Ave Maria Triptych
The feminine as a source of inspiration in the work of Campos. The female gender is a source of inspiration in this work, made in a triptych panel that can be identified as a gateway to the Universe, its secrets and its connections.
The sacred origin of the chapel in which the work is located definitely represents a starting point for the piece’s development. The female image becomes a source of reference, creativity, regeneration and a means of contact with dimensions imperceptible to the human eye. The sacred origin of the building in which the triptych is housed, makes reference to the Marian cult. For the artist this represents the beginning of a path to capture the cultural references of Mary as a universal female figure with multiple meanings. For many, the Virgin Mary refers to the symbol of creation, the myth of fertility, rebirth and return. This piece, highly symbolic, iconic and archetypal is therefore a tribute and a reflection on the “feminine”. Despite the influence of new scientific and astronomical discoveries, Campos, even from his earliest works, is by no means unaware of the ancient cults throughout the Mediterranean that refer mainly to Venus, as the mother goddess who generates all things. From the point of view of strictly artistic, visual and conceptual languages, multiple links and references from Pre-Hellenic Mediterranean culture understood the female body as the engine of life, fertility and abundance. We find these aspects in the ancient female figurines of prehistoric times, with strongly developed breasts and belly, even the symbol of the triangle is an allusion to the female vulva. As in the Ave Maria Triptych, these magical attributes linked to the cult of fertility and creation, also had esoteric meanings related to the Universe, its secrets and its correspondences. But let’s see the work as it was conceived and developed by the mind and creativity of the artist. The triptych is made up of three panels, two lateral and one central. The central panel is shaped like a stepped pyramid where the 24 side panels of the triptych are carefully supported creating an overlapping or fan effect. The simplicity of concentric linear decoration in the form of rays painted in gold with glazes and gold leaf radiates light and energy that spring from the central panel, the fulcrum of the work examined here. This pyramidal shape symbolises a ladder, a means of ascent, gestation and resurrection. The pyramidal panel contains an almond, also associated with the symbol of fertility and rebirth, and which, through a religious syncretism, has been transformed into the Mystic Almond, or Vesica Piscis, whose representation is frequently found in the porticoes of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals. It is an ogival symbol, obtained by superimposing two intersecting circles with the same radius. The union and intersection of two circles allude to the representation of the two worlds on which the creation of the Universe is based, the Divine and the Human. The union between the spirit, the vital essence of the world, the inner energy and the earthly, material and carnal. The Almond as the intersection of two circles represents the communication between two worlds, two different dimensions, the macrocosm of the Universe and the microcosm of the human being. The almond contains other spherical shapes, alluding more directly to the female organ, but also to the sphere, as a geometric symbol of perfection. In correspondence with the almond, above, the eight-pointed star is represented, another archetypal feminine reference associated with the sacred image of Mary, a symbol of splendour and perfection. The number eight is closely related to the universal symbol of infinity. The rays radiate from the centre of the star and extend throughout the triptych and beyond, spiritually involving the absorbed viewer who is projected into another dimension. An inverted cone appears even higher, a key symbol of the passage from one dimension to another, the triangle pointing downwards is another archetypal reference to humanity, to water and to the female gender. It is also identifiable with the symbolic representation of the vulva and the uterus, lifegiving elements and characteristics present in Neolithic finds.
The inverted cone made of threads is an essential element in Campos’ work that alludes to the possibility of creating and recreating new networks of perception and knowledge. Also in the Ave María triptych, Campos reconnects with the symbolic meaning of the spider web, which is identified as a symbol of creativity by ancient cultures and as a door to other unknown dimensions of the Universe. Before the viewer’s eyes are invited to converge, through directional axes, in the centre of the work, we notice the blue crescent moon, placed at the top of the work, always linked to the feminine spirit, only later associated with the Virgin, often shown elevated on a Moon. The feminine is a reference to the eternal return and cyclical processes that bring light to the darkness of the night. In Zen Buddhism, it represents enlightenment, power, and creativity. Impregnated with mystery and magic, the Moon is a symbol of intuition, divine light, introspection, meditation, fertility and a perpetual movement of regeneration and inner self. The viewer could be stimulated by this multitude of female references, to seek a regeneration in the postmodern limbo of today’s society We know that the ancient cult of Isis -the Moon- not only dominated much more than Osiris -the Sun- in ancient PreHellenic civilizations, such as Egypt, but if we look closely this cult has survived through the millennia until reaching Christianity. Greek mythology transformed the powerful and revered Isis into Artemis, whom the Romans then turn into Diana, a cold, nocturnal and virginal goddess. Later, the Roman cult of the phallus, bearer of life and fertility in the culture of this people, definitively eclipsed the cult of the generative power of the feminine. However Mother Nature, as we well know from recent climatic and virological changes, knows how to take its revenge. Part of the 19th century and all of the 20th century saw the prevailing theories of a brilliant scientist of the mind, Sigmund Freud, who seems to have completely nullified the power of the “feminine”with the psychoanalytic theory of penis envy. We know that Freud, in addition to being a doctor and scientist, was not a believer in religion. However, in the depths of his feelings, something must also have remained of the Jewish religion and culture. On a trip to Rome young Sigmund saw Michelangelo sculpture of Moses in chains. A mighty god, stern as a scowling 19th-century father who literally scared him into conceiving many of his theories. If Michelangelo sculpted a proud and vindictive Moses, he also sculpted a nurturing Virgin Mother, who holds the body of her dead son, not only in her arms, but also draped over her legs, as if to bring him back to life. In Catholic liturgy and pictorial representation Ianua Coeli (gate of heaven) is sometimes defined as the Virgin Mary. This Tryptic is a gate that magically embodies all the artist’s creativity with the portal theories that he had previously developed. All his work is conceived as a gateway or a portal, giving access to another dimension of knowledge and perception not immediately perceptible to the human eye. Nature, we said, has taken revenge through the female cults that have survived over the millennia through art and this series continues with this tradition.
