Examine Implicit Message Painting Guernica Pablo Picasso Essay

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Guernica

From 1936 to 1939 a civil war was fought in Spain between the Republican government and a group of rebels under the command of General Francisco Franco: the Nationalists. During the war many outside groups allied themselves with the two sides with many communists and democrats siding with the Republican forces and a cadre of fascists from Germany and Italy who fought with the Nationalists. In 1937 Nationalist air forces, primarily Germans and Italians, undertook the bombing of the city of Guernica; the first major aerial bombing of a city in history. The destruction and deaths caused by the attack became the inspiration for one of the century's most famous artists, Pablo Picasso, who used the bombing of Guernica as the subject of an anti-war painting. Picasso's work of art, called Guernica, has become a symbol of the destruction and pain caused by war and must be interpreted through the prism of war and suffering.

The painting itself is done in black and white and contains a number of symbolic figures which represent the horrors of war. The main figure, which occupies the central spot in the painting, is a horse which seems to have a spear running through its body. The horse, which appears to be in anguish and possibly dying, is a symbol of the pain and suffering caused by war. The horse, along with several other figures, has a dagger for a tongue and symbolizes the terrible pain and suffering inflicted upon the common people.

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To the far left in the painting is another major figure, a quiet and dispassionate bull. While Picasso used the symbolism of the bull in many different ways, it seems that the bull in this painting represents the uncaring General Franco and his "bullish" attack and seizure of power. Bulls are a symbol of unadulterated power and Franco was the power of his day. Located directly underneath the bull is an image of a screaming woman holding a dead child. While there can be many interpretations, the most likely is that this figure represents what it appears to represent, the suffering of a mother at the death of her child. This figure is symbolic of all the innocent people killed and injured by the attacks inflicted upon them by the Nationalist forces in their attempt to size power. The woman seems to be screaming directly at….....

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