painting magic
An Archetypal Exploration
Art and magic have been associated with one another from the first scratched petroglyphs and cave paintings. Art has always been a magical act. Some may have been created in broad daylight, but other works were purposefully concealed from full light in darkness, the dim light of the silvery moon, torchlight or deep within caves.
An intentional act, none of the imaginal approach to the artistic gesture was accidental and added to the numinous effect of the creation. Notions of 'like attracts like' built to create a specific magical atmosphere, where art mirrors creation, as exemplified by the camera obscura.
Later artists learned to use a variety of techniques and technologies to enhance their experience as well as result. Hermeticists, for example, were well aware of such psychic effects. They also employed divinatory rites in their expression. In Renaissance art, the addition of realistic perspective, depth of field, and luminosity, made control of light within the canvas crucial. Much depended on the desired influence.
All of the above could potentially relate to the production and look of Salvator Mundi. The prospect it is Leonardo's self-portrait increases the possibility some form of mirror was used in its execution, not to exclude the psychic reflection such an act surely produced.
An intentional act, none of the imaginal approach to the artistic gesture was accidental and added to the numinous effect of the creation. Notions of 'like attracts like' built to create a specific magical atmosphere, where art mirrors creation, as exemplified by the camera obscura.
Later artists learned to use a variety of techniques and technologies to enhance their experience as well as result. Hermeticists, for example, were well aware of such psychic effects. They also employed divinatory rites in their expression. In Renaissance art, the addition of realistic perspective, depth of field, and luminosity, made control of light within the canvas crucial. Much depended on the desired influence.
All of the above could potentially relate to the production and look of Salvator Mundi. The prospect it is Leonardo's self-portrait increases the possibility some form of mirror was used in its execution, not to exclude the psychic reflection such an act surely produced.