built here."
In the introduction a
I V series Th3 Adventures of
Superman (1953--1958), the hero appears si.anwng akimbo in outer space,
° cape flapping
- ,etically in an interstellar bi e
(Figure 5). Spatial
Apres
eak with
expansion rear
'y akimboed to the
extreme, hand;
sit ted in
human space, and
linking supernattnel locomotion politicc1
••
ARMS AMMO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
71
Figure 5.
George Reeves as Superman in The Adve--.7 -ures of Superman (1953-1958),
0 Warner
Indeed, the voice-over during the introduction describes
Superman with these words of anthology:
Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a
locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.
"--Look u 'n the sky!"
"—It's a
" It's a pl.!"
"—It's SUPERMAN!"
Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet,
who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond
those of mortal men. Superman, who can chanL:,- th
course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands
and who (disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered
reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper), fights a
never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American
way! The Adventures of Superman (1953-1958), Warner
Brothers.
In
, the universe °
- A erican, and Superman's akimboed arms,
ye, and 1JC
s rove it with the force of evidence.
So fa
we explored the nature of kinesic data by
showing that Henry VII1's portrait, akimbo 3's home page, Akimbo Design's
-1111terk
GUILLEMETTE BOLI
181
rhe
in The Adventures of Superman
logo, an I :O-!orge Reeves's
orles
regz
information. Despite
,:.O.;nificant
all sha
obviow vi and cultural o_iations, kioosic information in these images
eloquently 4ssociates akimbo with body size, spatial expansion, potency, and
power.
THE GAZE AND GLOVES OF AKIMBOTD MALES
I wish now to augment my analysis of Henry VIII's
portrait by introducing two additional components used in Western art in
association with the arm ak' bo, namely, a sustained gaze at the viewer and
the peculiar treatment o I I will consider this specific association in
Holbein's poi lit of Henry VIII and in two other masterpieces: Nicholas
Hilliarc Lit of Earl Clifford, and van Dyck's portrait of Charles I. Th e
we aforementioned a
tio
imbo, gaze, glove) shows,
recurrenee
d, that specific visua
es
, ated in early modern art,
on the (
and it s
on the other hand, that these t )es were used for specific
uses, to communicate distinct inferences. Shared visual
rhetoric
tropes contributed to the invention of original "visible discourses."
In Henry VIII's portrait, the king's small eyes look straight
'rom his round face toward the viewer, and his right hand firmly holds
°
loves. In the Chatsworth Cartoon, Henry's raz Is more threatening
and his hand squeezes the gloves more strenuously
'In the Walker Art
Gallery portrait. The same is true for yet anoth portrait by Holbein and
'
-c '
he Whitehall Palace prc
2 (Figure 6). Combined
his inte
imbued an i
-satur °g body, Henry's image
like a propagandistic call for si nission. As such, the picture triggers
p duction of meaning geared toward a programmed behavior. Henry's
body Ian—
:ggests that the viv s expected to recognize that it would
be in his or
best interest tt
"
. In Holbein's design, submission is
advertised
t le most advantageous, and hence desirable, option for the
viewer ir r
° ii to the Tudoi
- -An In the frame of Henry's densely
akimbo( 1
the king's grip ur his gloves serves to suggest the likely
consequenc, of a failure to yield to this script of compliance.
The inscription 'ANNO ETATIS SUAE XLIX" means
"His year of age, 49." Roy Strong points out concerning Holbein's original
'-
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALISIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
181
Figure 6.
Han. T....t5ein the Younger, Henry VIII, 1540, oil on panel, 88,5 x 74,5 cm,
Gallcria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.
mural that "Henry alone communicates with the onlooker, and the effect on
visit( the palace was such that they 'were abashed, annihilated' in his
presc -e (1967,39). 9
Henry's gaze may be understood as one more organ
projected into space. Similarly, the contact page of akimbo 3's website
t:e-tures the image of a man with a surprisingly complex facial expression
F Cmingly ready to burst out of the computer screen toward the
custom( H7 - e 3). The mouth of this highly expressive masculine face is
open as if caugh I Lie act of speaking in a vehement tone to the user. The
face appears in tL f.,round of a frame askew within the picture, which
is slashed with streams of bright colors and flashes of light. Such designerly
and kinesic data convey a sense of urgency, which is further enhanced by the
exclamation mark in the sentence "contact us!"
The visual association of arm akimbo, gaze, and glove
rther
exemplified
by Nicholas Hilliard's full-figure portrait of George
is
H 3, Earl of Cumberland, in his knightly attire after his victory over Sir
Henry Lee at the tilt (Figure 7). Hilliard claimed to be a great admirer of
GU ILLEMETTE BOLENS
::,..12
Figure 7.
Nicholas I la d, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, 1590, vellum
stuck to a
t wood panel, 258 x 176 cm, 0 National Maritime Museum,
London, negative number 2673.
Hans Holbein and, as court painter, he may have been inspired by the
Wl-itehall Palace mural, However, the kinesic variations between the two
„liss are significant. While Henry VIII's overwhelming phys ality and
ig grip embody the monarch's political program, that 1_;,
-4 -mand
ci
for genera' .
.sion,•rd's portrait tells a different story, in which he
dominates be:Luse his head carries the token of the Queen's preference.
George Clifford was a favorite of Elizabeth I, who gave
him the bejewelled glove displayed on the Earl's feathered hat. Significantly,
the glove i - in his head; Clifford does not touch the queen's glove.
