Itzhak Goldberg's 'L'eclissi del volto' Explores the Void in Art

French art historian Itzhak Goldberg (born 1949) has published 'L'eclissi del volto', a 60-page essay that examines the concept of emptiness and absence in the representation of the human face from the Baroque to contemporary art. The book, released by Marietti Editore in Bologna in 2019, is dense with references to ancient, modern, and contemporary art, as well as iconographic, philosophical, and religious sources. Goldberg traces his inquiry back to Marc Ronet's 2004 work 'Tavola rotonda con il vuoto come oggetto', which first made him aware of absence. The volume includes a preface by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, who writes that 'the void is not full of nothing, because nothing fills it.' Goldberg argues that much 20th-century and contemporary art is populated by empty faces, where humans appear alienated from themselves. He cites artists such as Anish Kapoor and Hans Haacke, and references Henri Matisse's explanation to Georges Charbonnier for why he omitted eyes and mouths from his figures: to liberate the viewer's imagination. The book costs €8 and is available at www.mariettieditore.it.