Picasso's "Guernica".

A Matter of Metaphor
Author(s): Rachel Wischnitzer
Source: Artibus et Historiae , 1985, Vol. 6, No. 12 (1985), pp. 153-172
Published by: IRSA s.c.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483241

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RACHEL WISCHNITZER

Picasso's Guernica.
A Matter of Metaphor

Picasso never explained his metaphors. When, however,
after the Liberation of Paris (August 25, 1944), Pfc. Jerome
Seckler requested an interview, Picasso graciously complied.'
The questions were about the Still-Life with a Bull's Head
(1 938), exhibited at the Salon D'Automne, 1944, the Liberation
Salon.2 Shown with a book, a palette and a candle, symbols
of culture and freedom, the bull seemed to the young American
to represent Fascism. Picasso denied having had Fascism in
mind. As the conversation turned to Guernica 1937 (then in
New York at the Museum of Modern Art), Picasso admitted
that the bull represented the dark forces, while the horse
stood for the Spanish people [Fig. 1].
Nobody believed Picasso's interpretation of the meaning
of the bull. Timothy Hilton commented: ((One feels wary of
believing him.) 3 Mary Gedo remarked: (<Frank identification
of the beast as an instrument of brutality and darkness was
puzzling to his audience.) Her own interpretation was ambigu-
ous: <(We humans are all like that: we destroy what is most

The author gratefully acknowledges Prof. Leo Steinberg's sugges-
tions and encouragement, and is also much indebted to Dr. Rochelle
Weinstein for help in research and editing.
1 ((Entretiens avec Picasso par Jerome Seckler), Fraternit6, 4, p.
56, (September 20, 1945): <lnterviews with Jerome Seckler, 1945),
D. Ashton, ed., Picasso on Art, New York, 1972, pp. 133-142. The
interviews took place on November 18, 1944, and January 6, 1945.
A copy of Seckler's typescript is in the Archives of the Museum of
Modern Art, New York.
2 Still Life with Black Bull's Head, November 19, 1938. Oil and
enamel on canvas, 381/4 x 511/4". First version, Valdemar Ebbesen
Collection, Oslo. Second version, Still Life with Red Bull's Head,
November 26, 1938. Oil and enamel on canvas, 37-3/4 x 51", Z IX,
39, William A. M. Burden Collection, New York. Both reproduced in
Picasso. 75th Anniversary Exhibition Catalogue, A. Barr, ed., Museum
of Modern Art, New York, 1957, p. 81. The Black Head version was
exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, 1944, (A. Barr Jr., Picasso Fifty
Years of his Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1966, 1st ed.
1946, p. 217 with Fig.). Seckler referred to the ((powerful glow of the
lamp) (actually a candle), a feature of this version. I am indebted to
Janette B. Rozene, Reference Librarian, Museum of Modern Art, for
help in research for the identification of the Still Life referred to in
Seckler's interview with Picasso.
3 T. Hilton, Picasso, New York 1975, p. 241.

