“Art as Salvation in Ramón Hernández's Los amantes del sol poniente.”

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Art as Salvation in Ramón Hernandez' "Los amantes del sol poniente" Author(s): Marion Freeman and Lisa Vollendorf Source: Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, Vol. 18, No. 1/2, 20th Century Spanish

Poetry (Part II) (1993), pp. 231-245Published by: Society of Spanish & Spanish-American StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27741124Accessed: 01-03-2015 19:57 UTC

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ART AS SALVATION IN RAMON HERN?NDEZ'

LOS AMANTES DEL SOL PONIENTE

MARION FREEMAN Colorado State University

LISA VOLLENDORF University of Pennsylvania

Ram?n Hern?ndez has stated that Los amantes del sol poniente marks a new direction in his noveUstic output.1 In this short narrative, the protagonist, Adri?n Maldonado, resembles the characters of Her

n?ndez' previous novels in that, existentially alone, he is faced with

defining the meaning of his own being and creating his own essence. And here, as elsewhere in Hern?ndez' works, unforeseeable forces, chaotic ones which the protagonist does not understand or know how

to deal with, drive a wedge between himself and his planned future and set him off on a new Odyssey. In Los amantes, however, it is the

realm of art and creativity which interposes itself into the human ef fort to determine what is meaningful and valuable in an individual life. And this realm, the protagonist finds, can be as unstable, illogical, and

demanding as the social institutions which protagonists of Hern?ndez' earlier novels are forced to face. In Los amantes, then, forces of the

creative realm of art, the centerpiece of which appears in the novel as El Greco's painting, "El entierro del Conde de Orgaz," add a new di mension to the works of Ram?n Hern?ndez.

Los amantes del sol poniente is a complex work whose many levels of narration, unconventional handling of time, division between the "real" everyday world and the subjective world of dreams make any

231



232 ALEC, 18 (1993)

attempt at analysis difficult. Luis Gonz?lez-del-Valle and Miguel Ruiz

Avil?s, in their helpful afterword to the American edition of the novel, have clearly pointed out the problems facing the reader or critic who

approaches this work and have aided in identifying the various narra tive threads which merge and separate as they weave the dense fabric of the novel. They conclude that Los amantes "se resiste bastante a

acercamientos cr?ticos" because of its complexity (153). In this study we attempt to penetrate some of the resistance identified by these two

critics, most particularly the dimensions of artistic and creative impuls es usually absent from Hern?ndez' works, to show that the protago nist's journey moves him away from the conventional and the ordinary into new realms fraught with potential for human expression. The novel's ending, we suggest, is not a negative one, but rather Adri?n

learns during his dream experiences to release from within his sleeping soul new perceptions about himself and his reality, about life and its relation to art. Indeed, it is the often chaotic and unsettUng power of

art, initially viewed as a disruptive antagonist, which leads Adri?n to salvation. Just as El Greco suspends the Count, who "no ser? ente

rrado nunca" (131), in a timeless moment by capturing his miracle on

canvas and placing him in the artistic world, art also stops time for Adri?n since his artistic salvation Ufts him to the space between life and death where the possibiUty of creation erases time as we know it.2

The process which the protagonist undergoes, then, leads to a posi tive unification of the unstable world of creativity and Adrian's every day world of control and predictab?ity. Whfle exploring the intertex tual relation between Los amantes del sol poniente and El Greco's "El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz," we shaU analyze how the text interacts with El Greco, his painting, and the reaUty in which the protagonist, and we as readers, Uve. Two approaches serve as initial premises for

our argument. First, Bruce Morrissette, expanding upon Saussure's

pre-code (signified) and code (signifier), identifies, as he applies them to literature, the inevitable post-code. While the pre-code represents the artistic ideals and culture of an age, the code is the product of these ideals, and the post-code is defined as any artistic expression arising from the code. We propose in this study that Los amantes is a

post-code closely related to El Greco's "El entierro," and that the inter

action between text, painting, and contemporary reaUty manifests

itself primarily through the central role which this painting plays in the novel. Secondly, as this haunted painting takes on the functions of

genius loci, figura, and anima as defined by Theodore Ziolkowski in his book Disenchanted Images (95-148), the novel's protagonist be comes increasingly drawn to the portrait until he actually enters the artistic world. We shall first explore the codification of text and paint



MARION FREEMAN/LISA VOLLENDORF 233

ing in order to illustrate the importance of "El entierro" and then devote the second part of our investigation to defining the artistic world to which the novel, the painting, and Adri?n ultimately all be long.

