"Porro unum est necessarium": gratuità del dono e travaglio della poesia
Grace and Gratuitousness are related categories as their etymology confirms. Their close relationship can be perceived when we reflect on certain guidelines evidenced by artists and poets in different periods and cultures. With a light but intense gesture, the creator, "full of grace", fir...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Print Article |
Language: | Italian |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Olschki
2004
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In: |
Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa
Year: 2004, Volume: 40, Issue: 2, Pages: 217-254 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Grace
/ Gratitude
/ Arts
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RelBib Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture |
Summary: | Grace and Gratuitousness are related categories as their etymology confirms. Their close relationship can be perceived when we reflect on certain guidelines evidenced by artists and poets in different periods and cultures. With a light but intense gesture, the creator, "full of grace", first gives abstract form in his mind and then concrete realisation to the work that he offers future generations as a free gift, cancelling the painful labour that led it to its birth. The work of art is a gift that requires nothing in exchange because it cannot be valued in economic terms; it represents the increase and usury of nothing. But it is just the uselessness of art and poetry that constitutes the basis of their necessity. As in the allegorical story of Martha and Mary in the Gospel, the optima pars, the only part that is necessary, is not a "servile" role. It is not "useful", and cannot therefore be "taken away". It is nourishment for the future, like the "daily bread", the "bread for tomorrow", that the Lord's Prayer begs of the Father as a free gift, our only necessity. By giving away the useless but precious work born of his creative "labour", the artist takes possession of the thing he is giving away, he becomes its master. This paradoxical reciprocality without exchange, giving with nothing in return, is the deep structure underlying all art and poetry. |
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ISSN: | 0035-6573 |
Contains: | In: Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa
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