Fabienne Verdier- Retables, Waddington Custot, London - Flipbook - Page 16
I
THE DOORWAY
TO TWO
WORLDS
It began with a collection of texts, and even fragments of texts, accumulated over the years by Marguerite Yourcenar during her reading. Whenever an excerpt illuminated her journey through life, she preserved it.
These were thoughts that resonated with her own unspoken reflections and
revealed the inexpressible with clarity and precision. By drawing on the
refined experiences of others, she was able to articulate the most essential lessons life had taught her. Without creating a dichotomy between East
and West, her choices highlighted their shared values. In 1987, Marguerite
Yourcenar presented this narrative to her readers under the title La Voix des
choses. In this work, the renowned author of L’Œuvre au noir and Mémoires
d’Hadrien revealed the significant role mystical poetry had played in shaping
her perception of reality. She demonstrated how the intuition of creators
often aligns with the pursuit of knowledge. How often had science, initially
lagging, validated artistic insights! Take, for example, the British poet Francis
Thompson (1859–1907), who wrote, “All things by immortal power, / Near or
far, / Hiddenly / To each other linkèd are”. A century later, quantum physics
would identify this as the phenomenon of entanglement, where the alteration of a specific type of atom in one location instantaneously affects
all linked atoms, regardless of distance. A renowned mathematician once
asserted that equations are always correct, even when we fail to understand
them. To what extent might this premise also apply to the great poets? “Who
can discover the hidden power within everything?” This question, posed by
the philosopher Zhuang Zhou in the 4th century BCE, remains unanswered.
Astrophysicists have calculated that 68.3% of the energy in the universe is of
an unknown nature, alongside 26.8% of dark matter about which we know
nothing. This is a daunting mystery for a mind that continually encounters
its own limitations. Will we one day find a way to expand our cognitive
capacity to the realms poets have already explored? Marguerite Yourcenar’s
meticulously assembled compendium found its way, not by chance, into the
hands of the young Fabienne Verdier, whose work had already begun to
probe this unknown (this not-known) inscribed in the depths of silence. Like
the novelist, she traversed the frontier – less opaque than often believed —
between Western and Eastern thought. A door had been opened, and the
words gathered by one would illuminate the path for another.
From the Seine Valley where I live, I traverse the old Vexin region to visit
Fabienne Verdier’s house near the banks of the Oise. It’s a route I know well,
one that connects the worlds of Monet, Van Gogh and many other painters.
Our meeting had been set long ago – much earlier than our exchange of
contact details the previous week. Ever since reading Fabienne Verdier’s
book Passagère du silence some fifteen years earlier, I’ve followed her work,
captivated by the power and uniqueness of her creativity, without – until
now – having considered the reason for this appeal. Her references to Caspar
David Friedrich struck a chord with me, as I am ever alert for signs of transcendence. The great German Romantic painter was renowned for his ability
to explore the invisible — the hidden forces behind appearances that guide
our steps and the course of the universe. With the Tetschen Altar, created to
adorn a chapel, Friedrich revolutionised Christian art by imbuing the landscape with a sacredness equal to that of a Crucifixion. In closing Fabienne
Verdier’s book, the evident affinity of our sensibilities gave me the sense
16
Caspar David Friedrich
The Cross in the Mountains
(Tetschen Altar)
1808
