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Lot Essay
Executed in 1948, Cosmogonie lmentaire is a painstakingly detailed and meticulously worked gouache that parodies the tradition in Renaissance painting of the reclining nude in a landscape.
Reclining in the foreground of the painting before a spectacularly rocky landscape, an 'anthropoid bilbouquet' or 'Cicerone' contemplates a single leaf which he holds up in the centre of the painting. The 'Cicerone' is a figure made up of a bilbouquet or bannister with the head of a flaming mortar and sporting a robe from classical antiquity. Strange, enigmatic and yet clearly anthropomorphic, the 'Cicerone' are among the most bizarre of Magritte's creations and appear in variety of guises in Magritte's art from the 1930s onwards.
In the present work the flaming fire that pours from the 'Cicerone's' mortar mouth contrasts with the calm and stillness of the wide expanse of sky to create that peculiar sense of silence which so distinguishes the strange world of Magritte's paintings and which he called his 'enchanted domain'. Behind this curious figure with its philosopher's pose, a building-block sky reiterrates the sense that all is not what it seems, while at the same time powerfully suggesting that conventional ideas of reality are nothing more than artificial constructs of our own limited minds.
As Magritte wrote to his friend Andr Bosmans about a very similar work, any attempt to interpret paintings such as Cosmogonie lmentaire in a linear or rational fashion is meaningless.
"A recent experience has made me aware of the gap between intelligences: I have just heard an 'explanation' of a picture I painted...... It would appear that the fire we see in the picture is Prometheus', but also a symbol of war! The character holding a leaf in his hand is supposed to 'represent' peace - the leaf is supposed to be an olive leaf!!! Thus, this picture, etc....I'll stop, because the imagination of amateurs of painting is inexhaustible, but very banal, since such amateurs lack any inspiration whatsoever." (Ren Magritte quoted in a letter to Andr Bosmans, September 20, 1961)
Reclining in the foreground of the painting before a spectacularly rocky landscape, an 'anthropoid bilbouquet' or 'Cicerone' contemplates a single leaf which he holds up in the centre of the painting. The 'Cicerone' is a figure made up of a bilbouquet or bannister with the head of a flaming mortar and sporting a robe from classical antiquity. Strange, enigmatic and yet clearly anthropomorphic, the 'Cicerone' are among the most bizarre of Magritte's creations and appear in variety of guises in Magritte's art from the 1930s onwards.
In the present work the flaming fire that pours from the 'Cicerone's' mortar mouth contrasts with the calm and stillness of the wide expanse of sky to create that peculiar sense of silence which so distinguishes the strange world of Magritte's paintings and which he called his 'enchanted domain'. Behind this curious figure with its philosopher's pose, a building-block sky reiterrates the sense that all is not what it seems, while at the same time powerfully suggesting that conventional ideas of reality are nothing more than artificial constructs of our own limited minds.
As Magritte wrote to his friend Andr Bosmans about a very similar work, any attempt to interpret paintings such as Cosmogonie lmentaire in a linear or rational fashion is meaningless.
"A recent experience has made me aware of the gap between intelligences: I have just heard an 'explanation' of a picture I painted...... It would appear that the fire we see in the picture is Prometheus', but also a symbol of war! The character holding a leaf in his hand is supposed to 'represent' peace - the leaf is supposed to be an olive leaf!!! Thus, this picture, etc....I'll stop, because the imagination of amateurs of painting is inexhaustible, but very banal, since such amateurs lack any inspiration whatsoever." (Ren Magritte quoted in a letter to Andr Bosmans, September 20, 1961)