#symbolism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #symbolism, aggregated by home.social.
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"The Kiss," Edvard Munch, 1892.
Munch (1863-1944), the great Symbolist/Expressionist painter, remains the best-known Norwegian artist ever.
He had many health problems during his life, and had his heart broken more times than anyone cares to think about, so he was prone to fits of depression. A friend suggested he paint his mental and emotional states, which gave birth to his signature style.
This painting was a part of a cycle called "The Frieze of Life" that depicted, as he put it, "the battle between men and women that is called love" and showed scenes of attraction, courtship, realization, and disillusionment. This is obviously from the more positive parts of the cycle, but with hints of darkness. Their kiss is passionate, yet the colors are cool and the billowing curtain suggests a chilly breeze.
From the Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.
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Possible Dream ✨🌅🪐
Mixed media.
#poetry #symbolism #visualnarrative #odyssey #youtube #youtubechannel #youtubeshorts #dreamscapes
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“From This Famous Hippodrome on the Racetrack, Not Even a Single Journalist is Missing. Death is Inexorable and Doesn't Even Respect Those That You See Here on Bicycle” (1898) by José Guadalupe Posada.
Source: Library of Congress
Available to buy as a print.
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/c6758ae1-4806-44e2-9e53-873afb1d89ae
#calaveras #bicycles #cartoons #mexico #symbolism #skeletons #skulls #art #publicdomain
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"Still Life with Golden Bream," Francisco Goya, 1808-12.
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) is one of the all-time greats. When painting portraits, he could communicate a lot about the sitter while still depicting them more-or-less fairly. But he was also an exceptional caricaturist who ruthlessly dissected human foibles. He could paint historical works but also do works that were sharply critical of the times he was in. And he also produced many bizarre works that seem to be his savage depictions of human fears.
What he was NOT known for was still lifes, and the ones by him can be counted on one's fingers.
Here we have some fish in a heap by the shore. At just a glance, it seems normal, but bear in mind this was painted during the Peninsular War, when Napoleon was invading Spain and fighting was all over. Then those goggling fish eyes take on a sense of pathos. It's a heap of the dead, left on the seashore, sacrificed by a desire for conquest.
That's how good Goya was. He can paint a still life of fish and turn it into a commentary on war.
From the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
#Art #FranciscoGoya #Romanticism #StillLife #War #Symbolism #Commentary #Napoleon #PeninsularWar
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🌀Variations on Piranesi. The Metaphysics of Space.
🏰Variazioni su Piranesi. Metafisica dello spazio.
#symbolism #synchronicity #visualnarrative #Piranesi #visualart #innerspace #mentalspace #metaphysics #metaphorical #youtube #youtubeshorts
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“From This Famous Hippodrome on the Racetrack, Not Even a Single Journalist is Missing. Death is Inexorable and Doesn't Even Respect Those That You See Here on Bicycle” (1898) by José Guadalupe Posada.
Source: Library of Congress
Available to buy as a print.
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/c6758ae1-4806-44e2-9e53-873afb1d89ae
#calaveras #bicycles #cartoons #mexico #symbolism #skeletons #skulls #art #publicdomain
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"Fulfillment (Lovers)," Gustav Klimt, 1910-11.
Klimt (1862-1918) was one of the guiding lights of the Vienna Secession movement, which gave birth to what we know today as Art Nouveau.
This work is actually a pattern for a mosaic. From 1905-11 he was involved in installing a mosaic frieze in the dining room of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, Belgium. The central motif was the Tree of Life, which forms a backdrop for several figures, including the embracing couple we see here.
Klimt's works could often be frankly erotic; not smutty, to be sure, but openly depicting romantic and sexual passion in ways that some found almost pornographic at the time. Today, they're tame, but still evocative.
Mosaic work also fitted Klimt's style; quite a few of his paintings look like mosaics in two dimensions. While there are aspects of this that are frankly traditional, the overall execution, with flat areas of pattern with no attempt to make them seem three-dimensional, marks the beginning of the transition to modernism.
From the MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts), Vienna.
#Art #GustavKlimt #ArtNouveau #Symbolism #ViennaSecession #Mosaic #Eroticism
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I saw the wolf out on the ice,
And as he looked me in the eye
The sky was closing in. The night
Was cold, and I was getting scared
That nobody’d remember me
When I was dead and gone, so I
Determined that the course of action
Best for such a situation
Wouldn’t be to idly stand
And take it, or to sit and freeze,
And so I got down on my knees
And prayed for godly intervention,
But quickly lost my concentration
As the beast bit me in the face.
