“The Anamorphic Journey”: Jean‐Luc Marion on Revelation

Abstract

AbstractIn part four of D'ailleurs, la Révélation (2020) Jean‐Luc Marion evokes the state of being seized by a saturated phenomenon, whether divinely revelatory or not, which guides one “across the desert on an anamorphic journey [parcours d'anamorphose].” The figure of anamorphosis is well‐known to anyone familiar with sixteenth‐century art, visual or literary; it comes directly from experiments with mirrors or perspective, giving rise with the latter to examples of affine transformation. Undoubtedly, Hans Holbein the Younger's double portrait “The Ambassadors” (1533) is the best‐known visual example: if one looks directly at the canvas in the National Gallery in London, one sees a diagonal blur across its bottom center, beneath Jean de Dinteville (1504‐1555), French Ambassador to London, and Georges de Selve (1508‐1541), Bishop of Lavaur and French Ambassador to the Republic of Venice. Only when one views the blur from a particular point—either low on the left‐hand side or high on the right‐hand side—can one see that it is a skull. The vanity of human achievement or, worse, human pride, is made manifest only when the artwork is viewed from a perspective that one is constrained to adopt. The sole sign of hope is a crucifix in the top left of the canvas.