그리스 상고기 메두사 도상의 재현 양식과 응시의 면(面)으로서의 회화 (The Mode of Representation of Medusa in the Archaic Period and Painting as Plane of the Gaze)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 서양미술사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 서양미술사학회 논문집 / 29호 / 85 ~ 107페이지
· 저자명 : 정유경

초록

미술사에서 종종 그리스적 자연주의의, 혹은 이상주의의 시발점으로 보는 기원전 5세기는 정치적으로 아테네의 민주정이 실험되던 때였다. 시민계급에 의한 민주정은 인간중심적 신화론과 더불어 기존의 신화를 재단하기 시작했다. 이 논문이 주목하는 것은 그와 같은 변화가 일어나기 이전, 상고 시대의 신화가 시각예술 분야, 특히 도기화에서 어떻게 생산되고 소비되었는가 하는 지점들이다. 그 가운데서도 올림포스 종교 이전의 다양한 신앙적 요소들을 두루 내포하고 있는 고르곤 메두사 신화의 도상을 통해 상고시대 문화의 활기는 물론 시각 이미지의 위상이 어떠했는지 고찰해 보고자 한다.

영어초록

Medusa, the one among three Gorgons, and her decapitation by Perseus have been one of the most popular subjects in the Greek art, specially during the archaic period. Different from the voyeuristic staging of the following classical period, the visual image with the gaze then has a power to affect the real life immediately. In that sense, the archaic mode of representation of Medusa could be classified into three types: the goddess type originated from Potnia Theron, the near eastern nature deity who protected and ruled wild animals; the chasing scene from Hesiodian narrative, where the hero, Perseus flees from two terrifying sisters of Medusa; gorgoneion, the face of the Gorgon as the talisman.

First, the mother goddess used to be a supernatural deity beyond the good and the evil, before the classical order of things were internalized and disciplined. In that period, what was important in a deity is not the humanistic ethics, but the awe of the inhuman power itself. Second, when the mythic narrative was illustrated in a painting, the powerful monsters, not the 'man' hero, were brought into focus. Hence the chasing scene, where the terrified hero is pursued, shows us the two Gorgons with full faces on the bodies in profile. And finally the gorgoneion forms an abstract plane of magical image. That is, a gorgoneion painted on a jar does not simply represent something, in a way that it protects the liquor in the vessel and the person who carries it. Nor the gorgoneion exists as a part of the thing, jar. Gorgoneion can be valid existentially on a certain level between the thing and the lives of the people it affects.

All these three types have in common with having a certain painterliness in such a sense that they are impenetrable but confront us being a plane of gaze. The image that gazes doesn't give us a chance of imagining a space that unfolds itself beyond the picture plane. Instead, it stands there in front of us gazing back to our eyes. During the archaic period, visual images'd have a magical power over everyday lives.

We cannot peep at the gaze of the Medusa. The only possible thing is to confront the gaze experiencing the time got out of joint between the monster's gaze and ours. As a matter of fact, talking about the gaze of Medusa, or conveying someone's experience of looking at it is meaningless.

참고자료

· 없음