Gloves can fur lion metonymically as an extension of the hand. I
therefore, that the sociopolitical purpose of Hilliard's painting is to exhibit
and celebrate a symbolized kinesic contact performed by means of the
queen's glove, indicating that power is bestowed upon men by Elizabeth;
she is the source of masculine power. The correlated message conveyed, by
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
133
master;'
not touched. Her
Queen.w
r
tl
r
7lizabeth's metonymic hand touches but is
be held; no one lays a hand on the Virgin
This does not diminish Clifford's success _ any way, as
is made clear by the champion's akimboed arm and. clenched': iiteed in the
sharp angle of his hip and torso. Spatial expa i expressed in this image
ilribo, but it is
I c at by means of distance
in association ws
lances the trea n
the queen's untouched
rather than contact
glove. The knight; eauipr - it shield, helm( a - 1 gauntlets—surround
ince and serve to fill up space. In this painting, the
Clifford's body
gloves that show rather
gauntlets are me
rch. They point toward
',e champion, a
this deictic function stress
metonymic status; they
ointing fingers. Thus, ;
and for hands
enact Clifford's spatial
control, revolvii_
)und the body instead of thickly protruding from its
dense core, as is th, case with Henry VIII. When physic- Hy in contact with
Clifford, artifacts further elongate
body by thinning
. nto space. The
into the
ge above, which
spear's point disap
ises the visual
'at achiev
effect of its length.
ect by means of large feathers
ones, which c
Lure's upper limit formed by
crom,
the tree.
The akimbo iconogra
ise communicates
tied rhetoric of power in Sir Anthoi
:k's 1635 portrait of
!s ( ;ure 8). In the painting, Charles jabs his elbow at the viewer.
While the arm akimbo is common in seventeenthcentury art, jabbed elbos rc are rare. However, Dutch and Flemish painters
were, at times, prone
..p' y their mastery of perspective in this fashion.
Anthony Van Dyc'
Flemish artist, working at the royal court of
England, and he possibly knew, for instance, Evert van der Maes' Standard( .1617), pain
in the Netherlands eighteen years before his portrait
of ' les I. In bo paintings,
's torso is drawn in profile so that
the bent elbow r ades
sasses the "fourth wall," which
separates the figui from
cn:atia 1 exi
i in this design
takes the form of a nudgin6 ovement toward the audience. In Van Dyck's
g, the king's pointed elbow is highE
ith pigments of bright
yellowish white, and the size of his arm is si
l arger than that of his
thighs and calves.
GUILLEMET_
,I NS
Figure 8.
from
Charles I, King of England at the Hunt,
Sir Anthony Van Dyei,,
1635, oil on canvas, 266 ) 297 cm, Paris, Musee du Louvre, © Photo
N/
Christian Jean.
Here, athe other akimbo portraits, the subject gazes
toward the viewer. But th
is modified by the head's twisted position.
The relation of head and
t, -so parallels the relation of upper limb
to torso; both the arm and tilt aze expand laterally toward the spectator.
These kinesic data signal to the viewer that he or she stands on the side of the
king. To stand on someone's side has multiple implications. One implication
is that the vlewer is not *-- ant or dangerous enough to be faced fro
by the king. Charles's
)osture, side-glance, low eyelids, and jabbed
elbow disempower the viewer to some extent. But the meaning is ambiguous
since the very same sp-'
configuration places the viewer in relative
proximity to the king,
ing that, despite social and spatial inferiority
(the viewer stands on
lower level), he or she is close to and hence
in agreement with the m - irch. While Henry VIII's body commands a kind
of top-down submission, Charles I's kinesic rhetoric peremptorily enlists the
viewer to abide by the 1-:
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AN3 VERBAL ART
135
Of major
ice in the success story narrated by
h the glove is handled. Charles, like
Van Dyck's picture is the way °
glove in
and of the arm set akimbo. But instead
Henry VIII, I
,sely and c asually
of crushing the glove, he holds
ally with his thumb on his
open palm. His hand is turned backward, an , the point of contact between
T - Ito Hilliard's painting, it
hip and hand is the back of the wrist. If c
is disf
ominently and reverently
appears that, v".
Ifford's
) shov
on the Earl's forehead, Charle
glove, but on his backside.
The lower half of the glove is on the king's
buttock. It is important to
it the reader's eye must travel down this
this particula
narrative
el its - ext. he tips of
of Charles's glove's fingers
glove in order
wn by t
jacket, eliciting visual contact
extend beyon °
s that belong to the groom who
between the
J the tips of two t
caries the ki
[oak in the background. In real space, the glove and the
page's fingers dc ..ot touch; but Van Dyck's bidimensional elaboration of
-- elective close - The re " of the painting is thus made to take
of the c
t, albeit p4
r, between the king's glove and the
hand. The line transgression is excessively stnall, yet it is more
ind its impact more provocative than all other spatial trespassing
„.....dered so far The male assertie" - 4° power extant in the paintings of
arms akimbo I out her s a 1 oast of sensuous polyvalence."
he t
We saw
f Henry Vill's dagger trespasses
the vertical line formed I urtain's ibld, thus complementing a
I narrative wherein the Li_g's sexual potency is overwhelming and
'rous--a • to which his wives' -° 1)graphies indirectly attest.
I
ast, Cnai
; glove, rather than a dagger, is the artifact chosen to
CO]
i. sexu all
- nt rhetoric of power. Charles's hand, extended by
me
is g10, tot turned toward the pommel of his sword—combat
is app
not his cup of tea—bt
ard
fingertips of his servant.
holding a baton in, front
The English king -*ands in a posture of auth
of the painting, and ti Taaloring
size of the left
of him, yet the d
!ye toward the elbow, which is highlighted and placed
arm, lead the v°
elbow is a joint—
the glove stol: '
close proximit,
the physical sense of bodily joint—NNenen, in addition to connecting his
. ° ing's space the softly gloved
arty Lones, ambiguously articulates in t'
ont.