Los amantes tells the story of Adri?n Maldonado, a thirty-five year old physics teacher at the San FeUpe Neri Institute in Toledo. His career as a scientist is significant; it places him in the modern, well

ordered world of controUed procedure and logical experimentation in which predictable outcomes and reasonable explanations can be expect ed. He has reached a critical point in his Ufe since he is about to un dertake certain rites of passage such as marriage and the completion of a doctoral dissertation. His existence, therefore, is the totally con ventional one of a young man who seemingly controls his destiny and who has a promising future. But the novel opens upon Adri?n in the throes of a nightmare in which he inexpUcably finds himself in the church of Santo Tom? speaking with the enigmatic Roldan, who vari ously calls himself the night watchman, an almost-priest, a confessor to tourists, and a magician. These nocturnal experiences, in which Adri?n and Roldan engage in equivocal, disconnected conversation both in and out of the confessional, fill Adri?n with dread and convince him that he is losing his mind. And in fact these dream episodes, which at first alternate with accounts of Adrian's normal daily activi ties, begin to invade his waking moments, making him incapable of following through with his plans. His strange behavior inspires shock, pity, and incomprehension in his fianc?e and his colleagues who all agree that he is indeed mad. After a doctor confirms that he is dying, Adri?n accepts his fate with relief, even gives himself over to the strange, irrational world which has invaded his well-ordered one. The novel ends with a ceremony which combines Adrian's funeral with his wedding to a figure from his newly-discovered dream world.

Adrian's conversations with Roldan in the dream visits to Santo Tom? center principally on El Greco's famous painting on display there. As is well known, viewing this great work of art is obUgatory for tourists who visit Toledo. Roldan adds to his list of duties the role of tour guide during daytime visiting hours, and makes disparaging re

marks about the average, often North American, tourists' inabiUty to

understand and appreciate the work. Adri?n becomes a tourist of the night and dreams, in spite of his objection to the contrary when he states, "Pero yo no soy un turista" (14). Tutored by his unlikely guide, he develops a more intimate relation with the picture, its principal figure, and its meaning. The painting, Roldan teUs Adri?n, comes alive at night: the people portrayed in it leave the canvas and indulge in

orgies. In fact, says the guide, aU the past is very much aUve: the hoi



234 ALEC, 18 (1993)

low church walls run with the circulating blood of the past and "El mismo Conde de Orgaz, el del cuadro, realmente no est? muerto" (20). We mortals, on the other hand, are as fleeting as the "... reflejo de un

fulgor, la fugacidad misma . . ." (21). Adri?n responds: "Sus palabras me fascinan en parte... son po?ticas. Pero mi problema es solamente

m?o . . ." (21). As is typical of Hern?ndez' characters, Adrian's myopia

initially prevents his seeing any possible connection between his exis tence and the strange nocturnal goings-on at the church.

Another important factor in Adrian's existential drama appears in the person of Margarita Pondal. The protagonist knows her as his student and is surprised to learn that she is related to Roldan and Uves with him in the church's attic. Rold?n's fear that the painting's per sonages will rape her during their orgies links her to the painting, as her status as Adrian's student relates her to his waking Ufe. He finally identifies the breaths, touches and kisses of the invisible "figura"

which increasingly haunts his daylight hours as Margarita and reaUzes that he is in love with her. His advances at school and elsewhere

frighten and alienate her, but in his dream existence she welcomes his affection and even returns it. It is she, UteraUy the woman of his

dreams, who joins Adri?n at the wedding-funeral which closes the nov el.

Los amantes opens our eyes to the possibilities for conversation

between the arts precisely because its action centers on the pre-exist

ing code of El Greco's painting. Focusing on the painting and thereby establishing the post-code, the text portrays Adrian's Ufe changes and his transition to the world of creativity. First, his dreams take him to Santo Tom? where Roldan anticipates that he has come to see the

painting (15). Later, Adri?n learns that El Greco captured life in the

painting. FinaUy, at Adrian's wedding-funeral, El Greco's painted char acters witness the ceremony performed by Roldan. Thus, unification of

20th-century reality and 16th-century painting in the final scene marks the protagonist's entrance into the creative world to which both text and plastic arts belong.

