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==Types of Kisses== |
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{{Infobox artist |
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Christopher Nyrop, in his book ''The Kiss and its History'', describes five main types of kisses: kisses of love, affection, peace, respect and friendship. He admitted, however, that the categories were somewhat contrived and overlapping, and other cultures often had more kinds, including the French, with twenty and the Germans with thirty.<ref name=Nyrop>Nyrop, Christoper. ''The Kiss and its History'', Sands & Co., London (1901) [http://books.google.com/books?id=UQgNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false Read full text]</ref> |
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| name = Marc Chagall |
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| image = |
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| imagesize = 200px |
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| caption = Marc Chagall photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1941 |
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| birthname = Moshe Shagal |
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| birthdate = 7 July 1887 |
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| location = [[Vitebsk]], [[Russian Empire]] (now in [[Belarus]]) |
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| deathdate = {{Death date and age|1985|03|28|1887|07|07|df=yes}} |
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| deathplace = [[Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes|Saint-Paul]], France |
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| nationality = Belarusian-Jewish-French |
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| field = [[Painting]], [[stained glass]] |
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| training = |
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| movement = [[Surrealism]], [[Expressionism]] |
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| works = see [[List of Chagall's artwork]] |
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| patrons = |
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| awards = |
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}} |
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'''Marc Chagall''' ([[IPA for English|IPA]]: ʃʌ-ɡɑːl); [shuh-GAHL] <ref>http://www.dictionary.com ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', © Random House, Inc. 2006</ref>(7 July 1887 – 28 March 1985), was a [[Russian-Jewish]] artist, born in [[Belarus]] (then [[Russian Empire]]) and naturalized [[France|French]] in 1937, associated with several key [[art movements]] and was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He forged a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. Chagall's haunting, exuberant, and poetic images have enjoyed universal appeal, and art critic [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]] called him "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century." |
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===Kiss of love=== |
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As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall achieved fame and fortune, and over the course of a long career created some of the best-known and most-loved paintings of our time. According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be “the last survivor of the first generation of European [[modernists]].” For decades he “had also been respected as the world’s preeminent Jewish artist.” He also accepted many non-Jewish commissions, including a [[stained glass]] for the cathedrals of [[Reims]] and [[Metz]], a [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] memorial at the [[United Nations]], and the great ceiling [[mural]] in the [[Palais Garnier|Paris Opéra]]. |
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Nyrop discusses the kiss and its importance as the direct expression of love and erotic emotions. He describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." He adds, that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|30}} He also compares it to one's achievements in life, "Thus even the highest work of art, yea, the loftiest reputation, is nothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|31}} |
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The power of a kiss is not minimized when he writes that "we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle against this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss. . . ." Kissing, he implies, can lead one to maturity: "It is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes to us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss exchanged by lovers," and can keep one feeling young: "It carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth." The importance of the lover's kiss can also be significant, he notes: "In the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss," and "man craves for it as his noblest reward."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|37}} |
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His most vital work was made on the eve of [[World War I]], when he traveled between [[St. Petersburg]], [[Paris]], and [[Berlin]]. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his visions of [[Eastern European]] Jewish folk culture. He spent his wartime years in Russia, becoming one the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist [[avante-garde]]. In the wake of the [[October Revolution]] he founded the [[Vitebsk]] Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922. |
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As a result, kissing as an expression of love is contained in much of literature, old and new. Nyrop gives a vivid example in the classic love story of [[Daphnis and Chloe]]. As a reward "Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis—an innocent young-maid's kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock":<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|47}} |
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He was known to have two basic reputations, writes Lewis - as a pioneer of modernism, and as a major Jewish artist. He experienced modernism’s golden age in Paris, where “he synthesized the art forms of [[Cubism]], [[Symbolism]], and [[Fauvism]], and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to [[Surrealism]].” Yet throughout these phases of his style "he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, whose work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk." <ref name=Lewis>Lewis, Michael J. “Whatever Happened to Marc Chagall?” ''Commentary'', October, 2008 pgs. 36-37</ref> “When [[Matisse]] dies,” [[Pablo Picasso]] remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.”<ref name=Wullschlanger> Wullschlanger, Jackie. ''Chagall: A Biography'' Knopf, 2008</ref> |
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:"Ye gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose's leaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain than a bee's sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my lambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast, my heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How conies it that she herself has not died of it? |
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== Early life and education == |
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;Home life |
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Marc Chagall, born Movsha Shagal, was born in the [[Belorussia]]n city of [[Vitebsk]] in 1887. At the time of his birth, Vitebsk's population was around 66,000, with half were Jewish, according to Lewis.<ref name=Lewis/> A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called "Russian [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]," after the former cultural center of the [[Spanish Empire]]. As the city was mostly built of wood, little of it survived three years of Nazi occupation and destruction during World War II. |
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===Kiss of affection=== |
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He was the eldest of nine children in a close-knit [[Jewish]] family led by his father Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, employed by a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite, who sold groceries from their home. His father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles a month. Chagall's art would frequently include fish motifs "out of respect for his father," writes Chagall biographer, Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Chagall wrote of these early years: |
