Listen sometimes visual metaphor kicks my ass. So if you'll allow me I am going to just ramble at you all a bit about three of my favorite classical examples in art of visual metaphor going hard.
it all started with me talking about how much I love The School of Athens by Raphael because I mean look at it
The thing that gets me about this painting every time is the middle two. It's Plato and Aristotle (fun fact it's actually Da Vinci and Aristotle because Raphael painted Leonardo Da Vinci as Plato).
If you know about ancient Greek philosophy then you know that these two essentially represent two sides of a long standing debate in philosophy that has impacts on Western Philosophy down to the present day. I could go on about it but I don't have to because even if you don't, the painting tells you all about it.
Look at them. Plato is gesturing up. He's pointing to the world of the Forms, the Ideal World that exists beyond us. Aristotle however is gesturing down and out. He's refuting Plato. No ideal World of Forms, the Forms are within the objects right in front of us.
That's the whole debate. Over a thousand years of philosophy boiled down to a gesture. I love it. It's genius.
Then of course there's the Three Vinegar Tasters which is probably an even more genius metaphor taken from East Asian art.
Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi tasting some Vinegar together. Unfortuantely I'm even less qualified to discuss the philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but thankfully, again, I don't have to, the painting does all the work for me.
Confucius thinks the vinegar is sour. Life is acrid and harsh and needs strict guiding rules.
Buddha thinks the vinegar is bitter. Life is suffering and grief and even joy is fleeting and leaves you unsatisfied.
Laozi thinks the vinegar is sweet. Life is naturally perfect and you should live simply and spontaneously in accordance with nature.
The genius part of the metaphor is they're tasting the same vinegar.
Because life is all three of these things at once it's what you focus on that makes a difference.
The last one I'll touch on is one that absolutely wrecks my shit when I think about it because it's brilliant. The Death of Marat.
Marat was a controversial figure of the French Revolution, even at the time. He was an agitator for political violence, but ultimately was assassinated by a woman who supported the Girondins that Marat has just helped get expelled from power. After his death a lot of people began to romanticize Marat's legacy and especially his death, culminating in this painting by Jacques-Louis David. What I love about this painting is that you may think that this pose looks weirdly familiar. And that's on purpose.
It's a Pietà motif. He's visually casting Marat in the role of Jesus Fucking Christ. This is super duper on purpose! During the Revolution there was a period of forced Dechristianization where statues of Jesus and Mary were literally replaced with Busts of Marat. They tried to turn Marat from a guy who published incendiary pamphlets into the ultimate martyr for his country, a man who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that you, yes you the viewer, might be free and live in a Republic instead of under a despotic Monarchy.
My personal feelings about the man aside, it's a beautiful piece because it tells you everything you are supposed to think or feel about the subject based on how he's posed.
Genius.