If we accept the codification theory put forth by Morrissette, it follows that the pre-code of earlier artistic ideals, and the painting itself as code, demand our attention. In Los amantes, Hern?ndez incor

porates the myth of the Count of Orgaz and that of El Greco and his association with the Renaissance?myths integrated into Spanish cul ture of our century as much as they were in El Greco's time. According to Jos? Gudiol's comprehensive study of El Greco, Domenikos Theoto

kopoulos was commissioned to paint "El entierro" two centuries after

the death of Don Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo. Popular myth stated that two saints appeared at Don Gonzalo's funeral, and, in an attempt to




capture this miraculous moment in a work hailing the man for his

generosity to the parish of Santo Tom?, in a short nine months the artist produced the breathtaking painting which shows the Count's soul ascending to heaven surrounded by various onlookers (115). El Greco rescued the myth and the man from obUvion by transporting the legendary occurrence to the canvas and gathering the characters into

the immortal creative world: "El entierro," now itself a part of Spanish myth since it symbolizes the zenith of Spanish artistic achievement, embraces the power of the creative realm over life and time.

Since the artist holds the key to creativity, then it is the pain ter/author/sculptor who struggles with the enormous task of tapping art's control over time. Tymoteusz Karpowicz points out in "Art: A Bridge to the Impossible," that the artist's motivation Ues in the frus tration caused by the nearly impossible task of capturing the momen

tary for an eternity. Once achieved, this task results in a painting such as "El entierro" in which the moment of salvation reminds the specta tors of "the truth of their own mortality" (12). Tourists in Toledo who visit the painting, as well as the characters within it, take on the role

of spectator: we observe the magical funeral and marvel at its implica tions about Ufe, art, and time. Through this painting, then, El Greco has etched the glory of the creative moment into the Spanish culture and the appreciative tourist's mind forever.

Like the saints in the painting who gently cradle the Count of Orgaz and hold him up for his soul to rise to heaven, in the novel Roldan leads Adri?n through the dream world and helps him save himself from his time-bound realm of predictability. In this sense, the novel rehes on El Greco's painting: Adri?n resembles the Count in that these two men seek, and are granted, salvation. While the Count's Christian salvation aUows him eternal Ufe in the arms of Christ, Adrian's artistic salvation gives him entrance into the creative world where he also gains immortality.

Adrian's first dream, which opens the work, carries paramount

importance in establishing the relation between the code (the painting) and the post-code (the novel which builds on El Greco's masterpiece). At this point, the dreamer shows Uttle promise of any type of salva tion, especially an artistic salvation facilitated by dreams. His night mares haunt him, and the first time he speaks to Roldan, the narrator tells us that Adri?n "Iba a explicarle que quer?a dormir en el vac?o, sin pesadillas" (12). Even though he seems to be resisting the dreams, in this first "pesadilla," Adri?n finds himself drawn to Santo Tom?, arriv

ing without having ". . . reflexionado en sus deseos. . ." (11-12), yet he

indicates almost immediately that he wants to see the El Greco paint ing. Here the text signals its intimate relation to the code when the



236 ALEC, 18 (1993)

protagonist encounters this painting and its artistic world. It is also in this first conversation at the church that Roldan mentions Margarita Pondal, Adrian's attractive student who wiU bridge the scientific and artistic worlds. Thus, this opening episode introduces characters and

motives which the rest of the novel develops: the appearance of the code establishes the crucial intertextua?ty; Roldan and Margarita ap pear as characters in the dream world who w?l guide Adri?n to his

salvation; and Adri?n communicates his resistance to the artistic world.

Ziolkowski has identified three functions of the haunted painting? genius loci, figura, and anima?which help explain the relation be

tween the code and the post-code. As the central focus in the novel's

dream world, "El entierro" takes on all three of these functions. The characters in the painting which belongs to a specific place, its caretak er and sometime guide Roldan who directs Adrian's dream journey, and the shadowy Margarita, are all representatives of the creative

realm who reveal to Adri?n its mysteries.