°'
f the monarch to his baton-hob
bel
GUILLEMETTE EOLENS
ding pie,
;ual material
inve
per
of akimboed bodies is to
t highlight the way in which
kinesic commun).(7. -
explore kinesic analysis
a supplement of meanin
As far as reception
of the akimbo pen.;ture
with the same
and power in early modern
Vs
nnograph., suggests that this posture
and contem pa
produces culturall sign
inferences, which can still be decrypted
coherently.
ile, eaen version of the akimbo narrative offers specific
variations. I,
g artistic production, lc°
imagery communicates
informat
)ngs to a specific cultur
t and that is at the same
time an oca
_Teate original visual na
Indeed, each akimboed
arm discussed ire presents its own idiosyne
gestural qualities that
express a particular rhetoric of success and power. Henry VIII, Clifford, and
Charles I have different 'ays of displaying power by standing akimbo. In
Holbein's painting, the I g is powerful E
(e can crush all opposition;
in Hilliard's l
a it of Clifford, a ma g
iverful when touched by
the queen's untouchable hand; and in Val D - k's provocative masterpiece, a
ruler displays his power by subtly extend o the realm of homoerotic
propensities.
The purpose of the next s
°s to address the
diffi
nherent in verbal expressions of kinesic ttelligence. My main
focus is 3
fifteenth-century text titled The Interlude and Tale of Beryn,
in which the
irnbo appears for 0 time in written English. In the
first sectic
;ay, I analyzed the
Mich kinesic communication
in visual
ds the rhetoric of images in an important way. In the
next section, I
that Beryn plays with kin _ communication verbally
in order to indue,
merf? 1 'r'sualizations in the reader. The act of
read' 7- - °--tis text produces a visua
nt of rr 6
ig, and, interestingly,
tl
ent concerns kinesic
precise lexical denotation.
instead of re
corn
coin
while i.t
THE VERBAL RHETORIC OF GESTURES
Beryn is remarkable °n its treatment of kinesis because,
° ig gestures to n culturally codified meanings, it
that there is
;upplement
neaning to kinesic
his supplement o:
; human interactions
ling perr
.eitic translation z.. control
ARMS AKIMBO: K1NESIC ANALYSIS 14 VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
187
:r, is affinity with acting
sic analysis revea
-is
vocal
inton
ion,
body movements, and
d delivery. Deliver cc
..tance in classical rhetorical treatises. Beryn
es; it is of central
in deliberately aw" Tard ways, which, I wish
—
7
.
ibes charac
ty of trans' t , the nuances of kinesic
• - the
ernf
a rg
Mental images of kinesic data are
signi
licaticn
cot
t ext stages and also plays with the
produced in Beryn's reader becaw
difficulty of denoting kinesic nuance...
The Greek noun theatron
Gestures in Beryn arc
thecomai, to w
from the verb
in that they are
her protagonists
explicitly performed to be watched and interpe.:
d with exaggeration.
iat is more, they are often e
in the narrath _
w actors use kinesic
sdiatrician Daniel Stern e
Psychologist
ite just that part of an
int- igence: "a good actor will p c 1- 'Ay
mu :ative value. And a
igh
cines cel pattern that ha
,st potent behavior
the
pick out for exagge .
e"rec
association
of the akimbo
this n iser" (1973,
evoker or
iormance, acting, and kinesic exaggeration in t
gesture with vas
twent° :h centur :choes its late medieval ..se in the Tale of Beryn. In his
]
disc
Triter Ivor Brown comments:
of ° 4.) in "Just Another V c
; the proper, if inexplicable
has
settled
do
Akimbo
the arm-on-hips position commonly adopted
woi
by masterful ladies in the music-hall, Pantomime
world and deliver
addre
I others
Da
n and matters, "She got terribly
ary c
came a s a ° s of Mayfair slang for what was
akimli
earlier called "high horse " I have also heard it used by
a and so was a bit akimbo
stage people for over-act: ;ht." (1946, 159)
female theatrical
John
Rastell
between
1510 and
gestu
116, or, die title age of Henry Me-- s Fulgens and Lucres, the earliest
comedy e 'English literature,
°ving full
e of the copy held. ')y the Huntington
The titl,
a
woodcut
owing
a woman st 'iaig with an arm
Library contains
akimbo speaking to a suitor (Figure 9)." Despite Is theatrical setting
Aga "y associations of the posture with women, akimbo
and twentietl
rst,
lib° as a s
GUILLEMETTE BOLENS
188
in early modern iconography is pr .1,c ,:ninantly masculine; success and
power is a script devoted to men. Exa.. only confirm the rule: akimbo
females ar.: w ,".7.-nen of exce -:1:onal power." Fulgens and Lucres is based on
the humar-:::. debate cot.:
. Lg true nobility and the dichotomy between
virtue. Since Lucres is given the power to
aristocratic birth and pc
judge two suitors, it is significant that she is portrayed with an akimboed
arm. .Lucres must discriminate—according to a set of values debated in the
play—between genuine and inherited nobility in order to decide which man
she should marry. A woman is granted the power to decide who is worthy
attention, and power is expressed visually by means of her arm
Howevci, ,
obable that the woodcut of Fulgen..7 and Lucres was
and pala.able to its audience in part because Lucres is a theatrical
role—performed in any case by a male actor. A woman can be represented
performing an eminently masculine gesture of power because this gesture
is theatrical.
c orfatocno
rfovr ag i p uEi
flan
on of
CD at
. late
ol)art
atcp.
il.tfinen
cbapelarne
ogori fax
Figure 9.
