" If Degas had died at 50 ," said Renoir, "he would have left the memory of an excellent painter, no more. It was after his fifth year that his work exploded and he really became Degas. " This brings us back to the notion of senile sublimity and late style. What is meant by such terms ? Many objections also arise : weren't these artists already sublime before they became senile ? Is it possible to be more or less sublime ? Is it quantifiable ? Perhaps it's an illusion to perceive a testamentary character in the last works, for there is a myth of the final work.
As far back as antiquity, two visions of old age have been in opposition : senectus refers to a lucid, beautiful old age ; decrepitas is weakness of body and mind, a kind of return to childhood. Senectus is a golden age, described in Plato's Republic in the dialogue between Socrates and Cephalus. The point of view is gerontophile, optimistic. Today, after centuries of gerontophobia, it's being repeated.
It can be found, for example, in the critical avant-garde, particularly in America. The artistic apogee is reached when the artist finally dominates his medium, his material. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick says she is attracted by the notion of " sublime senile " in the productions of older people, works that no longer have the softness of adolescence. The stage of maturity disappears, giving us access to the essentiality of old age. Who wouldn't find the idea of breaking through in the form of a senile sublime seductive? critics ask. Old age frees us from these three constraints : to please, to be of our time, and to be coherent ; works are freed from decorum, from decet. Late works are harsh, anti-modern. This late sublime corresponds to Edward Said's late style , to Theodor Adorno's Spätstil .
