Page - 234 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

and the totalitarian state converge: both shut out the past and create an absolute present. […] In the world of mass media, the consciousness of a past silently evaporates in the cycles of continu- ous production and consumption.’34 In many re- spects Darwin’s painted scholar’s portraits form a nub of resistance to the ephemeral, absolute present created by the mass media. The painted college portrait acts as a point of material resist- ance to this cycle of continuous production and consumption, as a canonical, authoritative link to the college’s past, and series of portraits per- form continuity with the past. Such portraits hover between potential- ity and actuality. The Darwin portrait’s display emphasises its potentiality – the room in which it is contained acts similarly to an archive. Yet the room also remains sufficiently open to al- ways remain exposed to the mode of actuality. The portrait’s transference to the dining hall – a true actuality, in which it might participate as a representation across ‘the whole spectrum’ of memory-making – seems unlikely.35 The Hert- fordshire portrait, in its public display and in the likelihood of its wide reproduction, operates pri- marily in the mode of actuality and is intend- ed to be adopted, reused and exchanged with- in (mass) media culture across a wide spectrum of reception.36 As the subjects and the making of each portrait recede from the collective memory, both will be absorbed into the history of each in- stitution.37 Photographic acknowledgements: Figure 1: Chris McIn- tyre, University of Hertfordshire; Figure 2: Geoffrey Hay- zer. By kind permission of the Masters and Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge; Figure 3: Chris McIntyre, University of Hertfordshire; Figure 4: Sara Ayres. By kind permission of the Masters and Fellows of Darwin Col- lege, Cambridge. sara ayres234 34 A. Assmann, Texts, Traces, Trash: The Changing Media of Cultural Memory, in: Representations, 56, 1996, pp. 123–134, (p. 132). 35 It seems likely that for a scholar’s monument to transition into the mode of actuality in the wider world of mass media culture, the subject must first pass into the cult of celebrity. An interesting discussion of a scholarly celebrity may be found in J. Browne, Looking at Darwin: Portraits and the Making of an Icon, in: Isis, 100:3, 2009, pp. 542- 570. For most scholars, the deaccessioning of their portrait from a college collection is usually forbidden firstly by the probable terms of its accessioning, and secondly by the very low likelihood of its ever being sold on the open market (as told to me informally by an ex-Sotheby’s employee). If the portrait performatively materialises the scho- larly heritage and status of the college, the college seems to be the only possible home for the majority of scholars’ monuments. 36 W. Kansteiner, Finding Meaning in Memory, (cit. n. 27), p. 182. 37 The author would like to thank Annabel Elton, Head of Commissions at the RP, for her advice during the research and writing of this paper. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR