Picasso's "Guernica": A Study in Visual Metaphor

Author(s): William Proweller

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Spring, 1971), pp. 240-248
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775486
Accessed: 15-09-2017 19:57 UTC

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1. Picasso, Guernica, 1937, oil on canvas, 11'6" X 25'8", New York, Museum of Modern Art (on extended loan from the artist).

Picasso's "Guernica": A Study in Visual Metaphor

William Proweller

"Every discovery of an unknown historical fact, and a singula

every new interpretation of a known one, will either specimen
fit in with the prevalent general conception, and what is
thereby corroborate and enrich it, or else it will en- prodigio
tail a subtle or even a fundamental change in the pricious
prevalent general conception, and thereby throw as a mat
new light on all that has been known before." E. Pa- despite
nofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts, pp. 9, 10. than its
sion be p
In the area of inconographical analysis, Picasso's to enlar
Guernica (Fig. 1) has not escaped the attention of the art types. A
historian. Investigations concerned with "conceptual and connecti
visual resemblance" have been most provocative and re- "the mo
vealing; probing tradition for "very real retrospective ... is most
historical elements" has resulted not only in salvaging a relations
substantial pedigree of visual material, but has also con- only of
firmed what theological and psycho-analytical disciplines but also
have tended to popularize, that Guernica represents a sec-mental c
ular and savage corollary to the traditional scenario of For the
Christian Sacrifice.1 must be
However, the concern for conceptual and plastic wherein
"wavelengths" has been rather restrictive in the matter of circums
selections; literary discussion and analysis has manifested superfic
been com
WILLIAM PROWELLER is an associate professor of art his- sacre at
tory at S.U.N.Y., Fredonia. His Ph.D. degree is from The dusa and
University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Proweller, a fre- share th
quent contributor to the art periodicals is primarily inter- intrusion
ested in contemporary problems, aesthetics, and Ameri- moral or
can art. a realist in

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 mordial match between "the Sun God and the powers of
nection with the visible world," what is faulty is the real-
ization that such "categorization" is essentially irrelevant
darkness." Comparisons of this sort are not unwarranted,
and secondary, focusing upon incidental trappings in- but what impairs their posture is that the issue of rele-
stead of the internal systems of correspondence pertain- vance is entirely dependent upon the honorific adapta-
ing to "conceptual and visual resemblance." tion of Classical prototypes.7 And further, such proto-
Another point of exclusion is the discussion center- types are altogether too prevalent. Pairing features of the
ing upon the divination of numbers and the dimensional Guernica with surviving examples of pedimental sculp-
format of the mural; the so-called "two to one ratio" ture, or the martial sciences posed upon sixth century
while speculatively tantalizing, must be withdrawn as pottery,
a such as a well-preserved psykter-amphora from
piece of intellectual capriciousness affecting and arbitrat-
Chalcidia (Fig. 2), while visually suggestive, are also tai-
ing either the "total composition,"4 or the question oflored for rhetorical convenience. Such comparisons, in-
historical prototypes.5 Such discussions simply strain thestead of invoking insight often seem to "flatten" what-
sense of credibility, especially with respect to an artistever depth is to be derived from the prospects of icono-
who has never betrayed the least concern with the "me- graphical analysis.
dium" of numbers. What are infinitely more revealing and instructive
What may be reserved as a point of significance is are those cases which reflect a penchant for distinctive
the reference to Classical sources of "composition," but traits, that is, the general discussion of relevant meanings
even here relevance may prove deceptive and somewhat is now interwoven with more perceptive and exemplary
oversimplistic. Herein the Guernica has been compared cases of visual uniformity. What is decisive is the quest
to the "pedimental" character of a Greek temple6; for stylistically opposing but visually palatable represen-
tations, forms exhibiting "degrees" of "spatial and plas-
herein, this refers not only to certain gross features (e.g.
symmetrical and triangular simplicity), but also to such tic" congruence. In this context, two articles are espe-
thematic relevance as the ancient and popular leitmotif cially illuminating, both of which, as part of a penetrat-
of the gigantomachy, that is, the unredemptive and cata- ing diagnosis of Picasso's Guernica, introduce some sug-
clysmic themes of cosmic rebellion, the mythical and pri-gestive prototypes as possible equations in deriving a
more legible and comprehensive understanding of the
symbolic and compositional features.
The first article in the order of publication, William
Darr's "Images of Eros and Thanatos in Picasso's
Guernica,"8 is primarily concerned with evolving a con-
sistent but Freudian interpretation with respect to the
"protean diversity" of symbolic content; however, some
rudimentary and revealing pictorial associations are sug-
gested throughout the exposition. For example, the au-
thor cites such cases as Leonardo's Last Supper, Titian's
Sacred and Profane Love, and David's Rape of the Sa-
bine Women-all of which are "paired" with the Guer-
nica for varying visual and philosophical reasons. In Leo-
nardo's decoration for the refectory of S. Maria delle Gra-
zie in Milan, discussion centers upon the similarity of ar-
chitectonic effects, of the ambiguity of outer and inner
limits, "metaphors for a total world,"9 while in Titian's
Borghese painting the role of the Roman sarcophagi be-
comes reminiscent of a repertory of "long compositions"
of which Picasso's is no exception.10 And lastly, concern-
ing David's piece of "public moralization," conceptual
and visual connections are decipherable along a horizon-
tal axis of polar, antithetical meaning. For example, the
author poses the fact that as "Romulus on the right is
countered by Hersilias' avenging brother on the left," so
in the Guernica "the surging bull of the upper left is the
counterpart as idea, on one level, of the paralyzing help-
lessness of the woman stumbling up from the lower
right,"11 comparisons which are somewhat tenuous in so
2. Chalcidian psykter-amphora, with battle of Greeks and Trojans, c.540 B.C.,
far as such distinctions are conditioned by the random
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria. use of the term "antithesis."

