The Fire in European paintings.ppsx

a primal, natural force of destruction, the image of which indicates danger, while at the same time also symbolizing creation and renewal …

2. from Arcimboldo's allegory to Apocalyptic scene of the Unknown artist from Leiden or Antwerp
through
the myth of Prometheus by Jan Cossiers and the mesmerizing world of Surrealism with Magritte's Gaspard de la Nuit

3. a primal, natural force of destruction, the image of which indicates danger, while at the same time also symbolizing creation and renewal …

5. The Fire
in European paintings

6. Fire as an allegory of the military power of the Holy Roman Empire …
a crown of blazing logs
guns
the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and the imperial double-eagle
is a clear reference to the Habsburg House and the beneficiary of the series,
Emperor Maximilian II.
The two large cannons refer to the strength of the Habsburg armies
in their ongoing war with the Turks.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
The Four Elements. The allegory of Fire
Les Quatre Éléments. Le Feu
Los cuatro elementos. El fuego
1566
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien

10. the “trial by fire” ....
a dispute between Saint Dominic and the Cathars:
a book of the saint is thrown into on the fire along with one of the Albigensian doctors
and ...
the flames devoured the book of the ‘heretics’
Pedro Berruguete
Saint Dominique et les Albigeois
Santo Domingo y los albigenses
Saint Dominic and the Albigensians
1491-1499
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

14. the fire scorches forever the damned in Hell ...
This miniature is inspired by The Visio Tnugdali (Vision of Tnugdalus) written in Latin
in 1149 by a Frater Marcus in Regensburg.
Was the most influential vision of heaven and hell before Dante's Divine Comedy.
Frères de Limbourg Limbourg brothers
Les Très riches Heures du duc de Berry. L'Enfer Folio 108
The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry. Hell Folio 108
Las muy ricas horas del Duque de Berry. Infierno Folio 108
1411-1416
Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, Chantilly

16. In inferno nulla est redemptio ...
A demon tramples three damned into a huge flaming jaws that represent the entrance to Hell.
The phylactery floating above him bears an ironic statement:
‘There is no redemption in Hell (In inferno nulla est redemptio)’.
The demon's gesture, right arm raised and left arm lowered, imitates the usual gesture
of the Saviour at the Last Judgments:
on my right is Heaven for the Elect, on my left is Hell for the Damned.
Hans Memling
Triptyque de la Vanité terrestre et la salvation divine, L’enfer
Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation, Hell
Tríptico de la Vanidad Terrenal y la Salvación Divina, Infierno
1485
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg

18. Genesis 19, destruction of Sodom,
Lot's escape, and his subsequent seduction by his two daughters ...
an enormous harbour surrounding the burning city;
Lot’s wife, turned to salt
Loth and his daughters on a bridge
Lot embraces his eldest daughter,
the younger daughter pours wine into a cup to intoxicate their father
the flames of heaven
and
the torch that illuminates the survivors, the echo of the divine wrath that devours the city
Anonyme École de Pays-Bas Leyde, unknown artist working in Leiden or Antwerp
Loth et ses filles ou Loth et ses filles fuyant Sodome incendié par l'effet de la colère divin
Lot and His Daughters
Lot y sus hijas
1520
Musée du Louvre, Paris

22. a fire-lit landscape ...
hybrid creatures
demons dancing
a giant spider playing a harp ...
and
Dulle Griet, storming, with an army of women, the mouth of hell
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
Dulle Griet, Dull Gret, also as Mad Meg
Margot la folle ou Dulle Griet
Dulle Griet, La loca Meg
1563
Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

25. the reflection of a flame ...
Mary Magdalene, sitting in a meditative pose
a mirror, symbol of vanity
a skull, emblem of mortality
and
a candle reference to his spiritual enlightenment
Georges de La Tour
La Madeleine aux deux flammes
Magdalene with Two Flames
Magdalena penitente
1640
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

28. fire coming out of the ground
and
sulfur in the air …
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held
At Pandæmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peer
(the first book of Milton's Paradise Lost)
Martin's Satan on a rocky outcrop commanding an army of demons and damned souls
John Martin
Le Pandemonium
Pandemonium
Pandemonium
1841
Musée du Louvre, Paris

31. a Fury with incendiary torches spreads fire over a deserted city
and ...
Three of the ominous apocalyptic horsemen soar through the air at a wild gallop.
War, riding a gray horse.
Plague dressed in sulphur yellow, with her head coiled with snakes and a sword on her shoulder.
Death rides triumphantly with a laurel wreath on his bald skull.
Arnold Böcklin
War
La Guerre
Guerra
1896
Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden

34. facing the fire ...
between heaven and earth
on the stake in a long white dress,
looking up at the sky whose pure blue bursts behind the dark clouds
Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard
Jeanne d'Arc sur le bûcher
Joan of Arc at the stake
Juana de Arco en la hoguera
1822
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

