Hand and Eye
God in medieval and Renaissance art is often represented only by his hand, as in the hand of an artist extending from the heavens. Indeed Genesis describes God as a model craftsman carefully checking the quality of his daily production with the phrase : "and God saw that it was good." God is an artist and his hand symbolizes Creation. For this and other more mundane reasons the hand became a symbol of the artist’s craft while the eye came to represent the mind or imagination. These meanings are often missed because the current art historical paradigm takes images literally and fails to recognize that all figures, including their body parts, are representations of the artist.
As we demonstrate in a number of entries below, the hand and eye are often juxtaposed in art as well, one placed next to the other. There is meaning to this because without the hand, the conception in the artist’s eye is just a conception; without the conception, the hand has nothing to craft. Both are needed. With this simple idea many now-mysterious works of art can be explained. Nevertheless, not all representations of eye and hand are quite so obvious because, as poetic elements, artists often disguise them in visual metaphors: the eye as a window, a lighted doorway, the sun or moon etc. The hand may likewise be represented by an animal’s paw or an empty glove. Keep an eye out for these clues to art's meaning. They are important.
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
Is this merely a scene of everyday life or something more important?
Aertsen’s Cook in front of the Stove (1559)
Remember a few general principles and you will find that the art of understanding art is much easier than you might magine
Andrea Del Sarto’s Madonna in Gloria (1530)
Even anonymous art can be enjoyed through EPPH's methodology
Anonymous Antiphony from Lausanne (c.1485-90)
Learn how one scene can turn into another through visual metamorphosis
Bacon’s Two Men Working in a Field (1971)
Learn how to deconstruct a portrait by Balthus using a few simple principles
Balthus’ The White Skirt (1937)
An artist's identification with God was as common in the 20th century as in the Renaissance
Barlach’s The First Day (1922)
How Bonnard turned his creative process into a scene in modern Paris
Bonnard’s The Pushcart (c.1897)
See how the second of a pair of paintings by Bosch is also "behind the eye."
Bosch’s St. John on Patmos (1504-5)
This masterpiece, like many before and since, must have been the source of inspiration for Picasso's Cubism. As unlikely as that may sound, it all depends on what you can see in The Birth of Venus that experts never have. You'll be one of the first...
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1484-6): Part Two
Learn how to note passages between one level of reality and another
Botticelli’s St. Sebastian (c.1473)
Unless you knew that there might be a self-portrait in this Reclining Nude, you'd probably never see it.
Boucher’s Reclining Nude (1730’s)
"Mistakes" in representing reality are cues to the scene's underlying meaning
Caravaggio’s Martyrdom of St. Ursula (1609-10)
Learn how additions to a painting's narrative often provide access to the composition's underlying meaning
Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c.1597)
One of my first discoveries remains, for me, an object lesson in art. Perhaps for you too.
Carpaccio’s St. George and the Dragon (1502)
A long-mysterious image succumbs to interpretation if seen through a different paradigm
Carrington’s Self-portrait (c.1937-8)
See how a self-portrait viewed through a different perspective changes everything
Courbet’s The Wounded Man (1844-54)
Yet one more artist who sees himself as an animal, even as a creating animal
Cranach’s Animals in Adam and Eve’s (1509-1533)
What can one learn from the single fragment of a larger painting? A lot, if you look.
Cranach’s Cupid (c.1530)
See how Durer shaped the Virgin and Child into the form of his own monogram
Dürer’s Virgin and Child (c.1491)
How Daumier turned a kettle-drum into symbols...
Daumier’s The Orchestra.. ..During A Tragedy (1852)
If you can't make a sense of an image beyond what it appears to be, keep looking until you can. Come back to it, time and again, until you do.
Degas’ At the Races in the Countryside (1869)
See how the meaning behind this image changes our entire understanding of Degas' oeuvre
Degas’ Woman Drying Her Foot (1885-6)
Another example of St. Irene "painting" St. Sebastian
Delacroix’s St. Sebastian Helped by the Holy Women (1836)
Learn how an artist's sketches and unfinished drawings help explicate a painting
Delacroix’s Two Women at the Well (1832)
Here, in a novel turn, the American artist turns a paintbrush into the oars of a scull
Eakins’ The Champion Single Sculls (1871)
Find out how Eakins' portrait of his father becomes one of himself
Eakins’ The Writing Master (1882)
See how a contemporary artist still uses the language of the great masters
Elizabeth Peyton’s Portraits (1991-)
See how Hals used his monogram to signal an alter ego
Frans Hals’ Portrait of a Gentleman, half-length, in a black coat (early 1630’s)
Learn how an artist can link himself through music to great painters before him
Gauguin’s Self-portrait with a Mandolin (1889) and The Player Schneklud (1894)
What you can see in a self-portrait when you think creatively. Indeed it's your job to become the painter...
Gauguin’s Self-portrait with a Palette (c.1893-4)
Even at 17, Giacometti understood the hidden meaning of art
Giacometti’s Self-portrait with Brush (1918)
Goya often used bright eye-shapes in the background to indicate that the scene itself is inside his mind.
Goya’s Eyes
Change your perspective: looking at Goya from the inside out
Goya’s Portrait of General Nicolas Guye (1810)
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