The Symbolism Of Animal Painting

The animal images in this article have complex symbolic meanings in different countries and different religious and cultural backgrounds.In the context of Western Christian culture,snakes and cats are regarded as symbols of evil and desire.Artists often use images of snakes and cats in their work to symbolize the conspiracy behind the harmonious atmosphere.These animals are often placed in inconspicuous positions in the picture,doing actions that are out of tune with the whole picture.Lions,phoenixes,deer,etc.under the background of Chinese Buddhist culture also have special symbolic meanings.The lion symbolizes the Buddha’s subduing of all disasters;the peacock symbolizes swallowing all the five poisons and afflictions.This paper mainly focuses on the symbolic meaning of animal images in painting,and systematically expounds the symbolic meaning of animal images in Franz Marc’s works.The symbolism of animal images in Franz Marc’s works coincides with his ideological spirit to a certain extent.Franz Marc was influenced by Nietzsche’s irrationalism in thought,and his works can be roughly divided into two stages.Influenced by naturalism,his earlier works have been expressing the harmonious state of people,animals and nature in a space-time.In the natural universe,the image of animals is the interior of the original unity of life.Franz Marc believes that animals are the purest creatures,so he expresses the poetry and harmony of animals in nature on his canvas.Animals symbolize the existence of beautiful objects in nature.Only when you are liberated can you come into contact with the existence of natural life.Animals have also become spiritual symbols of his desire for purity and beauty.In the later period,the situation in Europe was turbulent,and war was imminent.From the psychology of war and his correspondence with friends,it was concluded that the war had an earth-shattering effect on him.He changed the poetry and warmth of animals under naturalism in his previous paintings,and began to express the conflict and killing of animals in his works.Animals became the symbol of his prophecies of doom and doom.By describing Franz Marc’s experience in two stages,we can draw the influence of Franz Marc’s experience on the symbolic meaning conveyed by the animal pictures in his works.Franz Marc has always tried to seek a balanced relationship between humans and animals in his works,which is essentially consistent with Agamben’s point of view in his work "Opening-Humans and Animals".Agamben sees it as the most radical opening of life.Interpreting Franz Marc’s view of observing the world with the eyes of animals from the perspective of the relationship between humans and animals,on the one hand,is helpful for human beings to re-understand the new world view between animals and humans in an open way,and on the other hand,it also reveals Franz Marc’s profound spiritual connotation.This article is to expound the symbolic meaning of animals in Franz Marc’s works through the analysis and research of Franz Marc’s personal experience,theoretical spirit and images of his works at different stages.Finally,I returned to my own creation by thinking about Franz Marc’s creation.