watercolor,gouache,ink/paper, three sheets sewn together with string, 30 x 71 cm
signed, dated and inscribed in ink p.d.: Zbigniew Makowski 14.V.1991. according to Rosso Fiorentino
on the reverse, inscription along the upper edge in pencil: Maddalena | 1991 | 30 x 71
"10 - II - 1992 is the first version of the Triptych. The second, slightly larger one has in the Right [illegible] instead of this Sphere here (in the style: Banal International) a SPIRAL, which makes the whole thing towards Borromini. Funny: Rosso Fiorentino * 1494 * Borromini 1599. I'm under so much stress that only doing Combination Triptychs can provoke me to work (an anecdote about Wolfgang Amadeé and how he was forced out of bed)."
"Il Rosso non aveva la natura speculativa del Pontormo, ma amava vivere la vita del nobile. Fu un tipico artista del manierismo, con tutta la fantasia e l'irrationalismo che comportava questo stile. - A PAWIAN? - you will ask, - and MAJTS? - and PARIS? it was SIMPLICITY AND "NATURALITY" (!); I colori brillanti accentuano e isolano le figure individuali (Frederick Antal La Pittura Tra Classicismo e Manierismo) this pathetic theatricality bypassed me was in 1955 when I gave up the HORIZONTAL version of the Diploma Picture (for the world of RATIONALITY thus, CONCEPT, HIPOSTAS, "LOVE") in favor of the dark and menacing towards the so-called "IRRACIALIZATION". "IRRACIALISM" pushing tendencies and a little un ravissement de l'âme tout entière (Karl Jaspers - Strindberg et Van Gogh), - but more tragism from Miguel de Unamuno although in 1955 it was not the most welcome name but if I invoked Richard Crashaw I would ridicule myself most completely: in good taste. Zbigniew Makowski 14.V.1991 according to Rosso Fiorentino; Sphaeram claudit curvatura [should be: quadratura]/Et sub ipsa clauditur./In hac Verbi copula/Stupet omnis regula/ Alanus ab Insulis/A Lille, ville dont elle est originaire".
The work presented here is an example of the multithreaded nature of Zbigniew Makowski's compositions, which combined motifs and themes sometimes distant in meaning. We are also dealing here with a quotation from ancient art - the female figure in the central part was copied from the painting "Removal from the Cross" (1521) by the Italian mannerist painter Rosso Fiorentino. In the texts beneath the drawings, we find the names of philosophers Karl Jaspers and Miguel de Unamuno, as well as English Baroque metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw or French medieval theologian Alan of Lille. The fragment of Alan's verse cited by Makowski refers to the idea of the squaring of the circle, the mystical meaning of the sphere and the mystery of the incarnation of Christ (the work Magistri Alani de Insulis de Incarnatione Christi Rhytmus).
Makowski's compositions are a kind of rebus. Reading the meaning of the drawings, following the recalled names of ancient and contemporary authors, we discover the secrets of the intellectually sophisticated world of the artist and humanist Zbigniew Makowski.
