Symbols & Allegories in Art, pt.1

By Matilde Battistini

Intro - pg.6/7

• 'Renaissance artists therefore used alchemical symbols in their works to reformulate the fundamental stages of the world's creation and harmony...'

Egg - pg.133-137

• 'represented in many different forms: as cosmic egg, as uterus and womb, as alchemical vessel, or as a symbol of divine perfection.'
• 'Most cosmogonic myths conceive of the universe as egg shaped or having originated from an egg.'
• 'A symbol of life in formation, fertility, and perfection, the egg contains within itself a plurality of meanings.'

1. Piero della Francesca, Madonna and child with saints, Angels and Duke Federico da Montefeltro, ca. 1475. Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera.

• 'The ostrich egg, a symbol of divine perfection, is situated slightly off the central axis of the composition, to indicate the superiority of faith over reason.'

2. Giorgio de Chirico, Metaphysical Composition, 1914. New York, Metropolitan Museum.

• 'The egg is a symbol of life.' - a focal point of the image, most central element.

Limbo - pg.220-221

• 'an intermediate region between Hell and Heaven...'

1. Domenico Beccafumi, Cristo al limbo (Christ's descent into limbo), 1536, Siena, Pinacofeca Nazionale.

• 'Christ descends into limbo to free the souls of those who lived righteously.' - composition, hierarchy.
• 'peopled by the unbaptised souls of the just and by shades of illustrious men from antiquity.'

Dream - pg.232-237

• 'It is depicted as a journey or a vision in which the protagonist is guided by forces beyond the control of his will.'

1. Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (Incubus), 1790-91, Frankfurt, Goethe Museum.

• 'The white horse is a visual transcription of a nocturnal demon from Franco-Germanic folklore, the hellish 'nightmare' that dwells in the bowels of the earth.'

2. Salvador Dali, Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate of one second before waking up, 1944- Lugano (Switzerland), Thyssen-bornemisza collection.

• 'dream-images of his wife Gala as inspiration for his paintings.'
• Tiger - 'dream transfiguration of the buzzing bee, heard while the artist was asleep.' - use of animals as symbols.
• 'The bee that is about to sting alludes to the moment just before waking up.'