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 As a piece of "antiquarian habit" Joseph Mashect's
article "Guernica as Art History"12 is a direct assault to
secure some degree of resonance in the matter of "concep-
tual and visual relevance"; bypassing Freudian consider-
ations and the more familiar but no less nebulous argu-
ments of the Gestaltists and interpreters of "creative be-
havior," the author manages to introduce a number of
stolid partners, tokens of the "Grand Manner" that in-
vite us to see "ways in which it [the Guernica] materially
continues that tradition." In this context, references are
made to Rubens' Consequences of War, Caravaggio's
Conversion of St. Paul, and a weak and incidental frag-
ment of a distraught woman from Guido Reni's Massacre
that despite the exclusive motivation for discovering
tecedents in the arts of the 17th century," a concess
made regarding "researches into possible sources in
periods,""1 an appropriation of alternate "stylistic
spectives" arbitrating not only the valence of visual
ogies but the more paramount concern of cognitiv
philosophic explication.
Parenthetically, the problem of "establishing r
tionships among individual works of art," is of
enough subject to the conditions of aesthetic orient
such hazards of "historic relativity" often result in
ments of temporary blindness, that is, moments that o
look the relevance of certain features for the sake of oth-

of the Innocents-a rather discriminating and "convinc- ers, due to the inertia of topical fixation. This is particu
ing" selection for establishing a case for visual antece-larly pronounced in the case of Titian's Sacred and Pro
dence. However, apart from the Rubens extravaganza, fane Love; William Darr's inadvertent reference to the
cognitive relevance seems to be handicapped by a prefer- format of the Roman sarcophagus16 may have also prov
ence for rather obscure and mystifying meanings and re-
lationships. For example, concerning Rubens' Conse-
quences of War, discussion centers on a comparison of
"spatial and plastic" congruences, features which may
also be described as orchestrations in "psychological pro-
gressions" though in juxtaposition to the Guernica, pro-
gressions seemingly mobilized in opposing directions.
Herein, description is at least motivated by fact, "the
woman with the up-raised arm" now cited as the "an-
guished and despairing" counterpart to "the woman with
the up-raised arms at the far right of Guernica."l3 On the
other hand, when discussion consigns itself to Caravag-
gio's scenario of religious "realism," that is, the depiction
of Paul's traumatic prostration and the dismantled war-
rior mirrored in the Guernica, interpretation is some-
what baffling; not only is comprehension undergoing a
3. Detail of Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Rome Borghese Gallery.
strain in equating the momentous experience of Saul's
conversion with Picasso's rather tenuous and erratic asso-
ciation with Communism, but interpretation approaches
to be a formidable point of departure in unravelling ad-
the ridiculous when the technique of the seer is invoked
to impute a connection between the names of "Pablo" ditional features of symbolic relevance. At least, it can be
and "Paul," the date of the "actual bombing" of the shown without taxing the imagination that as a para-
town of Guernica and the coincidence of Picasso's first digm of allegory, that central throne, a "sarcophagus
sketches "on May Day, in the 20th anniversary yearfountain,"17
of upon which rest the sisters of generative and
the Bolshevik Revolution.'14 Another case of critical spiritual powers (Fig. 3) is nothing but a compelling im-
provisation on the Christological theme of Sacrifice. And
fancy to be compared with the practices of the palmist.
Apart from such depreciation factors, what isthis, dis-in turn, may be shown to contain a substratum of
turbing is the limiting texture of pictorial sources, meaning