Regarding the function of genius loci, the novel develops and stresses a close association between "El entierro" and Santo Tom?, so

much so that the painting is not only housed there but historicaUy it was created to hang in this parish. The masterpiece and its place so

belong together that one can hardly be considered without the other. Thus the actual place comes to represent the artistic world. When Adri?n visits the parish, he enters the creative realm where the logic and time of his familiar world disappear and are replaced by possib?ity of creation and suspension of disbelief.

In the first dream, the genius loci function extends to Roldan since

he, too, identifies closely with the church and its artistic world. During Adrian's first visit we learn about Rold?n's numerous selves. This

quasi-priest with broken vows of s?ence (12), father or uncle to Marga rita (107), and tour guide of Santo Tom? who Ues about the painting (68) takes one of his roles quite seriously: he is the sole caretaker of "El entierro." When Adri?n finds Roldan and uses him as a dream

world contact who will hear his confessions, teach him about the paint ing, and answer his questions, Rold?n's caretaker role expands to

"caretaker of the artistic world." Adri?n foUows and trusts him as a

guide, so that Adri?n becomes a tourist in Santo Tom? and in his dreams, depending upon Roldan just as the hordes of ignorant tourists do during the day. Once more the importance of the painting's relation to the parish becomes apparent: Rold?n's identity relates to the artistic realm of Santo Tom? and it is in this realm that the painting finds a home and Adri?n finds his salvation. The artist El Greco, his painting, and Roldan come together within the walls of Santo Tom?, and with




out the help of his tour guide, Adrian would continue to perceive his dreams as "pesadillas" and never achieve the transition to the artistic world.

"El entierro" also serves as a foreshadowing agent, which Ziolkow

ski caUs the figura (95). Throughout the novel, Adri?n feels compelled to return to Santo Tom? because the painting draws him there, to its home, to the space inhabited by art. Once the protagonist enters this dimension, the figura function of the painting Unks his identity and the Count's. Roldan perceives Adri?n and the Count in the same fash ion because he beUeves that they both want Margarita. He explains to

Adri?n the Count's concern for Margarita, considering her "consangu? nea y bajo su tutela" (112). By this time Adri?n, originally the girl's teacher, has been promised her hand in marriage, so that his relation ship with her has moved to that of fianc?. Thus an exchange of roles takes place between the Count and Adri?n, linking the two men's iden tities even further and foreshadowing Adrian's fate. When the Count's salvation repeats itself in Adrian's moment of truth in which the fu neral coach turns into the wedding coach and he rides away with his bride, the connections have already been established and the reader anticipates the conversion of death into immortality.

Ziolkowski's third function of the haunted painting is the anima, which "represents an extension of the hero's soul in the present" (112). Margarita Pondal fulfills this role in Los amantes. Although

Adri?n initially resists the invitation to immortality, through a gradual process he eventuaUy comes to recognize the impulse to integrate the immortal world of creativity into his time- and science-bound exis tence. Margarita bridges the gap between these two realms, and his love for her faciUtates his acceptance of art. There are only two women

in Adrian's Ufe. First, his fianc?e Constanza by her very name repre sents the status quo, stabiUty, predictab?ity, the known. Her family stands for "middle class respectabiUty," the ordinary world from which

Adri?n wants to escape. Margarita, significantly, is the only character

in the novel who inhabits Adrian's dream world as weU as his waking Ufe. If her father-uncle Roldan is the protagonist's guide in the irratio nal world of dreams, she is the bridge which spans this realm and the daylight one, the only factor which assures Adri?n that a link exists between the two worlds and which encourages him to continue his journey. Her rejection of his daytime advances, her fear of him at these

times, suggests that her true role regarding him is her nighttime one, which will lead him to his final destiny. Unlike Constanza, descriptions of Margarita identify her with the world of art. In addition to her con nection to "El entierro" through her relation to Roldan, on more than one occasion Adri?n identifies her with a Piero della Francesca portrait



238 ALEC, 18 (1993)

(40 and 128) whose invisible presence is a balm to his tortured spirit. She can, however, move into Adrian's waking moments to keep him connected to the world of art, to entice him, on his journey toward the irrational.

