Carl Justi

More Snippets III –
Carl Justi

I have always considered Velázquez’ rendering of the Villa Medici as being a staging (and reflection upon) a blocked view. But it is always good to juxtapose one’s own view with that of another, possibly more imaginative viewer. Like for example that of German art historian Carl Justi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Justi).

(Picture: DS)

If walking along one side of the Basel Zoologischer Garten one might hear, occasionally, sounds of exotic animals, but, all in all, there is not much to see from outside. Another side is presently a construction site, and the view is, or was yesterday, surprisingly open, as the boundaries that separate the inside and the outside, were somehow in re-negotiation, and for moments, it even seemed that one might go down to the elephant to say hello.

What I find interesting in the picture by Velázquez is that it beautifully defines a being on this side (as the beholder), alludes to a beyond (the park, the trees), and also mysteriously defines a space intbetween. A zone of transition, as it were, a door system, a fence of perception, but it is somewhat wider, that zone, than a mere fence, and what is going on within this transition zone might be the actual question raised by this mysterious picture.
For Carl Justi however, in his famous Velázquez monograph, it was seemingly not about the depth of the picture, but rather about the visible plane, or surface:

»Das Motiv des zweiten Bildchens ist der Kontrast einer weißgetünchten Halle, bekrönt von einer Marmor-Balustrade, mit der tiefdunklen Steineichenmasse darüber, durch die in schmalen Spalten das weißglühende Licht des Himmels bricht. Die dreifache Öffnung der Wand mit dem auf jonischen Säulen ruhenden Bogen in der Mitte, ganz ähnlich jener Loggia, ist mit einem elenden Bretterverschlag vernagelt; rechts in der Nische eine Statue.«

This ressembles rather the description of the building of a shop closed, except that the light is coming through from behind the scenery. But as Justi continues his description, he goes on to touch upon what is, or what might be going on, within what I called a zone of transition, with its personal, and the statues as quasi-witnesses. And his sarcastically-imaginative description, that also bears on a dimension of time, is worth quoting:

»Andere Maler hätten diesen Punkt von den unwürdigen Zuthaten und dem gemeinen Volk gesäubert, mit feiner Gesellschaft, bunt wie die Blumenparterres staffiert. Der Spanier giebt uns die freilich auch mit zum genius loci gehörenden Vernachläßigung und Verbauerung, der diese fürstlichen Anlagen dort im zweiten Geschlecht zu verfallen pflegten. Auf der Balustrade oben, wo sonst Römerinnen sich fächelten, hängt eine knoblauchduftende schwarzäugige ragazza ihre schadhafte Wäsche zum trocknen auf (wo hängt sie nicht?) und bemüht sich, die Herzenserleichterungen zweier Lümmel zu verstehn, dort unten an den Buxhecken, die eigentlich bestimmt waren, von den seidenen Talaren einherschwebender Monsignori und geheimer Kämmerer gestreift zu werden. Eine Herme hinter dem Bux hat sich als zweiter Horcher hinzugesellt. –«

(Picture: screeninsight.blogspot.com)

This strikes me almost as an exposé for a Peter Greenaway movie, but it we stay within the realm of painting, one might ask: does everyone see the blackeyed ragazza, and does everybody confirm her scent of garlic and that the laundry, that Velázquez staged right in the very center of this picture, needs mending?
I must confess (but I have never seen the original) that I am not sure that I can confirm that there is actually a ragazza, and we may proceed now to enlarge the center of the painting, inspired by a recent retrospective, dedicated to the movie Blowup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowup). But it is exactly this very movie that might teach us also that a picture is not necessarily the right place to look, if there is actually something we suspect might be there (while not being one hundred percent sure, but the picture is all we have at hand).
So what we encounter with Justi’s description might be called ›imaginative‹, which means, what we find in the picture, according to his description, is actually and originally, partly or mainly, coming from within his own head, or, if we conceed to Justi an awareness for the philosophical problem that might be called the fence of perception problem, he might also just be playing with this very problem, with his description, knowing that what he says is, off course, not actually (or not wholly) visible, but this is what the picture inspires in him.
To tell what exactly Justi is doing here, alas, we cannot proceed without deciding if a ragazza is actually there or not (speaking of the mere iconographical being there of someone). But be it that she is there or not – it is, in any case, the interaction between two or three persons, staged in or close to a zone of transition, that we are watching. And may this snippet inspire more versions of what is actually going on (possibly with also an enlarged personal, be it visible or not, and including an elephant or not), beyond the ›fence‹, on this side, or inbetween.

(Picture: DS)

(Picture: DS)

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