Talking about Art: Fire
Fire appears in art or is used to make art. Let’s start with fire as a symbol. The dragon is a fire-breathing creature of myth. In the West, the dragon is a monster to be slain by knights and heroes. In the East, the dragon is a cosmic force, a source of energy and vitality. The two artworks above could be further contrasted. One is an oil painting from the Italian Renaissance, 1505. The other is a piece of pottery made of porcelain, from the Ming Dynasty, around 1530. As different as these works are in theme and media, they were created at almost the same time. How porcelain was made was a great mystery to Western merchants, who went to great lengths to acquire it. This story is told by Lars Tharp of Antique Roadshow BBC fame, in a clip that begins with a Chinese vase selling for 43 million Euros.
Fire could also be a symbol of industry. An example of this is found in William Blake’s poem, The Tyger, written during the Industrial Revolution and making reference to this period of upheaval in its vivid fire imagery. After introducing the fearsome predator as “burning bright in the forests of the night,” the poet goes on to ask who created the beast: “What the hammer? What the chain, in what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp, Dare its mighty terrors clasp?” Blake creates more questions than he answers. What kind of tiger burns in the night? What kind of brain is forged in a furnace with anvils, hammers and chains? It’s interesting to note that even as Blake critiqued the machine age, he also a part of it. Blake acted as his own printer, using a cumbersome metal press to mass produce his work.
A major theme of our art talks is how imagery starts out with a religious intention, but over centuries becomes increasingly secularized. An example of this is with the halo, the bright sun-like disc that frames the head of a god or saint.
In the image below, who are the elderly couple, both with halos round their heads, and why are they kissing?
If you answered Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary, you’d be correct. The tender scene was painted by Giotto in 1305 and captures the moment when husband and wife learn Anna will bear a child, which they had hoped for all their lives. Not just any child, as Mary will give birth to Jesus. Joachim and Anna are the grandparents of Christ.
Four hundred years later a French monarch fond of dancing and theatre called himself the Sun King and has an emblem designed which he stamps on all government property. The emblem depicts a young Louis XIV with a starburst halo. This king has god-like powers and is favoured by gods, at least, that’s what he’d like the people who serve him to believe. The Statue of Liberty depicts a colossal woman with a starburst crown holding a torch to the sky. Liberty represents not a goddess, but a principle of freedom that is a central belief of the founders of the American Republic.
Halos follow money and there’s money in pop culture and advertising. In 2017, Beyoncé performed at the Grammys in a Peter Dundas gown and House of Malakai headdress that featured a halo crown. The Sun Maid logo has been used to sell raisins since 1912. It seems it’s not enough that we want instantly catchy music and quick tasty snacks, we want to believe these things have a celestial connection–the music and food of gods.
The theme of fire appears in paintings, in ceramics, in poems, on sculpture, religious and otherwise. There are allusions to fire in the costumes of performers and in ads for food. There’s a contemporary artist, Julie Brook, who asks, could the act of making a fire in a special place at a special time, be considered a work of art.
