The Bachelors: Pawns in Duchamp’s Great Game

The Bachelors Pawns inDuchamprsquos Great Game

Many metaphors borrowed from chess havetaken their place in the vocabulary of everyday

lifehellip Perhaps the commonest in modern usage is to representdiplomatistspoliticians or

anybody who is pursuing a large plan without revealing hisultimate intentions

as engaged in agame in which the Pawns are the innocent tools with which the

plan iscarried through

(Murray History 537)

click to enlarge

Figure 1Marcel DuchampThe BrideStripped Bare byHer Bachelors

Even 1915-23copy 2000 SuccessionMarcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Marcel Duchamprsquos obsession with chess for which he professedto ldquoquitrdquo making art in the early 1920s has been meticulouslydocumented by critics and historians Virtually all of theprincipal studies of Duchamprsquos career make reference to hislifelong association with the game from his early drawingsand paintings to his pursuit of the French Chess ChampionshipHowever despite the abundance of literature concerningDuchamprsquos many chess-related activities scholars have forthe most part neglected to regard the history of the game asa potential resource for imagery in Duchamprsquos work Onesegment of the history of chess the evolution and symbolismof the individual chess pieces may have been particularlyappealing to Duchamp In fact one of the chief elements ofDuchamprsquos monumental The Bride Stripped Bare by Her BachelorsEven or The Large Glass of 1915-23 (Fig 1) namely the NineMalic Molds appears to have been derived from chess-piecehistory

According to Harold James Ruthven Murray Englandrsquos foremostchess historian there were a number of popular sermonswritten in the thirteenth century collectively known as thechess moralities (History 537-49) These sermons were intendedldquoto give instruction to all ranks of men by means of instancesdrawn from Biblical ancient and modern historyrdquo using ldquothechessmen as typical of the various classes of menrdquo (MurrayShort History 34) Due to their strong similarity I believethat Duchamp modeled his malic molds after these allegoricalchessmen ndash specifically the pawns ndash in the moralities whichhe may have encountered through a number of sources Tosupport this proposition I will consider the extensiveinfluence of chess on the life and art of Duchamp followed bya thorough study of the evolution of the molds and theirremarkable concordance with the medieval allegorical pawns

click images to enlarge

Figure 2Figure 3Figure 4

Jacques VillonLa Partie drsquoeacutechecs 1904copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP ParisMarcel DuchampThe Chess Game 1910copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP ParisMarcel DuchampThe Chess Players 1911copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris



Marcel DuchampPortrait of Chess Players 1911copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP ParisMarcel DuchampKing and Queen Surroundedby Swift Nudes 1912copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP ParisMarcel Duchamp Treacutebuchet 1917copy 2000 Succession Marcel DuchampARS NYADAGP Paris

It is perhaps prophetic that at the age of thirteen Duchampwas taught both painting and chess in the same year (Schwarz164) A 1904 etching by Jacques Villon of a seventeen-year-old Duchamp embroiled in a match with his sister Suzanne (Fig2) testifies to his continued interest in the game Three ofDuchamprsquos major works during the years 1910-11 The ChessGame The Chess Players and Portrait of Chess Players (Figs3-5) not only indicate the pervasiveness of the game in hislife and art but also foreshadow the complex strategies hewould use both in his art and in his often antagonisticrelationship with art world officials While Robert Lebelstated in his influential biography of Duchamp that ldquochessseems to have had less place in his life from 1912 to 1922rdquo(48) a brief survey of those years shows that Lebelrsquosassessment is clearly not the case In 1912 shortly before heceased working in traditional media Duchamp executed a numberof studies and an oil based on the theme of according toArturo Schwarz ldquoa mythical king and queen of chessrdquo (164)This king and queen a motif that Duchamp explicitly statedwas derived from chess (DrsquoHarnoncourt and McShine 260) formedthe core of The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes (Fig6) in which Duchamp married the Nude Descending the Staircaseof the same year with the static royalty of the chess figuresIn 1917 Duchamp ldquoaccidentallyrdquo discovered one of hisreadymades when he nailed a coat rack to the floor of hisstudio (Fig 7) He named this discovery Treacutebuchet or ldquotraprdquowhich is chess jargon ldquofor a pawn placed so as to lsquotriprsquo anopponentrsquos piecerdquo (DrsquoHarnoncourt and McShine 283)

click to enlarge

Figure 8Marcel DuchampPoster for the French Chess Championship 1925copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

