The meaning of a painting or the painting of meaning. Merleau-Ponty and Cézanne

Abstract

This paper is primarily an attempt to examine the way in which the problems of painting appear in the phenomenology of M. Merleau-Ponty. The initial philosophical assumption for this analysis is Merleau-Ponty?s stance on the primacy of perceptual consciousness, which largely determined the framework of thought and imposed the direction of research which Merleau-Ponty followed, most notably in his later works. The central part of this paper focuses on Merleau-Ponty?s analysis of C?zanne?s body of work. The problem of truth in painting of which C?zanne speaks and Merleau-Ponty?s analyses of the inner logos of perceptual experience represent the crucial connections between these two creators and are thus the focal point of this paper. The painting?s way of being, the relationship between the visible and the invisible, and the establishing of a new ontology are topics the author addresses in the final part of this paper.