Our first reflex when faced with a work is to rush to these famous “cartels” or labels indicating name, date and title… At the risk of curbing our first intuition. To observe it carefully, the Woman bitten by a snake , sculpture by Auguste Clésinger, looks rather in full orgasm than in pain and its official title responds above all to the politically correct concerns required by academic presentations. A title can put us on the path or, on the contrary, confuse the tracks, as Magritte did with his series La Trahison des images ("This is not a pipe"), when others prove to be as inspired and inspiring as the work – the sculptures of Jean Arp whose poetic names compete with their voluptuous abstract forms: theShepherd of the clouds, star in dreams . With modern and contemporary creation, the trend is towards neutrality (composition, untitled, series), affirming the autonomization of art, the refusal of ease and seduction, as a collective work on the subject tells us.
But what is this snail doing in a Renaissance annunciation? What meaning should be given to this tiny red spot that disturbs the perfect balance of an abstract composition? Why does this barely suggested touch between the two elements of a sculpture give me shivers? It is well known, that the devil is in the details (or even God if we prefer to quote Saint Thomas Aquinas rather than Nietzsche). These small, discreet, unusual elements, a priori harmless, actually constitute an excellent gateway to penetrate the heart of the image.
The detail introduces us to the designer's studio, it establishes a closeness with him.
It is often believed, wrongly, that it takes a ton of knowledge to interpret them; however, it is enough to open the eye as underlined it Daniel Arasse (disappeared in 2003), great specialist of the subject. In the prologue to his work On n'y vu rien , he addresses a colleague, not without affection, some reproaches that take the place of a general warning to the reader: "It seems that you need texts to interpret the paintings, as if you I didn't trust your gaze to see, nor the paintings to show you, by themselves, what the painter wanted to say. To support his point, he takes the opposite view of the analysis she had made of Mars and Venus surprised by Vulcano Tintoretto which he in turn deciphers to make a real vaudeville. The ridiculous gestures of Vulcan the cuckold, his reflection in the small hung mirror revealing the minutes that will follow, the head of Mars the lover protruding from the table where he is hidden, spotted by a little barking pug: all these elements draw the strings of situation comedy around the theme of the unfaithful, tempting and manipulative woman.
Seeing rather than knowing: this is what Arasse teaches us. The art historian is one of those scouts who think outside the box in their discipline to restore our confidence. Without denying the culture and knowledge that make it possible to recognize in a still life a vanity and in a family scene in the open air a holy episode, he affirms that everyone can decipher a work with this infallible weapon that is sight.
Already before him, Aby Warburg (1866–1929), father of modern iconology, had preferred to classification by style, place or era the intrinsic power of the image, the only one capable of delivering us from the “tyranny of the visible”. , giving the details of the painting and, more generally, the details of the story a primary importance. This would allow it to approach non-Western works of art and masterpieces from major museums on an equal footing.
The children of Warburg and Arasse have understood this well: the detail introduces us to the designer's studio, it establishes a closeness with him. What seemed anecdotal – his way of representing an ear, the nails, the locks of hair – betrays his manias and his tics, makes it possible to recognize his paw. And to the hip connoisseur, this expert in the authentication of works of art, to affirm that the Salvator Mundi sold for 450 million dollars on the market is not by Leonardo da Vinci because the awkwardness of the position of the fingers cannot be due to this genius anatomist. Everyone is free to embark on this kind of exercise, at their level, and to train their eye to make it a champion of decryption. Seen in Beaux Arts.