By 1918 Duchamp was living in Buenos Aires and in additionto being in the midst of the preparations for the Glassdevoting more and more time to chess ldquoI have thrown myselfinto the game of chessrdquo Duchamp said in 1919 (qtd in Naumann12) and upon moving to New York in 1920 became a member ofthe Marshall Chess Club Between 1923 and 1925 he played inseveral competitive chess tournaments against some of thefinest players in the world and surprised many by winning theChess Championship of Haute Normandie in 1924 (Keene 125) Hewas pronounced a Chess Master by the French Chess Federationin 1925 the same year in which he designed the poster for theFrench Chess Championship in Nice (Fig 8) While this shortsurvey of chess in Duchamprsquos life and art covers only twenty-five years of a long and distinguished career and leaves outmany interesting and interrelated activities in both fieldsit is clear that his contributions to both pursuits did not gounrecognized His achievements are commemorated by hisinclusion in The Oxford Companion to Chess in which he isnamed ldquothe most highly esteemed artist to play chess at masterlevelrdquo (Hooper and Whyld 116)

With this in mind it would be difficult to argue that chessdid not in some way play a role in the formation of thelargest and most complex project of Duchamprsquos early careerThe Large Glass Affinities between the Glass and chess havebeen previously noted such as Yves Armanrsquos observation thatDuchamp ldquoarranged all the elements of the bride on one sideand all the elements of the bachelors on the other and onecan easily consider that their relative position or intendedinteraction have a lot to do with a game of chessrdquo (19) Whileit would be futile to attempt to summarize the various aspectsof the Glass which consists of equal parts engineeringchemistry physics chance humor and fantasy it issignificant to note that the Glass is both a sculpture and amechanism albeit a mechanism of conceptual rather thanmechanical intent The individual parts do not move themechanistic aspect of the Glass is entirely up to theimagination of the viewer This aspect of the Glasscorresponds strongly with comments Duchamp made about chessIn more than one conversation he made reference to theplasticity of the chess game and described it to LaurenceGold as a ldquomechanistic sculpturerdquo (qtd in Schwarz 172)Though the pieces in a chess game do move it is important toremember that the pieces are merely physical markers for acontest that is principally mental Indeed many of the greatmasters of chess played matches without ever looking at theboard during the game a type of play called blindfold chess(Hooper and Whyld 45) Thus as in chess the components ofthe mechanism of the Glass are not automatic but require thevisualization of the movement of the mechanism in order toplay out the scenario

Of the various sections of the Glass the one that seems tohave an especially close relation to chess is the Nine MalicMolds which Calvin Tomkins noted ldquoat first glance resemblechessmenrdquo (89) The nine molds comprise the Cemetery ofUniforms and Liveries which according to Duchampldquorepresents nine moulds or nine external containers of the

mouldings of nine different uniforms or liveriesrdquo(DrsquoHarnoncourt and McShine 277) Because my analysis isprimarily iconographic I will not discuss the complicatedfunction of the molds and their relation to the Glass as awhole However I will attempt to trace the development of themolds within Duchamprsquos career