that with regard to the Guernica for what Titian un-
is, not so much the quantity of suitable paradigms veils
butas a cosmic epilogue to the mysterium of redemptive
the cultural frames from which they are drawn. As ais for us bred in an atmosphere of abusive mecha-
history,
monumental testimony "to disillusion" and the hauntingnization, the final unredemptive Word of asocial and
paranoia of instinctive sub-human annihilation, amoral
it istransformation. Herein the schemes of redemp-
tive and
scarcely tenable to keep discussion within the category of unredemptive history interlock, the spectacle of
Classical-Renaissance types. As a matter of course, it
the fountain frieze "narrating the myths of Venus and
would be rather barbaric not to perceive that in the Adonis"
con- as "pagan prefigurations" of the Christian sce-
text of Joseph Mashect's essay, an inadvertent remark nario of "the passion and triumph of Christ"18 is echoed
may become the pretext for intimidation; evenonce again in a contemporary spectacle of unredemptive
here,
"passion." Even the figurative elements interrelate; both
following a suggestion of other prototypes (e.g. Poussin's
the horse of Adonis and the agitated goddess "corre-
Massacre of the Innocents) a kind of apology is proferred

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spond to the mutilated and terror-stricken ensemble of
the caballo and Madonna, while opposite "a jealous
Mars . .. flogs a recumbent Adonis" mirroring the recum-
bent and dislocated warrior-an interrelationship that is
most tempting despite the disparity of visual congruence.
However, at this juncture the problem is to negoti-
ate an alternate case of stylistic antecedence; it should be
added that, on this score, there is no paucity of literary
material. Albert Elsen, in his summary treatment of Pi-
casso's oeuvre has pointed to the pivotal influence of
Griinewald's Altarpiece,9 a reference, no doubt, reminis-
cent of a similar but more pertinent citation of Picasso's
biographer, Roland Penrose. In a discussion concerning
the preliminary stages in the production of the Crucifix-
ion of 1930, Penrose points out that the latter, as an un-
premeditated excursion into the "religious subject," was
partly precipitated by Picasso's interest "in the Isenheim
altarpiece of Mathias Griinewald."2c Yet what is also sig-
nificant with regard to the Guernica is the author's subse-
quent biographical account:
4. Picasso, Crucifixion, 21 Oct. 1932. ink drawing 26 X 33 cm.

Working from reproductions of this deeply-moving

masterpiece he [Picasso] made a remarkable series
of studies . . . of great importance as being the fore-
runners of Guernica, painted seven years later....21

The assertion is not to be taken with impunity. The
interconnection and cross-fertilization of iconographical
material based upon Griinewald's mystical and visionary
masterpiece of 1515 has spearheaded a number of studies
attempting to reconstruct the developmental events of
the 30's. Willard E. Misfeldt, in his investigation of the
Undoubtedly, Picasso's drame interieur was stirred
by contact with the Surrealist journals of the 20's and th
early 30's." Such publications as Documents and Mino
taur and the leading art magazine of the period, Cahier
d'art, became the literary substratum motivating Picasso
"conscious intuitions" toward an art infatuated with oc-

metamorphic and symbolic decompositions of Picasso's
attitude toward the "theme of the cock," argues that dur-
ing the 30's the artist had undergone a profound personal
metamorphosis, something tantamount to an appropria-
tion of "broader human issues, problems which do not
cultism, but expressive of the undercurrents of "broa
human issues." This is singularly brought into rel
through Ruth Kaufman's penetrating article entitled "
casso's Crucifixion of 1930."24 Ruminating upon the su
real and demonic interests of such contributors as Michel

