As it outlines a Christian topography of the visual, this article argues that the gaze cultivated by attention to art and the gaze of mercy bear important affinities, even if particular artworks exhibit tensions with mercy. Drawing on Augustine, Dionysius and Gregory of Nyssa, we argue that in this topography, the visual registers in multiple depths, which we explore through four distinct moments: seeing, seeing the excess, seeing the claim and seeing the divine. By analyzing the gaze of art and the gaze of mercy together with reference to artworks created during and about El Salvador’s civil war (1980–92) – the homilies of Óscar Romero, the poetry of Carolyn Forché and the visual art of Fernando Llort – we show that the gaze of art echoes and can prepare for the gaze of mercy, particularly in the first three moments, for which there are direct analogies between art and mercy’s gazes. There is no such direct analogy in the fourth moment of seeing the divine, yet even here there is a faint foreshadowing that connects art to mercy.

中文翻译：

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主啊，我们什么时候见到你？迈向视觉的地形

由于它勾勒出基督教的视觉地形，本文认为，对艺术的关注培养出的凝视和慈悲的凝视有着重要的相似之处，即使特定的艺术品表现出慈悲的张力。借鉴尼萨的奥古斯丁、狄奥尼修斯和格雷戈里，我们认为在这个地形中，视觉记录了多个深度，我们通过四个不同的时刻来探索：看到、看到多余、看到主张和看到神圣。通过分析艺术的凝视和慈悲的凝视，并参考萨尔瓦多内战（1980-92 年）期间创作的艺术品——奥斯卡·罗梅罗的布道、卡罗琳·福奇的诗歌和费尔南多·洛尔特的视觉艺术——我们表明艺术的凝视会产生共鸣，并且可以为慈悲的凝视做准备，尤其是在前三个时刻，艺术和慈悲的凝视之间有直接的类比。在见神的第四刹那，没有这样直接的类比，但即使在这里，也有一种将艺术与仁慈联系起来的隐隐约约的伏笔。