Symbolism

I appreciate artwork with a little bit of symbolism. Especially in still life. Everything the artist selects to include is meticulous and carefully chosen - from the flowers, to musical instruments, to birds. Not to mention color. And while too much symbolism and iconography can lead to an allegory painting that absolutely no one understands, like, say, Boticelli's Primavera, or Allegory of Love.

what????

Yes that's a a green guy coming out of a tree and grabbing a terrified looking chick. It's supposed to be wind raping a nymph. Even with the explanation, it still doesn't make sense. Allegorical paintings are like symbolism on steroids. And they're so jacked up they only make sense to the people they're painted for. That's right, sometimes even the painters had no idea what they were painting.

So, clearly, even great artists can over symbolize their point. And suddenly they have something ridiculous. It's gotta be minimal, and effective. And most importantly, the viewer has to have some kind of idea of what is going on, and at least what is symbolically significant, if not aware of what the symbology represents. 

much better!

Simple, but effective. I was originally drawn to this piece because of its COLOR and TEXTURE. Two things that are really important not to mention striking to me as an artist and scholar of art (what up double major!) and then I started looking around at what's in the painting. You've got a clarinet, a stork, and a hippy woman. Could she be pregnant? Or is it a coincidence in the style of her dress? Well then we have the fact that her gaze is looking downward toward her stomach. Of course, I stumbled on the image alone, no artist name, no title, no nothing. So I can't really research what the significance of the clarinet is. But, hey, it's pretty tropical in setting and in color, and the symbology is successful in leading the viewer's eyes throughout the painting.