Heller M, Woodin W.H. (eds.) Infinity. New research frontiers (CUP, 2011)(ISBN 1107003873)(O)(327s)_MAml_

208 infinity and the nostalgia of the starsInterestingly, although the thought of an infinite uniform physical space is rathermute to our imagination, the view of a vast natural landscape (the sight of the night sky,but also an ocean, a mountain range, a desert) may be capable of powerfully evokinga sense of metaphysical infinity. That’s where art finds inspiration. German painter,sculptor, and poet Caspar David Friedrich, in his famous The Wanderer above a Seaof Mists (Friedrich 1818), expresses in an imposing way a perception of a limitlessand attractive ultimate reality. The gaze of the human figure, at the center of thepainting, is invisible but perceived as irresistibly aimed at and beyond the horizon. Thefarthest mountains and peaks are degrading with an element of vagueness, crossed bydistant clouds and haze. In his Monk by the Sea (Friedrich 1809), Friedrich exacerbatesthe same situation, proposing an undefined horizon that paradoxically adds force tothe presence of an impending and unreachable mystery. Just as in Dostoevsky’s andLeopardi’s words, in these paintings the experience of immensity that is evoked isnot reducible to the extension of more land beyond the reach of our view, but rathersuggests a reality that surpasses the very notion of a measure.In many works by Giovanni Segantini, such as Natura (Segantini 1896–1899), wefeel dominated by a vast horizon; the human presence is disproportionately small inthe landscape, and yet somehow central in the scene. In Vincent van Gogh’s Avenue ofPoplars at Sunset (van Gogh 1884), we see the effect of a combination of the repetitivedouble line of trees, the marked line of the horizon backlit by the sun, and the humanfigure, once again seen from the back, whose shadow renders his direct relation with thesky. The famous Angelus by Jean François Millet (1860) is a powerful demonstrationthat the Infinite to whom the prayer of the countrymen is addressed is not the physicalhorizon surrounding the vast fields, highlighted by the pink-orange shading of thesunset; however, that physical horizon clearly represents a sign of that Infinite Realityto whom the prayer is directed.If from painting we move to poetry, we should consider again Giacomo Leopardi,known as “the poet of infinity.” Perhaps his best known piece of poetry, preciselyentitled Infinity, introduces the intriguing aesthetic invention of the “hedge”:Always dear to me was this solitary hill,And this hedge, which from so great a partOf the farthest horizon excludes the gaze.But sitting and gazing, boundlessSpaces beyond that, and superhumanSilences, and profoundest quietI in my mind imagine (create); whereforeThe heart is almost filled with fear. And asI hear the wind rustle through these plants, thatInfinite silence to this voiceI go on comparing: and I recall to mind the eternal,And the dead seasons, and the presentAnd living one, and the sound of it. So in thisImmensity my thought is drownedAnd the shipwreck is sweet to me in this sea(see Brose 1983)In the brilliant poetic intuition of Leopardi, the presence of a hedge partly impedinga direct view of the ultimate landscape, does not diminish but rather enhances theimpression of an underlying vastness. Perhaps the presence of a hedge somehow helps