What's the meaning of this painting?
Twinklestar800
thought was very interesting. The painting is called Portrait (done in 1935),
by Rene Magritte. If you don't know what painting this is, it shows a table
with a long bottle with liquid in it, an empty glass, a knife, a fork and a
plate with a pancake on it. The pancake has a human eye on it. I would like to
know what this painting symbolizes or means, especially the eye in the center
of the pancake. I will appreciate any feedback. Thank you.
Todd Strickland
"Twinklestar800" <twinkle...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020324130409...@mb-mu.aol.com...
It's not easy to talk intelligently about a painting sight-unseen, and I've
never seen the one you're asking about. If you know of a link to it, please
post the link here.
But from your description I think I can say a couple of things about the
picture.
First, Magritte is playing with his audience's expectations by entitling the
work "Portrait," and then not giving us a portrait, but rather, a still
life! This is a common ploy in many Magritte paintings, creating a
disparity between what the title says the work is about, and what the image
shows. It usually isn't complete nonesense, however. There may be some
hidden, or unobvious connection between the title and the image. Magritte
seems to want the audience to think about how these seemingly unrelated
things might be connected. In this case, although there isn't a person
present, the setting and items on the table might say something about the
personality of the "sitter" at this table. Or pehaps Magritte is saying
that there isn't much of a difference between a "portrait" and a "still
life;" they are both, after all, merely painted images on a flat canvas.
The addition of the human eye on the pancakes is more difficult to
interpret, since I haven't seen the picture. But your description reminds
me of the way a child might make a "portrait" with their breakfast plate,
two fried eggs as eyes, a couple of strips of bacon making a pair of lips,
etc. Maybe Magritte is alluding to this kind of child's play, and therefore
giving us a portrait, after all! But by painting an "actual" eye, rather
than an "egg" eye, he complicates the issue, somewhat. But, then again,
since it's all just pigment on a canvas, what's the difference, really,
between an eye and an egg?
Here's a link to another famous Magritte painting which might give some
perspective on what's going on in his "Portrait:"
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~bengio/images/magritte-trahison-des-images.jpeg
This picture is titled, "The Treason of Images." It shows a very simple,
picture-book type image of a smoking pipe. Under the image, painted onto
the canvas is the phrase, "This is not a pipe." At first, it seems Magritte
is being childishly fasciteous here. Obviously, it IS a pipe. But with a
little more thought we have to admit that, on a very literal level, Magritte
is telling the truth; it is an image of a pipe, not the real thing.
Furthermore, what does the word "this" refer to? Perhaps he means, "This
sentence is not a pipe," or "This framed painting is not a pipe." The image
is so simple, the phrase so unambiguous. Yet the relation between word and
image is not at all straightforward. When we talk about "things" in a
picture, what is it we are really talking about? Do our sentences convey
any meaning at all? The title of the painting seems to sum it all up.
Hope this helps you some when looking at Magritte's paintings.
Todd Strickland