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A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting," writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expressive of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|79}} |
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:"Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his usual prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea and went to work. Hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. Why try to hide it? How tell about it? No word will ever ease my father's lot (I beg of you, no compassion and certainly no pity, please). There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like an eternal symbol, was never out of my childish hands."<ref name=Chagall>Chagall, Marc. ''My Life'', Orion Press (1960)</ref> |
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The most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring," writes Nyrop, but adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|82}} The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when [[Orpah]] kissed her mother-in-law and when [[Moses]] went to meet his father-in-law, " he did obeisance and kissed him ; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent;" and when [[Jacob]] had wrestled with the Lord he met [[Esau]], ran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him. The family kiss was traditional with the [[Romans]] and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early [[Greeks]], as when [[Odysseus]], on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|82-83}} |
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During the previous decades, the Jewish population of the town survived pogroms, prejudice, segregation, and discrimination. As a result, they created their own schools, synagogues, hospitals, a cemetery, and other community institutions. One of their key sources of income was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout Russia. They also made furniture and various agricultural tools.<ref name=Teshuva>Baal-Teshuva, Jacob. ''Marc Chagall'', Taschen (1998, 2008)</ref> |
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Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the [[Apostle Paul]] took leave of the elders of the congregation at [[Ephesus]], " they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him " (Acts xx. 37). Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in, another person.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|85}} |
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Most of what is known about Chagall’s early life have come from his autobiograhy, ''My Life'', which he wrote at the age of 34. In it, he described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist. Vitebsk itself had been a center of that culture dating from the 1730s with its teachings derived from the Kabalah. |
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[[Folk poetry]] has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain, Tirant le blanc] in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "[[Beauty and the Beast]]," a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|95-96}} |
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;Education |
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In Russia at that time Jewish children were not allowed to attend regular Russian schools or universities due to policies of discrimination. Their movement within the city was also restricted. He therefore received his primary education at the local Jewish religious school, where he studied [[Hebrew]] and the Bible. At the age of 13 his mother tried to enroll him in a Russian high school. Chagall remembered his thoughts when they reached the school's entrance: "But in that school, they don't take Jews. Without a moment's hesitation, my courageous mother walks up to a professor." She offered the headmaster 50 roubles to let him attend, which he accepted. Chagall spent a number of years there and remembered developing a fondness for [[geometry]], which some have attributed to his later period experimenting with [[Cubism]].<ref name=Chagall/> |
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A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In [[Genesis]] it is written that when [[Jacob]] was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of [[Abu Bekr]], [[Mahomet]]'s first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and kissed him. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|97}} |
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===Kiss of peace=== |
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A turning point in his artistic life came when he first noticed a fellow student drawing. Baal-Teshuva writes that for the young Chagall, watching someone draw "was like a vision, a revelation in black and white." Chagall would later say how there was no art of any kind in his family's home and the concept was totally foreign to him. When Chagall asked the schoolmate how he learned to draw, his friend replied, "Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you like, and just copy it." He soon began copying images from books and found the experience so rewarding he then decided he wanted to become an artist.<ref name=Teshuva/> |
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Nyrop notes that the kiss was used as an expression of deep, spiritual love in the primitive [[Christian Church]]. Christ said, for instance, "Peace be with you, my peace I give you," and the members of Christ's Church gave each other peace symbolically through a kiss. [[St Paul]] repeatedly speaks of the "holy kiss", and, in his [[Epistle]] to the Romans, writes: " Salute one another with an holy kiss" and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians (v. 26), he says : "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|101}} |
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The holy kiss was also used in [[secular]] festivities. During the [[Middle Ages]], for example, Nyrop points out that it was the custom to "seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a kiss." Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs. The holy kiss was also found in the ritual of the Church on solemn occasions, such as baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, or obsequies. However, toward the end of the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears as the official token of reconciliation.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|109}} |
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He later began looking for an art teacher who could help launch his career. In 1906 he discovered [[Yehuda Pen|Yehuda (Yuri) Pen]], a realist artist who painted ''[[plein-air]]'' scenes of Jewish life along with portraiture, and ran a small drawing school in Vitebsk, which included future luminaries as [[El Lissitzky]] and [[Ossip Zadkine]]. Due to Chagall's youth and lack of income, Pen offered to teach him free of charge. However, after a few months at the school, Chagall realized that academic portrait painting did not suit his desires. |
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===Kiss of respect=== |
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;Artistic inspirations |
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The kiss of resepect is of ancient origin, notes Nyrop. He writes that "from the remotest times we find it applied to all that is holy, noble, and worshipful—to the gods, their statues, temples, and altars, as well as to kings and emperors ; out of reverence, people even kissed the ground, and both sun and moon were greeted with kisses."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|114}} |
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Chagall biographer Franz Meyer, in looking back on Chagall's early artistic inspirations and attitude, would explain the connections of his art with his early life, and writes that "the hassidic spirit is still the basis ans source of nourishment of his art."<ref name=Meyer>Meyer, Franz. ''Marc Chagall'', L′CEuvre Grave′, Paris (1957)</ref> Lewis adds, "As cosmopolitan an artist as he would later become, his storehouse of visual imagery would never expand beyond the landscape of his childhood, with its snowy streets, wooden houses, and ubiquitous fiddlers. . . . [with] scenes of childhood so indelibly in one's mind and to invest them with an emotional charge so intense that it could only be discharged obliquely through an obsessive repetition of the same cryptic symbols and ideograms . . . "<ref name=Lewis/> |
