The Bayeux Tapestry (c. 1077 or later)
The article highlights the fundamental role that women had in creating the Bayeux Tapestry, a work of art that narrates the events and the Norman Conquest. These women were not simple seamstresses, but skilled storytellers.
It is mentioned that the arrow that pierced King Harold’s eye, in an important scene near the end of the tapestry, is a meta-narrative element that symbolizes the needle with which the story was woven. By grasping the arrow, the wounded Harold seems to merge his identity with that of the artist and the observer, whose eye has traveled through the different scenes.
Sandro Botticelli, “The Birth of Venus” (1482-5)
The article describes the symbolic and mathematical significance of a spiral present in the painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli. It is mentioned that this golden lock of hair falling over the shoulder of the goddess Venus is not a mere ornament, but represents a mathematical form known as spira mirabilis or “miraculous spiral.” This pattern can also be observed in the relationship between birds of prey and nautilus shells. The Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli coined the term “miraculous spiral” in the 17th century. In Botticelli’s painting, this spiral represents timeless elegance and whispers to Venus secrets of truth and beauty.
Hieronymus Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1505-10)
The egg that is visible atop the head of a rider in Bosch’s famous painting is well known to critics and admirers of the work.
But how does that detail explain the true meaning of the painting?
If we close the triptych’s side panels to reveal the outer cover of the work and the ghostly ovoid of a fragile world that Bosch has depicted on the outside of the work (a transparent sphere floating in the ether), we discover that he conceived his painting as a kind of egg that must be eternally broken and rebuilt, every time we analyze this complex work.
By opening and closing the side panels of this painting, we set in motion an incipient world or turn back time, to the beginning, before we lost our innocence.
Johannes Vermeer, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (c. 1665)
Do you think that in the famous portrait of this girl with her gaze turned towards the viewer, what you see is a gleaming pearl hanging from her ear? Think again.
The jewel around which the mystery of the painting revolves is a product of your imagination.
With a wrist movement and two skillful touches of white paint, the artist deceived the primary visual cortices of the occipital lobes artof our brains.
If you observe carefully, you will not see any thread connecting the ornament to the ear. Even its spherical shape is a deception.
Vermeer’s precious gem is a luxurious optical illusion, one that reflects our own illusory presence in the world.
JMW Turner, “Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway” (1844)
It is no secret that Turner painted an imperceptible hare in the midst of the dark path on which the locomotive approaches in his famous painting.
The artist himself showed it to a child who visited the Royal Academy on the same day the work was first displayed.
But how does this small detail enrich the meaning of Turner’s profound contemplation of the invasion of technology? Why did he feel compelled to point it out?
Since ancient times, the hare has symbolized rebirth and hope.
Visitors who saw the painting when it was first exhibited in 1844 were still moved by the horror of a tragedy that had occurred two and a half years earlier, on Christmas Eve, when a train derailed 10 miles from the bridge depicted in the painting.
The accident claimed the lives of nine passengers and maimed another 16.
By painting the hare so small, the artist (famous for the large objects in his paintings) offers a poignant tribute while meditating on the fragility of life.