THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY AD 1995 - 1997 |
| If you could be tempted to decode the Temptation, this is the red thread that will lead you through the colourful maze : every detail, even the most insignificant, contains an ambiguity, a small hidden meaning as part of a larger idea. Like certain Gothic cathedrals that seem to the perfunctory visitor only a marvellous confusion of colours and forms, but are in fact complicated, precise and immensely imaginative edifices of the mind, the Temptation too holds more than just a playful jumble of archetypes and situations. A generous observer may even detect a faint reflection of the glorious argot, or art got, that could heave the artistic genius of this particular era into regions which have never been reached again. Parable, fairy tale and symbol are as old as mankind itself. They meander like shimmering glass-beads through the history of civilization, and those who took their time and threaded them on a string in the proper order held in the end a gem in their hands that was more valuable than all the gold in the world. In other words: who would have suspected the Cretan Minotaur to be our inner monkey that needs to be overcome? You, esteemed reader? If yes, take heart! |