Margarita, then, fulfills the definition o? anima because she is that secret, untapped part of Adri?n whose existence he was barely aware of until she forced her presence on him in the form of what the novel

calls, interestingly, a "figura." At first she is merely a whisper; until the final wedding scene she never speaks openly to him, but only in

breaths, murmurs, or through Roldan. From the beginning, her means of communication with Adri?n in her role as temptress of the irratio nal reveals a turning away from conventional language. While he is

powerless to resist Margarita's lure, his distaste for Enriqueta Ort?u, the literature teacher who has a crush on him, enables him to reject this other woman whose profession deals with words and writing. Mar

garita's power springs from deeper sources, sleeping within the protag onist's soul.

The feminine plays an ongoing role in the novel, beginning on page 11 with an allusion to the women's movement. In spite of his support for women's equality, Adri?n identifies the invisible presence which has beset and horrified him for a year as a feminine one. At first Con stanza's presence can dissipate the "hechizo." But increasingly the

"figura" comes between the two lovers. Adri?n intuits the presence as death early in the novel when, after admitting to himself that "Le cercaba un fantasma de mujer que se interpon?a . . ." (51) between

himself and Constanza, he immediately tells his fianc?e that "Sola mente la muerte podr?a separarme de ti" (52). He later identifies the

presence as Margarita (117), so that finaUy the "figura," Margarita, and death become one. But it is a death that represents a new begin

ning, a marriage, an integration of the parts of his soul, fraught with

the creative potential which was earUer impossible. In his happiness Adri?n recalls a poem by B?cquer which deals with the creative pro cess. In the Unes "del fuego que ard?a en nuestras almas/un incendio

hicimos t? y yo" (115, emphasis ours), to whom does the "t?" refer, if not to Margarita? She is that other part of himself, the feminine anima

figure identified by Jung that, integrated into his being, makes new creations possible through the completion of self.

The process toward accepting Margarita as the missing part of his

soul, however, involves the difficult task of integrating art into our science-dominated twentieth-century existence. Enriqueta Ort?u's love

for him shows that Adri?n has already been chosen by art: he attracts art even though he relates only to science. Wh?e at this point he fears and avoids the artistic world, for he is unaware of his connection to it,




by page 46 he has been divided, since as he looks in the mirror he sees ". . . los espejos devolvi?ndole entrecruzadas im?genes de s? mismo . . ." (46). Adrian's dreams tear him apart by introducing him to a part of himself that he did not know existed. This division of self causes drastic repercussions in his normal Ufe, compelling him to visit a doc tor to find out what is wrong with him. The X-ray reveals the silhou ette of death within Adri?n. Since his soul has not entered the creative

realm, death carries a negative significance, but the brief mention of

Margarita implies that art's invitation to Adri?n still exists: death shows only ". . .la negra cabellera ondulada que, tras unos segundos de desconcierto, reconoci? id?ntica a la de Margarita Pondal" (123). Art has influenced him and wiU continue to besiege him until it overcomes his resistance, and the various elements from the artistic world repre sent not only the power of art in Ufe, but the repressed artistic self of the protagonist.

Ziolkowski's genius loci, figura, and anima functions complement Morrissette's notions of pre-code, code, and post-code. Assuming the

dialectic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis in a Uterary work, Morris sette's pre-code, the ideals of an age embodied in Los amantes as the

church and its painting, relates to Ziolkowski's genius loci. The antith

esis, Adrian's interaction with the painting that leads to his salvation, is Morrissette's code, the novel itself, and Ziolkowski's foreshadowing figura. The pre-codelgenius loci and code/figura finaUy lead to Morris sette's post-code. This takes the form in the novel of the wedding in which Ziolkowski's anima figure joins the others to create a synthesis, which represents a new configuration. However one looks at them, the earner elements are not lost; the wedding-funeral takes place in Santo Tom? with the painting as background and with aU the characters from both of Adrian's worlds (even El Greco himself) present. Rather, all these elements inform the protagonist's achievement of wholeness, and through them the reader learns about the principle characteristics of the creative realm and how this realm relates to contemporary reaU

ty. If it is now evident that the code, "El entierro," serves as the base

for the post-code, Hern?ndez' novel, where exactly do Adrian's dream experiences lead? To demonstrate that his wedding-funeral does indeed represent art's power, we present here an analysis of the irrationality of the world of art and, equaUy important, an analysis of how this irrational world relates to modern reaUty. Within the walls of Santo Tom? all rationaUty disappears as the darkness allows Adri?n to exper iment, to leave his inhibitions behind and explore strange, new dimen sions of space and time. Because Roldan, Margarita, and the Count

introduce the protagonist to this darkness and all the dream visits



240 ALEC, 18 (1993)

involve these personages, from their words and behavior we can ex

trapolate two major characteristics of the artistic realm: arbitrariness

of language and timelessness. Further, the desirability of the freedom of the artistic realm strongly criticizes twentieth-century values, so

that Adrian's quest to escape can be examined from a broad perspec tive about the universal condition of modern life with its dependence on the material and the predictable.

