Реферат: Constant Change The Life And Styles Of
The only other noticeable objects in the painting are the shadows created by each of the main objects. They are all triangular in shape and, because of this and their sizes, they do not naturally fit with the objects creating them at all. They are not pointing in the same direction, suggesting either multiple light sources or the cubist theory of viewing objects from varying viewpoints. This is exemplified in by the pitcher, which has two shadows of different colors.
The background of the work is painted using pink, green, white, and blue. These colors are applied in triangular forms in apparently random order. There seem to be two different light sources emanating from the top of the two innermost bars.
Overall, the painting is similar to most other cubist paintings. Picasso used one basic form throughout, the triangle. He did this using straight and circular brush strokes. There is no real perspective with a traditional vanishing point although the viewer can tell that the tree is outside the rest of the painting. The viewer, too, can easily tell what Picasso wishes him to look at because of the thick layering of paint on the main objects in comparison to the light layers of paint on the background. All of these things, in combination with the colors used, come together to create the eerie feeling of sadness and doom one gets when looking at this painting.
As is typical in most still life, Picasso’s work is intended to have a deeper meaning than simply being a study of various forms (Harwood). The most obvious story Picasso might have been telling is that of his own life at this time. As mentioned before, many hardships had befallen Picasso during the late 1930’s and, in order to deal with the feelings associated with these hardships, Picasso painted.
The bull’s skull sitting on the left side of the canvas is probably the most obvious symbol in the painting. Picasso had a special love for the bull. In Spain, as in most of the world, it has been the subject of myth and legend. The Spanish tradition of the running of the bulls is one of the most beloved in Picasso’s homeland (Marrero). This special mysticism of the bull found its way into many of Picasso’s works in many different ways, mainly as a symbol of pride, strength, power, and nationalism (Chipp). These otherwise up-beat symbols are sharply contrasted by the fact that the bull portrayed in this work is dead and decaying. This most likely directly correlates to the dismay that Picasso felt after learning of the fall of the Spanish republic.*
Picasso’s still life, however, must be seen as a whole in order to completely understand it. By doing this, two different ideas arise. The first is supported by the belief that during this time the bull became a “precise moral symbol of the forces of darkness which fascism had loosed in Europe” (Packard). This would lead one to believe that Picasso was warning of the eminent rise and aggressions of the totalitarian regimes in Europe. He does this by placing the symbol on the table along with other everyday objects, the fruit and the pitcher. He furthers this idea by placing the bars behind the table but in front of the outside. This allows for a sense of entrapment to all that view this work and serves as a parallel to the entrapment of Europe with the fascist governments.
The other idea derived from studying the picture is based on the many contrasting elements present – the skull, the fruit, and the tree, the gloomy foreground and the bright background – which fit nicely into Picasso’s belief in the oviform*, also known as the Yin-Yang in oriental cultures. This symbolizes the opposing principles of life, good and evil, light and dark, man and woman, and all other contrasting dualisms in life (Marrero).
Specifically in this work the contrasting ideas of light and dark are seen in the opposing color schemes used in the background and foreground. The background is painted using pastels exclusively while in the foreground darker browns and reds are used.
Life and death are also present in this work in the bull’s skull and the fruit and tree. The skull, an obvious representation of death, sharply contrasts with the fruit, a symbol of nourishment and life, and the tree, in full bloom despite the gloomy surroundings.
As Herschall B. Chipp points out in his study of Guernica, Picasso held the view that “death is omnipresent and that life is a constant struggle, balancing precariously on the precipice between survival and annihilation”. This is indeed a bleak outlook on life, but in keeping in line with his belief in the oviform, Picasso must have known that for all the bad things in the world, there must be an equal amount of good. This is most likely the reason that Picasso included the cherry tree, in full bloom, in Bull’s Skull, Fruit, Pitcher. Set in the background and omitted from the title, this beautiful object can easily be overlooked. Once noticed, however, it is an important part of the painting. It gives this otherwise depressing work a hint of hope, a hope for something better.
*It is widely recognized that Picasso was an extremely patriotic Spaniard. This patriotism is easily seen in any of his historical paintings of this time, most notably Guernica, in which he vividly depicts the horrors and atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. In Guernica, a massive mural painted on commission, Picasso uses the bull and other animals as well as screaming human forms to express his contempt for Franco’s regime as a overall feeling of death is felt from this painting (Chipp).
*The oviform, as Marrero explains, “is obtained by describing a circumference and then drawing a diameter, followed by a semi-circle on each radius, on one side and the other of the original diameter.” By then erasing the diameter, the circle has been in half in the only other possible way. This can be interpreted as being symbolic of the contrasting dualisms in life. Picasso often used this concept in his paintings, especially after 1937.
Bull’s Skull, Fruit, Pitcher
Tete de Taureau, Fruit, Pitchet
Pablo Picasso
Spanish(French School), 1881-1973
Oil on canvas, 1939
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