36. the stealing of fire ...
the moment when Prometheus escapes from Olympus with the flame
Symbolically more than a natural element, fire is the manifestation of a knowledge
that has long been seen as divine.
Transmitting fire means transmitting a knowledge, a technique, a evolution.
Prometheus thus enables man to emerge from his ignorance and overcome his primitive state.
Jan Cossiers, After Peter Paul Rubens
Prometeo trayendo el fuego
Prometheus Carrying Fire
Prométhée portant le feu
1636-1638
Museo del Prado, Madrid

39. as usual for a Bruegel, the painting is filled with detail ...
fine snow that dusts the branches of the trees
the frozen watermill wheel
a fox the poor catch of a group of hunters
and
the warmth of the fire in front of a inn
and
the flames of the fire of the fireplace
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
The Hunters in the Snow
Chasseurs dans la neige
Los cazadores en la nieve
1565
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

44. the fire that devastated the city for six days and seven nights ...
The Great Fire of Rome began on the 18th of July 64 AD
The stones dark, in contrast to the red glow of the fire.
The figures are dwarfed by the monuments, as if they were the playthings of fate and history.
A confrontation between two powers beyond the human:
that of history and that of the natural element which, by destroying Rome, magnifies it.
(In the light of modern knowledge there is no evidence of arson,
and the theory of an accidental origin is currently considered the most likely)
Hubert Robert
The Fire of Rome
L'incendie de Rome
Gran incendio de Roma
1785
MuMa Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre

47. … flames consume Saint Stephen's Hall, the House of Commons,
and eerily illuminate the towers of Westminster Abbey
October 16, 1834, Turner witnessed the event
Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons
L'Incendie de la Chambre des lords et des Communes
Incendio de las Cámaras de los Lores y de los Comunes
1834-1835
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

50. a ritual fire ...
in Huelgoat, a vastly wooded area set high above a lake near Pont-Aven
rich in ancestral rituals and legends.
Paul Sérusier
Le feu dehors ou Les Mammau
Fire Outside or Mammen
Fuego en el exterior o Mammau
1893
Collection particulière

53. naked witches on the Sabbath,
a cauldron in which a hellish broth cooks, from which flames emerge
in the shape of chimaeras
and
an audience made up of cats, snakes and other fauna related to this type of practice
Paul-Elie Ranson
Les sorcières autour du feu
Witches around the Fire
Brujas alrededor del fuego
1891
Musée départemental Maurice-Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye

56. colored light beams caused by artillery,
oblique lines of rain - but it could just as easily be a shower of bullets
clouds of black and grey smoke - clouds of gas used as a weapon …
The flames bring yellow and orange touches and make you think of hell ...
the Battle of Verdun (February - December 1916)
the most deadly of all the First World War battles—over 800.000 soldiers died there
Félix Vallotton
Verdun
1917
Musée de l'Armée, Paris

59. The mystery of fire fascinated Magritte, with its primal, fragile and destructive connotations …

60. The discovery: a tuba, an inanimate metallic object, supposedly incombustible, cannot burn.
The real nature of fire ...
Magritte said that he was trying to put himself in the place of prehistoric man
when he first discovered that fire resulted from striking two stones together …
fire can originate from stones without devouring them
(Is it a coincidence that we can see a horse's head with a fire mane emerging from this
association?)
René Magritte
La Découverte du feu
The discovery of fire
El descubrimiento del fuego
1935-1936
Collection privée

63. the stormy sky
the sea
and
the raven and the fire
elements of nature as well as ancient and universal symbols
---
Effectively, Magritte is giving the viewer a glimpse of the mythical bird the Phoenix,
which rises from the flames of destruction to usher in a new world.
But the Phoenix is not overtly drawing attention to itself and remains disguised as an ordinary
raven ...
Things are not what they seem, and the mystical and magical are present in the ordinary and
everyday.
René Magritte
Les Fanatiques
The Fanatics
1955
Collection privée

66. The title alludes to the collection of prose poems of the same name by the French poet
Aloysius Bertrand, which is regarded as the source of inspiration for symbolist poetry.
The nocturnal scene is full of contradictions:
a barren landscape
a burning house
a red theatre curtain
a large, black bird of prey
Why is the isolated house on fire and where does the curtain come from?
“People who look for symbolic meanings [in my work] fail to grasp
the inherent poetry and mystery of the image”. - René Magritte
René Magritte
Gaspard de la nuit
1965
Collection Scharf-Gerstenberg, Berlin

69. The Fire in European paintings
Le Feu dans la peinture européenne
El Fuego en la pintura europea
images and text credit
  www.

Music Peter Mclsaac Feather
created olga_oes
thanks for watching
[email protected]