seem to have bothered him during the First World War."22 Leiris, Georges Bataille and Robert Desnis, Miss Kau
Apparently, Picasso now maneuvers his art into a most man also points out the significant observation that in
auspicious but humane "connection with the visible gard to the Surrealists' fixation for historical archetyp
world"; whether it be such works as the Seated Bather of and antecedent "practitioners" of the unconscious, it
1929, the Crucifixion of 1930, or the more disjointed ink came increasingly axiomatic to renovate the "problem
drawings in imitation of the Griinewald Altarpiece (Fig. atic" and intoxicated visionary Mathias Griinewal
4), the use of the grotesque and ugly now becomes an in- Elected as one of the "forebears" of Surrealism, it was
spiring departure in communicating the profound and only natural for Picasso to find in the Isenheim Altar-
often contradictory passions of the human psyche. This piece the impetus for that hysteria of symbolic transfor
phase of Picasso's career marks a decisive descent into the mation that was first to inhabit the Crucifixion of 1930,
diabolical attractions of the underworld, what the Swiss and eventually the more ambitious and all-consuming
psychologist Carl Jung so aptly called in an essay entitled "passion" of the Guernica.25 What Picasso reveals is the
"Picasso," the "journey to Hades .. of anti-Christian common and primeval motif of ancestral sacrifice; in this
and Luciferian forces,"23 a submergence however notcase forthe crucifixion is directly linked to the sacrificial rit-
the sake of violence and inhuman sadism but rather to ual of Mithraism (the figure of Christ to the act of blood
reappear as a manifestation of a world embroiled in letting dis- in the "killing of the mythic bull"), the appari-
integration. This is a matter of addiction to the uncon- tion of which becomes ever more haunting as a "de-
scious, but also of therapeutic effects animating a concern piction of the modern situation of the bombing of a civil
for "the broader human issues." ian population."26

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 However suggestive, an alternate seam has appeared;
the intertwining of iconological motifs running through
the Isenheim Altarpiece and the Guernica not only yields
"some fundamental changes in the prevalent general con-
measured by that familiar remark of the historian San
rart, that "no living man was able to provide an oral
written account of his activities."29 Griinewald suffered
the common psychoses of the age of Reformation, that is,
the revulsion which comes with the loss of political an
spiritual ties and the concommitant conversion frough
with the immanence of transcendence. Herein what mat-
ters is the "propitious moment," the ecstatic apprehen
sion which transforms the common world into the inevi-
table and fateful imagery of the fantastique; art become
a fictional pretext, a psychic situation of "disguised sym
bolism" reminiscent of Picasso's often quoted but dis
turbing statement: "Art is a fiction that enables us to
know the truth."

