imago

  • Palma de Mallorca, [04 / 01 / 1990 - 04 / 02 / 1990]

The exhibition shown at the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Palma de Mallorca (January 1990), subsidized by the City Council, was entitled IMAGO due to the diferent meanings of the latin word. The photography work consisted of PINHOLES PORTRAITS B/W of relatives, friends and acquaintances, which started and ended with a self-portrait. The cameras used were also exhibited. On the upper floor the SELF-PORTRAIT video film was exhibited, completing the group a stone tablet of the author, pictures of his childhood and a bust. So the intention was a mixture of the different meanings of the word image in its initial sense (not yet diversified), closely linked to the portrait (since the meaning is the same) and a consequently mortuory sense.

imâgo, inis, f. [cf. imitor], an imitation, copy of a thing, an image, likeness (i. e. a picture, any representation, portrait, statue, mask, an apparition, ghost, phantom; the latter only poet. and in post-Aug. prose; cf.: simulacrum, effigies, statua, sigillum): imago ab imitatione dicta, Paul. ex Fest. p. 112 Müll.; cf.: imago dicitur quasi imitago, Porphyr. Hor. C. 1.12.4. || I. Lit. A. In gen., a representation, likeness (usu. of a person), statue, bust, picture: Spartiates Agesilaus neque pictam neque fictam imaginem suam passus est esse... unus Xenophontis libellus in eo rege laudando facile omnes imagines omnium statuasque superavit, Cic. Fam. 5, 12, 7 || 2. A phantom, ghost, apparition: infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creusae Visa mihi ante oculos et nota major imago, Verg. A. 2.773; cf. || B. In partic., an ancestral image of a distinguished Roman (of one who had been aedile, praetor, or consul; usually made of wax, and placed in the atrium of a Roman house, and carried in funeral processions. || (a). In plur.: obrepsisti ad honores errore hominum, commendatione fumosarum imaginum, quarum simile habes nihil praeter colorem, of smoky (i. e. old) ancestral images, Cic. Pis. 1.1 || (b). In sing. (rare): jus imaginis, Cic. Verr. 2.5.14.§ 36: imaginis ornandae causa, id. Sest. 8.19: vir honoratissimae imaginis futurus ad posteros, Liv. 3.58.2 || II. Transf., a reverberation of sound, an echo (mostly poet.): (mellaria facere oportet) potissimum ubi non resonent imagines, Varr. R. R. 3, 16, 12 || III. Trop. A. In gen., an image or likeness of a thing formed in the mind, a conception, thought, imagination, idea. B. In partic. 1. In rhet., a figurative representation, similitude, comparison: comparabile est, quod in rebus diversis similem aliquam rationem continet. Ejus partes sunt tres: imago, collatio, exemplum. 2. With the idea predominating of mere imitation, in opp. to what is original or real, a mere form, image, semblance, appearance, shadow. 3. A representative: non in effigies mutas divinum (Augusti) spiritum transfusum; sed imaginem veram, caelesti sanguine ortam, intellegere discrimen, etc., Tac. A. 4, 52. 4. That which suggests or recalls something by resemblance, a reminder: me consolatur recordatio meorum temporum, quorum imaginem video in rebus tuis, Cic. Fam. 1, 6, 2: a Corbulone petierat, ne quam imaginem servitii Tiridates perferret, nothing to suggest slavery, Tac. A. 15, 31; cf.: moriar, si praeter te quemquam reliquum habeo, in quo possim imaginem antiquae et vernaculae festivitatis adgnoscere, Cic. Fam. 9, 15, 2.