Narcissus Distinctively Visual
There is one aspect of life which is known to us, our everyday life in which we are conscious of all that we do, and this aspect may be called the outer life. There is another part of our life of which we are very often unconscious and which may be called the inner life. The temporal and spatial categories that apply to the three-dimensional world are inadequate, so we fashion myths and stories to fill mysterious gaps, such as the inner life or the spiritual life of human beings. The aim of this essay is to critically discuss how artists throughout time have explored the mysteries and higher issues of life through the representation of mythology, story and narrative in their artworks by appraising two artworks of John Everett Millais and Salvador
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Painted in Spain between 1936 and 1937, this artwork retells the story of the tragic fate of Narcissus and Echo. To the left of a group of dancing women is Narcissus kneeling in, as well as looking down into, the pool of water that is too dark to reflect his own image. His face, the cause of his vanity, self-absorption and self-reflection, is unseen; instead the viewer sees only the top of his head and its distinctive hairline. The resting of Narcissus’s head on his knee obscures his view of his own image, and the fact that his face cannot be directly seen by the viewer, may suggest that Narcissus is manifested in a different form by the flower of the same name. To the right of Narcissus is the form of a hand holding an egg that Narcissus has metamorphosed into that adopts exactly the same form and posture. Narcissus's form is reflected vertically in the water and horizontally by the hand. All limbs in Narcissus’s body become fingers in the hand; and Narcissus’s head transformed into a flower-bearing egg; the crack in the egg matching Narcissus’s hairline and very subtly echoed in the trees in the rocks in the upper left-hand and upper-right corners. There is a statue that is standing on a pedestal in the middle of a chess board. The statue is of a man and he is peering up into the mountains in the top right
Painted in Spain between 1936 and 1937, this artwork retells the story of the tragic fate of Narcissus and Echo. To the left of a group of dancing women is Narcissus kneeling in, as well as looking down into, the pool of water that is too dark to reflect his own image. His face, the cause of his vanity, self-absorption and self-reflection, is unseen; instead the viewer sees only the top of his head and its distinctive hairline. The resting of Narcissus’s head on his knee obscures his view of his own image, and the fact that his face cannot be directly seen by the viewer, may suggest that Narcissus is manifested in a different form by the flower of the same name. To the right of Narcissus is the form of a hand holding an egg that Narcissus has metamorphosed into that adopts exactly the same form and posture. Narcissus's form is reflected vertically in the water and horizontally by the hand. All limbs in Narcissus’s body become fingers in the hand; and Narcissus’s head transformed into a flower-bearing egg; the crack in the egg matching Narcissus’s hairline and very subtly echoed in the trees in the rocks in the upper left-hand and upper-right corners. There is a statue that is standing on a pedestal in the middle of a chess board. The statue is of a man and he is peering up into the mountains in the top right