Symbolism and Femme Fatale as a Theme - Essay Example

Femme Fatale Symbolism was a late 19th Century movement that hailed from the French, Belgium and Russian poetry and arts. The word symbolism originates form two Latin words, symbolum meaning faith and symbolus meaning a sign of recognition. It was a remedy to the conservative society that limited the free expressions of one’s creativity and faith. It is therefore, indirect representations of absolute truths via images and objects, both suggestively and metaphorically. In literature, it started with publications of “Le fleurs du mal” (flowers of evil )by Charles Baudalaire who also greatly admired and later on translated works of Edgar Allan Poe forming the basis for stock tropes and images. Symbolism was further developed by Stephane Mallarme and Paul Valaine in the 1860’s and 70s. The term ‘symbolism’ was first used by a critic, Jean Moreas , who sought to find a distinction between symbolists and other decadents of literature and art. Symbolism and gothic romantics share a close relation. They both have no limiting techniques of presentation; therefore encourage the ‘free verse’ ideology to encourage creativity and comprehensive representation of one’s thoughts and talent as evident in poems of Gustav Khan and Ezra Pound. As a result of this, symbolism became sanctuary to free will and from there; characteristic themes of mysticism, mortality and sexuality came into play which Albert Samain termed as “fruit of death upon the tree of life” There is symbolism in fine art that though similar in the main fabric as that in literature, is distinct. In visual art, it was a continuation of mystical tendencies in the romantic tradition. Symbolism in visual art was more widely spread that symbolism in poetry. Other areas of applied symbolism are in music, prose fiction and theatre. This research paper looks at the differences in the symbolism in “Judith” a paint work of Gustav Klimt. Gustav (July 14th 1862- February 6th 1918) was an Austrian painter specializing in paintings, murals and sketches and his main subject was the female human form, a femme de fatale, i.e. a mysterious and highly seductive woman. It compares the Gustav’s painting of Judith with a present day femme fatale. I have chosen Angelina Jolie as my present day seductive and dangerous woman. Anelina is both and actress and a humanitarian ambassador of our current age whose interaction with the world especially with the men both in the theatre and in real life has raised enough eyebrows and had enough men fall victim to her seductive and witty ways. ARTISTS’ REVIEW JUDITH. Judith was a biblical heroine in Venice who seduced and decapitated General Holofernes in an attempt to save her city Bethulia from destruction by the Assyrian army. This accorded her popularity in the Middle Ages onwards as a symbol of virtue overcoming vice. She was a Jewish widow who compromised her virtues for the greater good of her country men. The painting of Judith by Klimt was modeled by Adele Bloch-Baur whose beauty and coquettish aura and sense of fashion were not far fetched from what Judith was. Judith’s sensuality and seduction as she held up high the head of Holoferns shocked the Vienna inhabitants and for a long time , they could not come into terms with her actions and personality, a no doubt femme fatale who had nothing to hide. Although Judith decapitated Holoferns, she herself in the painting also seems decapitated. She wears clothes that half conceal half expose her body, a gold chocker that clearly separates her head form her body and at the hem of her shirt, though ornamental cuts across her abdomen like a flat belt. This shows some level of slavery within her although she herself saves her city. Judith therefore comes across as a brave woman who stands out from the crowd. She could have ignored the city’s safety and eloped and got sanctuary in a far land, after all, she was widowed and had nothing to lose if she moved. She nust have read the atmosphere of her city men, either they were too afraid of their arch enemies, Assyrians and were too afraid to go into war again, they had already surrendered. But she had to stand tall and defend her city, not by muscle but by wit. She was definitely not as strong as Holoferns but she knew he was a man too, and had a weakness for beautiful women of questionable virtues.This painting f Judith had been mistakenly known for many years by enough people to be the portrait of Salome, a very seductive murderess. From this painting, we see that Klimt had two types of fetishes. He had taste for both slender and chunky women. Judith was slender while Danae was curvier. This shows diversity in Klimt’s world and shows that both slender and curvy women can be equally seductive and that seduction and femme fatalism does not only come from the outward beauty, but also from the inner personality and wit. ANGELINA JOLIE VOIGHT In her In present day century, we have