Marcel DuchampThe Reservist 1904-05copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP ParisMarcel DuchampPoliceman 1904-05copy 2000 Succession Marcel DuchampARS NYADAGP ParisThe Undertaker 1904-05copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Duchamp began to show an interest in uniforms as early as1904-05 when he executed numerous sketches of a variety ofprofessions Several of the occupations he depicted in thesestudies including the reservist (presumably the antecedent ofthe gendarme) the policeman and the undertaker (Figs 9-11)would reappear as molds in the Glass It is clear from themajority of these sketches that Duchamprsquos primary goal was torecord the principal details of the various costumes ratherthan the individuals themselves since most of the figureshave either roughly delineated or no facial featuresMoreover Duchamp sketched several of these individuals suchas the policeman from behind concealing their facescompletely By the time of their inclusion in the Glass theseuniforms would be divested of the bodies completely since theindividuals wearing the uniforms did not contribute to theunderstanding of the clothing as representative of itsrespective profession It is significant at this point to notethat all of these early sketches are of men and that each ofthe vocations depicted is according to Tomkins ldquoanoccupation for which there is no female equivalentrdquo (89)



Marcel DuchampDimanche 1909copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARSNYADAGP ParisMarcel Duchamp

Mid-Lent 1909copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARSNYADAGP ParisMarcel DuchampPortrait of Gustave Candelrsquos Mother 1911-12copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

John Golding has linked the Molds to a cartoon by Duchamptitled Dimanche of 1909 (Fig 12) in which a pregnant womanis walking down the street accompanied by a man presumablyher husband who is pushing a carriage containing a baby (66)According to Golding the juxtaposition of the pregnant womanand the occupied carriage indicates that Duchamp was ldquothusunequivocally making a parallel between her body and themachinecontainerrdquo (66) Like the pregnant woman and thecarriage the molds are essentially containers and thusperpetuated Duchamprsquos fascination with ldquothe idea of the bodyas an empty vessel capable of receiving other substances intoitrdquo (Golding 66) Another cartoon from 1909 titled Mid-Lent(Fig 13) shows two seamstresses working on a dress that ismounted on a dress form This headless armless and thoughthe lower portion is covered by the dress presumably leglessdress form bears a strong resemblance to a study for one ofthe molds executed four years later Duchamp continued toexplore the theme of a torso or bust resting on a base orstand in his Portrait of Gustave Candelrsquos Mother of 1911-12(Fig 14) which scholars have associated with contemporaneousstudies for the Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries (Ades Coxand Hopkins 68-69) The prospect that Duchamp was influencedby forms or mannequins was further investigated by Lebel whosought to qualify an earlier theory proffered by Jean Reboul

Jean Reboulrsquos very persuasive hypothesis according towhich [the malic moulds] could have been suggested bythe show window of an American dry-cleanerrsquos can

scarcely be proven chronologically for the Malic Mouldsantedate Duchamprsquos trip to New York but an ordinaryParisian cleanerrsquos would perhaps have been sufficient

(qtd in Joselit 139)

click to enlarge

Figure 15Page from the catalogof the Manufacture Franccedilaise drsquoArmes et Cycles de St Etienne1913 cat p 53

Figure 16Marcel DuchampOnce More to This Star 1911copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Figure 17Marcel DuchampThe Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors 1912copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Figure 18Marcel DuchampCemetery of Uniforms and Liveries No 1 1913copy 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

In a similar vein Michel Sanouillet noted an affinity betweenthe molds and ldquothe sportswear presentation on invisibledummiesrdquo (53) found in a 1913 catalog from the companyManufacture Franccedilaise drsquoArmes et Cycles de Saint-Etienne (Fig15)

Duchamprsquos enigmatic drawing Once More to This Star of 1911(Fig 16) is generally considered an early formulation of theseminal Nude Descending a Staircase However the bizarre

figure on the left in the drawing commonly interpreted asexhibiting female characteristics can also be perceived as aprecursor of the molds Lawrence D Steefel Jr noted thatthe upper torso of this figure resembles ldquoa prepucedcylindrical shaft a lsquocapped trunkrsquo topped by a bushy scrawlof graffiti-like linear squirls from the waist uprdquo (25)Steefelrsquos description of this figure could very well beapplied to the molds The ldquocylindrical shaftrdquo of the femalefigurersquos body may very well anticipate the largely cylindricalldquobodiesrdquo of the molds and the ldquobushy scrawl of hellip linearsquirlsrdquo which can conceivably be interpreted as hair couldbe the predecessor of the various hats of the molds

The first appearance of the bachelors proper and the theme ofthe Glass is seen in Duchamprsquos 1912 drawing The Bride StrippedBare by the Bachelors (Fig 17) These threatening figures inthe 1912 drawing however are a far cry from the benigndiminutive bachelors in the Glass In addition to robbing themof their sinister pointed protuberances Duchamp made thisdrawing the first and last instance in which the bachelorswould directly confront the bride (DrsquoHarnoncourt and McShine262) The first description of the bachelors as they wouldappear in the Glass is found in The Green Box of 1934 thecollection of Duchamprsquos notes for the Glass which spans from1911 to 1920 It is in these notes that the bachelors arefirst described as the ldquoMalic Moldsrdquo and the ldquoCemetery of 8uniforms or liveriesrdquo (Sanouillet and Peterson 51) Thedesignation ldquoMalicrdquo has been interpreted as meaning macircle orldquomale-ishrdquo rather than masculine (Tomkins 89) and as a punon the word ldquophallicrdquo (Golding 65)The first drawing representing the molds as they would appearin the Glass titled Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries No 1of 1913 (Fig 18) shows the eight molds individually numberedand drawn in perspective A key on the left identifies theuniforms which are from one to eight a priest adepartment-store delivery boy a gendarme a cuirassier apoliceman an undertaker a flunkey and a busboy Six months

later the number of molds became nine with the addition ofthe stationmaster In an interview with Pierre CabanneDuchamp explained the transition from eight to nine molds ldquoAtfirst I thought of eight and I thought thatrsquos not a multipleof three It didnrsquot go with my idea of threes I added onewhich made ninerdquo (48)

click to enlarge

Figure 19Marcel Duchamp Studies for theBachelors 1913copy 2000 Succession MarcelDuchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Figure 20Marcel Duchamp Cemetery of Uniformsand Liveries No 2 1914copy 2000Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Sketches for the stationmaster from 1913 (Fig 19) show thatDuchamp originally conceived the figure much like the dressform in his drawing Mid-Lent and Gustave Candelrsquos mother with

a cylindrical body atop a thin stand with four legs While theexterior of the mold approximates the respective uniform itrepresents the actual depiction of the uniform is invisibleto the eye As Duchamp explained ldquoyou canrsquot see the actualform of the Policeman or the Bellboy or the Undertaker becauseeach one of these precise forms of uniforms is inside itsparticular moldrdquo (DrsquoHarnoncourt and McShine 277) The Cemeteryof Uniforms and Liveries No 2 of 1914 (Fig 20) a blueprintrendered in reverse for transferring the image to the glassshows the final realization of the molds just prior to theirtransition to glass Of greater interest to this studyhowever is not the final composition but the first drawingof the Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries with only eightmolds Initially the number seems rather arbitrary Howeverin light of Duchamprsquos chess-related sketches and paintingsfrom 1910 to 1912 and Tomkinsrsquo assertion that the moldsldquoresemble chessmenrdquo it follows that chess may have played agreater role in the conceptualization of the molds than haspreviously been considered

One of the most significant developments in the social historyof chess was the emergence of the chess moralities which wereallegorical sermons using the names and moves of the chessmenas the foundation for ldquoethical moral social religious andpolitical preceptsrdquo (Gizycki 23) Prior to the fifteenthcentury several of the more conservative ecclesiasticestablishments attempted to prohibit the playing of chesswithin the clergy and these edicts often spread into thesecular sphere as well The Eastern Orthodox Church wasespecially zealous in its interdictions against chess andmembers of the clergy known to indulge in the game were oftencastigated by those who abstained One of the earliestdocuments containing a reference to chess to which an exactdate can be assigned is a letter written by the eleventh-century Cardinal Petrus Damiani Bishop of Ostia who accusedanother bishop of ldquosporting away his evenings with the vanityof chess and so defiling with the pollution of a sacrilegious

game the hand that offered up the body of the Lordrdquo (Dennisand Wilkinson xx) On the whole the Western Church wassomewhat less impassioned about its proscriptions againstchess generally limiting its injunctions to the clergy andthe knightly orders Of the numerous decrees written in thetwelfth thirteenth and fourteenth centuries perhaps the mostwell known is that of St Bernard of Clairvaux whosesanctions against the game for the Knights Templar wereoverturned in the fifteenth century (Murray History 411) Itis worthy of note that while chess was most explicitlyforbidden within the clerical orders the greater part ofEuropean chess literature from the Middle Ages was produced inchurches and monasteries

