Page 39 - VICTOR HAGEA : Amazing
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fable stands the symbolic contest between poetry and are the exquisite res of the Old Dutch Masters. He
music, the confrontation between the Apollonian and is obviously much indebted to them, at least in
the Dionysian, which results in the flaying of Marsyas. formal terms. He wants to rescue from oblivion the
The message of this pathetic vision is pregnant with forgotten things, to resurrect them, to reconstruct, or
meaning in that which concerns the origins and rather to “deconstruct” their trajectory, not so much
nature of creation. By flaying Marsyas, Apollo, the the technique, but their spirit. The Italian project is
winner of the contest, wanted to show that creation an exemplary piece in that respect; it is also a research
is a painful endeavour, one which involves sacrifice. project of the artist himself. He deliberately juxtaposes
But he wanted to teach also “the proper way to skin Raffaello di Bartolomeo known as Raffaellino Del
the Fable,” that is, to discover the hidden meaning Garbo’s sketch of hands (1470-1512) to Caravaggio’s
which stands behind the surface, and this is the hands in his “Calling of Saint Matthews” (1599-1600),
strategy of any exegetical interpretation. trying to follow in time the development of this pattern
of representation, breaking though the chronological
The peeling off canvas as if one would flay out time. He shows how the imaginary operates beyond
skin resurfaces in Mannerism as a powerful time on the level of memory, carrying out the forms,
vision, particularly cultivated by such artists like and bringing them back as epiphanic signs. And this
Michelangelo, but is present also in the epochal is exactly how the metapictorial works.
work of the anatomist Vesalius, which gave the first
description of the human body in his De humanis Hagea takes up the Vanitas theme established already
corpore fabrica (1543). This visual scheme pops in 17th c., but turns it into a postmodern existentialist
out again in still-life genre, but this time turns the reflection upon life, death, and the vanity of things.
anatomical into a playful game: paper scrolls and Indeed, an unmistakable sense of impermanence
cartellinos become skin metaphors, glossing around dominates the pictures. Thus, his little broken
the transient epidermis of things in representation. pieces of paper are like old reliques coming from
They are no doubt good subjects to display the the past, forgotten things, and found again, fragile
excellence of pictorial skill. The image comes back bodies of butterflies from a lost memory. They are
in the imagination of the Surrealist painters. I think, mnemonic signs, visions of painting as memory, lost
it might be fair to say that Hagea’s painting could and recovered again. Hagea’s painting is at once,
be placed in-between these two streams. The artist a memento mori and a sublime gesture to resist
is no doubt deeply concerned with the drama of his oblivion. Because oblivion and remembering are
time, but in his stills he emphatically points out to the two facettes of the same coin, or rather say, of
the past, like in the title of his painting – Forgotten the same squared painting. Within its surface, the
things. We are almost sure that the “forgotten things” invisible hand of the artist meets the eye of the viewer,
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