Searching for understanding
October 8th
I could see this painting from across the room in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. I could tell from the distance that there is something different, something unusual about it. From where I was standing, I couldn't make out the details, but the dominant color (or rather the lack of it) of this painting was so out of the place among other late Northern Renaissance paintings on the walls there, that I had to make my way there right away.
I didn't even keep the routine that I developed for visiting the museums and galleries. It sounds simple, but in actuality is quite complex. I start by scanning the room I enter, then I make an assessment about which work of art seems interesting and might require more of my attention. Then I turn to the left and make my way painting by painting, sculpture by sculpture looking for something, anything to arrest my attention on it — and if there is non, I move on. Once I surveyed the room, I go back to the works of art I noticed at the first glimpse and study them at length and make notes (mental or a photo of a description note). Then I move to the next room, but still many times I feel the need to go back to the rooms previously seen to check some detail or make another note about something.
In the case of this painting — I just ignored everything else on display and walked right to it. At first, I thought that this painting is simply unfinished. There are examples in museums where an unfinished painting is still on display because of its rarity or provenance, or simply because of skill already on display even without the finishing touches. But that is not the case with this painting. Even though most of the surface is white and looks like requiring color, there are subtle but easily visible shadows and hues creating the texture and depth. But why — all the clothing and buildings are COMPLETELY WHITE?
I have never seen any painting from that era that is even close to the monochrome effect of this one. What made a painter (an anonymous painter, since there is no name attached to the creator) produce a painting like that? Was that some exercise in creativity and abstract thinking? Was that received well by other painters or benefactors? Did this painter go on to create more paintings — but this time in a more regular style of the time? I tried to find more information about it online, but outside of it being listed on the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts website, there are no mentions of it or any explanations or specialist descriptions of it. A mystery, and it seems like no art historian or critic tackled it so far. At least not in English, since I was looking for answers in that language.
Five hundred years ago, an unknown painter created a highly unusual work of art, which has no precedent that I know of. Instead of using colors, he used only different hues of white. Why? And who was that painter? Who was a person who dared to be so revolutionary and different from the accepted style and manner of the time? What was the reception of that painting at that time, and what happened to the artist? Was that the only attempt at ahead-of-the-time creativity? So many questions, and zero answers. At least, that painting will stay with me forever — it is so unusual and mysterious that I simply will not forget it.