Henry Me '
- 41gens and Lucres, 1512, title page, woodcut.
This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
4•411110111111111141111EMEN11481),
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC AKA
IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
in
larly in
7nci Lucres concerns the
- act ; and the 'atus betweeT - performance
7 Lich th.-;
passage
to a study of Beryn. In the folk. ,
- ty, an
res, the protarnists who open the play pretend to be
from ‘--algeris and
and n
. They ar la!' led. A and B because the
ibers of the
real names were proba
durir
nces, which further
ity and perk - ice.
blurred the boundary between
ways
--
I pray you, tell me agayn:
here be a play?
r certeyn.
my trouth,
glad and fayn.
your owyn selfe be oon
Of em that shall play.
B
Nay, I am none.
I trowe thou spekyst it
To lyke me therto.
A
mok no , v
thought
- by
ye had b,
player.
Nay, never a dell.
(IVIedwall, :—`,00, 36-51)
sakes
actor
his lavish clothing, "a
playf
.usion,
)rding tc. critic Greg .‘
to the liberty enjoyed
ove their social status fe the purpose of playing"
by ac rs to dr(
°
concerns bodily signals
(2000 08). 14 The pi,,blem raised by
) must decide whether
ng clothing) interr--by prota
(ii
(gens
an
L.
exaggeratedly pretend
other re acting or not. . igh
- a play, Beryn is
not to be actors in theatr .1 contex
characterized by
perplexin o
f bodilytformation. This
drs who fervently protest
is
I by overacting
iplicity.
accusati,
KINESIS AND 7; kfli A
G U I LLEMETT. ( -NS
F
190
E TALE OF BERYN
c.
s kinesi -ommunication in a way that
triggers visualization in the reader pre
_cause the descriptions play
with the difficulty of accurately translating kinesic data into words and
meo ings. T
rlude and Tale of Beryn is an anonymous fifteenth, c on of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, While
Chaucer's pilgrims never reach Canterbury, the group in the Interlude
arrives in town settles at an inn, and spends the afternoon visiting Thomas
Becket's sh-'n efore returning to London the next day. On the way bac' ,
tne merchz the Tale of Bery . - both parts of the continua,
kinesic nar
nphasizes the re purpose of gestures, ai
stages the protagc ists' skill—or pat
hereof—at reading gestures
effectively. , A 1 t 1
crestures in medieval n;:eratu re are usually associated
with culturauy
-meanings, Beryn 1 ribes puzzling physical
attitudes whose Ilea 'ngs are patentl
nc.' 5
Sev
characters in r
put on exaggerated
meanors
increases the theatricality of certain passages. The
r tricking ,-ah other relies on their convincing acting
hic
ize in a
ole variety of fraudulent posturing. Such
called Macaign convinces Beryn to use his help and
SUIT )rt at c
here he unexy — falls face down onto the ground,
accusing Bery
nurder with a hu o _, ievous complaint: "He fill plat to
the erth; a r
?leynt and an "--- I He made" (Bowers 1992, 2270-71).
Macaign's uecetving and histrionic
s that he is acting; his pain
trivec
is only intended t
a nefarious trial.' 6
Beryn is also suec
J. .
C.,: character in Beryn
who sets his arm akimbo. Beryn hL.J Jeen
entn swearing an oath
implying that he would have to drink all the saltwater in the sea if Syrophanes
beats him at chess. Claiming that Ber, 1, who lost, is legally bound to carry
out his promise, Syrophanes decid ,eryn to court and overreacts to
his victim's expectation of an arnicaL
Tient of their dispute:
The hoost made an hidoase cry in gesolreut the haut [at
the top of la .
:e]
And set hi;
n kenebowe [akimbo]. He lakked
never a faute [didn't miss a beat]:
"Wenest thowe [do you expect]," seid he to Beryn, "for to
ARMS AKIMBO: It!
MALYSIS IN VISUAL Am) VERBAL ART
191
scorn [to defraud]
(Bowers 199 - 837 39)
quires that we
cal p
An analy is
nowledge its theatricality. It matt( 3er; iymous poet refers
t the akimbo posture in association with a manipulation of the voice.
!,yrophanes's fraudulent action is expressed in terms of delivery (Le., voice
-
intonation and gesturality).
treatises deal
Twc important classical i.
rcilated Rhetorica
th
f n of delive
e
extent
with the
BC a...1 attributed to Cicero
writte.. in the first cer
Hero
author,
(luring ti wiiddle Age 1- el the Institut,' Oratorio, whose
century
'awyer and rhetorician, worked in Rom
Quin
Lilian.
tutio Oratorio was
gly, the complete text
Beryn a s v ritten. According
overed in the fifteenth century,
Oratorio, delivery, of prime
he Rhetorica ad Herennium and the
importance to orators, concerns vocal intonation and physical movement,
vox and gestus. The gestus comp )ostures and gestures as well as the gait,
. Delivery is
express
and look,
called he 'us, and 1 -!
when it is on
,asis is or
1
labeled actio when t
the voice. The anonyr
thor of the Ri--„„, .caadHunniurn underscores
Nare how great a task
t he difli(
, of de;
ig delivery: "T
.. .°
ents in words and
iken i
ing to express phys,
i4, I IL x
7). 17 Describing
' ntona
in writing" (Caplan
ations au kinesic nuances verbally is extremely difficult 1 d-o , nes neither say, an arm akimbo, nor with
nning a 1
ng it into a
:ept such at
rat' r with conveying, by
mean :linguistic sign ifi
ie style and idi
ic nuances
the ge
is performed.
