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The Legend of the Centuries by René Magritte, 1948. Magritte was paying homage to the lack of moderation displayed by Victor Hugo who wrote his epic poem between 1859 and 1883. Hugo wished to record the history of the world from biblical times up to the twentieth century and further. The painting is playing a game with the concept of differences, not only those between the printed word and a representational painting (see The Treachery of Images) but also within the realm of the visible. One chair is mammoth, indestructible, stone, built for a giant or a god. Upon it sits a smaller chair, wooden, easily destroyed, build for a human. Although they differ in stature and materials, they are both tools for the same purpose. The two chairs suffice to establish a series of minor differences1 and set the stage for the infinite game of differences between the differences. The game dominates the entire canvas, so as to reduce it to what it is, an abstract reality, or as Magritte would say, “nothing but visible thought.” Magritte could have been working on Freud’s theory of “The Narcissism of Minor Differences” as Freud described it in his 1930 work entitled Civilization and its Discontents. The theory is also humorously played upon by Internet superstar Merlin Mann using children’s toys. ↩

The Legend of the Centuries by René Magritte, 1948.

Magritte was paying homage to the lack of moderation displayed by Victor Hugo who wrote his epic poem between 1859 and 1883. Hugo wished to record the history of the world from biblical times up to the twentieth century and further.

The painting is playing a game with the concept of differences, not only those between the printed word and a representational painting (see The Treachery of Images) but also within the realm of the visible. One chair is mammoth, indestructible, stone, built for a giant or a god. Upon it sits a smaller chair, wooden, easily destroyed, build for a human. Although they differ in stature and materials, they are both tools for the same purpose. The two chairs suffice to establish a series of minor differences1 and set the stage for the infinite game of differences between the differences. The game dominates the entire canvas, so as to reduce it to what it is, an abstract reality, or as Magritte would say, “nothing but visible thought.”

  1. Magritte could have been working on Freud’s theory of “The Narcissism of Minor Differences” as Freud described it in his 1930 work entitled Civilization and its Discontents. The theory is also humorously played upon by Internet superstar Merlin Mann using children’s toys. ↩