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He notes some examples, as "when the prophet [[Hosea]] laments over the idolatry of the children of [[Israel]], he says that they make molten images of calves and kiss them." In classical times similar homage was often paid to the gods, and people were known to kiss the hands, knees, feet, and the mouths, of their idols. [[Cicero]] writes that the lips and beard of the famous statue of [[Hercules]] at [[Agrigentum]] were worn away by the kisses of devotees.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|115}} |
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==Art career== |
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===Russia (1906—1910)=== |
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In 1906, he moved to [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]] which was then the capital of Russia and the center of the country's artistic life with famous art schools. Since Jews were not permitted into that city without an internal passport, he managed to get a temporary passport from a friend. He was admitted to a prestigious art school and studied there for two years where he was "bored stiff," having to copy the heads of Roman and Greek citizens.<ref name=Teshuva/> From around 19097 onwards he began painting naturalistic self-portraits and landscapes. |
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People kissed the Cross with the image of the Crucified, and such kissing of the Cross is always considered a holy act. In many countries it is required, on taking an oath, as the highest assertion that the witness would be speaking the truth. Nyrop notes that "as a last act of charity, the image of the Redeemer is handed to the dying or death-condemned to be kissed." Kissing the Cross brings blessing and happiness; people kiss the image of [[Our Lady]] and the pictures and statues of saints—not only their pictures, "but even their relics are kissed," notes Nyrop. "They make both soul and body whole." There are legends innumerable of sick people regaining their health by kissing relics, he points out.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|121}} |
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From 1908-1910 Chagall studied under [[Léon Bakst]] at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting. While in St. Petersburg he was first exposed to experimental theater and the work of such artists as [[Gauguin]].<ref>http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/15/arts/IDLEDE15.php"The inflated stardom of a Russian artist," IHT, November 15-16, 2008</ref> Bakst was a designer of decorative art and was famous as a draftsman designer of stage sets and costumes for the 'Ballets Russes.' Bakst, also Jewish, helped Chagall by becoming a role model for Jewish success and achievement. After a year and half Bakst moved to Paris. Art historian Raymond Cogniat writes that after living and studying art on his own for four years, "Chagall entered into the mainstream of contemporary art. . . . His apprenticeship over, Russia had played a memorable initial role in his life.<ref name=Cogniat>Cogniat, Raymond. ''Chagall'', Crown Publishers, Inc. (1978)</ref>{{rp|30}} |
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The kiss of respect has also represented a mark of humility and reverence. Its use in ancient times was widespread, and Nyrop gives examples: "people threw themselves down on the ground before their rulers, kissed their footprints, literally 'licked the dust,' as it is termed."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|124}} "Nearly everywhere, wheresoever an inferior meets a superior, we observe the kiss of respect. The Roman slaves kissed the hands of their masters; pupils and soldiers those of their teachers and captains respectively."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|124}} People also kissed the earth for joy on returning to their native land after a lengthened absence, as when [[Agamemnon]] returned from the [[Trojan War]] Nyrop points out, however, that in modern times the ceremonious kiss of respect "has gone clean out of fashion in the most civilised countries," and it is only retained in the Church, and that in many cases "the practice would be offensive or ridiculous."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|130}} |
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Chagall remained in St. Petersburg until 1910, and regularly visited his home town of Vitebsk where, in 1909, he met and fell in love with [[Bella Rosenfeld]]. In ''My Life'' Chagall described his first meeting her: "''Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me."<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|22}} |
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=== |
===Kiss of friendship=== |
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After gaining a reputation as an artist, Chagall left St. Petersburg in August 1910 to settle in [[Paris]] to be near the burgeoning art community in the [[Montparnasse]] district, where he would develop friendships with such [[avant-garde]] luminaries as [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Robert Delaunay]], and [[Fernand Léger]]. Baal-Teshuva writes that "Chagall's dream of Paris, the city of light and above all, of freedom, had come true."<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|33}} His first days were a hardship for the 23-year-old Chagall, who found himself alone in the big city and unable to speak French. Some days he "felt like fleeing back to Russia, as he daydreamed while he painted, about the riches of Russian folklore, his [[Hasidic]] experiences, his family, and especially Bella. |
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The kiss is also commonly used in American and European culture as a salutation between friends or acquaintances. The friendly kiss until recent times usually occured only between ladies, but today it is also common between men and women, especially if there is a great difference in age. According to Nyrop, up until the 20th century, "it seldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of royal personages," although he notes that in former times the "friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well as between persons of opposite sexes." In guilds, for example, it was customary for the members to greet each other "with hearty handshakes and smacking kisses," and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed both their hosts and hostesses.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|142}} |
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He enrolled at La Palette, an art academy where the painters [[Segonzac]] and Le Fauconnier taught, and also found work at another academy. While in Paris he would spend his free time visiting the galleries and salons, especially the [[Louvre]], where he studied the works of [[Rembrandt]], the [[Le Nain brothers]], [[Chardin]], [[van Gough]], [[Renoir]], [[Pissarro]], [[Matisse]], [[Gauguin]], [[Courbet]], [[Milet]], [[Manet]], [[Monet]], [[Delacroix]], and many others. It was in Paris that he learned the technique of [[gouache]], which he used to paint Russian scenes. He also visited [[Montmarte]] and the [[Latin Quarter]], "and was happy just breathing Parisian air."<ref name=Teshuva/> |
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Baal-Teshuva describes this new phase in Chagall's artistic development:<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|33}} |
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:"Chagall was exhilarated, intoxicated, as he strolled through the streets and along the banks of the Seine. Everything about trhe French capital excited him: the shops, the smell of fresh bread in the morning, the markets with their fresh fruit and vegetables, the wide boulevards, the cafe′s and restaurants, and above all the Eiffel Tower. |
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:"Another completely new world that opened up for him was the kaleidoscope of colours and forms in the works of French artists. Chagall enthusiastically reviewed their many different tendencies, having to rethink his position as an artist and decide what creative avenue he wanted to pursue." |
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During his time in Paris he was constantly reminded of his home in Russia, as Paris was full of Russian painters, writers, poets, composers, dancers, and other émigre′s. However, "night after night he painted until dawn," only then going to bed for a few hours, and resisted the many temptations of the big city at night.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|44}} During this period Chagall became acquainted with a number of poets, including [[Blaise Cendrars]], who later became his closest friend, and [[Robert Delaunay]]. At one time he asked another poet and friend, [[Apollinaire]], to introduce him to [[Picasso]].<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|46}} |
