Instytut Historii Sztuki <Posen> [Hrsg.]: Artium Quaestiones (18.2007)

POWOŁANIE ŚW. MATEUSZA CARAYAGGIA. STUDIUM Z HERMENEUTYKI OBRAZU

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Thanks to such a medial constitution of the work's meaning, existing within a
tradition, it cannot be reduced to the meanings carried by that tradition. Of course,
also a change in iconography - for instance, showing Matthew not as a bearded man,
but as a youth - can make a given painting innovative with respect to its tradition.
This, however, is not the case of all the ensuing works showing Matthew as a youth.
The work remains irreducible to its tradition if it shows itself as an origin. The
originai character of the work consists in its revealing the truth in a way which is
unique. The work reveals its truth thanks to its media! aspect. Only in one work is
the relationship between representation and surface such as it is, and not different.
This relationship does not pertain only to sensory perception, sińce the truth of the
work must be understood. The work is to be understood, and not just aesthetically
experienced, when it reveals itself as a meaningful process going on in the specta-
tor's perception. It is thanks to the work's own meaning that it brings something
new to its tradition.