Bag Chagall - Song of Songs IV

This bag is based on a detail from Marc Chagall's work, The Song of Songs IV (1958).
Oil on canvas - 144.5 x 210.5 cm - Nice - Musée national Marc Chagall

Based on one of the sets for the ballet Aleko, the composition features David and Bathsheba embracing on the back of a winged horse flying over the city of Jerusalem. The colour of David's face could illustrate the Yiddish saying "to be green with emotion".
The horse holds a central place in the composition and can have several meanings: it embodies the strength of human love, capable of rising to the divine, but also the power of desire and carnal love. He is finally Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, symbol of poetry.
The comet effect produced by the treatment of the train of the wedding dress contributes to the dynamism of the composition.
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