Narciso e o encontro com o outro: uma interpretação da obra de Caravaggio a partir da filosofia de Martin Buber

Abstract

The object of study in this work is Caravaggio’s painting Narcissus, in which we investigate the relationship between the self and the other based on the following question: how does the work Narcissus represent the encounter of the self — or its impossibility — with the other? To this end, we employ Martin Buber’s philosophy of encounter and conduct a hermeneutic analysis of the painting. The research is divided into three main parts. In the first chapter, we present the state of the art concerning the myth over time, exploring its literary narrative in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. From this study, we begin the initial discussions on the impossibility of a true dialogical encounter of Narcissus's self. In the second chapter, we reach the central point of the work by analyzing Caravaggio’s Baroque painting. We investigate its symbolic elements, observing aspects such as: (i) the setting; (ii) the fountain; and (iii) the body of the central figure. The third chapter presents Buber’s philosophy, differentiating the I-Thou and I-It relations to demonstrate how Narcissus, in Caravaggio’s work, is trapped in an objectified relationship with himself. We then establish a dialogue between the philosophy of encounter and the painting, revisiting its symbols to understand the relational dynamics between the self and openness to the other. Moreover, the study proposes a contemporary reflection on identity, solitude, and alterity. It concludes that the tragedy of Narcissus lies in his lack of transcendence — which only an encounter with the Thou could make possible — and in the limitation of his relationships to the domain of the I-It.