While Syrophanes's vox and gestus hardly conform to the
comp,
nd self-control of the ideal Roman orator, Syrophanes's kinesic
and voci
m cal
.elated to the challenging task of putting into
ery,
rder to as )mplish this literary feat,
words the style of a Beryn's poet resorts '
nt from (:tant literature: "in
„nese lexical odcinle.,
kenebowe" and "in ges---eut the hau,. I contern.
serve
to
evince
the
difficulty
of
translating
kinesic
nuances into
in Beryn
METT'
192
as well as to'
ght the theatrica'
■ ensity of human exchanges
Beryn a f Tt best
7ceived when the scenes are visualized. I will first
discuss "in
i)owe," and then turn to "in gesolreut the haut"
The Middle English form of akimbo is in kenebowe, and it
only appears re. the Tale of Beryn. This phrase is not used in written English
for zi enti ry after Beryn and then reappears in the seventeenth
egins to be widely
c
s already discussed, "17thcentury po T
experienced an expic
- male elbows" (Spicer 1992,
, increased interest in Lt elbows in visual art echoes
86). This s
the spreading
of the word akimbo in written English in the seventeenth
itury. Ti
1
solated occurrence of akimbo in Beryn therefore
att
etymology "baffles the learned" (Brown 1946,
)). The
phologic
-ansformations of the word, from the fifteenth
ituries, are: in kenebowe, a kenbow, a kemboll, a kenbol,
to the twen
a-garnbo, ou kcuurìw, a-kenbold, a kimbow, a-kimbe kimbo (Oxford English
° :tionary). T • - volution suggests that ti
)1 )gy of the written
ssion was lost early in the mists of or _
creating one of the most
)tic-look,
s in the English language. ;e Oxford English Dictionary
lists etymolc I ypotheses but concludes that ne.-- 's fully satisfactory.
One hypotl
tes kenebow to tf
f.a ndic
'.ginn, "bent staplewise" or "ir
shoe curve," and
ler
'id die English phrase
a cambol, "i
anner of a crooked stie
'rived form Medio
Latin cambr
rooked stick or piece of woe" The unique etymology
H.,riglish Dictionary is preceded by a question mark. Kenegiven in the /1/,
boue may c
° the English bow and the Old French chane, cane, or
quenne, froi
canna, "can, p _ j
',„"ie phrase in kenebowe would
thus mean "lik
landle of a jug.
_ _he mysterious looks of akimbo
Autions. Expel
resist etymolo
failed to derive it from convincing
roots and or'.
In fact, the visual appeal of this lexical unit may
be due, in p, - t
,Tay in which it resists reso" -is not impossible,
I propose, that
poet used "ir
we" because, in the fifteenth
c itury alre "
Felt to - peculiar as the gesture it denotes,
'Are unzzi
ir
,C al literature and iconography.
nusual is the ph
"in gesolreut the haut,"
which describes Syrophanes's vocal imon
he compound G(e-solre-tit) in Ivlide
;glish is almost exdus
in musical treatises;
Beryn is an ex
L in. The phrase c(
;es the musical note G with the
--I
s
AIMS AKIMBO: K1NESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
93
ambination belongs to the medieval
hexachord syllables s
i(ed in the early eleventh century by
mu al system
ma
of
relative scales called hexachords. A.
d
-Arezzo.
Cu
./exachord
from
singer performing a melody had to change or
G could
it app
to another. Depending on the hexach(
3olreut the laaut," the
correspond to either sol., re or ut. In the phrase
"above") which means that the note G here
a
haut is the Frencl
.rta ns to the upper part of the screamer's vocal
is above middle
sophisticated reference
Jeliberately ironic tha tl
range. It is ce
used to exp Syrophanes strains h ze to produce a scream.
peculiarit y ea Syrophanes's reaction is co ve, d by lexical choices that
the reader to pay ion to signifie it c ntuate the problem of
terpretation,
c and paralinguiz-,
gesture
is
akimbo
Syrophan ,
Fur 'e,
:ophanes's action of etting
ambivalent. At the level of'shin description,
an arm akimbo reads like defiance and threat. But the context of the action
lk all the saltwater
and the patently preposterous claim that Beryn mu
to be upset, that
that Syrophanes is bluffing, pre
h e sea also
- underscored by
nn overacting—an aspect of a
acting ai
.narrator's coy ienta "Syrophanes set his hand akimbo, he didn't miss
ference to the hand specifically and to the action of
a beat " P - ;ides,
ion of the moment of contact
ntal v
mboaces a
ph a ne
uous claim and vocal
d
is
equally exaggerated,
,
conta bet
suggest
rionic quality of the
s ludicroa—, enement,
rophanes's
delivery style
-e. Theatrical exaggeration must be D.
lance.
)f "thick description" from
refers to Ryle's discussion of
ranging from a mere twitch, to
parodied-fake-wink rehearsed
scription would refer to all
A
b ar d
of till )ielid, while a thick description
ified hierarchy of meaningful structures in
parodies, rehearsal of pare ,l'es
inks, fake-of
(Geertz 1973, 7). In the c
d interp -
Borrowing the
philosopher Gilt - t Kyle, Clifford
wi
x instances
increasingly cc
pal 3,
a wink, a fake-t:,....
before a perfo
such instance
trjeS to accou
of whicl
:oduced,
'hanes's ;
1, lexical '
.-, a focus on kinesic data, id
GUILLEMETTE BOLENS
194
verge te, increase the semiotic complexity of this
the narrative
ception of the stratified semantic layers
not
otherwise lucntails
that Beryn's reader visualizes the
that inform Syrophanes
of Syrophanes's overacted
_c_
scene and thereby rec
;imply
fer
to
a
g
'me;
it
formulates and stages
gesture. The text doe_
-1 -xity of its recer;on
it so as to increase the
m of " ;r hanes's gesture is necessary
A'
1 court despite the absurdity
ids
to appraise fully the
of Syrophanes's claim.'s Kinesic communication has consequences. As will
3Pryn is conferred to protagonists who can best manipulate
appear, succe
:ter who eventually saves Beryn from an
rey, the
kinesic signals.
