As much as anyone, I resent any
appearance of the descent of in-
telligence, as an infringement
of decorum, although I'm not un-
aware of the power of suggestion,
from one generation to another.
On the contrary, I rail against
it with some perpetuity, given
its tricky relationship with hu-
man development. At my college,
two brothers preceded me by a
few years, children of the art
historian Erwin Panofsky. The
boys were graduated something
like 1st and 2nd in the Class,
forever after to be dubbed,
the smart Panofsky, and the
dumb Panofsky. Now, news out of
Palo Alto (where we have a u-
niversity, laid out with a lin-
ear accelerator on a ranch) for
this weekend is of a symposium
to celebrate a Nobel laureate's
lifetime contribution to physics,
as a colleague also of one of
the plentiful Panofsky boys, and
father to the art historian, com-
posing now the life of Alexander
Calder. In my simple mind there
is something one can almost un-
derstand in such a coincidence,
as a shimmering suggestion.
It's enough to make one believe,
something is going on, at least
as the descent of frolic, and
to be glad of it, incorrigibly.
Baptiste Radufe
Louis Carré
Catalogue cover
1946
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