Obviously, the question of cultural affinities between

the "seventeenth century and our own times" can be sup
plemented by drawing attention to the Biblical demoni
of Northern Europe of the fifteenth century, a welcom
transition to a case of "visual antecedence" that merits de-
tailed consideration, that is, a case imbued with the
psychic situation of "disguised symbolism," the work of
5. Detail from right wing of Gruenwald's Isenheim Altarpiece showing "Soldiers of the "Master of Flemalle," Robert Campin's Merode Altar-
the Resurrection." Colmar, Musee Unterlinden.
piece. Herein one discovers a mine of seminal corrola-
tion, a detailed account of which will fulfill the intended
ceptions, but widens the horizons of prototypes within scope of this study.
the more sensuous" and primitive persuasions of the A peripheral relationship between the Campin Al-
Gothic world. This is especially revealing with respect to tarpiece and the Guernica assumes "one of the oldest
the dismantled and demonic profile of the warrior in the schemes in Western art," that is, "a triptych in the for-
Guernica. Ruth Kaufman, in reiterating the findings of mula of a Renaissance altarpiece."30 In the case of the
Anthony Blunt, traces the scenario of the "broken war- Guernica the divisions are visually discernible; despite
rior" to a page of the Apocalypse of Saint-Sevres, a repro- the "uniformity of color" and the continuity of debris,
duction of which was printed in the 1929 issue of the Sur- there is the central panel dominated by the oppressive dis-
realist journal Documents.27 Yet, despite the connections figuration of the horse and the imploring women staring
and the strength of stylistic considerations, can it not be in the creature's direction, and the two flanking panels
argued that behind the gasping warrior of the Guernica reserved respectively for the indomitable bovine princi-
lies another eligible piece of iconic relevance, that is, the ple and the catastrophic mirage of the modern crematory.
gnarled stump of a Roman centurion smoldering in the And again, despite the persuasive and sprawling entan-
lower margins of the inflaming Resurrection shutter of glement, the tyranny of twisted and dismantled figura-
the Altarpiece (Fig. 5). Are we not face to face with the tions, the scenario as a whole seems transfixed, benumbed
demented gestures of warrior-knights, swords in hand, and anesthetized into a state of ecstatic suspension, a
the victims of their own brutality, recalling the passage state of affairs somewhat analogous to the sacramental
from the Garden of Gethsemane: "For all they that take spectacle of the Campin Altarpiece. In both cases, the im-
the sword shall perish with the sword"? (Matthew 29:52.) mediate impression is one of atemporal transcendence,
What is being suggested is more than a case of reli- the Campin Altarpiece an immutable pantomime per-
gious morality; the foregoing pronouncement must be formed within the framework of a passive and stringent
understood within the Biblical framework of a world Orthodoxy, the Guernica and "epic" presentation atom-
ized by the cinematic effects of spatial simultaneity.
charged with the static of Revolution, a psychic orienta-
tion not only binding the Son of God, but equally chok- Again, the symbolic accoutrements become the pretext of
ing upon the world of Mathias Griinewald. conveying "not a physical but a dream reality," a purely
In a rather conjectural but revealing sketch of the doctrinaire and demonic spectacle of psychic significance.
artist's life, the Wittkowers28 allude to the disturbing However, the question of "conceptual and visual rel-
evance" has scarcely been touched; borrowing a phrase
conditions affecting the psychic temperature of the times.
Caught between the transigence of economic patronage from the linguistic studies of Max Black,31 the situation
is somewhat comparable to "an interaction view of meta-
and the restless pathologies of the religious but radical
phor,"32 this implies a situation composed of incompati-
Apostles, Griinewald appears to have suffered the congen-
ital experience of abandonment to such depth as to blebefeatures, the relationships themselves entailing more

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than a case of straight-forward associations. One can say
that, in a study of this sort, the pairing of "disparate phe-
nomena" is in an analogous way an instance of "visual
metaphor"; herein, meaning is derived from the mere in-
terplay of elements, the metaphorical situation itself "se-
lecting, emphasizing, suppressing and organizing features
of the principal object,"33 that is, accommodating a mea-
sure of insight that would otherwise remain incommuni-
cable.
A detailed scrutiny of individual panels reveals a
"symmetrical correspondence" of visual and cognitive
features pressing toward that opposing but dialogical leg-
acy of redemptive and unredemptive history. Pairing the
right sides of the panels respectively (Fig. 6 and 7), we
find a rather curious range of resemblances; on the one
hand there are the opened windows with their trivial and
felicitous view of a prosperous and thrifty burg of the
15th century, below which Joseph, the "protector" of

6. Robert Campin, M6rode Altarpiece, right wing, New York, Metropolitan 7. Guernica, detail of right side.
Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection.

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maker of mousetraps and that of the muscipulator (liter-
ally, mousetrapper, himself snaring the Devil by the de-
ceptive strategy of impersonating the pious part of the
faithful spouse), so in the Guernica panel there is the lit-
eral but abstracted representation of the mousetrap, and
(as a striking antithetical apparition) the mutilated hu-
man torso entrapped in the inflammatory pandemonium
of political genocide.
Pairing the left panels (Figs. 8 and 9) is also demon-
strative of a symmetrical but antithetical case of rele-
vance. Kneeling within the courtyard of "sacred enclo-
sure" the pensive donors (presumably members of the In-
gelbrecht family) petition the holy sanctuary, while some-
what detached in the middle foreground appears the di-
Here the archetypal principle of cosmic propitiation
stands transfixed in the fetid and tumid atmosphere of
divinity, its ferocious and crescent-like complexion en-
framing the paralyzing situation of the traditional Pieta.
The mysterium enveloping the Merode wing is now dis-
placed by a volcanic and catastrophic antithesis; the pas-
sive and withdrawn composure of Isaiah now stands in-
carnate in the form of the arrogant and obstreperous bull
(the traditional symbol of Sacrifice), while the donors' ex-
pressions of penitential obedience now correspond to the
ever-diminishing but insufferable outpourings of the Ma-
donna and Child, only the latter being demonstrative of
that hopeless and submissive obeisance to sacrifice so much
a part of the impersonal demonism of modern warfare.

