Ambiguity in the heart, art and science by Marcus C. Schaub

Abstract

Fig. 1. Ikaros in the Sky. Cutout colored paper in 1943 by Henri Matisse. Published in “Jazz” by Teriade, Edition Verve, Paris, 1947. 7th International AsconaWorkshop on Cardiomyocyte Biology, which focused on cardiac pathways of differentiation, metabolism and contraction, reveals a common notion appearing towards the end in each of them. Most material deals with basic science, but opens by mentioning the demographic socio-economic burden of high morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases in technologically developed countries. Usually the circle gets closed at the end of the article. The endings are characterized by a transition from the precisely defined argumentative presentation of scientific facts to a more open not to say vague escape into speculation on “... potential opening of avenues for new therapeutic strategies”. We all know the trick that is needed to land research grant support. However, such ambiguity is not only reigning in science but is also typical for the representational arts. For illustration let's start with a paradigmatic aside by viewing Henri Matisse's picture of Ikaros in the Sky (Fig. 1). The dominant feature in this picture is his radiant red heart. It may serve as a metaphor for the ambiguity in art and science. We all know the story of Daidalos, the doyen of the Athenian craftsmanship, and his son Ikaros,whowere kept captive onKreta by the king Minos. To fly from the island Kreta, Daidalos constructed wings for his son and himself, by fixing together bird's feathers with wax. The father warned his son not to fly too high getting too close to the sun; otherwise, the sun's heat would melt the wax, loosen the feathers and cause him to fall back to earth. Ikaros, however, enjoying the newly gained freedom of flight couldn't help flying higher and higher into the sky until the unavoidable fate set in and he lost his feathers. The French painter Henri Matisse just captured this very moment of Ikaros using cutouts of colored paper (Fig. 1) when he had to give up brush painting because of severe polyarthritis. What is Matisse showing in this cutout? Has Ikaros resigned and is falling back, or is he still struggling to gain height? He just might experience an unprecedented new feeling of elation at the very moment of absolute weightlessness before the spacecraft era. Whatever he feels, he seems to feel it by heart. Ikaros has his heart on the right spot, which is onhis left;we, however, see it on the right. This is unlikely to be amedical problem; Ikaroswas not reported to suffer fromtheKartagener syndrome with “situs inversus” (described in 1933 by Max Kartagener, a physician fromZurich). It'smore likely to be an optical gimmick.Weperceive Ikaros as amirror image as if we looked ourselves into amirror; andwhat is the mirror doing? It simply reverses front and back (but neither left–right nor up–down). This reveals another ambiguity inMatisse's cutout; are we