I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality,<\/em> if one may so speak\u2026Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n What follows will be an examination of the qualities of light in surrealistic painting, in relation to the light used by the artist. Looking at works by Giorgio de Chirico and Remedios Varo, I will show the connection between light in surrealist art and the astrological houses, and shall argue that to understand light from an astrological perspective deepens our sense of what the painting conveys psychically, magically, and emotionally.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\nAriadne,\u00a0Giorgio de Chirico, 1913,\u00a0\u00a0Oil and graphite on canvas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDiscomfort, Suspicion, Dream: the Light of the 8th House\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen the Sun is in the 8th House, approximately two hours before sunset, the world is cast in slanting light, distorting windows and buildings, throwing long and strange shadows out from under us. Giorgio de Chirico\u2019s paintings are the quintessential representation of this time of day, with the interplay of light and dark, long shadows casting their own geometrical interventions into the composition.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s even more emblematic of the 8th House in these paintings, though, is the quality of the light and the mood it creates in his paintings. Loneliness, a sense of isolation or abandonment, qualities of a dream that might soon slip into a nightmare, unnamed villains peeking out from around porticos\u2014these are all feelings we experience when looking at his Italian squares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Chirico\u2019s painting Ariadne<\/em> (1913) is a wonderful example of this, and the reference to the myth of Ariadne, a woman trapped in the minotaur\u2019s labyrinth, is also related to the 8th House, which relates us to themes of entrapment, overwhelming trauma, and threats of violence.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\nIf the astrological 8th House governs the tragic, taboo areas of life, then its compatriot is the astrological 12th House, which acts as a haunted catch-all for experiences of escapism and dissolution, the ineffable, a sort of Dionysian portal into dream and death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The light while the Sun is in the 12th House glows gently, as the Sun is at this point over the horizon, slowly illuminating the day after a dark night. This is a moment of liminality, Sun not fully illuminating the world, but casting a soft and gentle light over the world.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\nItalian Square, Giorgio de Chirico, 1915, oil on canvas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn de Chirico\u2019s paintings, there is a sense of whimsy and sadness, an echoing suggestion that the scene depicted is of some intermittent stop along the road to the afterlife. Small figures may present themselves on the edge of a composition, as in Italian Square <\/em>(1915), but they are out of reach, whispering to one another, ignoring us, the spectator. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHis work Melancholy and Mystery of a Street<\/em> (1914) too seems like an excerpted image from a dream, as we seem to view a city street from an elevated, floating vantage point, as a young girl in shadow runs with a wicker hoop. Around the corner of a building looms the shadow of a man, perhaps threatening to the young girl, ominous in character. The white building on the left-hand side of the painting is dotted with identical porticos and windows, suggesting that they extend into eternity, like a building in a dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\nMelancholy and Mystery of a Street, de Chirico, 1914, oil on canvas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe light in both of these paintings, as well as many others of de Chirico\u2019s square series, seems to hover somewhere between dawn and darkness. The light, the loneliness, and the expanding yet desolate environments are reminiscent of the echoing and strange world of the astrological 12th House, where one can find themselves confined to experiences of illness, escapism through drugs or other dissociative states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his \u201cManifesto,\u201d Breton writes, \u201cApollinaire asserted that Chirico’s first paintings were done under the influence of cenesthesic disorders (migraines, colics, etc.),\u201d a fleeting but fitting connection to the realm of art that emanates from the 12th House.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transmissions from the Womb: the Light of the 4th House\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe astrological 12th and 8th Houses are indeed places of surreality, taboo, and dream, but they hover together above the horizon line. They are complemented by a third house below the horizon line, the 4th House of the astrological chart. Here, there is no light, the Sun has set and we are in the small hours after midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 4th House in astrology is associated with themes of feminine generation, the womb, connections to the mother, our ancestry, places we emanate from. It is the \u201clowest\u201d part of the natal chart (though it is the most northern), and here we find connections to rooted, creative, and deeply intuitive themes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remedios Varo<\/a>\u2019s paintings can be identified as art which emanates from the 4th House. Unlike the scenes depicted by de Chirico, Varo\u2019s work almost always takes place in a dark environment, places where there is no visible light in the sky. The Moon and stars are more readily featured in these compositions, even becoming characters in these lyrical scenes. <\/p>\n\n\n\nVaro\u2019s Papila Estelar<\/em> (1958) seems to take place in the depth of fantasy or dream, a woman feeding a small Moon in the dark of night. Her painting Troubadour <\/em>too shows figures moving through a dark enchanted wood, a fertile space seemingly underground, or in the dark of night, filled with fairytale creatures\u2014all reminiscent of the energies of the 4th House. <\/p>\n\n\n\nPapila Estelar, Remedios Varo, 1958, oil on canvas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTroubadour, Remedios Varo, 1959, oil on masonite. \u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLooking at a vast array of any work by Varo shows a preponderance of nighttime or subterranean landscapes, which is part of the reason why her work is so deeply evocative of surrealistic dream narratives. Looking to her natal chart, too, we see that her natal Mercury and Sun sit in Sagittarius in House 4! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her Mercury is eminent, as it is the ruler of her midheaven, ascendant, and North Node. It\u2019s also the dispositor of her natal Venus and Jupiter, benefics focused on the cultivation of art and pleasure. The deeply feminine themes of Varo\u2019s works also help us categorize them as belonging to the 4th House, the place of ancestral secrets.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSpanish Physician, Max Ernst, 1940, oil on canvas.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Though this essay has focused on the work of two painters, my intention has been to draw attention to the use of light to convey a particular mood in paintings, in turn connecting this light to that of the astrological houses associated with dream, taboo, surreality, and escape. The present theory can be applied to any work of art one comes across which seems to prominently showcase light with deliberateness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed some works of surrealism seem to take place in broad daylight. Consider Max Ernst\u2019s The Spanish Physician<\/em>. A wildly fantastical image of a horse and two figures, as though dripping with blood, feather, and muscle, in the stark light of day\u2014the astrological 10th House, where there is no shadow at all. The Sun reaches this house each day at noon. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThis complement to House 4, which is to say, its opposite, represents one\u2019s public image, dayworld aspirations, and career. Part of the shocking quality of Ernst\u2019s composition is that this image pulled from the realm of dark dream is playing out in the daylight world. All this creates that strange, otherworldly effect, taking it out of reality, even if the light says otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What makes surrealist works so deeply intriguing and (dare we say) sexy? It’s all in the lighting. Our resident astrologer Cristina Farella of Eighth House Astrology digs into the light and shadow of paintings by Giorgio de Chirico and Remedios Varo, two surrealists known for their haunting works. If you take a walk before sunset, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":37459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}