The Seen and the Unseen in Art

Abstract: This article provides a discussion of the relationship between visible and invisible following some ideas of Jean-Luc Marion. Its main argument is that both in art and in iconography it is not the visible that offers a way of access to the invisible, but it is the invisible that makes possible the organization, the depth and, finally, the meaning of the visible. Thus, the gaze is not an instrument that follows the forms and the things of the world, but a response to the calling of the invisible that is neither recognized, nor interpreted, but still present and irreducible.

Keywords: Visible, Invisible, Gaze, Icon, Painting, Jean-Luc Marion