10. Robert Campin, Merode Altarpiece, central panel. 11. Guernica detail of central panel.

minishing contour of a civic messenger, servant of the do- The central panels (Fig. 10 and 11) represent an ex
nors and the prophetic minister of divine providence. tremely complex situation; however, only the most s
Obviously, the messenger is Isaiah37; it is he who is di-lient points will be reserved for discussion.
vinely entrusted not so much with the outlines of a new From the viewpoint of "spatial and plastic
proclamation (Isaiah 7:14), or the dispensation "to bringlegibility" both panels exhibit, as if in repousse, a shallow
forth judgment to the Gentiles" (Isaiah 42:1) but with triangular enclosure, the apex of which is composed of a
the vexatious and curious character of Redemption. What repertory of interrelated symbols; with respect to the
the "eyes" of Isaiah dimly perceive is ever more puzzlingMerode Altarpiece the apex is virtually a complex point
to the penitent donors, that is, that irrevocably move- of linear intersections, a point whose locus is the radius
ment of redemption which St. Paul was to see so clearly of a circular window (the cosmic uterine symbol of pro-
that the Incarnation leads directly to the "death of the creation) through which pass the divine rays bearing the
"Child
cross" and the miracle of salvation. In short, the presence with the Cross," the "sancta simplicitas" of the
of Isaiah represents the unalterable cypher intimating Divine Word now penetrating such sacred signs as the
the theme of the "suffering servant," the primordial and traditional lily (Marian flowers of the fields and a "lily of
cosmic ritual of the Sacrifice, which in the form of the the valley"), and the brass candlestick which Minott calls
cultic bull now dominates the left wing of the Guernica. that singularly "autogenous symbol of the whole paint-