The repudiation of chess by the church was not whollyunfounded for several reasons As indicated in Damianirsquosdiatribe chess had strong associations with alea aninclusive term used for all games of chance using dice withor without a board (Murray History 409) Indeed a ninth-century variant of chess developed by the Muslims used diceand written records suggest that this alternative format waspopular in Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries(Murray History 410) The main attraction of involving dicein chess was that it sped up play however the introductionof chance into the game had an antipodal affect on thestrategic element and brought it dangerously close togambling In fact the other aspect of chess that was mostdisturbing to the church was the regular involvement ofstakes which for obvious reasons was found intolerableDespite the actions taken by the church the spread of thegame throughout Europe proved swift and unyielding primarilydue to its popularity with the aristocracy (Murray History428) In fact according to Murray ldquoFrom the thirteenth tothe fifteenth century chess attained a popularity in WesternEurope which has never been excelled and probably neverequaled at any later daterdquo (History 428)

As the popularity of the game grew beyond the restrictivepower of the church the friars wisely chose to adapt chess toecclesiastical purposes by writing the chess moralities afterwhich the gamersquos popularity rose to even greater heights Forthe most part the moralities were intended to provide moralinstruction using the game as little more than a scaffold forreligious precepts The most famous of these moralities by farwas written between 1275 and 1300 by the Dominican monkJacobus de Cessolis titled Liber de moribus Hominum etofficiis Nobilum ac Popularium super ludo scacchorum (On theCustoms of Men and Their Noble Actions with Reference to theGame of Chess) Arguably the most prominent book of its timethe number of existing manuscripts of Cessolisrsquos sermonindicates that it must have rivaled the Bible in popularity(Murray History 537) Written in Latin the sermon wastranslated into virtually every European language often usingtexts that were themselves several generations away from theoriginal text which accounts for the wide variations oneencounters from version to version The most well known ofthese translations is the famed English printer WilliamCaxtonrsquos Game and Playe of the Chesse which was published inBruges in 1475 followed by a second illustrated editionprinted in London in 1483 Caxtonrsquos version one of theearliest books to be printed in English is a translation of aFrench adaptation of Cessolisrsquos manuscript written by thefriar Jean de Vignay around the middle of the fourteenthcentury (Murray History 547)

As indicated in the following passage from Hans and SiegfriedWichmannrsquos survey of the history of chess pieces theindividuated pawns served merely as vehicles for Cessolisrsquosnarrative

The pawns which were largely non-representational had noindividual significance The novel allegorical interpretationof the game in the spirit of the social order gave each piecea value in the general scheme and the pawns too now

represented various trades and professions The game thuspresented a state based on philosophical and moral ideassanctioned by the churchrdquo (33)

Indeed rarely in Cessolisrsquos exegeses are the pieces evenmentioned Perhaps the most common metaphorical use of thechess pieces was that of the game as an allegory of humanlife which became a staple of the moralities In addition tothe obvious relationship between the game and medievalsociety these authors recognized that after a piece was takenby an opponent it became obsolete and thus all piecesregardless of their rank on the board were of equal statureafter being removed This aspect of the game made for aconvenient analogy to the inevitability and utter finality ofdeath for everyone regardless of onersquos position in societyor in Cessolisrsquos words (by way of Caxton) ldquoFor as well shalldye the ryche as the poure deth maketh alle thynge lyke andputteth alle to an enderdquo (Caxton 80) In one of the finalsermons Cessolis imputed to the limited move of the pawn asymbolic meaning For demonstrating ldquovertue and strengtherdquo bytraversing the board one square at a time the pawn iselevated to the status of queen (called pawn promotion) andreceives ldquothat thynge the other noble[s] fynde by dignyterdquo(Caxton 179) by which Cessolis undoubtedly meant divineright Cessolis supported the possibility (albeit slight) ofthis kind of transcendence of the rigid stratification ofmedieval society through scripture pointing out that Davidwas a plebeian shepherd before he became king