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Chagall later painted his "Homage to Apollinaire" with a written dedication at the bottom. The painting showed a strong cubist influence which Chagall had begun experimenting with.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|62}} [[Cubism]] was extremely popular at that time. However, Chagall would later write in ''My Life'': "''Personally, I do not think a scientific bent is a good thing for art. [[Impressionism]] and [[Cubism]] are foreign to me. Art seems to me to be above all a state of soul.''"<ref name=Chagall/> |
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He continued to paint Jewish motifs and Vitebsk subjects, although during his last year in Paris he expanded his repertoire to include Parisian scenes - the Eiffel Tower in particular. He also painted more portraits. Many of his works were updated versions of painting he had made in Russia, transposed into [[Fauvism|Fauvist]] or [[Cubism|Cubist]] keys, according to Lewis. He would continue to recycle earlier works and "would be one of the great peculiarities of his career."<ref name=Lewis/> |
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As a result, he developed a whole repertoire of quirky motifs: the ghostly figure floating in the sky, . . . the gigantic fiddler dancing on miniature dollhouses, the livestock and transparent wombs and, within them, tiny offspring sleeping upside down.<ref name=Lewis/> The majority of his scenes of life in Vitebsk were painted in Paris, and "in a sense they were dreams," notes Lewis. Their "undertone of yearning and loss," with a detached and abstract appearance, caused [[Apollinaire]] to be "struck by this quality" and called them "surnaturel!" His "animal/human hybrids and airborne phantoms" would later become a formative influence on [[Surrealism]].<ref name=Lewis/> Chagall, however, did not want his work to be associated with any school or movement and considered his own personal language of symbols to be meaningful to himself. |
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Because he missed not being with his fiancée, Bella, who was still in Vitebsk, "He thought about her day and night," writes Baal-Teshuva, and was afraid of losing her. He decided to accept an invitation from a noted art dealer in [[Berlin]] to exhibit his work, his intention being to continue on to Russia, marry Bella, and then return with her to Paris. Chagall took 40 canvases and 160 gouaches, watercolors and drawings to be exhibited. The exhibit, held at Herwarth Walden's ''Sturm'' gallery was a huge success, "The German critics positively sang his praises," notes Baal-Teshuva. [[Apollinaire]] wrote a review describing Chagall as "a young Russian painter, a truly inspired colourist, who draws on the whimsical imagery of Slavic folk art, but always transcends it. He is an artist of enormous versatility who subscribes to no theory." |
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After the exhibit, he traveled on to Vitebsk, where he planned to stay only long enough to marry Bella. However, after a few weeks, the [[First World War]] broke out, closing the Russian border for an indefinite period. |
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===Russia (1914—1922)=== |
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A year after returning to Russia he married his fiancée, Bella Rosenfeld, and later had their first child, Ida. Before their marriage, Chagall had difficulty convincing Bella's parents that he would be a suitable husband for their daughter. They were worried about her marrying a painter from a poor family and wondered how he would support her. Becoming a successful artist now became a goal and inspiration. Hence, despite the ongoing war, Chagall's spirits remained high, mostly due to his marriage. According to Lewis, "[T]he euphoric paintings of this time, which show the young couple floating balloon-like over Vitebsk—its wooden buildings faceted in the Delaunay manner—are the most lighthearted of his career."<ref name=Lewis/> He also painted wedding pictures, a subject he would return to in later years.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|75}} |
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The [[October Revolution of 1917]] was a dangerous time for Chagall although it also offered opportunity. By then he was one of the [[Soviet Union]]'s most distinguished artists and a member of the [[modernism|modernist]] avant-garde, which enjoyed special privileges and prestige as the "aesthetic arm of the revolution."<ref name=Lewis/> He was offered a notable position as a commissar of visual arts for the country, but preferred something with a lower profile, and took a position as commissar of arts for Vitebsk. This resulted in his founding the Vitebsk Arts College which, adds Lewis, became the "most distinguished school of art in the Soviet Union." |
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It obtained for its faculty some of the most important artists in the country, such as [[El Lissitzky]] and [[Kazimir Malevich]]. He also added his first teacher, [[Yehuda Pen]]. Chagall tried to create an atmosphere of a collective or independenly-minded artists, each with their own unique style. However, this soon to be difficult as some of the key faculty members preferred a [[Suprematist]] art of squares and circles, and looked down on Chagall's attempt at creating "bourgeois individualism" in their teachings. Chagall then resigned as commissar and moved to Moscow. |
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In March 1915 Chagall began exibiting his work in Moscow. He exhibited 25 ofhis works at a well-known salon and in April 1916 exhibited 63 of hispictures in St. Petersburg. In November he again showed his art at a Moscow exhibition of avant-garde artists. This constant exposure caused his name to spread and a number of wealthy collectors began buying his art. He also began illustrating a number of Yiddish books with ink drawings. Chagall had turned 30 and had begun to make a name for himself.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|77}} |
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There he was offered a position as stage designer for the newly formed State Jewish Chamber Theater. It was set to open in early 1921 with a number of plays by [[Sholem Aleichem]]. For its opening he created a number of large background murals using techniques he learned from Bakst, one of his earliest teachers. One of the key murals was 9 feet tall by 24 feet long and included images of various lively subjects such as dancers, fiddlers, acrobats, and farm animals. One critic at the time called it "Hebrew jazz in paint." Chagall created it as a "storehouse of symbols and devices," notes Lewis.<ref name=Lewis/> The murals "constituted a landmark" in the history of the theatre, and were forerunners of his later large-scale works, including murals for the [[New York Metropolitan Opera]] and the [[Paris Opera]].<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|87}} |
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Life became hard for Russians in general as famine spread after the war ended in 1918. Chagall and his family moved to a small town near Moscow which was less expensive, although he now had to commute to Moscow daily using crowded trains. In Moscow he found a job teaching art to war orphans. He spent the years between 1921 and 1922 living in primitive conditions and decided it would be necessary to move back to France which would allow his artistic expression to grow in an atmosphere of freedom. He also learned that many other artists, writers, and musicians were also planning to move to the West. He therefore applied for an exit visa and while waiting for its uncertain approval, wrote his autobiography, ''My Life.''<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|121}} |
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===France (1923—1941)=== |
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In 1923 he left Moscow to return to France. On his way there he stopped in Berlin to recover the many pictures he left there on exhibit ten years earlier, before the war began, but was unable to find or recover any of them. Nonetheless, after returning to Paris he again "rediscovered the free expansion and fulfilment which were so essential to him," writes Lewis. With all his early works now lost, he began trying to paint from his memories of his earliest years in Vitebsk with sketches and oil paintings.<ref name=Lewis/> |
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He formed a business relationship with French art dealer [[Ambroise Vollard]]. This inspired him to begin creating etchings for a series of illustrated books, including Gogol's ''Dead Sould'', the Bible, and the ''Fables of La Fontaine.'' These illustrations would eventually come to represent his finest printmaking efforts.<ref name=Lewis/> By 1926 he had his first exhibition in the United States at the Reinhardt gallery of New York which included about 100 works, although he did not travel to the opening. He stayed in France painting ceaselessly, notes Baal-Teshuva.<ref name=Teshuva/> |
