details

The title and the main character of this second painting come from Dürer's engraving. The gap is more important than with Les Trois philosophes the composition does not follow that of Dürer, and the angel lost its wings to turn into a Raphaelite feminine character.

This gap is due to a move from a meditation on time and the limits of knowledge to a reverie, as well as from an architecture surrounded by symbols to a crepuscular scenery in which the nature of things is mixed up the mineral, the vegetation and the animals are expanding around the character.

On the right hand of the painting, one can recognize the presence of human finiteness through the juxtaposition of a chrysalis and a shroud. Next to the small river, a pensive little character, his hand supporting his head, presents to a heron's beak his skull as a bowl full of berries. Keeping with his mischievous references, the painter depicted himself through these avian features.

Whatever the solemnity of the painting, there are still reminders of a smiling reason. All this is nothing but a machinery of human comedy. Serious senses are not invited. The existence of a personal world is confirmed. The inventiveness draws its forms from Nature's large catalogue.