Faust (paintings)
Encyclopedia
Nabil Kanso
Nabil Kanso is a Lebanese-American painter born in Beirut, Lebanon.His works deal with contemporary, historical and literary themes, and are marked by figurative imagery executed with spontaneous and vigorous handling of the paint and often done on large-scale formats...
. The paintings depict figural compositions in a sequence of scenes whose subjects are loosely based on Goethe
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
’s Faust Part One
Faust Part One
Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy is the first part of Goethe's Faust. It was first published in 1808.-Synopsis:The first part of Faust is not divided into acts, but is structured as a sequence of scenes in a variety of settings...
and Part Two
Faust Part Two
Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy is the second part of Goethe's Faust. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death. Because of its complexity in form and content, it is usually not read in German schools, although the first part commonly is. It can be seen as one of the most...
. In dealing with the human drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, the paintings in the series embody imagery reflecting various aspects of the entanglement of the relationship between three primary figures that may visually represent Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
, the old scholar who pledges his soul to the devil in exchange for youth and love, Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles is a demon featured in German folklore...
, the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
’s representative who provides Faust with his needs, and Margaret (Gretchen), the young woman who is "seduced and made unhappy by the evildoer."
The paintings
The Faust paintings are characterized by intense imagery rendered with a combination of dripping paint, aggressive brushstrokes, and applying several layers of black, orange, red, and yellow colors forming agitated areas around the figures. Light seems to emerge through broken and impenetrable bars that traverse from one image to another appear to intensify the space occupied by the figures and the areas of light and dark. The relationship between the figures reveals images of tensions, pathos, and sexuality. In dealing with Faust as a subject for painting, the works "make no attempt to narrate the tales that inspired them, but dive into an exploration of the emotions of the characters."The series comprises about 70 oils on canvas ranging in size from 58X48 inches (147X122cm) and 72X60 (183X152cm) to 74X128 (128X325cm), and 30 mixed mediums on paperboard measuring 30X40 inches (76X102cm) executed in three phases during a three-year period of the late 1970s. The paintings are sequentially grouped under 22 headings forming 12 sections:
- 1- Faust and the Earth Spirit: A sequence of paintings with agitated rhythm and tangled webs of black paint over layers of red and yellow colors depicting scenes of dim enclosures and various gothic settings that provide the ground for the appearance of figures representing Faust, Mephistopheles, and various characters, metamorphosisMetaphorA metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
, and symbols of the earth-spirit and macrocosm. - 2- Auerbach’s Cellar: Compositions with scenes depicting two males figures with dual characteristics reflecting Faust and Mephistopheles among revelers in a tavernAuerbachs KellerAuerbachs Keller is the best known and second oldest restaurant in Leipzig. It was described in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust I, as the first place Mephistopheles takes Faust on their travels....
and at the Witch’s Kitchen. - 3- Street : Street scenes with triangular figures representing Faust and Mephistopheles encountering Margaret.
- 4- Garden: Images of Margaret in her room before a mirror holding pieces of jewelry, and situated with other figures. Subsequent garden scenes of dancing, promenading and embracing figures, and flora of daisies alluding to Margaret’s vow of love as she plucks a daisy pulling out the petals one by one "Loves me -not- loves me."
- 5- Cave and Well: The paintings depict scenes of two figures representing Faust and Mephistopheles confronting each other in a face to face struggle and fight in a cave setting as a metaphor for an underground enclave of a hideout space. The pictures are followed by scenes of Margaret at the well bathing her limbs and surrounded by a swirl of figures, flowers, jugs, and water alluding to elements of embryologyEmbryologyEmbryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
. - 6- Evening and Night: The Evening pictures depict amorous figures in an interior. They are followed by street night scenes reflecting the killing of Margaret’s brother Valentine.
- 7- Cathedral: The paintings depict various scenes of confrontation, child birth and abandonment in compositions involving several moving and gesturing figures conveying a sense of tension and contrast between the figure representing Margaret and the various figures surrounding her with gestures of accusation and condemnation.
- 8- Walpurgis Night: large canvases depicting bacchanaliaBacchanaliaThe bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus , the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.-History:...
and orgiastic scenes reflecting the wild and festive ceremonies at the HarzHarzThe Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
mountains. The Walpurgis NightWalpurgis NightWalpurgis Night is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows' Eve.-Name:...
and Walpurgis Night Dream paintings make reference to Goethe’s poem containing the exchange between Faust, Mephistopheles and the naked witches in a scene depicting the dancing couples against a background of tree trunks forming a wide open space penetrated by a spanned-wing bird.Faust Paintings, pp. 73-75 - 9- Dungeon: The images reveal two riders storming along on black horses, and scenes of the two entering a dungeon reflecting the prison where Margaret and her child are held. Subsequent scenes show the entanglement of the trio in a variety of situations.
- 10- Dreaming of Helen: The paintings portray Helen's world in scenes that depart from the actual subject of the literary source, and veer toward mythological themes in compositions characterized by vigorously expressed imagery of turbulent figures and various metaphorMetaphorA metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s. - 11- Deep Region: various compositions depicting lovers and scenes reflecting Mephistopheles lustful and seductive encounter with the angels.
- 12- Twilight: the paintings depict scenes focusing on a fallen, despairing, and dying figure. Darkness and Light is the title of a large canvas measuring 168X249cm depicting a death scene in which four female figures surround a dying male figure with one hand raised upwards toward a moon floating around a series of whirling circular forms holding within dark contours several recurring faces metaphorically representing those of Margaret.