Within the walls of Santo Tom? a principal characteristic of the artistic world is the disintegration of language. Michel Foucault ad dresses this breakdown of language using the context of a painting:

And if it is true that the image stiU has the function of

speaking, of transmitting something consubstantial with lan

guage, we must recognize that it already no longer says the

same thing; and that by its own plastic values painting engages in an experiment that will take it farther and farther from lan guage. (18)

Rold?n's disregard of his vow of s?ence exemplifies the d?ution, in Santo Tom?, of language as we know it. As mentioned earlier, Marga rita, until the very end, functions without spoken language. And Rold?n's vow is unreUable; therefore words, to him, are unreliable.

This attitude indicates the flexib?ity of the artistic world: unlike Adrian's strict adherence to rules, including language rules, Roldan dismisses the power of the word. When he calls himself a "cura," then states that he left the seminary before actually becoming a priest, he

again shows that verbal labels are unimportant. For even though he is not reaUy a priest, he hears confessions of tourists for a small fee and takes the Uberty of reversing the normal confession process. And it does not matter what words the sinner speaks. Roldan explains: "Yo,

por el contrario, tengo por norma perdonar primero y m?s tarde, si el

confesando lo desea, le oigo sus culpas" (19). Roldan later confirms the

insignificance of words in the artistic realm when he describes Marga rita Pondal as his daughter and, in a different scene, as his niece, and

finally as his "hija o sobrina" (107). When Adri?n confronts this incon

sistency, Roldan replies,

De cualquier modo le dir? que no tendr?a la m?s m?nima impor tancia el hecho de que Margarita no fuera mi sobrina. Yo, l?gi camente, pod?a haberme inventado tal circunstancia; de la

misma manera que suelo inventarme datos hist?ricos o art?sti

cos cuando ejerzo como gu?a tur?stico en mi jornada laboral.

(68)




Roldan introduces his disregard for concrete, scientifically correct in

formation, thereby leaving the possibiUty for creation and experimen tation with words rather than adhering strictly to their "true" mean

ing and conventional use.

With Roldan as his guide, Adri?n gradually comes to understand this disappearance of reUable language in the dream world. As early as

page 25 he can "... adivinar los pensamientos del lego Roldan," and here he indicates his w?lingness to explore, to take on the role of tour ist. As Rold?n's apprentice he learns not to depend on language and to let his imagination rather than words define and describe. When

Adri?n returns to the institute where he teaches, his thoughts reflect this new knowledge about language and imagination: instead of con

centrating on tiresome details about Margarita, he simply thinks, "Era bella, pero ambigua. Tan dudosa como las figuraciones que, cada noche, le llenaban la mente de sombras . .." (35). He is drawn to her

ambiguity and her silence, just as the uncertainty of Santo Tom? at tracts him. In a later dream, Adrian's transition to art is signaled par

tially by the feeling he has of being capable of ". . . hablarles en latin o cualquier otra lengua" (67). Words are so flexible that he can master any language, are so diluted that Margarita is an "hya o sobrina" (107). Release from dependence upon words is therefore crucial to the acceptance of a space where the scientifically verifiable has been for

feited in favor of endless possibiUty. Throughout the novel, time belongs strictly to reaUty while time

lessness establishes itself after dilution of language as a second major characteristic of the creative realm. By mentioning eternity at the start of the novel, the narrator connects the hero with timelessness: "So?a ba eternamente, pero jam?s dorm?a" (10). At this stage, Adri?n has not familiarized himself with timelessness and the concept disturbs him to the extent that he cannot at first feel at ease in his dream world. Be

ginning with the foreshadowing provided by the artistic depiction of the Count's achievement of eternal Ufe in heaven, the reader antici

pates the erasure of time as a factor. And, since the text establishes a

duality of character between the Count and Adri?n, it follows that time will disappear in Adrian's Ufe as it does in the Count's. During his first visit to the church, Adrian's preoccupation with time seems natural.

