Društvene predodžbe, slojevi vremena i anticipacija u tri poznata umjetnička djela

Abstract

SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS, TEMPORAL LAYERS AND ANTICIPATION IN THREE FAMOUS WORKS OF ART The paper starts with the conceptual/theoretical approaches to social representations, structures of time, and vision of the future (anticipation) in three works of art. Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes is a model example for illustrating the stated approaches. The concept of social representations (Durkheim, Moscovici, Abric) can be illustrated by the protagonist in Cervantes’ novel. Cervantes’ implicit vision of the future, except a turnover at the end of the novel, is closer to Sancho’s realism and pessimism than Don Quixote’s idealism and optimism. Such a shift in the central field of social awareness has a double impact on the way of understanding social reality. First, complementarity between the central (visionary) and the peripheral area (of everyday experience) of social consciousness is reduced, and contradiction is enhanced. Second, this contradiction exacerbates reversal in the relation between the sublime and banal for the sake of the unfettered market. The conclusive remarks offer a new research field concerning the impact of the subsequent epoch of the Enlightenment on the levelling of the values in the name of both the scientific disenchantments of the world and the expansion of the centrifugal forces of the marketplace. The concept of anticipation is further discussed with two works of art from the Renaissance: Jan van Eyck’s “Portrait of Arnolfini” and Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”. Both works anticipate the coming of capitalism. The first painting points out the function of marriage as the institution of inheritance and accumulation of private property, as a part of the new alliance of power between the new middle class and the old upper (feudal) class. In the second painting, Jesus’ announcement of his death results in the emptying of the moral centre-stage of Christianity. This moment opens the space for the penetration and eventual hegemony of capitalism in society. The morality of the Church is rather provisory and fluctuates between two contrasts: One is the illusion of the return of Jesus, and the other is the rise of the new secular power, the totalitarian capitalism, which does not permit any alternative, as if wanting to replace the “only one God”.