s :4- as his antics are occasions to play
aus trial, best epitomiz
nte
e kinesic intelligenc
t meets him, Geoffrey hides his true
When B.
identity by fakinc, lamer-And when that Beryn in this wise had i-made his mone
saw comyng with grete spede
I [crippled ma
id hast,
rna—er fast
eippon a stilt [peg-leg] under his kne
[tightly],
nder his ar es, with hondes al
ach [c
fcrskrar d Iconto
(Bowen
_, 2378
Geoffre y .s hands a-- 1 OrskramecL The past participle
:ed, shriveled up." It derives
iralyzed, twisted
shrink." The added prefix for
from the Old E nglish verb so-in/nn
-idicating that Geoffrey's hands
.ng of the partici .
fies tilmaimed and distorted. But soon Geoffrey explains to
be thorou
eformity is nothing but a disguise,
that
B fn, who fea tnen-Ln save him from his accusers'
n and
he
1, is a
— ke Be]
:k with him to Rome.
2ryn agrees to take Geo
Nelve years ago and so
:tim of the sarn(
skrammed m
dc-
4.9 l4
lity is f.
-
he says, for protece,nn.
a convince a fearful and distrusting Beryn that his
offrey acts in a peculiar way:
"My lyres [limbs] been both hole and sound p:-
WS AKIMBO: IONE= ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
VIC
Fc
Ar I a(
ageyn
and down
, th and lepe oppon an huche [chest],
ain], and walked too and fro,
ie shipp, and shewed his hondes
sight over al aboute,
'retching forth his fynger
>we
eny signe of goute,
at knot c
geyns
right disfeter
yghte lc
apenlyl,
ride eche other and som aweyward wry
s 1992, 2.710-16)
at
!en acting, gestures,
)lema
on is under
and kinesi.c inter'
le Geoffrey has been
lition succeL,
many years. He behaves
feigning his disa ✓ L
teeelve years as
were a cripple by --- - forming the appearance o
nots an(' we
's, conto to
nd by using two props
expressive of &sal
ttached to an
undiminished leg
3p ab(
eded,
ey proves his
g his
health by delibera
contort an—
Here again, the
ilize dynamic kinesic communication in this scene
reader must mentall y
and histrionic quality of this demonstration.
to appreciate the
1 that suit
)dy of semi
rot. esses is intended, ultimately,
uch to und( lire the value these processes as to highlight the
prevalence of semiosis and the necessity of knowing how to decipher as well
as to perform kinesis successfully.
to be chosen a
r -I's attorney in the trial,
Gee -ey later op ;
iother behavioral disguise, that of a foo' " He
con
ces Hanybald Ciat to entrust Beryn's defense to a lunatic Tneetiel
gua--itee the latter's defect Rhetoric is tf— art of persu —ion. Important
f madness
-- sture: r
e' - -lents in Geoffrey'
typical of a
3mbols, i
' er clad
a wz:ea
, / And made
aid to hug'. (Bowers 3003-04 ' In his Institutio
Oratorio, Quintilian teach-__ the art of oratory by laying out in great detail
ti rhetorical and v°- fierce of gesturer unsidering not only hand gestures
also gestures c
e, he remarks that
°
protrude the chest or stomach,
a re nc
-
GUI
TTE BC L
arcJ.
back, and all bending
y. The eenle,s must conform to the
he motion f
ntire boC; ntributes
the effect: indeed, Cicero - -Ads that the body is more
expressive than even the hands, (quoted in Butler 1959,
bk iii.122)
Gt
y'- entire body evinces a rhetoric of folly, which
corresponds to a typically h fteenth-ce n tu ry conception of the fool. In twelfthand thirteenth-century literature, folly in a main protagonist manifests
witness Yvain2° When simulated,
itself via isolating outbursts o f
folly also looks like rage—witneso
.2 ' 1"
feast, late-medieval fools
are gregarious and effusive sots wn
nic
while taking part in it.
Folly's style adapted accordingl)
ther than an enraged outcast, the
fool becomes a merry reveler wip
Frolics, and claps his hands, just
offrey in Beryn. When performint, 1 is act, Geoffrey climbs upon an
ised stage to make sure that everyone can F°' l'-` ; rn (Bowers 1992,
). Geoffrey stages himself as fool and enacts a
nic of buffoonery
ressors.
compelling enou
Beryn's sma
g an(
le fact that such et
- -rous crooks as
tivrophanes, Macaign, and Hanybald are duped by Cy
's
indicates
gestures in Beryn are conceived as a powerful
that has a
definitive impact
e !Fits. Indeed, the malevolent accus ; 1 Dse the trial.
Most important
iesis is a powerful language for th
ey reason that it
resists definitivt
intic control; even protagonist,
_rsed in kinesis
fail at masterin t, C _offrey's bodily rhetoric properly. Indeed, the deceivers
are fooled when they believe that they can tell one madman from another.
The Tale of Bery
is a success story where success is conferred upon
agonists wh - c
. it play with the se i
-.. hiatus between kinesic signs
!anings. Th may be seen as a
Dn kinesis and the nature
interpretatio Kinesis speaks vo
,aid yet rets straightforward
denotative stab'.
In the garr
-nmunicatic
tLe winner is he
plays to the f
srith such elusi)
istable supplements of meaning.
