Lets take a look at another Hebrew scene, this time from the old testament. Though another warm family event, also with strong religious overtones, this piece manifests a departure from the social cohesion demonstrated in “The Jewish Bride” (where I should have mentioned the ring fingers crossing). Namely, here the woman is being excluded from [...]
Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride displays several features that critics generally recognize as typical of the artist’s domestic scenes: a display of genuine, candid emotion, an appreciation for intimacy, and an overall humanistic representation. A combination of these can be often found in Rembrandt’s paintings of his closest kin. The background is almost blank, showing only [...]
In reading this famous painting, hanging in the National Museum, Oslo, Norway, critics usually bring up themes of social alienation, of emotional extremes — such as anxiety, loneliness and despair — that anticipate the nihilism of the world wars and the general sense of existential impasse that followed. The main artistic device in this sketchy, [...]
This vision of the sun may seem both very close and remote, aloof yet deeply personal, welcoming and intimidating. One thing is certain: the dominance of the star in this mythical landscape is overwhelming, and it will affect the viewer in one of these ways or another. As was often his custom, Edvard Munch created [...]
The author of the monograph I own on Munch, David Loshak, puts a lot of weight into psychoanalytical interpretation of the Norwegian artist’s work. For instance, he suggests that The Sun, as well as the star’s manifestation in “The Dance of Life” function as a phallic image; he interprets the tree and its reflection in the [...]
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