Critico d’arte e curatore
Renato Li Vigni: Art as spiritual alchemy – The Light that passes through the Soul
From the very first centuries of Christian mystical thought, the question of Light as a manifestation of the divine has enthralled philosophers, theologians and artists alike.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, father of apophatic theology, wrote that “divine light is not contemplated with the eyes but with an illuminated heart,” hinting that the divine makes itself known not through obviousness but through the transparent veil of mystery. Light is therefore both presence and absence, yet also threshold and revelation.
Leonardo da Vinci—Renaissance artist and scientist—saw the Soul, in plain words, as an invisible fire that animates flesh, and he regarded painting as a way of touching what lies beyond form. It is no accident that he spoke of “spiritual shadows,” comparable to today’s studies on “subtle bodies,” as foundations of visual perception, recognising in art the power to brush against the invisible. Closer to our time, Rudolf Steiner declared that the artist’s task is to awaken the sleeping soul of modern humanity (cf. The Trial of the Soul). In his view, art acts as a mediator between infinite worlds: the earthly, heavy and material realm, and the spiritual, subtle and eternal one.
From this we may infer that the artist does not paint what he sees but what he lives inwardly, alchemically turning the work itself into a rite—the trace of a long journey toward personal and intimate interiority, his own secret voyage. It is within this “divine design” that the painter’s quest fits deeply and coherently.
On Li Vigni’s canvases one never encounters mere depiction; what takes shape is a silent manifestation, a kind of interior epiphany offered as an experience to be traversed. His works whisper, inviting us to open ourselves to a subtle vibration that insinuates itself gently, recognised more by the Soul than by the eyes. In this quiet listening Li Vigni’s path gains meaning: it springs not from aesthetic urgency but from a deeper, fundamentally human need—to draw nearer to another dimension he himself calls “pure energy.”
His mark, his expressive code, his signature, do not strive to reproduce a divine figure with human features, nor to hand us an image to adore or fear. Rather, they open toward an invisible, pervasive force—an impalpable yet concrete presence that silently inhabits us, shapes us, accompanies us and, at times, even seems to call from within, as though it had always belonged to us.
These paintings tell no conventional story; they are not scenes in an art-house theatre. Instead, they embody a yearning to create a sacred space—intimate and yet universal—guided by the deliberate wish to suggest a bridge between the inner world and the one that unites us all. Their surfaces are meditated, often crossed by luminous fissures, golden veins, irregular lines that seem to vibrate in silence. Always, in filigree, lies the conflict between light and shadow—yet it is a gentle struggle, never violent: light does not wipe out darkness; it transmutes it.
Li Vigni does not deny darkness; he passes through it, for he has known its face and is conscious of its reality. Even so, he chooses to open breaches of light, as though to exorcise the dark with the strength of his gesture. In that act dwell faith and spiritual urgency. The colours he employs—deep, insistent, ever-present—are modulations of energy beyond aesthetic choice. Each canvas becomes a vibratory field where the forces of the Soul gather, dissolve and recombine.
His language is archetypal, woven of primordial symbols, akin to the abstract symbolism found in many religions. What emerges is never a conventional subject but a palpable Presence, a personal, recognisable apparition. Painting here is a medium of meditation, a threshold between infinite worlds. In this sense his works become “secular icons” of a modern spirituality—freed from dogma yet firmly rooted in a sacred sensibility.
With consistency and humility Li Vigni pursues the journey each of us is called to undertake: the descent into ourselves to recognise the Light that dwells within. His art is not a guide but a travelling companion, urging us to slow down, to listen, to search. For, as Meister Eckhart reminded us, “the Light we seek outside is the one that has always burned within us.”
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