The Arcades Project - Operi

The figure of the poet in "Benediction" is a figure from Jugendstil. The poet
appears, so to speak, in the nude. He displays the physiognomy of Joseph
Delorme. [J77a,4]
The "natural benevolence" which Magnin (J50a,4) celebrates in Sainte-Beuvehis
coziness, in short-is the complement of the hieratic bearing of Joseph
Delorme. [J77a,5]
It can be seen from the portraits that Baudelaire's physiognomy very early
showed the marks of old age. Among other things, this accounts for the oft-noted
resemblance between his features and those of prelates. [J77a,6]
Valles was perhaps the first to complain insistently (as Souday would do later)
about Baudelaire's "backwardness" (J21,6). [J77a,7]
Allegory recognizes many enigmas, but it knows no mystery. An enigma is a
fragment that, together with another, matching fragment, makes up a whole.
Mystery, on the other hand, was invoked from time inuuemorial in the image of
the veil, which is an old accomplice of distance. Distance appears veiled. Now,
the painting of the Baroque-unlike that of the Renaissance, for example-has
nothing at all to do with this veil. Indeed, it ostentatiously rends the veil and, as
its ceiling frescoes in particular demonstrate, brings even the distance of the skies
into a nearness, one that seeks to startle and confound. This suggests that the
degree of auratic saturation of human perception has fluctuated widely in the
course of history. (In the Baroque, one might say, the conflict between cult value
and exhibition value was variously played out within the confines of sacred art
itself.) While these fluctuations await further clarification, the supposition arises
that epochs which tend toward allegorical expression will have experienced a
crisis of the aura. [J77a,S]
Baudelaire mentions, among the "lyric subjects proposed by the Academie;'
"Algeria, or the conquering civilization;' Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 593 ("I;Esprit
de M. Villemain"). Desecration of distance. [J78,1]
On the ';'I.abyss\\: "'depths of space, allegorical of the depths of time.'1 Ch. B.,
Oeu.vres, vol. 1, p. 306 (Les Paradis artificiels,