Page 7 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume VI

with equal importance through colored material. Therefore, in clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2). The aforementioned
the first periods of Christianity it seemed that for the recognition presumption about archetypes that the biblical text established
of the divine and for striving towards the spiritual it was not in people’s consciousness, found also in parables and fine arts
important whether the painting represented Christ or only his images, is well presented by the following: the disciples were on
symbol – a fish or a cross. We are not saying that Rimele had to their way to Emmaus. “/…/Jesus himself drew near and went with
follow the example of the creation of a Christian image in order to them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. /…/ When
bring plausible spiritual energy to the dimensions of the painting he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and
matter. Far from that, he wrote the following: “I understand God as broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they
a group projection, as an identification with the ideal and as man’s recognized him. And he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:15-31).
yearning for eternity: when man wants God, what he really wants
is himself.” This statement can be verified in his work: the Christian Rembrandt, a great connoisseur of the Bible and its exegesis, often
monotheism demands theo-centralism in all domains, which is sketched, drew and painted this scene. His canvas from around
why the central scenes in iconography, such as Christ’s face, 1628-1630 convincingly represents the moment when the disciples
crucifixion, Mary with child etc., are depicted in a central position, recognize Christ in the unlit interior. From his viewpoint, the
for only thus can the subject see and control everybody, demand spectator can see only the darkened silhouette of the immediately
attention and worship, and perform miracles. This position, which recognizable profile of Christ. Yet the disciples perceive him from
also originates in Christian iconography, is still seen in classical as the other side in the form of the light of glory radiating from him
well as abstract modern painting, which was the starting point for and creating an aura or halo around his head. The aura reflects onto
Rimele. Yet Rimele’s frontal part of the canvas soon became more them and illuminates them in both senses of the word. Rembrandt’s
and more empty, the sub-frames became thicker and the essential sketch of the same scene from around 1648-1649, which was
movement was displaced towards their edges. The author himself undoubtedly created with the memory of the painting from two
pointed to this by directing the look to the painted edges with lines decades before, has an even more genial solution: Rembrandt is
on the frontal surface. He did this so intensively that the frontal one of the rare painters to undertake the representation of the last
surface finally became completely neutralized and all the essential part of the event). As we have seen in the example of the previous
movement now occurs only at its edges, which have radiated light image, the epiphany happens already when both of the present
through the last decade. This practice, which can be traced back to figures look at Christ. At the very moment when he miraculously
Rimele’s artistic beginnings, is explained by the author as his own disappears, the sudden recognition of God is confirmed and the
principle, for he can more easily identify with the de-centralized disciples’ look on the left directs us towards the empty chair on
and marginal world than with the hieratic world, which is of course the right. Christ’s human body is no longer there, as it has been
contrary to the Christian complete focus on God. transformed. The only thing that is left is Christ’s illuminated coat
and the pure light which floats over the place where he was sitting
There have of course also been many other models and ways for just a moment before.
achieving spiritual impression in the history of art, such as the theory
of the sublime, creation in ecstatic states of mind, therapeutic The relationship between Christ’s figure and its physical absence,
practice of people with a psychotic disorder, expressionist empathy, and at the same time his spiritual presence as seen in both
etc. Yet Rimele is aware, in his endeavours to establish the broadest painting and sketch, which we have presented as a developmental
communication (in his subjective, hermetic manner, excluding sequence of the miraculous event itself despite the time difference,
all narration), that the latter is possible only through archetypes. also represents Rembrandt’s creative thought. At first, the dark and
As a rule, the more common these are, the more universal they thick applications on the frontal surface of the canvas emphasize
become. Among the ideologies which have established the most the activity at the edges reflecting light from the back side, invisible
archetypes, Christianity again prevails in Western civilization. When to the observer, towards the wall. Gradually, the paintings become
Christianity had mastered all the mechanisms of persuading and brighter on the frontal side; it seems as if they float in front of the
subjecting believers, including by the means of holy images, it white wall, and the light of the back side reflects so intensively
started to spread the use of purple, of golden leaves and the most that its lustre penetrates the materiality of the paintings’ frontal
precious ultramarine alongside the ordinary earth pigments. The layer like an aura and dematerializes the wall itself. The concrete
choice and popularity of these colors was not solely due to their presence of the painting-object disappears and is replaced by
imitative functions; on the contrary, they were intended to exhibit another, an abstract presence of its reflection, which symbolizes
the power of the Church, of the rulers who fought with Church over the spirituality of material absence.
secular as well as spiritual power, and of all other wealthy people
who ordered artistic works. Their symbolism was explained by Sciences such as astronomy and physics can nowadays explain
holy documents, including the Bible, the eternal truths of which it in detail the phenomenon of natural light, and by the help of
was not possible to contradict. The light which the lustre of these these findings it is possible to create various artificial forms of
colors reflects has an even more generally understood archetypical light. That is why we are unable to understand the importance
meaning. When the biblical God created the world, the world was of the Sun in the past, when people woke up in fear that it might
enwrapped in darkness. Therefore he said:” ‘Let there be light,’ and not rise in the morning, which would have meant death. Or how
there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God the shock of lighting ripping the stormy sky led them to pray out
separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:3-4). God did not of a conviction that the gods were sending them the destructive
create the light, but called it into existence with a word and thus signs of their anger. They experienced a similar terror when there
started to arrange the world. was a solar or lunar eclipse. The solar eclipse was accompanied
by a cold wind, which reminded them that a loss of vision meant
When the mysterious uncreated light appears in the Bible, this being surrounded by eternal cold. And as it is possible to see only
in an omen in the world perceived by the senses, a sign of God’s when there is light, they ascribed it positive characteristics, such
“mightiness” or “glory”. Such ontological change of the essence as goodness, warmth, and the ability to shine through everything
of the matter, which is crucial for the correct understanding of the that can conquer the chaos of darkness. That is why the Sun was
ultimate meaning of all created beings, can be found in the following an allegory of the highest divinity and its characteristics were
occurrence: six days after his death, Jesus was transfigured on attributed to the most important gods of all religions all over the
the mountain of Tabor in front of some disciples. “And he was world. And as nobody can look into the Sun without going blind, the
transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his highest divinities in all civilisations were protected by the blinding