Figure 21Book cover from a French book about chess 15th centuryillustrated in Jerry Gizycki A History of ChessLondon Abbey Library p 20click images to enlarge

Figure 22Figure 22

oodcut of the Smith illustratedin William Caxton The Game and Playe ofthe Chesse LondonElliot Stock1883 p 85Woodcut of the City Guardillus in Caxton p 138

The pawns which stood for the commonality were subdividedinto eight vocations laborers and farmers smiths weaversand notaries merchants physicians innkeepers city guardsand ribalds and gamblers (Murray Short History 34) Each pawnis clearly recognizable by the attributes of its trade asseen in an illustration from the cover of a fifteenth-centuryFrench book on chess (Fig 21) which is conveniently labeled(and remarkably includes the player or lrsquoacteur in the upperright-hand corner) The placement of each vocation on theboard was crucial since the pawn had to be associated withthe role of the more significant piece behind it Forinstance the smiths and city guards as seen in two woodcutsfrom Caxtonrsquos illustrated edition (Figs 22 and 23) wereplaced in front of the knights because smiths were responsible

for making bridles saddles and spurs (Caxton 85) and thecity guards received their military training from the knightsas well (Caxton 139)


Figure 24Figure 25Figure 26Figure 27

Weaver and Notary illus in color in Karl S KramerBauern Handwerker und Buumlrgerim Schachzabelbuch Mittelalterliche Staumlndegliederungnach Jacobus de Cessolis Munich Deutscher Kunstverlag1995 p26Weaver and Notary illus in color in Kramer p 27Physician illus in color in Kramer p 32Physician illus in color in Kramer p 33

Regardless of the translation the images of the various pawnsare always similar because Cessolis included vividdescriptions of how each respective pawn was to be depictedFor example the weaver and notary as seen in an illustrationfrom a German translation of 1456 (Fig 24) and a depictionfrom a Latin transcription of 1460 (Fig 25) ldquoshall have apair of scissors in his right hand and a knife in his left Athis belt shall be writing utensils and a pen behind his rightearrdquo (Wichmann 34-35) These instructions were not alwaysfollowed to the letter however as seen in an illustration ofthe physician from a 1407 German manuscript (Fig 26) whoholds the book in his left hand and the jar of medicine in hisright rather than vice versa as is correctly shown accordingto Cessolisrsquos instructions in a 1454 German translation ofeither Bavarian or Austrian origin (Fig 27)

As with Duchamprsquos Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries

Cessolisrsquos strict guidelines for illustrating the variouspawns indicate that the figures or more specifically thebodies of the figures were of less importance than theattributes of the pawnrsquos respective profession Moreover likethe molds the pawns were always represented as male (asinstructed by the text) and as a whole were meant torepresent a specific class of people While most of theprofessions of the allegorical pawns do not directlycorrespond with those of the molds it makes sense thatDuchamp would have updated the professions to better suittwentieth-century society

click to enlarge

Figure 28Marcel Duchamp Chessmen1918-19 copy 2000 Succession MarcelDuchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Linda Dalrymple Henderson has claimed that the inclusion of ldquoapriest as the first of the sexually desirous Malic Moldsrdquo isan example of Duchamprsquos ldquoiconoclasmrdquo (182) However in afifteenth-century German compilation of moralities called theDestructorium vitiorum which includes an extended version ofthe Innocent Morality (so called due to its association withPope Innocent III) the pawns represent ldquothe poor workman orpoor cleric or parish priestrdquo (Murray History 534) While I

do not argue that the insertion of a priest (which asindicated by the scribbled-out word preceding ldquoprecirctrerdquo inCemetery of Uniforms and Liveries No 1 was not Duchamprsquosinitial choice for the designation of the first mold) as aldquosexually desirousrdquo bachelor is in fact iconoclastic I docontend that iconoclasm may not have been the sole inspirationfor the inclusion of the priest In fact a more definitivestatement of Duchamprsquos iconoclasm ndash albeit a tongue in cheekone ndash was the omission of a cross at the top of the king fromthe chess set he designed and carved (with the exception ofthe knight) in Buenos Aires in 1918-19 (Fig 28) an act hefacetiously described to Arturo Schwarz as ldquomy declaration ofanticlericalismrdquo (Schwarz 2667)

