Lo! as they said in the Old Testament, expressing surprise.
The face has moved into the "center" of this section.
But is that meaningful? It would be more important to ascertain the rhythm
of its appearance (and reappearance), in the context of the entire art
work.
We witness, however, in this very section, something else
that is relevant: a condensation of elements that appears to me like
a whirling current, an eddy. The gentle flow has turned into something
more dynamic. On the left corner, the "water-leaf" elements have
clustered more densely than ever, filling, in an extremely compact
way, the interior of a tall, vertically directed rectangle. Thus two otherwise
separate elements of the work - flowing "water-leaves" and "rectangles"
- coincide, forming a synthesis. It is another indication of the condensation
and the added dynamics occuring here that I already noted with regard to
the "movements" of the "streaming" textual elements.
The attention commanded by this segment of the "frieze"
is emphasized by a further element not noticed before: the presence of
a stencil form, the form of an open, almost "pointing" hand. As if pointing
the way, it appears to me. Is it true that it seems to tell us we should
read the "frieze" from left to right? Here, at least, it forms almost a
semi-circle above the head of the woman. A crown, an aureole? Who can tell.
An emphasis, okay, and no more. And a long blue horizontal rectangle (at
the bottom) as well as a smaller, narrow, vertical rectangle (at the right)
complete the encirclement that was begun by the dark block filled with
water-leaves, and by the hands...
Looking again, for moments, I believed I was seeing that
text fragments to the left and the right of the female head were flowing
hair, tossed up by the wind.
Another text fragment appeared to me like the collar
of a blouse.
I saw text fragments that were like arms spread out,
I saw a text fragment that was like the visible part
of her body.
The pensive, thinking woman - constituted, at least in
part, by text?
What a beautiful metaphor!
What a way to destroy the illusions of naturalistic representation!
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