Images produced without manipulation (DSLR Camera, Canon). They are part of a project I undertook while in Paris (January & February 2018), visiting, registering and studying works in museums and churches (for more information, see here).

Original works photographed here include Albrecht Dürer's Selbstbildnis mit Eryngium (1493), Lucas Cranach der Ältere's Stehende Venus in einer Landschaft (1529), Tiziano Vecellio's L'uomo dal guanto (circa 1520), Agnolo Bronzino's Ritratto d'uomo con una statuetta (circa 1540), Caravaggio's Buona ventura (1595), and Jean-Louis Forain's Scène de tribunal (circa 1925).

The following quotations are enlightening:

"When you meet someone you never dreamed you'd meet, you're taken by surprise, so you haven't made up any fantasies and you're not let down" (The Philosophy of Andy Warhol).

"Imagine-t-on un historien de la Renaissance 'côtoyer des gouffres'? Ce qu'il côtoie, dans ses études, n'est-ce pas plutôt beautés pleines et couleurs radieuses, harmonies sereines et pures floraisons des chef-d'oeuvres?" (Didi-Huberman, L'Image survivante).

"... pourquoi l'homme moderne en revient-il à des formules antiques dès lors qu'il s'agit d'exprimer une gestuelle affective de la présence? Comment la représentation païenne réussit-elle si bien à investir, si ce n'est à pervertir — ou, au contraire, à éclairer —, les thèmes iconographiques chrétiens de l'Amour sacré ou des lamentations sur le corps mort de Jésus?" (Didi-Huberman, L'Image survivante).

"Ich schätze den Werth von Menschen, von Rassen darnach ab, wie nothwendig sie den Gott nicht abgetrennt vom Satyr zu verstehen wissen..." (Nietzsche).

"It happened to me that I made a religious painting which was bought by one who so loved it that he wanted to remove the sacred representation so as to be able to kiss it without suspicion. Finally his conscience prevailed over his sighs and lust, but he had to remove the picture from his house" (da Vinci as translated and quoted in Gombrich's Art and Illusion).

"Plato himself denied art its validity... But on the same grounds, Neoplatonism tried to assign to art a new place that was eagerly seized upon by the emerging academies... the painter, unlike ordinary mortals, is a person endowed with the divine gift of perceiving..." (Gombrich, Art and Illusion).

"... the sword, an established and honorific attribute of Judith, martyrs... could not be transferred with propriety to a lascivious girl. The other reason is that during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the charger with the head of St. John the Baptist had become an isolated devotional image (Andachtsbild)" (Panofsky).

"Felicità Eterna is a resplendently beautiful, blonde young woman whose nudity denotes her contempt for perishable earthly things... Felicità Breve is a lady whose dress yellow and white signifies satisfaction. She is adorned with precious stones and holding a vessel full of gold and gems" (Panofsky).

"The difference between Ficino and Pico on the one hand and Bambo and Castiglione on the other, is indicative of the difference between Florence and Venice. Where Florentine art is based on design, plastic firmness and tectonic structure, Venetian art is based on colour and atmosphere, pictorial succulence and musical harmony" (Panofsky).

"In diesem Augenblick, wo ich dies schreibe, bringt die Post mir einen Dionysos-Kopf..."

(Nietzsche).

"... je n'ai jamais compris qu'on pût aimer autre chose que le Lieu endeuillé... la trace gardées des coups redoublés... une Hiérarchive..." (Derrida, Artaud le Moma).

Owners

L'oeuvre &/ou le vrai oeil — parerga II

Creative Fields