FREE ESSAY ON SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPE

SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPE

Symbolic Landscape
By Diego Rivera
The grand work of art looms before me and I am taken aback by its unusual form, yet
struck by its very expressive nature. Symbolic Landscape by Diego Rivera definitely makes
its powerful presence in the room just as the artist forever made a mark in time as a man
who pushed the political and social limits of his time through his art work and murals.
Although the painting described in this paper is powerful and makes a bold statement, as
many of his works do, it stands quite separated from the others in the ideas that it
represents. We can get a good background of this piece by looking to the circumstances in
his life that were concerning him at the time of its conception. After an eleven-year
marriage to Frida Kahlo, a renowned painter and Mexican icon, they divorce and Rivera is
quite saddened. Many call her the love of his life and Symbolic Landscape presents a very
poetic view of the circumstance through symbols of the natural landscape.
The piece itself measures 47 7/8 by 60 1/8 and is wider than it is tall, just as all
landscapes are. Emerging from the lower right corner is a fallen tree that almost comes
alive as it bends and twists its way into the center of the painting. It takes on the
sensuous shape of a woman's torso with her back arched in intense emotion. The bark of
the tree is extremely smooth and flows untouched until the very bottom where the rough
underside is visible. Surrounding the tree and encompassing her on all sides is rough and
jagged stone. The stone takes on many shapes including a man's face and tightly gripped
fists, with one on either side of the trapped tree. The furrowed brow and clenched teeth
of the stone face possess two very symbolic objects. A bloody knife with a wedding band
slipped over its hideous blade, and a leather glove seems reminiscent of a dirty deed and
altogether out of place in the otherwise all natural landscape. Far off in the distance,
a full moon watches over the scene, which appears forever captive in its position and at
eternal dusk.
The colors of the objects in the painting are very natural to the landscape, yet
expressive at the same time. The fallen tree takes on the natural tans of wood, yet it
seems to glow with warmth and light, turning it into a golden color. The beautiful
contours of the womanly figure in the wood are accentuated by this warm color making the
viewer feel as if the tree is actually alive. The stones are a chilling gray and blue,
and although they are true to color, they possess so much emotion. The stone hands and
face in their expressive display of anger and strife are only heightened by the cold and
unfeeling color of the stone. The cool blue sky in the far distance, which holds the
eerie full moon, is very cold as well, almost turning the rocky terrain into the arctic
expanse.
The space in the artwork is quite crowded and filled in the foreground, yet it smoothes
out towards the distance. In the foreground, the fallen tree comes right out at the
viewer; it is larger than anything else and is definitely the most important aspect of
the painting. The stones that hold the hands and the face are crowded in around the tree
in the foreground. Yet, the other unmarked stones recede calmly and smoothly into the
distance, which only accentuate the importance of the objects in the foreground. These
unmarked stones make an eternal journey towards the horizon, making the landscape appear
as if it continues on forever.
Bibliography
The Painting Symbolic Landscape By Diego Rivera