Giorgio Bassani. Images as a Form of Truth

In his essay Le parole preparate (The Prepared Words) (1965), dedicated to the way in which the image of Venice had been misrepresented in literature for centuries, Bassani examined various, mostly conventional, views ever expressed on this subject. According to the author, art reveals truth only when it guarantees the right index of veracity and plausibility to what it represents in word or image: the best figurative art is not limited to depicting reality, but it narrates it, makes it exist, makes something happen, sometimes through an incongruous detail. Giorgio Bassani's narrative, constructed on the assumptions of Benedetto Croce and filtered through the teachings of Roberto Longhi, serves the same purpose; the visible in it, aptly illuminated and questioned in the order of perceptions, carries a story: the appearance of the characters, the environment in which they evolve, the landscape, the detail brought in focus all converge to narrate more than a reality - a historical, human, moral truth. The image stands out as a synthesis of a truth that is progressively derived from it. The present essay analyses Cinque stone ferraresi (Five Stories of Ferrara) emphasizing the purpose of this literary image, which is neither a reproduction of reality nor a pure invention, but rather the seat, the guarantor, the privileged form of truth.