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During this period he traveled throughout France, "falling in love with Ĉote d’Azur." He enjoyed the landscapes, colorful vegetation, the blue Mediterranean, and the mild weather. He made repeated trips to the countryside, always taking his sketchbook. |
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After returning to Paris after one of his trips, Vollard commissioned him to illustrate the [[Old Testament]] version of the Bible. Although he could have completed the project in France, he chose to use the assignment as a reason to Travel to Palestine and experience for himself the [[Holy Land]]. He therefore traveled there in February 1931 and stayed for two months. Chagall felt at home in Palestine where many spoke Yiddish and Russian. According to Baal-Teshuva, "he was impressed by the pioneering spirit of the people in the [[kubbutzim]] and deeply moved by the [[Wailing Wall]] and the other holy places."<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|133}} |
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He returned to France and by the following year had complete 32 out of the total of 105 plates. By 1939, at the outbreak of [[World War II]], he had finished 66, however Vollard died that same year. When the series was completed in 1956, it was published by Edition Tériade. Baal-Teshuva writes that "the illustrations were stunning and met with great acclaim. Once again Chagall had shown himself to be one of the 20th century's most important graphic artists."<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|135}} [[Andalusia]]n poet [[Rafael Alberti]] described his first meeting with Chagall during this period: |
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:"He was a bit pagan, . . . something of a fawn, a satyr. He was a man truly open, free. He simply laughed. . . . Chagall was a genuine [[Slav]], ironic, very amusing, always ready to caricature himself and others. . . . He loved acting up, a bit like Picasso. In fact he was better at it than Picasso."<ref name=Teshuva/> |
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After Germany invaded and occupied France, he naively remained in [[Vichy France]], unaware that French Jews, with the help of the Vichy government, were being collected and sent to German concentration camps, from which nearly all would never return. With the help of [[Alfred Barr]] of the [[New York Museum of Modern Art]], he was saved this fate as his name was added to a list of prominent artists whose lives were at risk and that the United States should try to extricate. He left France in May 1941, "when it almost too late," adds Lewis. Picasso and Matisse were among other artists also invited to leave for America but they decided to remain in France. Chagall and Bella arrived in New York on June 23, 1941, the very day that Germany invaded Russia.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|150}} |
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===America (1941—1948)=== |
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Even before arriving in America in 1941, he had been awarded the [[Carnegie Prize]] in 1939. But soon after he was able to spend time in America he discovered that he had already achieved "international stature," writes Cogniat. However, he felt ill-suited in this new role in a foreign country, one whose language he could not yet speak. He became a public figure mostly against his will, feeling lost in the strange surroundings.<ref name=Cogniat/>{{rp|57}} |
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To compound his discomfort in America was his knowing that he left France under Nazi occupation and the fate of millions of Jews was at risk. By coincidence, it also turned out that on the very day his shipped arrived in New York, and his first view of the the [[Statue of Liberty]], the German army had marched into his homeland country of Russia.<ref name=Cogniat/>{{rp|57}} After a while he began to settle down in in New York which was full of writers, painters, and composers who, like himself, had fled from Europe during the Nazi invasions. He spent time visiting galleries and museums, and befriending other painters including [[Piet Mondrian]] and [[André Bretton]].<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|155}} |
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Baal-Teshuva writes that Chagall loved going to the sections of New York where the Jews lived, especially in the [[Lower East Side]]. There he felt at home, enjoying the Jewish foods and being able to read the Yiddish press, which became his main source of information since he did not yet speak English.<ref name=Teshuva/> |
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Contemporary artists did not yet understand or even like Chagall's art. According to Baal-Teshuva, "they had little in common with a folkloristic storyteller of Russo-Jewish extraction with a propensity for mysticism." And the Paris School, which was referred to as 'Parisian Surrealism,' meant little to them.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|155}} Those attitudes among his fellow artists would begin to change, however, when [[Pierre Matisse]], the son of recognized French artist [[Henri Matisse]], became his representative and held Chagall exhibitions in New York and Chicago in 1941. One of the earliest exhibitions included 21 of his materpieces from 1910 to 1941.<ref name=Teshuva/> Art critic [[Henry McBride]] wrote about this exhibit for the ''New York Sun'': |
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:"Chagall is about as gypsy as they come . . . these pictures do more for his reputation than anythign we have previously seen. . . His colors sparkle with poetry . . . his work is authentically Russian as a Volga boatman's song. . . ."<ref>McBride, Henry. ''New York Sun'', Nov. 28, 1941</ref. |
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He was offered a commission by [[choreography|choreographer]] [[Leonid Massine]], of the [[New York Ballet Theatre]] to design the sets and costumes for his new ballet, ''Aleko.'' |
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This gave Chagall a chance to travel to [[Mexico]], where he quickly began to appreciate the "primitive ways and colorful art of the Mexicans," notes Cogniat. He found "something very closely related to his own nature," and did all the color detail for the sets while there.<ref name=Cogniat/> |
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However, after he returned to New York in 1943, current events took on more importance for him, and this was reflected in his art, where he painted subjects including the [[Crucifixion]] and scenes of war. Then, in 1944, another trajedy affected him when his wife died suddenly due to a virus infection, which was not treated due to the wartime shortage of [[penicillin]]. As a result, he stopped all work for many months, and when he did resume painting his first pictures were concerned with preserving Bella's memory.<ref name=Cogniat/> |
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By 1946 his artwork was becoming more widely recognized. That year the [[Museum of Modern Art in New York]] held a large exhibition with 40 years of his work, going back to his teenage years under [[Yehuda Pen]]. By doing so, the exhibit gave visitors one of the first complete impression of the changing nature of his art over the years. The war had by then ended and he began making plans to return to Paris. According to Cogniat, "He found he was even more deeply attached than before, not only to the atmosphere of Paris, but to the city itself, to its houses and its views. He went back for good in the autumn of 1947, where he attended the opening of the exhibition of his works at the [[Musée National d'Art Moderne]].<ref name=Cogniat/> |
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===France (1948—1985)=== |
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In 1941, the Chagalls settled in the [[United States]] where he lived until 1948 (his wife Bella died in 1944.) |
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==Art styles and techniques== |
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===Color=== |
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===Subjects=== |
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;Jewish influence |
