Thomas Baumeister

Merleau-Ponty’s essay about Cézanne’s doubt from 1945 is still de- bated. Merleau-Ponty tries to explain the peculiarities of Cézanne’s pictorial lan- guage, for instance his abandonment of the geometrical perspective, as the expression of, what he calls, the “primordial perception”, which is free from the distortions of metaphysical dualism and modern sciences. There are two main problems here. First, primordiality remains an obscure notion, which may be explained by Cézanne’s work, rather than reversely. Secondly, Merleau-Ponty tends to forget that Cézanne’s perception is first of all a painter’s perception, inspired by the idea of what a painting should be and by a conception of the physical performances by which it comes into being. Cézanne tries to liberate painting from the Albertinian idea that a work is like a window, opening a view on a section of reality. Contrary to this, Cézanne stresses the autonomy of the work, its presence as painted – without giving up its contact to the reality depicted.

Noi non abbiamo alcuna percezione immediata di noi stessi, del nostro aspetto esteriore, della nostra mimica e del nostro modo di muoverci. L'articolo esamina come questa circostanza si rifletta nell'arte dell'autoraffigurazione, analizzando gli autoritratti di Dürer e quelli dell'ultimo Rembrandt. Mentre Dürer tenta di realizzare quasi un'icona di se stesso, sottraendo la sua immagine al potere discrezionale dell'altro, Rembrandt esprime nei suoi autoritratti la meraviglia per il carattere accidentale della propria esistenza. Proprio gli ultimi autoritratti di Rembrandt ci mostrano come il carattere difettivo della presenza a se stessi, sia il presupposto per una più libera relazione con sé e con gli altri.We don't have any immediate perception of ourselves, our outward appearence, our gestures and the way we move. The article discusses the relation between this aspect and self-portraiture by means of an analysis of Dürer's and old Rembrandt's self-portraits. While Dürer attempts to make an icon out of himself, withdrawing his image from others' discretionary power, in his self-portrait expresses Rembrandt his astonishment in front of the accidental character of his own existence. Rembrandt's late self-portraits show exactly that the defective character of self-perception is the pre-condition for a freer relationship with oneselves and others.