ZUZANNA. CO MY WIDZIEM NA TYM OBRAZKU?

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zwlaszcza jako poprowadzenie ku widzowi po stopniach w dôï, a przy tym
scisle pionowymi liniami, szlaku od pustego miejsca ku dolnemu brzego-
wi pola i w poblize stopy Zuzanny. Stawia on widza wobec mozliwosci za-
jçcia tego miejsca i sposobôw zmierzania ku niemu. Jako alternatywç dla
wielorako opresyjnego i przesïaniajgcego obraz sposobu „starcôw” stawia
drogç „przez wodç”, tworzgcg wgskie, ale ciggngce siç przez calg szero-
kosc pola pasmo przy dolnym brzegu. Zanurzona w niej stopa Zuzanny
nie pozwala przeoczyc tego brzegu jako po prostu (?!) ciçcia, ale kaze do-
swiadczyc jako granicy. Dopowiada prawo zajçcia „pustego miejsca” przez
tego, kto dojdzie tam „przez obraz”, bo tylko ta droga pozwala rozeznac
prawo.

SUSANNA. WHAT CAN WE SEE IN THIS PICTURE?
Summary

The présent paper contributes to a discussion of a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi. It
does not either confirm or reject this attribution, but includes an attempt to account for
the visual expérience of the painting and to point to those important éléments of its struc-
ture which hâve not been noticed due to the hitherto accepted interpretive perspective.
The list begins with a reference to some fragments of Erwin Panofsky’s account of the sta-
tues by Michelangelo which are supposed to help us grasp a feature of the painting that
can be tentatively defïned as a relation of “modernity” and “youthfulness”: to consider it as
a démonstration of expertise; as evidence of the acquired skill. The uniqueness of the re-
présentation of the subject consists in the récognition of the potential and spécifie charac-
ter of the pictorial matter: this allows for saturation with meaning whose source remains
ungraspable, making the presented action virtually inévitable and, as it were, inde-
pendent of the painted figures. A resuit of the study of the medium is the effect of density
and augmentation, which is also the evidence of skill and mastery, of the perfect command
of the craft and ultimate quality, as well as of the impression of modernity of the minimal,
pure, and laboratory-like structure. The analysis reveals such moments as the multiple
marking of the order of surface which is also related to the placement and pose of Susan-
na, including the relation with the empty space right next to her, the différence in the re-
lationship of the figures with the borders of their respective areas, the mutual bond be-
tween both “elders,” the unusual play of the hands, etc. Considérations of this kind make
us suppose that the initially recognized feature of the painting, i.e., augmentation obtained
thanks to the anchoring of meaning in specifically pictorial éléments pertains also to the
conditions and conveying of the message inhérent in the moral of the fable or, rather to the
indication who abides the law and what the relationship of the presented situation to the
law is. This is shown by a reference to the instance on which everything (i. e., everything
that can become visible) actually dépends - the surface of the pictorial fleld. Susanna is
suspended between the effort to reach the edge of the fïeld and the “empty space.” Her body
is arranged according to the “innervation” of the field, except for the points of particular