Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Song of Songs III (1960) -Oil on canvas, 149 cm x 210 cm, donation Marc and Valentina Chagall, 1966, musée national Marc Chagall, Nice.
The composition, built on three large round shapes which obviously evoke breasts and a woman's stomach, is also cut in two by a horizon line...
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Song of Songs III (1960) -Oil on canvas, 149 cm x 210 cm, donation Marc and Valentina Chagall, 1966, musée national Marc Chagall, Nice.
The composition, built on three large round shapes which obviously evoke breasts and a woman's stomach, is also cut in two by a horizon line which delimits two very distinct parts. Chagall seems to have wanted to tell his story in this painting: the representation of Jerusalem, in the center, is double: at the top, the city resembles the vision of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with its ramparts. Below and upside down, it is indeed Vitebsk, recognizable by the green-roofed sanctuary which surmounts it. The entire lower part of the painting, upside down, thus evokes the artist's youth: the wandering Jew, carrying his bag on his shoulder, speaks of his exiles, the couple embracing along the lower edge, it is the one he formed with Bella, now lying underground. The upper part would then be a hymn to his new life in the South of France, and the married couple under the canopy recalls his second marriage to Vava, to whom the cycle is dedicated.
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