He feels uncomfortable as he approaches the parish for the first time and checks his Seiko watch, but after entering he reveals his obsession with time when he frets over leaving his watch, which rests lightly on his wrist, at home. As the novel progresses and Adri?n accepts his

dream world, the concept of time changes for him. He states, "... a

veces s? la hora con s?lo escuchar el latido de mi coraz?n en las venas"



242 ALEC, 18 (1993)

ill). He now reUes on his intuition, creating a new concept that re

places his dependence upon exact, digital time. Adrian has come to understand Rold?n's theory about the erasure of time: "Cuando nadie sabe la hora que es, la realidad es que todav?a se est? a tiempo de todo" (71). Anything can happen when one is free from the constraints of time and thereby Uberated, free to create.

As the title indicates, the sunset becomes central in the novel. Un til he withdraws completely from his real world, Adri?n only dreams after the sun sets. When he visits the church to see if his guide exists during the day, he later tells Roldan that he arrived "M?s o menos en el instante de la ca?da del sol" (74). He seems drawn to the church in the twilight, as if wanting to step into a colorfuUy painted sunset and escape his dreary reality. FinaUy, through Margarita, the artistic world is integrated into his waking Ufe when the wedding-funeral takes place at the hour of sunset.

References in Los amantes to twentieth-century values and atti

tudes, and Spain's relation to them, are not incidental. These allusions

almost exclusively refer to influences which North America has im posed on Western society. For instance, Rold?n's scorn for those tour ists who dutifuUy view El Greco's painting without appreciating its greatness is a direct stab at a prevailing mind-set which is indifferent to or incapable of understanding the products of creative impulse. In a subsequent reference, Roldan, on mentioning the inscription on the base of Cardinal Pedro Gonz?lez de Mendoza's tomb in the Toledo Cathedral, says that the inscription "... tiene claves ocultas, mensajes cifrados que solamente los eruditos de las universidades norteamerica

nas pueden descifrar con la ayuda de sus ordenadores" (23). With such a statement, Hern?ndez may be poking fun at the critics, especiaUy in the sense that criticism seeks to limit, define, and thereby stop the creative process. And, of course, as Gonz?lez-del-VaUe and Ruiz-Av??s

have shown (145), these words are one more example of the inability to pinpoint the meaning of reaUty with language.

But they also say something about what Adri?n is experiencing. Today's values, even in Spain, are often judged according to technolo gy-based standards. In such a comparison, Spain certainly struggles to

keep pace. And, says Roldan, "Es una pena" (23). It is a pity about modern Spain, but it is precisely this modern, American-imposed men

tality, with its materialism and lack of a spiritual dimension that Adri?n eventually rejects. The very act of rejection is a wrenching struggle, as he finds himself caught between the modern seductions of

what he has always considered safe, normal, and comprehensible and

the frightening, dark, and unknown realm of possib?ity. During El Greco's lifetime Spain, in her most creative, productive moment of



MARION FREEMJ?NILISA VOLLENDORF 243

glory, set the standard of an age. Roldan explains the painter's free dom: "Pues Dom?nico puede, al ser eterno, es decir, inmortal, emborro

nar el cuadro, cambiarlo a su gusto . . ." (113). It is that moment in

Spain and elsewhere in Europe?buried Uke the Renaissance building of the San Felipe Neri Institute under the layers of paint and graffiti added by the ages (29)?that reveals its secrets to Adri?n. His Odyssey has brought him full circle. Led by Roldan, made whole by Margarita, he can give himself over to existence on a new, creative, art-inspired

level; he too can dwell in that realm where time no longer exists, eter nally fulfilled.

Karpowicz's remarks on the power of art to achieve the impossible serve as a general summary of our arguments. Art, says this scholar, is irrational, chaotic, and unstable, but these qualities also give art its power. WhUe mortals fear and resist the inevitabiUty of death, art triumphs over death in an almost reUgious fervor by shortening the distance between the mortal and the immortal, since art represents an

eternity that is an "infinitely stretchable existence of three tenses simultaneously" (11). Karpowicz further relates the artistic imagina tion to madness (6-7), a condition that enables the human imagination infinitely to speculate and choose variants. The viewer of the work of art, which was organized in the past, sees it in the present, and "trans

forms it either negatively (he does not wish it to happen) or positively (he wishes it to happen)" (11). The positive reaction results in a fusion of past, present, and future, and the viewer becomes part of the time

less realm where possibiUty is endless.

