11VA Theory - Guernica Symbolism

1. Symbolism: Cultural Frame GUERNICA

2. On first showing, Guernica came under severe criticism from fascists (“degenerate”) and communists (“anti-social”) alike, besides baffling many critics and viewers. Guernica

3. Starting on the 1 st of May 1937, Picasso took five weeks to complete Guernica, which was staggeringly fast for such a monumental work. Forty-five dated sketches for the composition and figures show how it evolved. composition

4. More preliminary sketches

5. More preliminary sketches

6. The painting it divided into three parts united by a triangular structure. This composition draws the viewer’s attention to the screaming horse. Triangular structure

7. The canvas was so high, Picasso had to slope it against the wall at one end of his studio to fit it into the space. He used a ladder and brushes strapped to sticks to reach the top part of the painting. The scale

8. ‘The bull is not fascism but it is brutality and darkness… (Picasso, 1945)’ The ambivalent bull/minotaur figure obsessed Picasso and was a regular theme in his work. Here, the visible presence of a faded third eye shows how Picasso was continually reworking this painting. The final version shows the helpless bull confronting the viewer with human eyes. The Bull

9. The bull is both the hero and the victim. He stands almost protectively over the woman screaming and mourning her daughter’s death, yet the bull is also amid the carnage, staring helplessly towards the audience with human eyes, mouth wide and gaping. Picasso was influenced by Surrealism, and the bull was adopted as a motif that symbolised man irrationality by the Surrealists. The Bull

10. Originally, Picasso drew a boldly raised arm with a clenched fist (the familiar salute of the Spanish Republican forces) as the painting’s focal point. However, unhappy with the obvious symbolism, Picasso replaced the raised arm with the twisted features of the horse, whose spiked tongue evokes the primal scream of pain of the innocent victims of war. Many feel the horse is a direct symbol of the pain of the people of Guernica, with the dotted lines on it’s body reminiscent of how the attack flooded the newspapers with printed text of the horrors they experienced. The horse

11. After erasing much of his overly symbolic imagery, Picasso couldn’t resist leaving several hidden motifs within the painting. These included a second bull’s head, formed by the horse’s bent front right leg, which appears to be nuzzling the statue’s hand. While the bull appears to be neutral, it could be goring the horse from underneath. There is also a hidden skull within the horse’s nose. Hidden within The horse

12. Picasso originally painted a sun before converting it into an eye with a light bulb. The electric light bulb is a source of evil, the spotlights of the air bombers that searched down into Guernica for targets with their bombs and machine guns, which challenges the soft, innocent light of the lamp. The Spanish word for light bulb is bombia , which is similar to bomba , the Spanish word for bomb. Eye and light bulb

13. The woman holding the lamp with the candle light illuminates the chaotic scene, was recognised as a symbol of enlightenment. This motif has also been used most famously by the Statue of Liberty. Woman holding the lamp

14. The image of the grief-stricken mother holding her dead child e choes a famous pose of suffering in art, most famously in Michelangelo’s Pieta . Picasso distorts the mother’s body – splayed fingers, arched neck and gaping mouth, releasing a silent scream – to heighten the emotional impact. Woman holding dead child Pieta depicts Jesus cradled on his mother Mary’s lap after the crucifixion. Michelangelo was only 24 when he completed Pieta .