"Interpretation"
______________
When I am working, I sometimes hang paintings together to in order to be able to evaluate the content of each of them.
When I am working, I sometimes hang paintings together to in order to be able to evaluate the content of each of them.
One day, these three watercolors, which happened to be lying next to each other, reminded me of ancient paintings on the theme of the Annunciation.
2015 - Triptych A, B, C - Watercolor - 35,5 x 26,5 cm x3 - Ref. A 15ABC
So I decided to take another look at these paintings. I will cite a few of them while trying to understand which roundabout route led me to refer to them*
* Daniel Arasse's book on Annunciations.
So I decided to take another look at these paintings. I will cite a few of them while trying to understand which roundabout route led me to refer to them*
* Daniel Arasse's book on Annunciations.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Annunciation. 1344
Words appear on the gold background between both figures…
Words appear on the gold background between both figures…
…those addressed by the Angel to the Virgin…
…and those by the Virgin to heaven…
…where the image of God appears between two arches.
What is interesting, according to the description Daniel Arasse gives of it, is that the Virgin's words are, unusually, written from right to left.
These exchanges highlight the role of speech to evoke the complexity that governs human relations.
In most Annunciations, the figure of the Angel is situated on the left of the picture…
Fra Angelico, 1430 & Piero della Francesca, 1455
…only rarely is the figure on the right, as here in the paintings of Titian and Philippe de Champaigne.
…only rarely is the figure on the right, as here in the paintings of Titian and Philippe de Champaigne.
Titian, 1519 & Philippe de Champaigne, 1644
Botticelli, 1489
Botticelli's Annunciation reveals the beginning of a movement, which finds an echo in my work, as the inversion of the Botticelli picture suggests.
The same painting the other way round
It was chance that brought me to compare my work with the ancient paintings and their themes.
It was chance that brought me to compare my work with the ancient paintings and their themes.
I concluded that it was worth giving the process a name.
Between two subjects, there is, in the centre, a picture which acts as a mediator.
I thought of the concept of an exchange, where what is in the centre plays the role of the words in a dialogue. Hence the title:
"Interpretation".
