Starry
Night
(oil on canvas, 1889)
The
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Townscapes
Prints
of 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh are used to decorate
more bedrooms around the world than other image in the
history of art. It is one of those iconic images, like
the Mona Lisa, that have become visual clichés
due to mass reproduction and consequently deserve closer
scrutiny to rediscover their power.
In
ancient Greece the followers of Pythagoras believed in
'The Music of the Spheres'. They thought that each planet
in our solar system emitted a sound as it orbited the
sun and that together they harmonised to create a heavenly
tone.
In
Vincent Van Gogh's picture, the 'music of the spheres'
is not so harmonic. It reaches a ferocious crescendo that
resonates through the hills, trees and village. This is
a painting that depicts the colossal power of nature as
it overwhelms the scale of man.
If
you live in the city today, light pollution from commercial
and domestic lighting makes it is difficult to appreciate
the power and beauty of the night sky. On a good night
you can only make out a few of the major stars. However
in the pitch black night of the countryside, you can literally
see countless thousands of sparkling constellations. The
awesome wonder of this vision leaves you with a profound
sense of humility as you cannot help but appreciate your
own smallness.
Van
Gogh's imagination confronts the frightening power of
this infinite domain and he expresses his amazement in
the exaggerated rhythms and colours of his brushstrokes.
Although 'Starry Night' is not a 'realistic' image, there
is no more powerful nor honest depiction of the sky at
night.
Van Gogh uses a very low eye level as a compositional
device to display one of the most dramatic skies in the
history of painting. The low eye level divides this painting
into two symbolic areas:
The
Heavenly Sky - the large area above the eye level which
creates the space that is needed to display the convulsive
power of a starlit heaven.
The
Humble Town - the small area below the eye level which
compresses the town into a respectful position at the
bottom of the picture.
Van
Gogh sees this as the natural order where man is diminished
when confronted by the greater forces of nature and creation.
He
continues this comparison by echoing the shape of cypress
tree with the church spire. These symbols, one a creation
of nature - one a creation of man - stand out as they
are the only vertical elements in the picture. Both symbols
point to the heavens: the natural tree - strong, confident
and in harmony with the elements; the man-made spire -
weak, artificial and straining to reach the stars.
On
a technical level he uses the difference in size between
the tree and spire to create the illusion of spatial depth,
a visual element that is otherwise sacrificed to the power
of pattern and texture in the painting.
Key
Notes about Vincent Van Gogh