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Chagall had a complex relationship with Judaism. On the one hand, he credited his Russian Jewish cultural background as being crucial to his artistic imagination. But however ambivalent he was about his religion, he could not avoid drawing upon his Jewish past for artistic material. As an adult, he was not a practicing Jew, but through his paintings and stained glass, he continually tried to suggest a more "universal message," using both Jewish and Christian themes.<ref name=Slater>Slater, Elinor and Robert. ''Great Jewish Men'', (1996) Jonathan David Publ. Inc. pgs. 84-87</ref> |
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He traveled several times to Greece and visited [[Israel]] in 1957. During this time, he rediscovered a free and vibrant use of color. His works of this period are dedicated to love and the joy of life, with curved, sinuous figures. He also began to work in sculpture, ceramics, and stained glass. |
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Chagall took inspiration from Belarusian folk-life, and portrayed many Biblical themes that reflected his Jewish heritage. In 1950 he began experimenting with graphic mediums. After meeting with [[Fernand Mourlot]], he often visited [[Mourlot Studios]] where he eventually produced close to a thousand different lithographic editions. With the assistance of [[Charles Sorlier]], a master printer working at Mourlot, he spent 30 years exploring the graphic medium that most lends itself to color representation. Charles Sorlier also became one of his closest friends, assistant and counsel until the day of his death. |
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Chagall's artworks are difficult to categorize. Working in the pre-World War I Paris art world, he was involved with [[avant-garde]] currents; however, his work was consistently on the fringes of popular art movements and emerging trends, including [[Cubism]] and [[Fauvism]], among others. He was closely associated with the [[Paris School]] and its exponents, including [[Amedeo Modigliani]]. |
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Abounding with references to his childhood, Chagall's work has also been criticized for slighting some of the turmoil which he experienced. He communicates happiness and optimism to those who view his work strictly in terms of his use of highly vivid colors. Chagall often posed himself, sometimes together with his wife, as an observer of a colored world like that seen through a stained-glass window. Some see the painting, [[White Crucifixion|The White Crucifixion]], which is rich with intriguing detail, as a denunciation of the Stalin regime, the Nazi Holocaust, and the oppression of Jews in general. |
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==Types of art== |
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===Paintings=== |
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===Theater sets and costumes=== |
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After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Jewish theater became a catalyst for modernist experimentation. Chagall and other artists were hired to produce theater sets and costumes combining Russian folk art with elements of Cubo-Futurism and Constructivism. |
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<ref>http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300111552</ref> |
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===[[Stained Glass]] windows=== |
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In the 1960s and 1970s, Chagall engaged in a series of large-scale projects involving public spaces and important civic and religious buildings. For example, 200,000 visitors a year visit St. Stephen’s church in Mainz, Germany. "Tourists from the whole world pilgrim up St. Stephen’s Mount, to the glowing blue [[stained glass]] windows by the artist Marc Chagall," states the city's web site. "St. Stephen’s is the only German church for which the Jewish artist Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985) created windows." <ref name=Mainz>"St. Stephen's - Chagall's mysticism of blue light", City of Mainz website [http://www.mainz.de/WGAPublisher/online/html/default/mkuz-5v9lmb.en.0]</ref> |
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The website also states, “The colours address our vital consciousness directly, because they tell of optimism, hope and delight in life”, says Monsignor Klaus Mayer, who imparts Chagall’s work in mediations and books. He established contact with Chagall in 1973, and succeeded in persuading the “master of colour and the biblical message” to set a sign for Jewish-Christian attachment and international understanding in the east chancel. In 1978, the first Chagall window by the then 91-year-old artist was fitted. A further eight followed, six for the east chancel and three in the transept."<ref name=Mainz/> |
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In 1960, he created [[stained glass]] windows for the [[synagogue]] of the [[Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital]] in [[Jerusalem]]. During the [[Six-Day War]] the [[Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital|hospital]] came under severe attack, placing Chagall's work under threat. In response to this, Chagall wrote a letter from France stating "I am not worried about the windows, only about the safety of Israel. Let Israel be safe and I will make you lovelier windows." Luckily, most of the panels were removed in time, with only one sustaining severe damage. In 1973, Israel issued a series of stamps featuring the Chagall windows, which depict the [[Twelve tribes]]. |
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The U.N. public lobby has a stained-glass window designed by Chagall and was a gift from United Nations as well as Marc Chagall himself. It was presented in 1964 as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the UN, and fifteen other people who died with him in a plane crash in 1961. |
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The U.N. website describes the stained glass a "memorial, which is about 15 feet wide and 12 feet high, contains several symbols of peace and love, such as the young child in the center being kissed by an angelic face which emerges from a mass of flowers. On the left, below and above motherhood and the people who are struggling for peace are depicted. Musical symbols in the panel evoke thoughts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was a favourite of Mr. Hammarskjold's.".<ref name=UNChagall>[http://www.un.org/pubs/cyberschoolbus/untour/subjap.htm Chagall Stained-Glass, United Nations Cyber School Bus, United Nations, UN.org, 2001], retrieved on: August 4, 2007</ref> |
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===Tapestries=== |
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Chagall also designed tapestries which were woven under the direction of Yvette Cauquil-Prince, who also collaborated with [[Picasso]]. These tapestries are much rarer than his paintings, with only 40 of them ever reaching the commercial market. <ref>http://www.moscow-faf.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=13&tabindex=12&highlightid=9382&categoryid=0</ref> Chagall designed three tapestries for the state hall of the [[Knesset]] in [[Israel]], along with 12 floor mosaics and a wall mosaic. <ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/Chagall.html</ref> |
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===Etchings and ceramics=== |
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In 1930, Chagall was commissioned to do a series of Bible prints by Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Chagall spent three months in [[Palestine]] to paint preparatory gouaches. He completed 66 of the plates by 1939, and returned to the project 13 years later, after the [[Holocaust]]. These hand-colored etchings, completed in 1956, illustrated scenes from the Old Testament in Chagall's unique style. <ref>http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/exhibitions/Chagall/chagall.htmlThe Bible Series</ref> |
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Like [[Picasso]], Chagall worked on ceramics. However, none of Chagall's pieces were made into editions and they are exceedingly rare and can be seen in only a few museums throughout the world. |
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== Museum exhibits and traveling shows == |
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Chagall's work is housed in a variety of locations, including the [[Palais Garnier]] (the old opera house), the [[Chase Tower (Chicago)|Chase Tower Plaza]] of [[downtown]] Chicago, the [[Metropolitan Opera]], the [[Metz Cathedral]], [[Notre-Dame de Reims]], the [[Fraumünster]] abbey in [[Zürich]], Switzerland, the [[St. Stephan Mainz|Church of St. Stephan]] in [[Mainz]], Germany and the Biblical Message museum in Nice, France, which Chagall helped to design. |
