Magic!

Once I had joined the History of Art class (we now call it Art History) I entered a world of paintings.

 

This was one of the first which caught my attention: Van Eyck's Madonna with Canon van der Paele. 

 

Somehow, until this point, paintings like this had been a blur to me. Now I scrutinised every square centimetre. A passion bordering on the erotic was born in me for the representation of folds in textiles. I shared the artist's delight in the prayerbook text showing through the lens of the old man's pince-nez. I revelled in recognising Cain and Abel, Samson and the lion on the armrests of the throne.

 

But it was a highly-magnified view of one of the gems on St George's armour which set me on a path. What had been a globular gemstone, blazing with captured and refracted light, was revealed as an arrangement of subtle colours with a dash of brilliant white. I became aware (in a flash, as it were) of the remarkable - even magical - illusion created by artists. The artist had created a reality for me - a reality which could carry significance and meaning - out of pigment suspended in oil and arranged on a surface.

 

This revelation will re-occur again and again, as we consider artwork from my friends in Lascaux to the latest entry for the Turner Prize.