DOI Heft:
Nr. 2-3
DOI Artikel:Ławniczakowa, Agnieszka: In the Mirror of a Well: On Jacek Malczewski's self-portraits
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18904#0070
non-surviving image that Wyspiański appended with the poetic coirunent „Knight above the
well" in his drama The Wedding51. The latter, in which the motif of Narcissus is contaminated
with that of a knight (Fig. 23), evoking different values, and the space near the well is filled
with other characters in addition to the lonely artist, Narcissus, started an entire series of pain-
tings, essential tó Malczewski's oeuvre. It was not without reason that the figures placcd behind
the knight, set in the native landscape surrounding the well, are visions already known from
Malczewskfs other paintings. Having this obseryation in mind, we may consider narcissism
from anothcr angle, more fruitful perhaps from the viewpoint of artistic creation. Together
•with Narcissus, the whole world is reflected in the mirror of live water. The world embraces him
and is fed hack by his soul. The mirror of the well above which we lean, placed always in the
centrę of the world, distorting reflected images of heaven and earth, also disturbed by an echo
from the depths of darkness, may be perceived as a metaphor of culture in which people rcaffirm
and recognisc themselves again and again.
We may now travesty Bachelard's words: although the sky and the forests look at thcmselves
in the miiror of the water togethei' with Narcissus, the world is fed back by his soul. The mirror
of the w ell always sends him back an image of his face. Regardless of how the artist might wish
to broaden the domain of his art, to shift its border, to strip the last veil separating him from
the mystery of existence, the world that he has called into being sends him back an image of
his face.
The abyss between the image of the world and the Creator on the one hand, and their inde-
pendent existence on the other, cannot be crossed by reason. Only the all-embracing mind,
God in Malczewski's art, may become aware of its depth. Whether God will be revealed is only
up to him. Ali that man, a creator, can do is to aspire to an act of creation, the ,,prayer of art",
as Malczewski calls it, and reiterate it in the hope of theophany.
This highly metaphorical description of the relation between the phenomenal, which can be
represented in art, and the hidden where, from time immemorial we have seen the very essence
of things, opens an abyss. AU attempts at crossing it recjuire a creative act rendered the most
adequately by the word ,,discovery". Evcry successive lifting of the veil, uncovering of the
longed-for sacredness, only gives access to an illusion of the essence of things. Like everything
else, a closer insight only reveals ouf human condition. We believe that the mysterious essence
that we strive to approach, the independent reality, can be found in various domains of palpable
reality. We want to ,,see" it in materiał objects, the external aspect of which we depict; we
believe that it exists on the piane of our mental functions whose bodily manifestations it reveals:
we tend to see it in the ideas we have created or, according to the believing, in the ideał, eternal
objects. If we aecept the concept of contemporary anthropological philosophy, which sees
certain mythical structures in our life as eternal and unchanging, we may risk saying that the
essence that is continually pursued must evoke fear in addition to adoration — all things sacred
are identified as an ambivalence of good and cvii, against which a metaphorical mask and a sym-
bolic armour are the only protections. Tt is not fully justificd to interpret Małczewski's paintings
as an artistic strivirig for the mercy of theophany, in the eourse of which the profoundly believing
artist should attempt to protect his face magieally with a mask. It is very plausible, however,
that he used this stratagem when, striving to pcnetratc his own artistic self, he was afraid of
looking into the ominous abyss. This may be the mcaning of the represcntation of armed Nar-
cissus lcaning above the mirror of the well.
Translated by Joanna Rolzman
51. Knighl by lito ]Vell, ca. 1900, beuripgs unknowa. Cf. Wyka, op. cii., pp. 52 aud G9.
60
V
well" in his drama The Wedding51. The latter, in which the motif of Narcissus is contaminated
with that of a knight (Fig. 23), evoking different values, and the space near the well is filled
with other characters in addition to the lonely artist, Narcissus, started an entire series of pain-
tings, essential tó Malczewski's oeuvre. It was not without reason that the figures placcd behind
the knight, set in the native landscape surrounding the well, are visions already known from
Malczewskfs other paintings. Having this obseryation in mind, we may consider narcissism
from anothcr angle, more fruitful perhaps from the viewpoint of artistic creation. Together
•with Narcissus, the whole world is reflected in the mirror of live water. The world embraces him
and is fed hack by his soul. The mirror of the well above which we lean, placed always in the
centrę of the world, distorting reflected images of heaven and earth, also disturbed by an echo
from the depths of darkness, may be perceived as a metaphor of culture in which people rcaffirm
and recognisc themselves again and again.
We may now travesty Bachelard's words: although the sky and the forests look at thcmselves
in the miiror of the water togethei' with Narcissus, the world is fed back by his soul. The mirror
of the w ell always sends him back an image of his face. Regardless of how the artist might wish
to broaden the domain of his art, to shift its border, to strip the last veil separating him from
the mystery of existence, the world that he has called into being sends him back an image of
his face.
The abyss between the image of the world and the Creator on the one hand, and their inde-
pendent existence on the other, cannot be crossed by reason. Only the all-embracing mind,
God in Malczewski's art, may become aware of its depth. Whether God will be revealed is only
up to him. Ali that man, a creator, can do is to aspire to an act of creation, the ,,prayer of art",
as Malczewski calls it, and reiterate it in the hope of theophany.
This highly metaphorical description of the relation between the phenomenal, which can be
represented in art, and the hidden where, from time immemorial we have seen the very essence
of things, opens an abyss. AU attempts at crossing it recjuire a creative act rendered the most
adequately by the word ,,discovery". Evcry successive lifting of the veil, uncovering of the
longed-for sacredness, only gives access to an illusion of the essence of things. Like everything
else, a closer insight only reveals ouf human condition. We believe that the mysterious essence
that we strive to approach, the independent reality, can be found in various domains of palpable
reality. We want to ,,see" it in materiał objects, the external aspect of which we depict; we
believe that it exists on the piane of our mental functions whose bodily manifestations it reveals:
we tend to see it in the ideas we have created or, according to the believing, in the ideał, eternal
objects. If we aecept the concept of contemporary anthropological philosophy, which sees
certain mythical structures in our life as eternal and unchanging, we may risk saying that the
essence that is continually pursued must evoke fear in addition to adoration — all things sacred
are identified as an ambivalence of good and cvii, against which a metaphorical mask and a sym-
bolic armour are the only protections. Tt is not fully justificd to interpret Małczewski's paintings
as an artistic strivirig for the mercy of theophany, in the eourse of which the profoundly believing
artist should attempt to protect his face magieally with a mask. It is very plausible, however,
that he used this stratagem when, striving to pcnetratc his own artistic self, he was afraid of
looking into the ominous abyss. This may be the mcaning of the represcntation of armed Nar-
cissus lcaning above the mirror of the well.
Translated by Joanna Rolzman
51. Knighl by lito ]Vell, ca. 1900, beuripgs unknowa. Cf. Wyka, op. cii., pp. 52 aud G9.
60
V