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The only church in England with a complete set of Chagall window-glass is located in the tiny village of [[Tudeley]], in [[Kent]], England. Chagall designed 12 colorful stained-glass windows for [[Hadassah Hospital]] Ein Kerem in [[Jerusalem]], each frame depicting a different tribe. In the United States, the Union Church of Pocantico Hills contains a set of Chagall windows commemorating the prophets, which was commissioned by [[John D. Rockefeller, Jr.]] [http://www.hudsonvalley.org/content/view/17/47/]. |
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At the [[Lincoln Center]] in New York City, Chagall's huge [[mural]]s, ''The Sources of Music'' and ''The Triumph of Music,'' are installed in the lobby of the new [[Metropolitan Opera]] House, which opened in 1966. Also in New York, the [[United Nations Art Collection|United Nations]] Headquarters has a [[stained glass]] wall of his work. In 1967 the UN commemorated this artwork with a [[postage stamp]] and [[souvenir sheet]].<ref name=UNChagall /> |
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In 1973, the ''Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall'' (Chagall Museum) opened in [[Nice]], France. The museum in [[Vitebsk]] which bears his name was founded in 1997, in the building where his family lived, although, prior to his death, years before the fall of the [[Soviet Bloc]], Chagall was ''[[persona non grata]]'' in his homeland. The museum has only copies of his work. |
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In 2007, an [[art exhibition|exhibition]] of his work, “Chagall of Miracles,” at [[Il Complesso del Vittoriano]], included the ''Red Jew'' (1915), ''Above the City'' (1914-1918), ''Composition with Circles and Goat'' (1920), and ''The Fall of the Angel'' (1923-1947). Despite the fact that he was a Jew, he employed Christian iconography. He was also a dreamer whose works touched on the harsh realities of war and persecution. The works in this exhibition highlighted these aspects of Chagall's work. <ref>{{citation | title= Rome: Chagall, Whiteread, Accardi | author=Rachel Spence | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2007 | date= March 28, 2007 | url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24530/rome-chagall-whiteread-accardi/ | accessdate=2008-04-23 }}</ref> |
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==Final years and death== |
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In a recent book review of Chagall's biography, author Serena Davies writes, "By the time he died in France in 1985 - the last surviving master of European modernism, outliving Joan Miró by two years - he had experienced at first hand the high hopes and crushing disappointments of the Russian revolution, and had witnessed the end of the Pale, the near annihilation of European Jewry, and the obliteration of Vitebsk, his home town, where only 118 of a population of 240,000 survived the Second World War." <ref name=Davies>Davies, Serena. "Chagall: Love and Exile by Jackie Wullschlager - review", ''UK Daily Telegraph'', Oct. 11, 2008[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/11/10/bowull110.xml]</ref> |
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She later adds that the book "leaves us finally with an image of a man who came from nowhere to achieve world-wide acclaim. Yet his fractured relationship with his Jewish identity - he was physically divorced from his homeland, and he wasn't a practising Jew - was unresolved and tragic. He would have died with no Jewish rites, had not a stranger stepped forward and said the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, over his coffin."<ref name=Davies/> |
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==Legacy and influence== |
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The family home on Pokrovskaya Street is now the ''Marc Chagall Museum''.<ref>[http://www.chagall.vitebsk.by/enmuseum.html Marc Chagall Museum] </ref> |
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==See also== |
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{{Portal|Ballet}} |
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*[[I and the Village]] |
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*[[La Mariée]] (The Bride) |
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== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
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== Bibliography== |
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* Alexander, Sidney, ''Marc Chagall: A Biography'' G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1978. |
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* Monica Bohm-Duchen, ''Chagall (Art & Ideas)'' Phaidon 1998. ISBN 0714831603 |
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* Chagall, Marc, ''My Life'' Peter Owen Ltd, 1965 (2003) ISBN 978-0720611861 |
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* Compton, Susann, ''Chagall'' Harry N. Abrams, 1985. |
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* Harshav, Benjamin, ed. ''Marc Chagall on Art and Culture'', Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003 ISBN 0804748306 |
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* [[Aleksandr Kamensky|Kamensky, Aleksandr]], ''Marc Chagall, An Artist From Russia'', Trilistnik, Moscow, 2005 (In Russian) |
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* [[Aleksandr Kamensky|Kamensky, Aleksandr]], ''Chagall: The Russian Years 1907-1922.'', Rizzoli, NY, 1988 (Abridged version of ''Marc Chagall, An Artist From Russia'') ISBN 0847810801 |
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* Nikolaj, Aaron, ''Marc Chagall.'', (Monographie) Reinbek 2003 (In German) |
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* Shishanov V.A. ''[[Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art]]'' - a history of creation and a collection. 1918-1941. - Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.''[http://vash2008.mylivepage.ru/file/1774/6236_MuzeyVitebskFragment3.pdf]'' |
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* Wilson, Jonathan ''Marc Chagall'', Schocken, 2007 ISBN 0805242015 |
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* Wullschlager, Jackie. ''Chagall: A Biography'' Knopf, 2008 |
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== External links == |
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{{Wikiquote}} |
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{{Commonscat|Marc Chagall}} |
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* [http://chagal-vitebsk.com/ Official site of Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk, Belarus] |
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* [http://www.musee-chagall.fr/ Official site of Marc Chagall Museum in Nice, France] |
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* [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A1055&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Marc Chagall at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)] |
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* [http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chagall/chagallbio.html Marc Chagall at Olga's Gallery] |
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* [http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/chagall.html Pictures of: Me and My Village, Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers, and Chagall's illustrations to the Bible: Song of Songs III (1960), Jacob's Dream (1954-67), Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise (1954-67), and Abraham and the Three Angels (1954-67)] |
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* [http://www.films42.com/columns/columns_fiddler.asp Column about revivals of "Fiddler on the Roof"] |
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* [http://www.marcchagall.narod.ru/ Marc Chagall Website] |
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* [http://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=marc+chagall&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&subjectid=500115354 Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies.] ULAN Full Record Display for Marc Chagall. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California. |
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===Video slideshows=== |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEgnX49Swno Slideshow] 8 min., music by [[Itzak Perlman]] |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDB1dXXA9-E Slideshow] 10 min. with modern music |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoirjEu4P60 Chagall windows in Jerusalem] Israel, 1.5 min. with music |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL8q0Gb_ONc "Shagal's Passion"] Russian-made animation about Chagall, 7 minutes with European music |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHA2oVnsfMs Slideshow] 6 min., with classical music |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi9lVkkFvRI Slideshow] Spain, 5 min. with music |
