Art History: Interpreting Symbolism / Art and Social Issues

We understood pictures before written language. Think of ancient cultures and the use of heiroglyphics or pictographs to represent people, places, events and ideas.[Link to Egyptian symbols and meaning]

Native American totem poles depict animals  associated with specific attributes combined to represent personalities within a tribe. [Link to symbolism associated with totem pole images]

Animal images were also used in Medieval art to communicate religious ideals. The image below is from the Book of Kildare created by monks in the year 800A.D. It depicts four biblical evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John through various animal attributes.

This painting is titled "The Arnolfini Marriage" by Jan van Eyck and was painted in 1434. It

 is rife with symbolism, and has been called one of the most complex and original paintings in Western art history. Some say that it was painted to be a document as proof of the wedding between the man and woman. Colors and placement of figures play a large part in the symbolism of the painting as well as purposely placed objects in the room. The little dog in the foreground symbolizes fidelity, while the oranges on the chest may refer to fertility. The cast aside clogs are a traditional symbol of the wedding, and the single candle refers to the light of God. Upon close inspection of the spotless mirror in the background, you can see the reflection of the artist as well as the couple, and above the mirror is the inscription "Johannes de eyck fuit hic, 1434," translated, "Jan van Eyck was here." [Link to description of additional symbolism within the Arnolfini Portrait]


The painting below features images that represent over 100 Dutch proverbs. [Link identifying proverbs and meaning in Bruegel's painting] It is titled Netherlandish Proverbs and was painted in 1559 by Bruegel the Elder.

Harmen Steenwijck, Vanitas,1640

Vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art associated with Northern European still life painting in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin for "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life and the futility of pleasure. Common vanitas symbols include skulls which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay like aging; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life. Fruit, flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, and a peeled lemon, as well as accompanying seafood was, like life, attractive to look at, but bitter to taste. There is debate among art historians as to how much, and how seriously, the vanitas theme is implied in still lifes without explicit imagery such as a skull. As in much moralistic genre paintings, the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of the subject is in a certain conflict with the moralistic message.

One of my favorite images is Francisco de Goya's etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797)

It is an iconic image, its title often being quoted from Goya, consisting of a self-portrait of the artist with his head on a table, as owls and bats surround him, assailing him as he buries his head into his arms. Seemingly poised to attack the artist are owls (symbols of folly) and bats (symbols of ignorance).
The viewer might read this as a portrayal of what emerges when reason is suppressed and, therefore, as an espousal of Enlightenment ideals. However, it also can be interpreted as Goya's commitment to the creative process and the unleashing of imagination, emotions, and nightmares.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. In this painting we are shown suffering people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos.
A wide-eyed bull stands above a woman grieving over a dead child in her arms. The center is occupied by a horse falling in agony as it had just been run through by a spear or javelin.A human skull overlays the horse's body. The bull's tail forms the image of a flame with smoke rising from it, seemingly appearing in a window created by the lighter shade of gray surrounding it. Under the horse is a dead, apparently dismembered soldier; his hand on a severed arm still grasps a shattered sword from which a flower grows. A light bulb blazes in the shape of an evil eye over the suffering horse's head. Picasso's intended symbolism in regards to this object is related to the Spanish word for lightbulb; "bombilla", which makes an allusion to "bomb" and therefore signifies the destructive effect which technology can have on society. The lamp is positioned very close to the bulb, and is a symbol of hope, clashing with the lightbulb. Daggers that suggest screaming replace the tongues of the bull, grieving woman, and horse. A bird, possibly a dove, stands on a shelf behind the bull in panic.

Guernica at the United Nations (from wikipedia)
A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the UN building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room. It was commissioned in 1955 by Nelson Rockefeller, since Picasso refused to sell him the original ^[21], and placed on loan to the United Nations by the Rockefeller estate in 1985,^[22] the tapestry is less monochromatic than the original, and uses several shades of brown. On 5 February 2003 a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations.^[23] On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Some diplomats, however, in talks with journalists claimed that the Bush Administration pressured UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war on Iraq.^[24

Kathe Kollwitz is regarded as one of the most important German artists of the twentieth century, and as a remarkable woman who created timeless art works against the backdrop of a life of great sorrow, hardship and heartache.Kathe believed that art should reflect the social conditions of the time and during the 1920s she produced a series of works reflecting her concern with the themes of war, poverty, working class life and the lives of ordinary women.

[Link to World Flag Ant Farm]

living paintings

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