Page 10 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume VI

to heal sick people (Acts 5:15). Even more mysterious, and thus frame construction cast colored shadows of the gilded middle pillar
left to the creator’s imagination or the imagination of the person on the scene from both sides. We can assume that by intensive
who ordered the painting, is the central and incontestable truth of contemplation of the whole altar, the two shadows reminded the
Christianity, which is written down in the gospels. When the angel believers of the double nature of Christ and his actual presence,
Gabriel comes to Mary in Nazareth and lets her know that she will and the golden reflection reminded them of his divinity. The altar,
give birth to God’s son, whom she should name Jesus, she asks him with its plastically emphasized frame projecting the illumination of
in astonishment: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” To this the the exterior of the field onto the painting field, is perhaps the best
angel replies: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power example of Derrida’s parergon. When we look at the painting, the
of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be frame seems to be part of the wall on which it is fixed, but when
born will be called holy - the Son of God” (Luke 1:31-35). The very we look at the wall, it seems to be part of the painting, its surface
origin of Christianity, the incarnation of the holy son in a human merging with the surface of the frame (here Derrida refers to Kant’s
womb, thus happens by overshadowing. The word overshadowing golden Rahmen). The borders of the inside and the outside become
was understood by the Renaissance Neo-Platonists as resembling erased; the materiality does not divide the parergon only from the
artistic creation: in Mary’s womb, God shall sketch and contrive inside, but also from the outside, from the wall by which the altar
the image of his shadow, Christ. That is also how it was explained is placed, and gradually from all external (historical, economic,
by the contemporary apocryphal. When Mary heard the angel’s political, etc.) context. That is why we need to understand a work of
greeting, Jesus entered into her through her left ear like a shadow. art and respond to it in such a way that the perception of its interior
In the 13th century, Jacobus de Voragine explained in his best seller is formed with what we learn from the exteriority of the field. As
the Golden Legend that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary so regards Rimele’s work, this refers to the human understanding and
that she would not feel any physical desire. The holy son would perception of light and darkness which are discussed in this book.
be hidden in the shadow in order to conceal his divine light, and
in that very shadow he would be simultaneously recognized as a In the perception of Rimele’s installations, the Derridean
son of man. “broadened edges” play a further decisive role. In 1992 Rimele
anticipated this: “The core is situated in the optical position of the
Overshadowing became an allegory of the mystery of the central point, while the frame is outside the core and surrounds it.
incarnation and conception without corporality, and the The superiority of the position of the centre has been recognized in
annunciation became one of the most frequently represented a painting as the spot which needs to be ’emptied’, which means
motives. When Filippo Lippi painted it around the year 1440, he to reduce the presence of the energy inside the field of the centre.
used the form of diptych, which was very popular in Florentine art The so-called frame started to gain importance. The filling up of
at the time, and thus established a concrete spatial division which what is Outside and the emptying of what is Inside went on until
proved that the incarnation was taking place without the actual tension was created between the Outside and the Inside, or the
contact of the two figures. As the light comes in from the left, it form and power of the optical presence which I have named the
reflects the angel’s shadow on the floor, which testifies that the state of the frequency of the relation.” When Rimele transferred his
angel is not a bodiless apparition but a real being. Yet the angel’s experience from the painting to its spatial installations, he “started
shadow does not fall on Mary, for it does not reach the right wing of to emphasise the edges, so that the centre or frontal side of the
the diptych. The painter consistently followed the words that Mary painting started to empty itself /…/. The images of my paintings
would be overshadowed by God, and so the invisible light source are in fact reflections. We could say that this is an exhibition of the
casts Mary’s shadow upon the wall behind her. Lippi’s diptych is backs of paintings. /…/ The light illuminates the frontal parts which
also interesting in relation to Rimele’s installations with respect to are barely visible. The light blinds us and we experience discomfort
its meaning and form. It is very small (64x46 cm), which testifies faced with emptiness. Then we notice the shadows and see their
that it was created for a small chapel or a niche in a private house, beauty and fragility caused by their constant changing. The light
where it was intended only for the prayer and meditation of the is there in order to generate shadows. The shadow has always
owner and his family. Both wings were probably divided by a pillar been connected with darkness. That is why I find it interesting to
already at the time of its creation, while the existing pillar frame communicate by means of paintings which acquire their colour
is of younger origin. The pillar between the angel and Mary in the identity through shadow.”
scenes of announcement is ordinary and symbolically announces
that, during the whipping to be followed by the crucifixion, Christ, Rimele’s consistent interest in the shadow adds numerous other
whose conception we are witnessing, will be attached to it. The symbolic and narrative values to his installations. The ancient
semantic meaning of the pillar is completed by the semiotic mythological story about the origin of the art of painting, which is
meaning: besides dividing the two wings, it is also an element of said to be the drawing of the silhouette of the shadow of a beloved
apparent or real space which enters into the illusionistic scene. person’s contours, had later many varieties and interpretations.
Fra Angelico’s fresco from 1445 of Mary with child, surrounded They all focused on the fact that love or perhaps desire encouraged
by eight saints, proves that the exchange of different perceptual the depiction of the silhouette of the departing person in order to
levels of concrete and painted reality is possible). The author preserve his eternal presence, not only when he would no longer
painted plastic pillars so that they would appear to be real and be there, but also when he would no longer be alive. That is why
more like the pillars of Michelozzo’s monastery architecture for it is no wonder that, aside from the red shadows which are cast
which the painting was made. He emphasised their volume with by Rimele’s images, Marjeta Ciglenecki also draws attention to the
such distinctive shadows of capitals that they draw the observers’ colour symbolism of the “unbridled passion and sacrifice, for red is
attention right away, even more so because on the left they are the colour of initiation. It has the value of sacrament /…/ The red
illuminated through the real window in the hall. That is why the shadow on the wall united the left and the right parts of diptychs
fresco Sacra conversazione came to be called Madonna of the into indivisible wholes, but it was also a kind of passionate red
Shadows soon after it was created. slit, which suggested the dematerialisation of the wall and the
possibility of the penetration of our gaze”.
If we come back to the reproduction of Lippi’s Annunciation, we
can notice that the photographer has illuminated it from both the Let us dwell a little longer on the shape of the diptych, which has
left and right sides in the same way it was probably illuminated a symbolic value in history, particularly in the case of wing altars,
through windows on both sides as well as by candles in the altar where the closed folding wings create tension before opening,
niche of the private place for which it was created. Thus the whole before the festive, sacramental luxury of the interior is revealed