In today's return to painting analysis, we viewed Picasso's epic masterpiece "Guernica". Located in the Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofía in Madrid, the painting is a whopping 3.5m x 7.8m! Picasso painted this to represent the horrors and tragedies of war, in particular the bombing of Guernica by Italian and German planes during the Spanish Civil War, April 26, 1937.
Here are the particulars that we discussed:
- the painting is comprised of several figures in a room. A large bull on the far left stands over a woman that is grieving the loss of her child, lying dead in her arms. The bull's tail appears to be smoke or flames. A horse is to the right of the bull and it is being stabbed with a spear. If you look closely, a bull is beneath the horses body and appears to be goring it from below. In this mixtures of imagery, a soldier lies, dismembered, on the ground. His sword is broken. A woman's face appears to float in from a window. If you view her face turned 90 degrees clockwise, she appears to view the sky, perhaps in fear of the bombing. Have a look:
The lightbulb above the horses head seems to be an evil eye, watching the scene. To the far left of the painting is a woman trapped in fire, her hands raised to the sky. If you look closely, a dove is inscribed on the wall of the room, holding an olive branch.
This painting contains several hidden pictures as well. Technically, there are three bulls in the painting. The first is obvious. The second, appears below the horse:
The third is embedded in a large area:
There is a skull formed by part of the horse's body:
What other harlequins can you find?
Have a look at this modern interpretation from Quan Lavender:
