Drakes in France: Day 13 - Musée national Marc Chagall in Nice

Concentration

Deep art requires deep thinking

In Nice we were excited to visit the Musée national Marc Chagall. It was created under the guidance of Chagall to house his series of seventeen paintings illustrating the biblical message, which he offered to the French State in 1966. We were first drawn to his work when we saw his stained glass windows in the Cathedral in Zurich. Many people have see this painting by Chagall:

Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985) was an early modernist, and was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic format, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

Art historian Michael J. Lewis, wrote: "he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism". He was considered the Godfather of Surrealism.

Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law

Crossing the Red Sea

Closeup - The sea closing on the Egyptians

Closeup - An angel leading the Hebrews across the sea

Closeup - Jesus on the cross depicted in the redemption of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt

Closeup - Moses and his staff

King David

The Sacrifice of Isaac 1960-1966

Abraham is just about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, when an angel seizes his arm. The composition here is characterised by the distinction between drawing and colour, with the latter bleeding over the contours of the characters and images. In the top section, ,the silhouette of the angel - an embodiment of the Divine Word - is traced against a sky-blue background. To the angel's right, the misfortunes of the Jewish people can be seen. In the lower section, Abraham and his son Isaac stretched out over the altar are lit up by the flame of the holocaust. Isaac's body is abandoned as is that of Adam in the adjoining painting, The Creation of Man: both are testimonies to Man's submission to God.

Closeup - the angel

Closeup - the travails of the Jewish people, including Jesus and the cross

The Creation of Man 1956-1958

The bottom section of this painting depicts a scene from the Book of Genesis, while the top section features several different biblical episodes. The lower section is painted in a vibrant blue embellished with depictions of vegetation and animals. A winged creature moves to the fore, holding Adam in its arms. A snake coiled under Adam's body and Eve holding an apple in the lower right-hand section are references to the origins in. In the upper section, Chagall has aired a turning sun. Its colourful rays house a crowd of different characters: biblical protagonists, the Jewish people, hybrid creatures, and more. Christ on the cross is also shown here. His hips are encircled by the prayer shawl that Jewish men wear in the synagogue. Chagall meant this figure to represent the martyrdom of the Jewish people in World War 2. Above and beyond the creation of Man, Chagall infuses this painting with a broader vision of the history of humanity.

Closeup - even though he was a Jew, Chagall understood the thread through both the Old and New Testaments; the creation of man, the fall of man, and the redemption of man

Abraham and the Three Angels 1960-66

Three angels, divine messengers, have come to announce the imminent birth of a son to the elderly Abraham and Sarah. Chagall highlights the three angels to whom Abraham extends his hospitality. The composition is structured by the horizontal line of the bench in the foreground punctuated by a series of vertical lines. The painting's dominant colour is red, the colour of life and love. The wom gold of the icons also gives way to a layer of underlying red. In contrast, the whiteness of the three angels' wings appears dazzling, in a nod to the icon in Andrei Roublev's Trinity (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). In the upper right-hand comer, Chagall depicts the rest of the story: Abraham leading the three angels who, upon divine order, are to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Moses and the Burning Bush 1960-1966

Composed as a fresco, three slightly oblique characters re-enact the founding episodes of the story of Moses, when God revealed His presence to him. This work of art is designed to be read like Hebrew, moving from right to left. To the right, Moses falls to his knees before a burning bush that never turns to ash. An angel emerging from within a colourful circle tells Moses of his mission: to lead the Hebrew, slaved in Egypt, to freedom. The crossing of the Red Sea is shown to the left. Moses pushes on, leading the Jewish people concealed within his cloak. Behind them is a wave symbolising the divine cloud, which closes in on the Pharaoh's army on their heels.

Moses Striking the Rock 1960-1966

The journey across the desert to the Promised Land is long and arduous, and the Israelites are struck by thirst. The arid landscape is illustrated through shades of deep brown brightened by a few touches of vibrant colour. The colour features independently from the drawing: the figures are depicted in the colours used for their backgrounds. In the upper section, Moses strikes the rock. A dazzling burst of light appears behind him, symbolising divine presence, and the miraculous water flows freely as the crowd made up of people with different expressions throws itself on it.

