Water, Serpent, Aether-Sensibility towards "Utsuroi" (fluidity, change) about 1900(<Special Feature>Panta Rhei <Utsuroi> Aesthetics)

Abstract

This article aims to point out the change of our sensibility towards fluidity occurred about 1900. The motifs of fluidity in art, especially that of water and the serpent (snake), connected with the figure of woman, were already motifs to represent an undomesticated evil character and an object of desire. But through the 19^<th> century, new attitude appeared. The water is observed scientifically, and the linea serpentina became thread conductor which reveals us the mystery of the material world. Even the figure of femmefatale, a traditional misogynistic image, has its new type in that of femme-enfant, attractive but incommunicable as the matter. In fact, with the discoveries such as that of electro-magnetic waves, the matter had changed its image, from a solid moving in the vacant space to the fluidity extended that has no real contours. The aether, a substance interpreted variously, symbolizes this universal continuity. The fluid matter, old symbol of ephemeral life, has become symbol of the mystic nature. Our aesthetic experience has been oriented to this subtle existence, and ponder in the exquisite perception of change.