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ing" and a portent "emphasizing the secrecy of Christ's further remark of astrological import may be disclosed,
mission on earth."38 In an analogous way, the Guernica and that is that the destructive bombing of Guernica also
exhibits a corresponding sequence of related symbols, occurred in the midst of the propitious movement of the
only in this instance suspended in a state of animated ek- vernal equinox, April 29, 1937.
stasis. Flanking the catatonic mania of the lacerated
horse are the related but polar symbols of Incarnation
and Crucifixion, the dove, symbol of the Holy Ghost and
1 Relationships between the themes of Christian Sacrifice and that of
often accompanying the Annunciation, and the kerosene contemporary "animal devastation" will be given further attention. Ho:i'-
ever, given the context, it is significant to bring out that the Guernica has
lamp, or the Eternal Light, symbol of Christ as the Light been elevated to take its place in that rare company of twentieth century
of the World, both vehicles of Salvation but now oversha- religious "icons." In an unpublished speech on the subject of "religious
art," the late theologian Paul Tillich has praised the mural as "a picture
dowed by the omnipresent and demoniacal fixation of
which is protestant . . . a divine criticism of all human aspirations to be
light emanating from the incandescent lamp (also a rep- whole and healed."
2 Wilhelm Boeck and Jaime Sabartes, Picasso (New York and Amst
lica of the arcanic shape of the female vulva). This is the
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1955), p. 225.
light whose livid and death-like complexion illuminates 3 Roland Penrose, Picasso: His Life and W/ork (New York: Schocken
1958), p. 277.
the debris of abomination and derangement, the skeletal 4 Rudolf Arnheim, Picasso's Guernica: The Genesis of a Painting (Be
spectra of a horse pulverized and "violated," and the anld Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962), p. 26.
5 William Darr, "Images of Eros and Thanatos in Picasso's Guernica
plunging and imploring creatures of women. Herein the Journal, XXV, Summer 1966, p. 341.
androgenous character of Gabriel gives way to the asex- 6 Penrose, op. cit., p. 276.
7 Arguments favoring Classical prototypes are more often the express
ualisms of the horse, the equally erotic and demurring enthusiasm rather than any deepening sense of fact. This is especi
Virgin to the maternal debasement of the screaming evident with respect to the following quotation: "The structure of i
of this [Guernica] is classical. Its balanced antitheses cry out to th
woman at the lower right; the "promise" of the open for its reunification of the self, so that life forces which are in them
hearth is now translated into the open window inflamed good may not become perverted into repressed destructive echoes of t
with the look of despair. Or, if you like, other affinities selves.' (William Darr, op. cit., p. 343.) An instance of misrepresent
the appeal to Grecian prototypes distorts the classical "tension
may be recommended; bridging Gabriel and the figure of peripeteia, so prominent a factor in "liturgical" as well as pedi
drama as to substitute the ancient sense of "inevitability" for the mor
the horse is the mythological case of Pegasus; like the an-
temporary and heroic phobia for psychic-release.
gelic bearer of the "immaculate conception," so Pegasus s IVilliam Darr, op. cit., pp. 338-346.
9 Ibid., p. 340.
is also a metaphor for spontaneous generation, "having 10 Ibid., p. 341.
sprung from the blood of Medusa," a winged horse which 11 Ibid., p. 341.
12 Joseph Mashect: "Guernica as Art History," Art News, Vol. 66, Dece
as an archetypal symbol is often seen as the devil,39 and
pp. 33-35 and 65-68.
in the case of Guernica, the repression of sexual instinct. 13 Ibid., p. 66
14 Ibid., p. 66.
Again, Gabriel may be personified as the chivalrous and 15 Ibid., p. 67.
knightly protector of the Virgin,40 an antithetical allu- 16 William Darr, op. cit., p. 341.
sion to the fallen warrior who in association with the 17Eugene B. Cantelupe, "Titian's Sacred and Profane Love Re-Exam
The Art Bulletin, XLVI, June 1964, p. 224.
horse no longer represents the "dispenser of fruitfulness"
s8 Ibid.. p. 225
19 Albert E. Elsen, Purposes of Art (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
but the negation of life. In short, the Merode Altarpiece
Inc., 1967), p. 388.
gives way to the hypnotic powers of an insufferable 20 night-
Penrose, op. cit., p. 236.
mare, a satanic dance which may be interpreted 21 asIbid., p. 236.
a case
22 Willard E. Misfeldt, "The Theme of the Cock in Picasso's Oeuvre,"
of psychic castration, or the "tragic martyrdom Art of Journal,
love's XXVIII, Winter 68/69, p. 151.
23 Carl G. Jung, The Spirit in Man and Literature (New York: Bollingen
self-giving as redemptive."41
Foundation, 1966), p. 138.
Somewhat like the present generation, Robert Cam-
24 Ruth Kaufman, "Picasso's Crusifixion of 1930," The Burlington Magazine,
CXI, Sept. 1969, pp. 553-561.
pin lived in an age permeated with the demoniac; the ex-
25 Ibid., p. 558.
cess of Christian "furniture" invested with liturgical sym-
26 Ibid., p. 561.
27 Ibid., p. 557.
bolism was only surpassed by the pan-psychic veneration
2s Rudolf and Margot Wittkower, Born Under Saturn (New York: TV. TV.
for a world animated by the visionary knowledge of the
Norton and Company, Inc., 1963), pp. 28-30.
occult. As a point of curiosity, a preoccupation 29 Ibid., p. 29
with oc-
30 John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art (New York: Holt, Rinehart
cultism is especially noticeable in regard to the specie
and Winston,of 1963), p. 486.
floral accessories assigned to the central panels 31 of Max Black, "Metaphor," Philosophy Looks at the Arts, Joseph Margolis
the
(ed.) (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962), pp. 218-235.
Merode Altarpiece and the Guernica respectively;32on Ibid.,the
p. 228.
33 Ibid., p. 233
one hand the presence of the "lilies in the pot on the ta-
34 Charles Ilsley Minott, "The Theme of the Merode Altarpiece,' The Art
ble" testifies not only to the purity of the Virgin, Bulletin,
but also LI, Sept. 1969, pp. 267-271.
35 Ibid., p. 268.
the Advent of Incarnation and the seasonal equinox of
36 Rudolf Arnheim, op. cit., p. 29.
cultic purification and vernal rejuvenation42;
37 on the
Charles Ilsey Minott, op. cit., p. 271.
3S Ibid., p. 270.
other hand, there is the broken sprig in the fist of39the dis-
Carl G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation, Vol. II (New York: The
mantled warrior, a plausible symbol of the futility of Re-
Bollingen Library, 1956), p. 277.
40 Yrg6 Him, The Sacred Shrine (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), p. 281.
demption, and the unregenerative impotence of Being it-
41 William Darr, op. cit., p. 346.
self. However, in termination of the present study one 42 Yrg6 Him, op. cit., p. 281.

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