Noah 's Ark 1961 -1966

The Flood is a classic theme in Western painting. Yet this is the first time an artist chooses to represent the inside of the ark rather than its construction or the ship within the context of the flood. The destructive waters seem to have taken over this canvas creating an aquatic, vaporous atmosphere. Animals, women and children are depicted with many stances and expressions, sheltered inside the boat. Noah stretches out his arm so that the dove may take flight through the opening in the middle of the painting. The dove will later bring back an olive branch, a sign that the waters have subsided.

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel 1960-1966

This painting uses a deep purple in a continuation of the nocturnal atmosphere of Jacob's Dream. Dawn will soon be breaking, and Jacob falls to his knees before the angel after a battle that has endured the night. The angel appears to be blessing Jacob as it touches his forehead. Pushed to the outeredges of the painting are various scenes from the patriarch's life: in the upper left-hand comer is his encounter with Rachel at the well, while along the right-hand side, his son Joseph appears stripped by his brothers and thrown into a well. The sorrow of a father sobbing into the tunic of the son he believes to be gone is communicated through Jacob's stooped position and prostration. Chagall generally uses this stance for the prophets announcing the misfortunes of the Jewish people.

Jacob's Dream 1960-1966

In a dream, Jacob the patriarch sees angels moving up and down a ladder. The painting shows two clearly delineated scenes, linked only by the curve of the hill on which Jacob slumbers. The solemn aspect of the night is highlighted through the use of deep blue and purple shades. To the left, the angels are shown dancing like acrobats around the ladder in a nod to Chagall's love of the circus and showcasing the deep ties that the artist drew between the profane and the sacred. To the right, an angel clad in white, the col our of the divine, carries a lit candelabrum. The angel lights the path through the dark blueness of the night, carrying the hopeful light of the divine message.

Noah and the Rainbow 1961 -1966

The end of the flood and the emptying of the ark mark the end of divine wrath and a new chapter in the story of humanity. God sends Noah a vision of a rainbow in a sign of a Covenant with the Jewish people. Chagall depicts this apparition in the sky as a white curve contrasting with the rest of the composition in which green dominates. Noah is shown lying down in the lower right-hand section, eyes raised to this vision. A bearded angel dressed in a yellow tunic with a red wing emerges from behind the rainbow. The angel has come to announce the promised joys of this allegiance, visible in the painting's upper section, as well as the misfortunes of the Jewish people, symbolised by the blazing houses and fleeing crowds.

Paradise 1961

The painting represents two scenes, one set in Paradise and one on Earth. To the left, the creation of Eve, and to the right, the Temptation. These two scenes take place in a garden bathed in blue and green light, animated by warm, vibrant hecks of colour. Animals, winged beings and hybrid creatures fly around Adam and Eve in a harmonious communion. To the left, Eve emerges from a cloud. The first woman was fashioned from the rib of the first man, as symbolised by Adam's raised-arm. To the right Adam and Eve are intertwined, forming a single being with just two arms and three legs. They are on the brink of sharing the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, which they believed would make them God's equals.

Hybrid creatures

Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise 1961

Adam and Eve's expulsion sows discord in Paradise: trees are uprooted, birds with goat heads fly away, while others have heads turned upside down and mingle with winged fish that surge from the river. Harmonious shades of blue and green are punctuated by areas of warm, vibrant colour, such as the dazzling bouquet depicted on the left of the composition. The angel that bears the divine wrath, in the middle of the upper section, drives Adam and Eve out. The couple sit astride a cockerel, a symbol of vitality and fertility. lt appears to be flying away towards the future of humanity. The small mother and child painting in the lower right-hand comer confirms this rather optimistic vision of the Sin .

Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law 1960-1966

The painting is structured along double diagonal lines like a baroque painting: Moses is depicted as a monumental figure in the foreground, reaching out to the Tablets held out by God, whose presence is alluded to via two hands emerging from the clouds. The secondary diagonal represents the mountain Moses stands on and divides the composition into several scenes: to the right, from bottom to top, characters from the Bible, Aaron the High Priest, David and Jeremy, and at the very top, close to God, a group of fleeing Jews. To the left, some of the Israelites await Moses while the others have turned away from him and are worshipping the Golden Calf. Intense yellow sweeps over the painting, suggestive of both the shimmering gold of the Golden Calf idol made by the Israelites, as well as divine light.