I hope to have sh
this essay how the -alltural
history of akimbo evinces the complexi
kinesis in visual
ve_bal
arts. Kinesic intell nee is activated in v'-nal art when th viei. reacts to
the rhetoric conve,
hrough the visua - ropes articulated in the image.
since such an
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
197
1' Le power and pervasiveness
In verbal art, a text such as 7'7;
an inter;
s. Kinesis in Beryn evokes
of kinesic communication in
philosopher Giorgio tben's comment c gesture as "communication of
communicability" (2000, 39). It also thematizes the difficulty of expressing
kinesis in words and the inadequacy of red.r;ng kinesis to a tidy taxonomy
of decoded gestures and superimposed c )ts. In Agamben's words, "the
gesture is essentially always a gesture of not being able to figure something
out in language" (2000, 59). In its use of akimbo, among other lexical and
behavioral oddities, Beryn emni. izes the way in which the supplement of
meaning that imbues kinesic o. inication resists the full control of linguistic
e ression—and here reside tt - - !ntric skill and force of this narrative. Bery
builds its su itory on this ve - stumblii block, It successfully speak
what it cairn . verbalize, and, by this very token, the reader is led to provide tiT
supplement c . iation that makes kinesis meaningful, as the text elicits the
iconcertingly evocative gestures.
visualization
JLEMETTE BOLENS
198
Notes
' See Ray Birdwhistell, Kinesics and Context Essays on
Penguin, 1973); Gregory
:ation HarnmoncL:v Roily-Motion
; of Chicago
he Ui logy of Mind (CIBireson, Steps
ige and Gest -e (Cambridge:
viol McNeill, ed., L
Press, [1972]
Ion, Gesture: Visible Action as
Cambridge University Press, 2000); Adam
Utterance (Cambridge: Cambr;elne University Press, 2004). I discuss recent
Style des gestes: Corporeite et
Bolen
st 'les on kinesics in G - ler.
, 2008).
litter
me: B
dans 1
rman Roodenburg, eds.
3remmer
2 See ,
'versity Press, 1992); Kendon,
Cultural History o 'Gesture (Ithaca: Coi
'lap. 16 in Gesture: Visible
"Culture and tl-- Communication Econoi ^ ,
sify Press, 2004), 326—
(Cambridge:
Cambridg
t
Action as Ut
54.
Judith Butler, Gender
On gender
perfo
i); Juc
Bodies That Matter: On
Trouble (New York: Routledgeage, 1993); Judith Butler,
the Discursive Limits of "Sex" kiNew Yorl<
Undoing Gender ( New York: Routledge, 2004). On this issue in relation
to Beryn, sec C Ilemette Bolens, "Kit's Sneeze: Bodily Communication,
Performativity of Literature in The Prologue to the
Gender Role
hly Thingc and Spiritual Matters. Essays on the Medieval
Tale of Beryn," a
and Katrin Rupp (Cambridge : Cambridge
Body, ed. by r'
)lars Publishing, forthc _ning).
- harc
t, Visual Literacy: A
See Judith Wilde
(NeN,
ork:
Watson-Guptill
1g
to
Graphic
Proble
C_
c
p
PubLea ins, 19.:
st in Gesture from
See also Kendon,
cha 3 in Adam Kendon,
° .3 the Eighteenth CE
Classical An
ridge: Cambridge University
ction as Utterance, (C
Gesture:
Press, 2004), 17-42,
6 On the questions of mental visualization and of
fgang Iser, "The Ha r of the Text," in Languages of the
Tient, see 1
t ire and Literary Theory, ed.
Unsayable.: The Play of Negativity in
i: Stanford University Press,
3udick and Wolfgang Ise
198 ■
32,', 329.
7
than as this
- -)ne ---er thinks of Henry VIII in any other W17
)f flesh, whose astounding girth is only
ARMS AKIMBO: KINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VERBAL ART
13U
>W d
es id furs that encase him." Roy
emphasized by the layers of
tledge, 1967), 39.
Strong, Holbein and He:. ; VIII (. - Ion
Design is le
in San Francisco.
9 Strcnig's source is C. van Mander, Le livre des peintres,
Libr ie de
Rouam imprimeur-editeur,
trans. H. Hymans
I
1884), 1, 218. Strong
rider would have derived his
aster, Lucas de Fl<
vho was in England circa 1567
information
to 1576."
value of gloves and the symbolic
On the
nd vagin
n Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass,
association of g
we in Re—'
.e Europe," Critical Inquiry 28, no.
"Fetishizing
(Autumn 2001) '14-32.
Several
of this portrait focus on Charles s
horse (placed on t right of tile lull picture), ignoring the king's elbow and
glove despite th
niinent visibility of these two items in the organization
of the painting.
risible reason for so much decency is that the king is
perceived as "the rfect cortegiano" (Roy Strong, Van Dyck, Charles I on
Horseback
Penguin, 1972], 56); as "a figure "f matchless elegance,
'iority
.'ugh culture, 1. 1
of unquestio
f the arts, and the
RiE
Kings" (
upholder of
Held, "Le Roi a la ciasse,"
The Art Bull
no. 2
1958
g E. H. Gombrich, The
iF Phaidon, 1953]
Story of Art
Moffitt, "'Le Roi a la
ciassen Kings, –
Ian Knights, a'
'ngular 'Dismounted
Equ,
of Charles I,"
nd Hi
° 4, no. 7 (1983), 79–
99
Pa
:sues that Charles
inting represents the epitome
;or
s christianus. Sucl
ipectives automatically preclude,
in fac,
ambiguities in the Le. . ipt.
