The artist seeks the invisible through the visible. He is however worried by iconoclasts and wants to ground his position in theory.
At the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 (33) after much debate and argument it was decided that the more frequently images of God and saintly holy men are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember them and long for those who serve as models. The argument was in particular related to the earlier Epitome of the Definition of the Iconoclastic Conciliabulum held in 754 which declared: "Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and removed and cursed from the Christian Church every likeness which is made out of any material and colour whatever by the evil art of painters.... If anyone ventures to represent the divine image of the Word after the Incarnation with material colours, let him be anathema! .... If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, let him be anathema!"
The Edict of Yazid was also debated at the Second Council, and the fact that the Islamic Caliph had supposedly declared that every representational painting be destroyed and thoroughly abolished, was used as a political argument to support the fact that a Christian edict should determine a necessary difference in doctrine.
Despite awareness that history repeats itself (34) and that religious doctrine can be determined by political realities the artist has decided to continue with his quest. He sets out to describe an invisible spirit and begins to create a series of small dashes that gradually define the outline of a female human form. (35) Within these lines he paints the continuation of a landscape that appears to be seen through the woman’s figure. He believes he has hit upon a unique form of popular religious painting that also recognises the role of nature and the spirit of Rousseau. However, when there is nothing to see, what do we see? Perhaps entoptic phenomena are the only images that have travelled with us from the earliest times, the artist’s lines a bear close resemblance to dashed lines in Paleolithic art.
33 The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 issued a statement to this effect: ... we declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us. One of these is the production of representational art; this is quite in harmony with the history of the spread of the gospel, as it provides confirmation that the becoming man of the Word of God was real and not just imaginary, and as it brings us a similar benefit. For, things that mutually illustrate one another undoubtedly possess one another's message. ... we decree with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments, on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways; these are the images of our Lord, God and saviour, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without blemish, the holy God-bearer, and of the revered angels and of any of the saintly holy men. The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature, but it resembles that given to the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred cult object.
34 A reference to the opening sentences of Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852). The actual words were: "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."
35 The animated TV series Rugrats, introduced a parody character, Miss Invisible, in the episode "Mega Diaper Babies"; in the same episode, another invisible character appears called "Dotted-Line Girl". This character is in turn a knowing reference to how Susan Storm the Invisible Girl of Marvel Comic’s Fantastic Four was usually depicted by the artist Jack Kirby. Rugrats: Season 3, Episode 21 First broadcast: 13 March 1994.
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