THE GROTESQUE AND THE PORTRAIT. IMAGE AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF IN MONTAIGNE´S ESSAYS

Abstract

The paper analyzes the function of the image in Montaigne´s Essays identified by a twofold movement, which is one of distancing oneself from the existent and redefining the existent in terms of new, critically conscious forms of inhabiting the world. To this purpose, the article considers some key themes that can be found in the Essays (self-description, the critique of sensible knowledge, deformity, and the critique of habits) with the aim of reflecting on the ontological potential of the image as Bildung and how this potential reverberates in the Montaignean conception of the art of living and in particular how, not the theory, but the practice of the image opens the space for a creative, but not arbitrary, definition of the existing.­

Keywords: Montaigne. Image. Art of Living.