12 The caption reads: "Here is conteyned a godely interlude
Rome, Lucres his doughter, Gayus Flaminius, and
of Fulgens, c! -PublisCorn
. .e Disputacyon of Noblenes, and is devyded in two
tymes. Compyled by mayster Henry Medwall,
partyes to be
ga. reverent fader in God, Johan Morton, Cardynall
late chapelayne
c;au ----e- ury"
ledieval Drama: An Anthology,
and Archebys,-. 1; editbyGr
Bla
304.
s Hilliard
ed Elizabeth I sitting—not even
bo in tilt
ine Portrait, made in 1585 (now
–w,.
And Paul van Somer represented Charles I's mother,
in F-I field
:
;
GUILLEMETTE BOLENS
200
Anne of D
rk,
unt, standi
an arm akimbo, the back of
her wrist in contact with her hip in a St
:ontorted fashion (1617, HM
The Queen, Royal
ction, Windsc:
In this painting, Anne of
Denmark stands next 1 her horse. As a - ;
mentioned, a great deal of
attention has been
ted to the role of t
lorse in Van Dyck's Charles
2t the Hunt and t
iusual fact that the king is dismounted. I make
e nypothesi
act that. Charles is dismounted is a reference to the
r Jrtrait of ti
s mother, standing in a strikingly rnasculine posture.
Paul van S -- also made a portrait of Jarne T father7C-:' -les I, standing
with an arm akimbo. But James I stands in a
iber,
his arm akimbo
is covered
I cloak. Thus the setting in
'yck's painting (the figure
is at the h
tear a wood, dismounted, and prominently displaying the
arm set akim
a link with the portrait of Charles's mother rather
than with t.
Charles's version of the arm akimbo
he mascu
mce imitates the portrait of his mother
ling lin.
14 On this question
iLn Rosalind Jones and Peter
Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and teiviaterial of Memory (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000).
"Critics Jean-CL L.
hmitt in L r,t ' ;on des gestes dans
C ident medieval (I
74 -illimard, )90) and J.A. Burrow in Ge,
ar Looks in Medieva.. L..-7ative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pre—,
emonstrate the importance and sir n'ficance of gestures in medieval
culture and literature. See also CliffoiC
idson, ed., Gesture in Medieval
Drama and
Kalamaz
Western Michigan University, 2001) and
emette I
r_,e Sty
Corporeite et kinesie dans le recit
litteraire
BHMS,
According to Muriel Bradbrook,
Themes and
Convention ; Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
16
Press, 1964), 20 26, Elizabethan actors "exaggerated movements and
statuesqueness and used inflated delivery and conventional posture. The
most common method of expressing grief was for the actor to throw himself
to the ground." Throwing himself to the ground to express grief is the exact
theatrical move Macaign performs t , ccuse Beryn of his father's murder.
-
corporis ex,
Non sum nescit 'uanturn susceperim negotii qui motus
verbis et imitari sc.°:,
conatus sim voces.
ARMS AKIMBO: NINESIC ANALYSIS IN VISUAL AND VEKtk.ITT
201
Beryn's legal predica: 1 and trial, see Guillemette
Bolens, "N r.
Use and
ractice of - ion in The Book of Sindibad
and The Tale
yn," Poet
day29, no. 2 (2008), 309-51.
"On foll,
3eryn, see Guillernette Bolens, "Traditions
of Simulated illy in The Canterbury I-- .?rlude and Tale of Beryn," in
Behaving
Voice, Gesture, and L. liter in Texts, Manuscripts, and
icy Perry and Alexii
Early Book
arz (Turnhout, Belgium:
J
)
ing in 2011.
2) See Chretien de Troye.,
ou le chevalier au lion, ed.
David F. Hult Pa is: Poche, Lewes gothiques, 1994),
2 ' See Thomas, Le Ror
le Tristan suivi de La Fo
Tristan de Bel
La Folie
an d'Oxj
ev. ed. of Felix. Lecoy's
lanuele
- tner and lan Short (Paris: Champion,
ed. and trans.
2003).
GUI LLEM
202
Bi
- hy
Giorgio. Means without End: Notes on Politics.
zo Binetti and Cesre Casarino (originally published
Translated b
°
editore), In Theory out of
in 1996 as Mezzi. senza fine by Boliati Bor'
Bounds 20, Minnesota: University of Min
ta Press, 2000.
Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, [1972] 2000.
Birdwhistell, Ray. Kinesics and C:ontex Essrys on Body
Motion Corny
°
Hanimondsworth: Penguin, 1973.
B:
Guillemette. Le Style des gestes: Corporeite et
L ausanne: BHMS, 2008. English translation
kiresie dans °
forthcoming at the
ifopkins University Press.
"Narrative Use and the Practice of Fiction in The Book
of Sindibad and The Tale of Beryn." Poetics Today 29, no. 2 (2008): 309 1.
. "Traditions of Simulated Folly in The Canterbury Interlude and Tale of Beryn." In Behaving like Fools: Voice, Geun, d Laughter in Texts, Manuscripts, and Early Books, edited by Lucy P 1 Alexander Schwarz (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols), forthcoming.
"neeze: Bodily Communication, C. mder Roles,
the Performativii
rature in The Prologue to t1.
cf Beryn."
- I Matter!
leshly Things and
on the Medievt :cly, edited
I Ticole Nyffenegge. -nd Katrin Ru r , Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars
-;„ forthcoming.
Bowers, John M., ed. "The Canterbury Interlude and
Merchant's Tale of Beryn." In The C
bury Tales: Fifteenth-Century ConBowers, 55-196. Kalamazoo:
tinuations and Additions, edited by ,
Western Michigan University, 1992.
Bradbrook, Muriel C
Themes and Conventions of
bethan T
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