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DOI Artikel:Poprzęcka, Maria: "And I still see their faces": on Jan Matejko's Physiognomies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18938#0110
6. Jan Matejko, The Union of Lublin, 1C69, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe, on lcan at the
Lublin, Muzeum Okręgowe
One of the oldest ideas underlying the history of the repressentation of physiognomies derives
from the theory of rhetoric and says that "one shouiil be silent rather than saying too much".
It is illustrated by an anecdote of Apelles painting the sacriphice of Iphigenia. Having run
out of means of expression, he covered Agamemnoms face in order to "let the spectator feel
what he has experienced in his own heart"49. This concept moderates and alters another prin-
ciple, wrought by Alberti, according to which a sto;-y will move the spectator if the people
represented in a picture reveal their emotions as expiicitly as possible00. Matejko, who usually
oscillated between various principles of representation, here obeys the latter. The principle
of occasional silence was quite alien to him. As in olher layers adding up to the structure of
a painting, he leaves no undcrstatement in the area of 'expression' either, to be complemented
by the spectator. On the contrary, means of characterization are used to excess. There is no
blank space, no screen for the viewer to project his expectations, reminiscences, "promptings
of the heart" upon. Meanwhile, "in our response to expression no less than in our reading of
representation, our expectations of possiblities and probabilities must come into play"61. Here,
Gombrich's observation that the influx of information within a painting may both weaken
and enhance one's impression, is confirmed. Every image-shaping factor, the means by which
an illusion of space and time are created, gestures and mimicry should contain a carefully ba-
lanced Ioad of information, sufficient for the spectator's finding his bearings and indentifi-
cation, but not overwhelming and difficult to understand. When the viewer's attention is dis-
tracted, and he is attacked by faces as formally insistent as intenscly expressive, it acts as a check
to the imagination and weakens tension.
49. The anecdote is quoted by puintilianns in M. Fabii Ouintiliani De Institutionc Jratoria, Libri XII, II; X!H, 13—14, Lei-
pzig, 1829, I, p. 100. It was introduced into modern thought on art by Alberti, op. cii., p. 40.
50. L. B. Alberti, On painting, op. cit., p. 77.
51. Gombrich, Art and Illusion..., loc. ci'., p. 316.
96
Lublin, Muzeum Okręgowe
One of the oldest ideas underlying the history of the repressentation of physiognomies derives
from the theory of rhetoric and says that "one shouiil be silent rather than saying too much".
It is illustrated by an anecdote of Apelles painting the sacriphice of Iphigenia. Having run
out of means of expression, he covered Agamemnoms face in order to "let the spectator feel
what he has experienced in his own heart"49. This concept moderates and alters another prin-
ciple, wrought by Alberti, according to which a sto;-y will move the spectator if the people
represented in a picture reveal their emotions as expiicitly as possible00. Matejko, who usually
oscillated between various principles of representation, here obeys the latter. The principle
of occasional silence was quite alien to him. As in olher layers adding up to the structure of
a painting, he leaves no undcrstatement in the area of 'expression' either, to be complemented
by the spectator. On the contrary, means of characterization are used to excess. There is no
blank space, no screen for the viewer to project his expectations, reminiscences, "promptings
of the heart" upon. Meanwhile, "in our response to expression no less than in our reading of
representation, our expectations of possiblities and probabilities must come into play"61. Here,
Gombrich's observation that the influx of information within a painting may both weaken
and enhance one's impression, is confirmed. Every image-shaping factor, the means by which
an illusion of space and time are created, gestures and mimicry should contain a carefully ba-
lanced Ioad of information, sufficient for the spectator's finding his bearings and indentifi-
cation, but not overwhelming and difficult to understand. When the viewer's attention is dis-
tracted, and he is attacked by faces as formally insistent as intenscly expressive, it acts as a check
to the imagination and weakens tension.
49. The anecdote is quoted by puintilianns in M. Fabii Ouintiliani De Institutionc Jratoria, Libri XII, II; X!H, 13—14, Lei-
pzig, 1829, I, p. 100. It was introduced into modern thought on art by Alberti, op. cii., p. 40.
50. L. B. Alberti, On painting, op. cit., p. 77.
51. Gombrich, Art and Illusion..., loc. ci'., p. 316.
96