Signs, Symbols and Allegories in Painting

Violet and pomegranate, unicorn and dog, bull and lion, parrot and peacock, scales and pearls, horn of plenty and mirror, the sign "Mirror of Venus" and the Christian sign "Ichthys"… How often do we see these and other signs and symbols in the paintings of famous masters and do not even think about the fact that these images have an additional meaning, different from their own superficial one. These signs, which give works depth, mystery, and multilayeredness, exist not only in the realm of reason but also in the realm of feelings. Symbols are diverse – they are denoted by numbers, objects and phenomena, forms and images of animals, birds, or insects, and so on. Symbols manifest themselves particularly vividly in painting and sculpture.

Centuries, and sometimes even millennia, separate us from the creators of these now-famous works of visual art. These people existed in a different system of life coordinates and believed in different gods. The surviving monuments from those ancient times were intended not only to please the eye and amaze with their finesse but also often carried a specific idea that contemporaries could easily interpret. We, however, while gaining purely aesthetic pleasure from encountering these monuments, often overlook their meaningful significance, not paying attention to the telling details or not understanding what they might imply, thus depriving ourselves of a complete perception of the works of art. The meanings of signs and symbols are almost impossible to "decrypt" by chance; they need to be known. And this is where the new book by Natalia Kortunova – a well-known art historian, senior researcher at the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and curator of several exhibitions at the museum – will help you.

Signs, symbols, and allegories in painting literally surround us. And often it is enough to just pay attention to them, understand what secret meaning they carry, for the work of art to play with new colors!