Cezanne and Merlaeu-Ponty

Merlaeu-Ponty was an existentialist and phenomenologist philosopher who sought a new way for describing human’s experience of the world. In order to avoid the problems that rationalists and experimentalists had encountered in explaining human experience he chose phenomenological method. Hence، instead of insisting on ideas، Merleau-Ponty seeks to apply phenomenology to human perception and its different aspects containing body، arts، speech and other scientific issues. According to him، the method of perception is an achievement not only of philosophy but also of modern art. He believes that artists، and among them painters especially، do the same as phenomenologists. Merleau-Ponty finds these phenomenological aspects in Cezanne works more than anywhere else; aspects which Cezanne lacked theoretical means for conveying them and therefore presented them via his works. These aspects would be discussed in this article by comparing Merleau-Ponty’s views with those of Cezanne.