Adrian's journey leads him to this eternal, timeless state. He views El Greco's painting with its moment frozen in eternity and, in Karpo wicz' words, "he wishes it to happen." And by accepting the irrationali ty of creativity, he steps beyond the conventional borders of time and space. Karpowicz states: "... everything rushes to prove its being by

setting up borders, even as art does away with them" (21). Adri?n finally learns to put things together in his own way, and by doing so, he also becomes an artist. Although others may deem him mad or ill, he knows that he has become powerful.

The novel itself, in its unique way, reflects the power of art to in spire. The narration is more than the mere story of art's power to

affect one individual's outlook. The final scenes of the work are them

selves a painting, a verbal reworking of El Greco's masterpiece. Re

membering Foucault's comments, cited above, about the distance be

tween the visual arts and language, one may speculate that Hern?ndez attempts to overcome this divergence in the novel's final moments when the multiple threads and layers of the narrative form themselves into a scene painted with words rather than brush strokes. AU the



244 ALEC, 18 (1993)

personages act as witnesses as Roldan officiates at Adri?n and Marga rita's marriage at Santo Tom?, art's home. The Count himself smiles, gestures to the artist, also present, who sm?es his approval in return

(141). El Greco, like Karpowicz, acknowledges and sanctions the end less possibilities which his art inspires. Further, Hern?ndez has writ ten an expanded version of Los amantes, unpublished as yet. If the

version analyzed here can be caUed the post-code, according to Morris

sette's terminology, then the new version stands in relation to it as

post-post-code, as it were. The process could continue infinitely; there is no final word in art.

Adri?n dies, but overcomes death. Descriptions of him in the final scenes portray an individual who is once more in control. He "sees"

clearly; contact lenses have replaced his bothersome glasses (136). His death takes place exactly at noon, on the cusp of time which is neither a.m. nor p.m. The conversion of funeral into wedding is no accident; it

is Adri?n himself who calls for the change (139). With Margarita he is

whole, in the "M?s All? Indiviso" (138) from which he looks down on the world he has left behind. There is in the tolling of Santo Tome's bells a mixture of "j?bilo y tristeza" (139), as always at weddings, for

something left behind and something gained, but Adri?n "era feliz" (136). Having become part of the world of the painting, he w?l dwell forever in that creative chiaroscuro space between dark and light, be tween Ufe and death in the brilliant twilight splendor where the sun never sets.

NOTES

1. The author made this statement during a presentation at Colorado State

University in April, 1991.

2. Adrian's fate mirrors the Count of Orgaz' and it is through this duaUty that the meta-artistic relation arises. Andr? Gide offers the concept of "mise en

abyme," ("cette r?troaction du sujet sur lui-m?me") in which an emblematic

inset, such as El Greco's painting, represents a model for what takes place in

the work in which it is embedded (41).

WORKS CONSULTED

Foucault, Michel Madness and Civilization. Trans. Richard Howard. New

York: Vintage Books, 1988.

Gide, Andr?. Journal, 1889-1939. Paris: Gallimard, 1965.

Gonz?lez-del-Valle, Luis, and Miguel Ruiz-Av??s. uLos amantes del sol poniente

y el hombre ante su plurifac?tica existencia" Afterword. Los amantes




del sol poniente. By Ram?n Hern?ndez. Lincoln, Nebraska: Society of

Spanish and Spanish-American Studies, 1986. 143-57.

Gudiol, Jos?. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco. Trans. Kenneth Lyons. New

York: Viking Press, 1977.

Hern?ndez, Ram?n. Los amantes del sol poniente. Lincoln, Nebraska: Society of

Spanish and Spanish-American Studies, 1986.

Morris8ette, Bruce. "Referential IntertextuaUty. Pre-Code, Code, and Post

Code." On Referring in Literature. Ed Anna Whiteside and Michael

Issacharoff. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987. 111-121.

Karpowicz, Tymoteusz. "Art: A Bridge to the Impossible." Polish Journal 26

(1981): 4-22.

Ziolkowski, Theodore. Disenchanted Images. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.



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