female heroines and anti-heroines starring in theaters such as Angelina Jolie Voight (1975) who is both an actress and director having worn wards like the Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is a force to recon with in humanitarian matters. She is currently a Good Will ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Her beauty is not only celebrated by her husband Brad Pitt, but is recognized world over. She has been rated as the world’s most beautiful woman and this got some real good media attention. Her role Lara Croft in Tomb Raider as a video game heroine and later on as the leading role in Mr. and Mrs Smith raised her bar and value to one of the highly paid and sought after Hollywood actresses from being a support actress. She has had her fair share of male and female drama, having been divorced twice, had flings with male and female models and admitted to being bisexual and is now married to Brad Pitt, a marriage that attracts an amazing level of media attention. In her personal life, she had a disturbed teen age where she was not only suicidal but had lapses of depression. Having shifted from her actress career to be a funeral director, experimented with knife play to harm herself since she could not relate with people and got enough tattoos and was mocked in her Beverly Hills School by other kids for being thin and wearing braces and huge glasses. GUSTAV KLIMT He was born in Austria- Hungary as the second born of seven from a family of an art background with his father being a gold engraver and two of his brothers Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt also displaying artistic talent. He was married to an aspiring songstress Anna Klimt. He studied at the Vienna School of Art and Craft where he graduated as an architectural painter. His style is highly ornamental. Just like his mode of dressing when working and relaxed, he used luxurious textiles, decorative motifs and ornaments on his large decorative pieces. His style was as political as it was a statement in art against a rigid and conservative Viennese environment. He combines the realists and abstracts and contrasts form with flatness. He used bright and vivid colors and the widespread use of symbolic objects and figures set an new trend in art. Aside from doing paintings of stylish and seductive women, he also had interest in interior design seeing as to he had learnt architectural art in school. After falling apart with his brother and later on losing one of his brothers, he retreated from public life and changed his style of art and experimented with more contemporary styles and historical styles that were overlooked in that era by Chinese, Egyptian and Viennese artists. He retreated to Vienna. At Vienna, he was member and president of the “Sacred Spring” a group that encouraged no particular form of art and naturalists, symbolists and realists all co-existed together. They used the Greek goddess of just, wisdom and arts, Pallas Athena as their symbol. He was commissioned to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of Vienna University. The three paintings, “medicine”, “philosophy” and “jurisprudence” received a lot of criticism as being “pornographic” due to their radical themes and material. The ridicules from the other commission of artists, politicians and religious leaders led to the destruction of the three paintings. In retaliation and in pursuit of creating freedom in art, he made another painting,” Nuda Vertia” that was a symbol of a naked red-headed woman holding a mirror of truth and above it, a famous quote from Schiller, ‘ if you cannot please everyone with your deeds and art, please a few. To please many is bad” Klimt took serious interest in painting figures. Formally, his paintings are characterized by the same refinement of design and empathetic patterning as figural pieces. It is believed that his works were done as he looked through a telescope since the deep space in Attersee works are all flattened on a single plane. Some of his celebrated works are ‘The Kiss” and the “portrait of Adelle Blouch -Bauer. His paintings are classified according to five themes: 1. Portraits- Emilie Floge (1902) 2. Landscapes- The sunflower(1906) 3. Erotic symbols- Water Surpent 1 and 2, The Kiss (1907-08) 4. Mythical/ Biblical- Pallas Athena (1898), Judith and the head of Holofernes (19010 an Danae (1907) 5. Allegorical and multicolored paintings- The Golden Knight (1903) and The Virgin (1912) (Dana’e 1907) His erotic scenes works gained a lot of criticism even after his death but they also got audience e.g from Franz Blei who used some of the images to develop his 450 copies only book that gave Klimt an opportunity to describe women deeply and avoided censoring thanks to a small group of affluent men. The two artists share some personal and symbolic smilarities similarities: 1. Judith symbolically represents bondage from the chocker and flat belt she wears. This is also represented