(piano playing) Steven: We're in Munich
at the Neue Pinakothek, and we're looking at the work of
a Belgian artist, Fernand Khnopff. Beth: The title of the painting
is, "I Lock My Door Upon Myself," from a poem by Christina Rossetti, called "Who Shall Deliver Me?" Steven: I'm always
interested by the visual arts when they have corollary
in literature or in music. The way in which artists try
to create a kind of alliance between the openness of words, and
the way in which we can visualize in our imagination. But, how can that then be treated
in something that we can see? Beth: I think it's real
conundrum that painters, since the renaissance,
have tried to deal with, including artists like Botticelli. The stanza in the poem that
this is from goes like this: "I lock my door upon myself, "And bar them out; but who shall wall "Self from myself, most loathed of all?" This is, in some ways, a religious poem about inner struggle and
the way that God can, in the end, provide salvation. But, to me, this idea of inner
struggle and inner turmoil is very much the subject of
so many symbolist paintings, this inner life. Steven: And so, we have this image that is very narrow in its tonality,
so that there is not much distinction between, for instance, these
beautiful flowers, these lilies in the foreground that
space across this frieze almost creating a kind
of rhythm that speaks to the rhythm of poetry. Beth: Or, reminding me
of a medieval painting, like a triptych in its
[tri par tight] division, and the woman in the front who spans
two of those parts of the painting. Steven: That woman is
not enacting anything in an obvious sense. There is no theatrical gesture. She is quiet and contemplative, but in a way that allows for
the ideas of the painting to, in a sense, be embodied by her. Beth: Khnopff was inspired
by the Pre-Raphaelites, who painted about 40 years before him. Steven: So, the symboists
are creating meaning by association, by feeling, and by symbol, as opposed to by an explicit narrative. Beth: I would say symbols
that aren't very specific, but also open to interpretation. Steven: For instance,
probably most evident is the sculptural head that's
on the shelf in the background. We know that it's Hypos, the God of Sleep. Beth: The brother of
Thanatos, the God of Death. Steven: Which seems to
be completely in keeping with the mood of this painting. Beth: It does. Doesnt it? We have, on the right side, an
image of a medieval townscape with a lone figure in it. Steven: That figure, seems to me, to be a contemplative, isolated figure, the way that we might think
about [Fredricks Monks] earlier in this century. Beth: Then, on the left
side, we see a door, but we can't really see the
space that it opens into, and next to that, perhaps a mirror. Then, beside that, a
decorative floral pattern. We have the lilies that
are in the foreground. We have a lot of things that don't add up to a traditional narrative. Steven: Right. When we
expect to see lilies, we tend to see white ones, and
it speaks to Mary's virginity. These are not only orange
lilies, but they're also dried. They've withered. There is something terribly
melancholy about them. Beth: The female figure also
looks off into the distance in a way that we can't read
what she's feeling very clearly. Steven: As if that's not enough ambiguity, there are other elements in
here that are just tantalizing. Note the very fine chain that hangs down, an unseen place in the
middle of the canvas. There seems to be a little
crown that hangs from it. Then, just to the right
of that, in a rectangle, we can just make out what
seem to be two circles, and what might be a face in the center. Beth: Then, the figure rests on a table that is reminiscent of an alter. On it, is a black cloth
and a spear, or an arrow. What do all of these mean? If we look for explanation in the
poem, we're not going to find it there. We're not going to find
a meaning anywhere. This is really about evoking
a mood, or a feeling. One way to think about that
is that the impressionists, who came just before the symbolists, took the objective world
and saw it through the lens of individual temperament. But, in symbolism, we a
inner world made objective, made manifest, on the canvas. Steven: In a sense, the interior
subjective self made universal as it's brought into the visual realm. Beth: We think about the title, "I Lock My Door Upon Myself," this focusing on the interior
life, it brings us inside ourselves to find our own meaning
and interpretation. (piano playing)