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRzgdBjExY Slideshow - [[Daphnis and Chloe]] lithographs] France, 8 min., music by Revel |
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{{Wolf Prize in Arts}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chagall, Marc}} |
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Latest revision as of 04:07, 29 October 2010
Types of Kisses
[edit]Christopher Nyrop, in his book The Kiss and its History, describes five main types of kisses: kisses of love, affection, peace, respect and friendship. He admitted, however, that the categories were somewhat contrived and overlapping, and other cultures often had more kinds, including the French, with twenty and the Germans with thirty.[1]
Kiss of love
[edit]Nyrop discusses the kiss and its importance as the direct expression of love and erotic emotions. He describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." He adds, that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity."[1]: 30 He also compares it to one's achievements in life, "Thus even the highest work of art, yea, the loftiest reputation, is nothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves."[1]: 31
The power of a kiss is not minimized when he writes that "we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle against this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss. . . ." Kissing, he implies, can lead one to maturity: "It is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes to us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss exchanged by lovers," and can keep one feeling young: "It carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth." The importance of the lover's kiss can also be significant, he notes: "In the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss," and "man craves for it as his noblest reward."[1]: 37
As a result, kissing as an expression of love is contained in much of literature, old and new. Nyrop gives a vivid example in the classic love story of Daphnis and Chloe. As a reward "Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis—an innocent young-maid's kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock":[1]: 47
- "Ye gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose's leaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain than a bee's sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my lambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast, my heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How conies it that she herself has not died of it?
Kiss of affection
[edit]A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting," writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expressive of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."[1]: 79
The most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring," writes Nyrop, but adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people."[1]: 82 The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and when Moses went to meet his father-in-law, " he did obeisance and kissed him ; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent;" and when Jacob had wrestled with the Lord he met Esau, ran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him. The family kiss was traditional with the Romans and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early Greeks, as when Odysseus, on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.[1]: 82–83
Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the Apostle Paul took leave of the elders of the congregation at Ephesus, " they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him " (Acts xx. 37). Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in, another person.[1]: 85
Folk poetry has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain, Tirant le blanc] in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "Beauty and the Beast," a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.[1]: 95–96
A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In Genesis it is written that when Jacob was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of Abu Bekr, Mahomet's first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and kissed him. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."[1]: 97
Kiss of peace
[edit]Nyrop notes that the kiss was used as an expression of deep, spiritual love in the primitive Christian Church. Christ said, for instance, "Peace be with you, my peace I give you," and the members of Christ's Church gave each other peace symbolically through a kiss. St Paul repeatedly speaks of the "holy kiss", and, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes: " Salute one another with an holy kiss" and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians (v. 26), he says : "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss."[1]: 101
The holy kiss was also used in secular festivities. During the Middle Ages, for example, Nyrop points out that it was the custom to "seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a kiss." Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs. The holy kiss was also found in the ritual of the Church on solemn occasions, such as baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, or obsequies. However, toward the end of the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears as the official token of reconciliation.[1]: 109
Kiss of respect
[edit]The kiss of resepect is of ancient origin, notes Nyrop. He writes that "from the remotest times we find it applied to all that is holy, noble, and worshipful—to the gods, their statues, temples, and altars, as well as to kings and emperors ; out of reverence, people even kissed the ground, and both sun and moon were greeted with kisses."[1]: 114
He notes some examples, as "when the prophet Hosea laments over the idolatry of the children of Israel, he says that they make molten images of calves and kiss them." In classical times similar homage was often paid to the gods, and people were known to kiss the hands, knees, feet, and the mouths, of their idols. Cicero writes that the lips and beard of the famous statue of Hercules at Agrigentum were worn away by the kisses of devotees.[1]: 115
People kissed the Cross with the image of the Crucified, and such kissing of the Cross is always considered a holy act. In many countries it is required, on taking an oath, as the highest assertion that the witness would be speaking the truth. Nyrop notes that "as a last act of charity, the image of the Redeemer is handed to the dying or death-condemned to be kissed." Kissing the Cross brings blessing and happiness; people kiss the image of Our Lady and the pictures and statues of saints—not only their pictures, "but even their relics are kissed," notes Nyrop. "They make both soul and body whole." There are legends innumerable of sick people regaining their health by kissing relics, he points out.[1]: 121
The kiss of respect has also represented a mark of humility and reverence. Its use in ancient times was widespread, and Nyrop gives examples: "people threw themselves down on the ground before their rulers, kissed their footprints, literally 'licked the dust,' as it is termed."[1]: 124 "Nearly everywhere, wheresoever an inferior meets a superior, we observe the kiss of respect. The Roman slaves kissed the hands of their masters; pupils and soldiers those of their teachers and captains respectively."[1]: 124 People also kissed the earth for joy on returning to their native land after a lengthened absence, as when Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War Nyrop points out, however, that in modern times the ceremonious kiss of respect "has gone clean out of fashion in the most civilised countries," and it is only retained in the Church, and that in many cases "the practice would be offensive or ridiculous."[1]: 130
Kiss of friendship
[edit]The kiss is also commonly used in American and European culture as a salutation between friends or acquaintances. The friendly kiss until recent times usually occured only between ladies, but today it is also common between men and women, especially if there is a great difference in age. According to Nyrop, up until the 20th century, "it seldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of royal personages," although he notes that in former times the "friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well as between persons of opposite sexes." In guilds, for example, it was customary for the members to greet each other "with hearty handshakes and smacking kisses," and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed both their hosts and hostesses.[1]: 142