“Convalescence” by Luigi Nono …
“The formal structure of this painting closely recalls Munch’s “The sick child” (So close and yet so far. JMP 2003;1 (2):39), although the sickness of the child is perceived in a deeply different way. While Munch’s painting is dominated by an anguished desperation, here we find the image of a quiet serenity. The cold colors of death in Munch’s painting are opposed to the warm atmosphere, with low but enlightening tones, which Nono offers to our glance. The traces of the brush, almost carved on the canvas, veil the scene in Munch’s painting, in the same way in which our gaze is confused and lost when we face a meaningless pain. The moment of time which is portrayed does not count, it does not describe something that happens, it is the icon of a drama which is communicated more through Einfühlung (empathy) then through the representation of reality. Nono’s realism, with its descriptive precision, brings us into something that happened in a precise time, it tells us about a scene; by doing so, it positively affirms that in a concrete relationship there is the possibility of a point of encounter.”
Read the entire commentary in Journal of Medicine and the Person.