Child prodigies in Paris in the belle époque: Between child stars and psychological subjects.

Abstract

This article considers the double role of child prodigies as child stars and psychological subjects in Paris in the Belle Époque. I argue that the celebrity status of child prodigies during this time contributed to their transformation into objects of scientific curiosity. The notions of innate talent and natural-born genius contributed heavily to stories of child prodigies within the public sphere; these stories also circulated in psychological accounts of such children. To illustrate this, I examine the case of Pepito Arriola, the so-called Spanish Mozart, in more detail. This musical prodigy toured Europe and America during the early 20th century, and when he was 3-and one-half years old, Charles Richet presented him at the Fourth International Psychology Congress (1900) in Paris. Arriola became the first virtuoso to be submitted to psychological examination, and he was subsequently examined in Berlin by the psychologist Carl Stumpf. This closer look at Pepito Arriola's case clarifies how popular culture and scientific research interacted in the making of a prodigy.

Intellectual aristocracy in the dawn of Argentine democracy: José Ingenieros on genius and mediocrity.

“…These authors have dwelt on the genius category from a broad historical perspective, providing a general framework on which this article can build. The history of psychology has taken into consideration the problem of the genius related to giftedness, infancy, and education or eugenics (see, for example, Carson, 2007; Graus, 2021; Stadler, 2006). However, Ingenieros’ book shows the productivity of these psychological categories in adulthood, in the analysis of political movements and the planning of new imagined societies through the history of psychology and its relation to other disciplines.…”

You Can Tell a Prodigy From a Professional Musician

“…Barrington carried out a number of musical performance tests (e.g., sight reading in various clefs and harmonic modulations) and approved little Mozart's extraordinary musical talent. In the early 20th century, musical child prodigies came into the focus of psychology: Richet (1900) published a report on a number of musical tests with the 3-year-old Jose Ŕodriguez (Pepito) Arriola (for a comprehensive description, see Graus, 2021), and the German psychologist Baumgarten (1930) developed a standard psychological screening for the objective measurement of skills of prodigious children (from 6 to 14 years of age) from various fields (for an overview of the beginnings of an objective psychological assessment of musical prodigies, see Kopiez & Lehmann, 2016). Musical prodigies were also of interest in empirical musicology: For example, Kopiez (2011) analyzed a sample of 213 Europe-wide reports published between 1798 and 1848 and found an average age of 10.73 years (range: 4-16 years) at the first public performance.…”