Tristan (Frédérick) : L’Œil d’Hermès
“L’Œil d’Hermès” presents a study of the secret history of occidental painting, through a dialogue between two characters. The author offers a new vision of the signs’ signification and of the pictorial imaginary. Frédérick Tristan leads the way into his research with acuity and humor. By his side, we rediscover the works of art of Dürer, Titian or Delacroix. He creates links between them, lists the significant signs hidden in the shadows of the paintings, and open our eyes on details we never noticed.
2018 / 16 x 20 cm / 208 p. / ISBN : 979-10-92444-64-3
Essay / Art / Iconology / Painting / Art / History
L’Œil d’Hermès is an essay, a novel, a walk through the peculiar time of masterful creations. It offers a new vision of the meaning, and moreover, of the pictorial imaginary. The secret history of the occidental painting is studied through a dialogue between two characters, so as to find the significant signs hidden in paintings, chosen by the author for their mystical potential. For example, in Dürer, Uccello, Tintoret, Titian, Poussin, Turner, or Picasso’s paintings… The mystical gaze of Hermes the messenger decodes the signs hidden by the artists – consciously or not – in their major works of art. What does the obsessing presence of shepherds, horses or angels mean in Giorgone, Poussin or Tintoret’s works ? What strange lesson does the Venus with a mirror, St Georges and the dragon or the Madonna and Child want to give ? The enigma never ends, and never ceased to amaze. The invisible unveils itself in the shadow of the visible. Thanks to this alchemy of forms, a secret content reveals itself, essential to understand the mysteries of the living art, from yesterday and nowadays.
Frédérick Tristan was born in 1931. He is a French poet and writer, and was a professor of iconology at the Institute of Carrières in Paris. He won the Goncourt Price in 1983 for Les Égarés and the Grand Price of Literature in 2000 for the body of his work.
