Matisse Snail - an original interpretation
The below was originally published on Blog.co.uk 21st August, 2011
http://tinyurl.com/matsnail
I am presuming my interpretation is original and new for 2011 and that this sort of thing has not been thought of by anyone else.
Very briefly:
lower left Blue = Sea (or Water)
lower right Green = Land
top left Violet = Art
top right Green = Science
small Orange (right) = ages 0 to 6
larger Red = Schooldays/Education
next Orange = University
Yellow = Young Adulthood
Mauve = maturity and eventually old age
Black = death [literally, a coffin]
Green = renewal
http://tinyurl.com/matsnail
posted by Jonathan FeBland (Znethru)
[further added 30.12.2011]
The final Green (after all) is not renewal. It is the colour of the Science Green not the Land Green. I feel therefore that Matisse was an Atheist and that his hidden message is "Science will find all the answers". [Add to this, "but Art will make life worth living!"]
Also, The Snail is autobiographical, because Matisse himself lived to a ripe old age (hence the large Mauve colour). This was a work created on his death bed and he knew it would take many years for someone to crack its meaning.
+ + +
2nd interpretation - added 14.02.2012
Blue = masculinity
Land Green = femininity
Top Left Violet = female brain
Top Right Science Green = male brain [although these two could be reversed]
The snail itself = a human foetus within the womb
also hinting at Shakespeare's seven ages of man, from which, here is a quote:
"And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school."
+ + +
Matisse 3rd interpretation added 9th March, 2012
More thoughts have struck me regarding this masterpiece!
Yellow = Sun (there is only one Sun)
Black = Death (we only die once)
Blue = Water/Sea/Liquid/Drink
White sections = Days (days are always different)
Black (secondary meaning) = Night (nights are all pretty similar)
Lower R.H. Green = Vegetation/Trees/Salad/Vegetables/Plant Life
Two Science Greens (fractionally different shadings, apparently) different Sciences
Purple/Mauve different Art forms
Red = Blood ("we are all of one blood”) reminiscent of Beethoven/Schiller's Ode to Joy or if you prefer, Elton John/Tim Rice Circle of Life. The tune to Beethoven's 9th Symphony could be played on a keyboard similar to the one utilised in the film "Big” by Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia – plucked out single notes a very simple one-line melody that Beethoven turns into an incredible Symphonic movement.
n.b. Line 31 of Schiller's poem in English - Pleasure was given (even) to the worm
Orange = fruit/drink/colour/food I am also guessing here, Matisse's "favourite” colour.
This work is at least in part autobiographical, and the self-portrait to me that it most resembles is the Rembrandt oil 1660-1662 (Self-Portrait in Painter's Costume).
Another idea for the Snail part of the painting now.
Black = 20th Century (Matisse lived through two World Wars)
Science Green number 2 = 21st Century a Brave New World
And now just wind back, so,
First orange = 15th C
Red = 16th C
Second orange = 17th C
Yellow = 18th C
Mauve = 19th C
http://tinyurl.com/matsnail
I am presuming my interpretation is original and new for 2011 and that this sort of thing has not been thought of by anyone else.
Very briefly:
lower left Blue = Sea (or Water)
lower right Green = Land
top left Violet = Art
top right Green = Science
small Orange (right) = ages 0 to 6
larger Red = Schooldays/Education
next Orange = University
Yellow = Young Adulthood
Mauve = maturity and eventually old age
Black = death [literally, a coffin]
Green = renewal
http://tinyurl.com/matsnail
posted by Jonathan FeBland (Znethru)
[further added 30.12.2011]
The final Green (after all) is not renewal. It is the colour of the Science Green not the Land Green. I feel therefore that Matisse was an Atheist and that his hidden message is "Science will find all the answers". [Add to this, "but Art will make life worth living!"]
Also, The Snail is autobiographical, because Matisse himself lived to a ripe old age (hence the large Mauve colour). This was a work created on his death bed and he knew it would take many years for someone to crack its meaning.
+ + +
2nd interpretation - added 14.02.2012
Blue = masculinity
Land Green = femininity
Top Left Violet = female brain
Top Right Science Green = male brain [although these two could be reversed]
The snail itself = a human foetus within the womb
also hinting at Shakespeare's seven ages of man, from which, here is a quote:
"And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school."
+ + +
Matisse 3rd interpretation added 9th March, 2012
More thoughts have struck me regarding this masterpiece!
Yellow = Sun (there is only one Sun)
Black = Death (we only die once)
Blue = Water/Sea/Liquid/Drink
White sections = Days (days are always different)
Black (secondary meaning) = Night (nights are all pretty similar)
Lower R.H. Green = Vegetation/Trees/Salad/Vegetables/Plant Life
Two Science Greens (fractionally different shadings, apparently) different Sciences
Purple/Mauve different Art forms
Red = Blood ("we are all of one blood”) reminiscent of Beethoven/Schiller's Ode to Joy or if you prefer, Elton John/Tim Rice Circle of Life. The tune to Beethoven's 9th Symphony could be played on a keyboard similar to the one utilised in the film "Big” by Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia – plucked out single notes a very simple one-line melody that Beethoven turns into an incredible Symphonic movement.
n.b. Line 31 of Schiller's poem in English - Pleasure was given (even) to the worm
Orange = fruit/drink/colour/food I am also guessing here, Matisse's "favourite” colour.
This work is at least in part autobiographical, and the self-portrait to me that it most resembles is the Rembrandt oil 1660-1662 (Self-Portrait in Painter's Costume).
Another idea for the Snail part of the painting now.
Black = 20th Century (Matisse lived through two World Wars)
Science Green number 2 = 21st Century a Brave New World
And now just wind back, so,
First orange = 15th C
Red = 16th C
Second orange = 17th C
Yellow = 18th C
Mauve = 19th C
posted by jonfeb at 2:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home