The Symbol in the Pictorial Universe

In this month’s issue I have presented how painting is linked to the Symbol with some examples and specific symbols in four itineraries.

In the first itinerary, the symbol, a trace or visible seal of an invisible reality, was explained as a reality that exists by itself and that is captured by the artist and which passes through him and becomes visible in the painting.

In the second, we saw the harsh conditions that painting and sculpture went through in the early periods after the fall of the Roman Empire, focusing on new phenomena, such as the icon, and building a bridge between the West and the East. In this era, the status of the “image” was defined, with a decisive role played by Gregory the Great.

In the third, we used the example of another symbol, the Mandylion, the miraculous portrait of Christ, and the artist and painter Marc Badia entered into the scene to comment about it. We did not fully document the image, skipping great painters who have tested their art by emulating it, such as Van Eyck who painted a Holy Face and inscribed in Latin underneath: “As best as I could.” Marc very generously commented on it through one of his works, Credo quia absurdum, a possible self-portrait, and put it in the context of ruins, a current subject that interests him. The garden-like views and plants scattered throughout his paintings demonstrate an almost mystical botanical interest, like Bellini’s Vision of Saint Francis.

In the fourth, the biblical passage of the bronze serpent, from the text of Numbers, was used as an example. Víctor Balcells Matas was invited to do an analysis of the passage, and Karma Juliana was invited to prepare a concept. Victor spoke of a very strange book by Marie Louise Von Franz on divination, relating it to the divine symbol, and Karma extracted a visual meaning in a work she made especially for the occasion. Both pointed out two levels of visualization of this symbol: one that sees only the serpents, and another that goes to the essence and finds redemption.

These are symbols that our old continent, Europe, with a vast, splendid, and mostly painful past, interprets in different ways. This continent must create deep, healthy ties with its past, for the market place will not do this, and one must filter from history that which is most valuable, admirable and lasting: beauty.

[Featured Image: Marcel Rubio Juliana: Dibuix anunciador editorial]