If Duchamprsquos Malic Molds were indeed inspired by pawns fromchess history it may not be the first instance in whichDuchamp personified chess pieces in his art Dario Gamboniobserved that in Duchamprsquos Portrait of Chess Players of 1911the player on the left a representation of Duchamprsquos brotherRaymond Duchamp-Villon holds in his hand a chess pawn withstrikingly anthropomorphic characteristics (Gamboni) This canbe interpreted as a play on the French word for pawn ldquopionrdquowhich also means ldquomanrdquo in reference to draughts or checkersor the German ldquoBauerrdquo which can denote ldquopeasantrdquo as well as achess pawn

A crucial component of this study is identifying the sourcesthrough which Duchamp could have been introduced to the chessmoralities barring the possibility that he encountered themby word of mouth One resource that has already been mentionedseveral times is Murrayrsquos A History of Chess published by theClarendon Press in 1913 which incidentally was the sameyear in which Duchamp executed his first plans for TheCemetery of Uniforms and Liveries Described in The OxfordCompanion to Chess as ldquoperhaps the most important chess bookin Englishrdquo (Hooper and Whyld 265) Murrayrsquos 900-page Historythe culmination of fourteen years of research is an

exhaustive exploration of the development of the game from itsbeginnings in the East to modern chess Murrayrsquos massiveundertaking included learning Arabic in order to consultessential manuscripts and studying the major collections ofchess artifacts and literature most notably the collection ofJohn Griswold White of Cleveland Ohio the largest chesslibrary in the world Considering Duchamprsquos already highlydeveloped interest in chess at this time it is conceivablethat he would not only have known of Murrayrsquos valuable studybut perhaps consulted it as well

Pending conclusive evidence that Duchamp knew of MurrayrsquosHistory there remains a significant resource of books inseveral languages on the history of chess and chess literaturewith which Duchamp may have been familiar Murrayrsquos book waslargely based on the work of the Dutch chess historianAntonius van der Linde who published several books on thehistory of chess literature in Berlin at the end of thenineteenth century (Hooper and Whyld 219) In Paris LibrarieHachette published Henry Reneacute drsquoAllemagnersquos Reacutecreacuteations etPasse-Temps in 1905 which also includes a description of thechess moralities Supplementing this short list of secondarysources for Cessolisrsquos sermon is the extensive number ofprimary sources of which there are at least eighty versionsof the Latin text alone (Murray History 537) not to mentionthe profusion of existing French English and Germantranslations Furthermore an exact reprint of Caxtonrsquos Gameand Playe of the Chesse including the woodcut illustrationswas printed by Elliot Stock Publishers in London in 1883which made a formerly rare text readily available to thepublic and more importantly Marcel Duchamp

Work Cited

1 Ades Dawn Neil Cox and David Hopkins MarcelDuchamp London Thames and Hudson 1999

2 Arman Yves Marcel Duchamp Plays and Wins New YorkGalerie Yves Arman 1984

3 Cabanne Pierre Dialogues with Marcel DuchampTrans Ron Padgett New York Da Capo 1987

4 Caxton William Game and Playe of the Chesse 1474London Elliot Stock 1883

5 DrsquoAllemagne Henry Reneacute Reacutecreacuteations et Passe-Temps ParisLibrarie Hachette 1905

6 DrsquoHarnoncourt Anne and Kynaston McShine eds MarcelDuchamp New York Museum of Modern Art 1973

7 Dennis Jessie McNab and Charles K Wilkinson Chess Eastand West Past and Present Greenwich Conn New York GraphicSociety 1968

