Ochii Monei – Romanul iniţierii şi modelul exemplar al transmiterii culturii
Mona’s Eyes – A Novel of Initiation and a Model of Cultural Transmission

Author(s): Susana Monica Tapodi
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, History of Art
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: cultural transmission; learning through art; maturing;
Summary/Abstract: Art historian Thomas Schlesser’s second novel, Mona’s Eyes (2024), contains a frame story. The action in the frame depicts a year in the life of the heroine, a ten-year-old girl who is in danger of going blind. Interspersed are 52 unpublished essays on art. The nearly 500-page volume contains reproductions of masterpieces from the three Parisian museums of Louvre, Orsay, and Beaubourg, which Mona contemplates on and studies weekly in the company of her grandfather, Henry, who, instead of a psychiatrist, treats his granddaughter through the power of aesthetics. This erudite and wise man helps her discover the essence of the 52 works, their beauty, and their cultural, ethical, and philosophical content. Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals, Francisco Goya, Jacques-Louis David, Caspar David Friedrich, William Turner, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo or Marina Abramovich, and statues by Michelangelo or Brâncuși are presented in the novel both through ekphrasis and dialogue between the two. The grandfather allows Mona, after a quarter of an hour’s silent contemplation, to formulate her observations and questions about the artwork she has seen, and then he sketches the historical and artistic context of its creation for a better understanding. The action in the frame of the novel is parabolic in essence, presenting in an exemplary way the ideal form of appropriation of culture parallel to the maturation of the main character and carrying the message of salvation through art.

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