by the society she lived in where the city men cowed away from facing their enemies either due to past failures or lack of a strong army. Jolie’s tragic teenage life characterized by suicidal personality, extreme career shifts and careless relationships indicate an unstable state of mind. She also retracted from society and found solace in inflicting pain on herself via tattoos and knife play 2. The two rose to fame as a result of their strong will, bravery, seduction and the need to solve a problem in society. Therefore, they come across as heroines. Judith used her wit, beauty and seduction to have Holoferns fall into her spell before beheading him. She did so with utmost bravery and was also a dare devil. From a conservative Jewish background, one would expect a widow to be more virtuous, her image as she held high the head of Holoferns makes her no different form that of women of questionable virtues. 3. The two show the liberalization of womanhood through portraying the various freedoms of a woman. Judith shows that women too can be brave, she was a celebrated figure in the Middle Ages, although most of it not in good reason as manifest by her being confused with Salome. She saved and entire city! Where were the men? Jolie has risen in the ranks of showbiz from being a lowly paid model to one of the highly paid Hollywood actresses and movie director. She is also a humanitarian ambassador of UNHCR. She has four adopted kids from different parts of the world which shows her loving and caring nature. She portrays women as equally able to achieve success as men and goes an extra mile to show her caring personality. 4. Both women have used their beauty that is heavily admired by many to get ahead in their business. Judith must have been very beautiful and coquettish fro a General to fall for her. She used this as a trap to ensnare him and destroy him. Jolie is not foreign to many fashion magazines, gossip columns, and all sorts of media attention due to her beauty. Her seductive personality and her bisexual inclination makes her very appealing to males and females who have fell victim to her charms and she has reaped off the benefits from most of these adventures. From her seductive and strong character as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie and video game, she had her banker happier and her rating as an actress doubled to the ranks of the most highly paid female actress in Hollywood. 5. Their work thrives on drama and conflicts. Judith in as much as she was a heroine, she is mainly remembered for her lack of virtue as a widowed woman. She is even mistaken for Salome! A murderer…yes, she did kill someone but it was for a noble course. She did not continue killing other people afterwards or use her seduction on such extreme incidences afterwards, no records of that indicate the same. Jolie’s life is a clear representation of drama, from a disturbed childhood, suicidal teenage hood, multiple dating both men and women, two divorces, a drama filled marriage…these have all contributed to her being a house old name and added value to her as a brand and asset. 6. The works of both persons have a great appeal especially to male admirers and some female realists, symbolists and romantics. Conclusion Though the two artists are a representation of art in different generations and genres, their common capability to bring out symbolism and femme fatale as a theme is remarkable. On and off stage, Angelina Jolie passes for a ravenous woman whose seduction both in mode of dressing and body type and seductive and dangerously attractive personality is hard to ignore. This can also be clearly indicated in her popular clips of Tomb Raider and Tourist where images of her seductive but strong professional attributes are manifest. Her personal life tells tales of a woman who knows what she wants and goes to all lengths to get it. Gustav is in the least of statements very explorative and explicit in his works. Although his work is done for public viewership and consumption, he does not shy away from pleasuring the eye of the many perverted minds. Though and unpopular artists, he, in my opinion is a remarkable symbolism artist. He did this very well in his piece ‘Judith’ a seductive woman of controversial nature and a danger to men though very attractive. The two (Judith and Jolie) have carefully and craftily etched the theme of femme fatale in their worlds and make it very easy to relate with and to some; they are idols of freedom of expression and individualism. From their different fields and centuries of work, they have clearly indicated and painted women both as able and powerful, though Judith is more sensual Jolie uses her looks and coquettish personality to pass as a femme fatale. References 1. Discovering the Masters: The Art Lover’s Guide to Discovering Symbols in paintings by Paul Crenshaw (2009) 2. Symbols and Allegories in Art (A guide to Imagery) by Matilde Barttistini (2005) Read More