8 Gamboni Dario Lecture Spring 1999

9 Gizycki Jerry A History of Chess English ed B H WoodLondon Abbey Library 1972

10 Golding John Marcel Duchamp The Bride Stripped Bare byHer Bachelors Even New York Viking 1972

11 Henderson Linda Dalrymple Duchamp in Context Scienceand Technology in the Large Glass and Related WorksPrincetonNJ Princeton University Press 1998

12 Hopper David and Kenneth Whyld The Oxford Companion toChess New York Oxford University Press 1984

13 Joselit David Infinite Regress Marcel Duchamp(1910-1941) Cambridge Mass MIT Press 1998

14 Keene Raymond ldquoPrincipal Chess Happenings in the Life ofMarcel Duchamprdquo Duchamp Passim Ed Anthony Hill StLeonards Australia Gordon and Breach Arts International

Langhorne Pa International Publishers Distributor 1994125

15 Lebel Robert Marcel Duchamp Trans George Hamilton NewYork Grove Press 1959

16 Murray H J R A History of Chess Oxford ClarendonPress 1913

17 mdash A Short History of Chess Oxford Clarendon Press1963

18 Naumann Francis M ldquoAffectueusement Marcel Ten Lettersfrom Marcel Duchamp to Suzanne Duchamp and Jean CrottirdquoArchives of American Art Journal 294 (1982) 3-19

19 Sanouillet Michel ldquoMarcel Duchamp and the FrenchIntellectual Traditionrdquo Marcel Duchamp Eds AnneDrsquoHarnoncourt and Kynaston McShine 47-55

20 Sanouillet Michel and Elmer Peterson eds The EssentialWritings of Marcel Duchamp London Thames and Hudson 1973

21 Schwarz Arturo The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp3rded 2 vols New York Delano Greenidge 1997

22 Steefel Lawrence D Jr ldquoMarcel Duchamprsquos Encoreagrave cetAstre A New Lookrdquo Art Journal 361 (1976) 23-30

23 Tomkins Calvin The World of Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968New York time-Life 1974

24 Wichmann Hans and Siegfried Chess The Story ofChesspieces from Antiquity to Modern Times Trans CorneliaBrookfield and Claudia Rosoux New York Crown 1964

Even 1915-23copy 2000 SuccessionMarcel Duchamp ARS NYADAGP Paris

Marcel Duchamprsquos obsession with chess for which he professedto ldquoquitrdquo making art in the early 1920s has been meticulouslydocumented by critics and historians Virtually all of theprincipal studies of Duchamprsquos career make reference to hislifelong association with the game from his early drawingsand paintings to his pursuit of the French Chess ChampionshipHowever despite the abundance of literature concerningDuchamprsquos many chess-related activities scholars have forthe most part neglected to regard the history of the game asa potential resource for imagery in Duchamprsquos work Onesegment of the history of chess the evolution and symbolismof the individual chess pieces may have been particularlyappealing to Duchamp In fact one of the chief elements ofDuchamprsquos monumental The Bride Stripped Bare by Her BachelorsEven or The Large Glass of 1915-23 (Fig 1) namely the NineMalic Molds appears to have been derived from chess-piecehistory

According to Harold James Ruthven Murray Englandrsquos foremostchess historian there were a number of popular sermonswritten in the thirteenth century collectively known as thechess moralities (History 537-49) These sermons were intendedldquoto give instruction to all ranks of men by means of instancesdrawn from Biblical ancient and modern historyrdquo using ldquothechessmen as typical of the various classes of menrdquo (MurrayShort History 34) Due to their strong similarity I believethat Duchamp modeled his malic molds after these allegoricalchessmen ndash specifically the pawns ndash in the moralities whichhe may have encountered through a number of sources Tosupport this proposition I will consider the extensiveinfluence of chess on the life and art of Duchamp followed bya thorough study of the evolution of the molds and theirremarkable concordance with the medieval allegorical pawns








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Documents

The Bachelors: Pawns in Duchamp’s Great Game