Those are definitely two bunnies, there in the background of that Bellini painting of a ‘Lamentation on the dead Christ’ (1). In the foreground: an ageless tragic scene with a mother grieving her dead son, sprawled on her lap. A still pieta framed by the broad gestures of mourning friends. A frozen scene of lamentation at the foot of an ominous cross.
Behind it
all: a luminous peaceful landscape with trees and rocky hills, with a blue river and hazy bluish mountains
merging into the golden light of a pale blue sky with a few drifting clouds.
There’s also a city by the river and buildings higher up on the hills. People are
walking on the road. Sheep and other cattle are grazing. And there are two rabbits
– two long-eared rabbits popping out from the green thicket, two perky white
rabbits, utterly visible & present.
The
landscape with its luminous tonal harmonies (2) quite transforms the despondent
scene of lamentation ; it is a true Bellini painting, with its unique blend of
pathos and poetry, of tragedy and beauty. In its emotional appeal, the painting
is representative of what so much art throughout the ages, in the visual arts
or in music (3) , has sought to convey :
a sublimation of tragedy, redemption through beauty, a possibility of
resurrection.
It answers
a deeply rooted human need for consolation (4), for art that can ‘universalize’
our concerns (5) and accompany us on a journey going from existential anxiety
to hope, from descent into sadness to ascent into beauty, from destruction to
restoration, from dissonance to consonance (6).
In our agnostic
and hedonistic world, we can undoubtedly still long for and even sincerely immerse
ourselves in this emotional and aesthetic process of sublimation (when looking
at the light (7) in a Bellini painting, when listening to a Bach aria). But what
does it mean for us, and what does it mean for contemporary artists, when such
sublimation is no longer sanctioned by an unquestioned belief in
transcendence?
loving references
(1) To be seen in the Gallerie dell'Accademia di
Venezia Lamentation over the Dead Christ
with the Virgin, Saint Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Filippo
Benizi (?) | Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia (gallerieaccademia.it) , or in the catalogue of the 2023
exhibition ‘Giovanni Bellini, Influences croisées’ (or on the web obviously).
(2) Roberto Longhi : « une
pacification chorale »
(3) So many Crucifixions and Pietas, so
many Stabat Maters and Passions
(4) Let’s not deprive ourselves from aesthetic
bliss, even though one might wonder why we should be entitled to it while so
much man-made suffering is going on
(5) Eric Chafe, 'Analyzing Bach Cantatas'
(6)
Gilles
Cantagrel, 'Le moulin et la rivière – Air et variations sur Bach' : « La
démarche du créateur, son travail acharné, consistera à répondre à cette
angoisse fondamentale et à la sublimer »
(7)
Nicolas
Joyeux : « Giovanni Bellini semble traduire en image l’ode à la
lumière du platonicien Marsile Ficin. »
