I hardly know anything about the life of this contemporary artist, but judging by the date and place of his death, I am horrified to think what his last days must have been like. Could be given the circumstance, likewise, that from the depths of that metaphorical Dutch Wandering, which is the unconscious-no less metaphorical Sea of the Sargasso, where according to C.G. Jung, survive as celacanths or living fossils the memories of humanity since the dawn of time, it was suggested a premonitory vision of a disturbingly convulsive future, whose archetypes consigned somehow, in this curious oil on canvas, which currently It is part of the permanent collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
Work carried out in 1912, an attentive glance, induces to hypothetize with the possibility that Baranov-Rossiné included a series of hidden keys, in a vision, it could be supposed, that of the day after consummating the myth of Original Sin. Indeed: Eden does not seem, at all, that idyllic place, full of light and color, where life went smoothly for anodyne beings who, protected in that Latin vision of dolce far niente, still remained oblivious to the awakening of the ego and of the libido, but a wounded place, in which the ambivalent conflict of duality begins, in which light and darkness rival, which by its characteristics and comparatively speaking, recalls the eclipse advocated with the last rattle of the Redeemer in the cross. The representative form of God, like an eye, brings us, among many other considerations, to the sense of supernaturality, of the inquisitive and infallible gaze of a being of a superior nature that governs the destinies of the world. In its form, it resembles the rainbow that precedes the storm and in its centrality, solar and lunar colors are seen, in its triple-enclosure form.
Even going further and entering the fantasy worlds of Tolkien, for example, retains a strong resemblance to the eye of the Dark Lord, who swoops over the world, from the shadows of the chaos of his domains of Mordor.
Adam and Eve, whose figures remember, by likeness, those titanic engravings of the mystic and visionary William Blake, remain in the foreground, occupying both corners, as opposed poles. Eva, to the right and lying on the floor, keeps the apple in her hand. On the contrary, Adam, standing, carries in his hand a flower, who knows whether a rose or a lily, elements that would accompany, among others, the figure of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and part of the remission of sin. In this regard, it is interesting to observe that beautiful polychrome image of María encinta, in whose base the anonymous artist represented Adam and Eve, which is located inside the Colegia de Toro, in Zamora. It is interesting to note, the dog that accompanies him: a chthonic figure or companion of the souls to the other world, which comes to symbolize mortality even in that happy Arcadia, as presumably was the Eden before the Fall. The presence of the dog in its chthonic character is present in many medieval sarcophagi of knights, usually appearing at the feet of the deceased.
The snake, barely perceptible, remains curled in its tree, with the intertwined or double spiral form, present in many Romanesque and Gothic ornamental representations, and often adopted in the crown of thorns that wounded the forehead of the Redeemer. But of all these symbols, perhaps the lion, is one of the most significant. Located on the left side of the painting, above Adam, the lion - the solar symbol - protects the entrance to a cave -lunar symbol-, but also the exit, in the same way as later and in Christian iconography, the archangel San Miguel has been represented, since its first appearance, in the fourth century on Mount Gargano, as conqueror and custodian of the ancient places of pre-Christian worship, generally dedicated to the figure of the Goddess.
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Ars Oblivionis
ARS VTINAM MORE S/ANIMVM QVE EFFINGERE/POSSES PULCHRIOR IN TER/RIS NVLLA TABELLA FORET'
'ARTE, OJALÁ PUDIERAS REPRESENTAR EL CARÁCTER Y EL ESPÍRITU. NO HABRÍA SOBRE LA TIERRA IMAGEN MÁS BELLA'
[Martial, latin poet]