Zrcadlení Cézannem: poznámka k teorii obrazu u Maurice Merleau-Pontyho

Abstract

The study addresses the interpretation of the French painter Paul Cézanne’s art in the thinking of Maurice Merleau-Ponty in 1945. The interpretation is mostly seen as a part of Merleau-Ponty’s argumentation of the phenomenology of perception, but the method itself that Merleau-Ponty used to formulate the meaning of Cézanne’s art is neglected. The study endeavors to connect this overlooked aspect of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking with the art-historical interpretation of Cézanne’s work during the 1930s, combining Merleau-Ponty’s argument with the interpretation of Cézanne’s work articulated by the Viennese art historian Fritz Novotny. The supposition of this comparison is Merleau-Ponty’s direct connection to Novotny when the question arises as to how Merleau-Ponty reacted to late art-historical modernism and by what steps could he transform the perception of fine arts at the end of World War II when, in history and art theory, there is considered to be a fissure between pre-war modernity and the beginning of the “science of the image”.

Keywords

• maurice merleau-ponty
• paul cézanne
• fritz novotny
• perception
• inhumanity
• medium
• image