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sacred to us.)) 4 Reinhold Hohl dismissed the whole problem
altogether. ((The women are the real victims of Guernica. Horse
and bull are myths. They are what they are; they act according
to their nature, and bear symbolically their fate.))5 Rudolf
Arnheim, on the other hand, conceived the bull as the ((kingly
beast and the victims as dependent upon him for their earthly
salvation.)) 6 There was, moreover, disagreement in the interpre-
tation of the posture of the woman on the lower right. She
was seen as running, ((rushing)) to the extreme left, 7 i.e., to
the bull, while other commentators pointed out her swollen
right leg and her strenuous effort to get up. 8 Only a few noted
her glance directed to the kerosene lamp set on the central
axis of the painting.9 The auxiliary line, reinforced by a stream
of light which guides the eyes of the woman to the top of
the lamp, received no attention.
The assumption of the protective attitude of the bull toward
the mother with the dead child was based on the questionable
evidence of the proximity of the figure.
Picasso had devoted to the mother-child motif a considerable
number of studies. Mary Gedo10 had recovered in her
psychoanalytical study the background of the design which
shows the baby emerging from the mother's body in the
process of birth. Gedo traced the image to a childhood memory
superimposed by a more recent emotional shock in Picasso's
life. In the final state [Fig. 1] the mother - her figure curtailed,
there was no room for her legs - holds the fully-dressed dead
baby on a neatly striped coverlet. Her head thrown back, the
mouth gaping, she is hardly aware of the bull. As to the bull
- his eyes out of focus, dilated nostrils, tongue showing - his
face reflects mental distress. Exiting in a U-turn movement,
he is not in the position to notice the woman.
In order to understand the bull, his moods climaxing in the
departure from the scene, we must follow up his appearances
from the first drawing of May 1 to the final definitive version
4 M. Mathews Gedo, ((Art as Autobiography: Picasso's Guernica)>,
Art Quarterly (Spring, 1979), p. 208.
5 R. Hohl, ((Die Wahrheit uber Guernica)), Pantheon, 36, Jan. 1978,
pp. 41-58.
6 R. Arnheim, See also E. B. Cantelupe, ((Picasso: Guernica)), Art
Journal, 31/1 (Fall, 1971), p. 21.
7 R. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 23: ((All eyes on the bull)), ibid., p. 27:
((Running woman), M. Ries, ((Picasso and the Myth of the Minotaur)),
Art Journal, 32/2 (Winter, 1972/73), p. 144: ((rushing), ((looking in
adoration at the bull)).
8 S. Boeck and J. Sabartes, Picasso, New York, 1955, p. 225:
((crawling)), W. Proweller, ((Guernica, a study in Visual Metaphor)), Art
Journal, 30/3 (Spring, 1971), p. 241: ((stumbling up)); W. Darr, ((lmages
154
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of the painting.
In the first sketch of May 1, 1937, the bull appears saddled
and bridled with a little winged horse - Pegasus - crouching
on his back [Fig. 2]. The horse at his side rests, his legs tucked
under his body. The scene has never been explained. The
bull's bridle calls to mind the myth of Bellerophon who throws
a golden bridle over Pegasus, taming the swift horse.1' Pegasus
resting on the bull's image. This bull is not meant to be the
aggressor of the bullfight, nor the monster killer of The Dream
and Lie of Franco. This bull is tamed.
In a study of May 2, the bull faces calmly left while the
horse, wounded - a victim of the bombing - tries to get
leaning his neck on the bull's flank in a trustful gesture
[Fig. 3]. Pegasus emerging from the horse's wound shown in
this drawing calls to mind the myth of Pegasus springing
full-grown from Medusa's blood. Pegasus seated on the bull
is a metaphor of the tamed bull. Pegasus springing out from
the horse's wound is a metaphor of the recovering wounded
horse. William Darr's interpretation of Pegasus and the wound
as sex symbols12 underpins my interpretation of the recovering
friendly horse. Herschel Chipp rejected the interpretation of
the little springing horse as Pegasus without offering an
explanation for its presence. He sees the scene as (<the wounded
bull towering over the dying horse who writhes on the ground
with neck upstretched.) 13 There is no evidence that the bull
is wounded. The scene is entirely misunderstood. In their
further appearances, the bull and the horse must be understood
with their metaphoric changes in mind.
In another study of May 2 for Guernica the horse has
slumped down; the soldier, prostrate on the ground, clasps
his weapon. The bull is leaping, jumping, his face serious,
preoccupied [Fig. 4].
In the study of May 8, the horse, raised on his forelegs,
is choking; the soldier, prostrate as before. The mother with
of Eros and Thanatos in Picasso's Guernica), Art Journal, 24/2, Winter
1964/65, pp. 106-112: ((implunging)).
9 A. H. Barr, op.cit., p. 200: ((Woman rushing toward the center
of the picture)). R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47: ((fervently looking toward the
center of the picture)). R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47: ((fervently looking toward
the lamp)), i.e. toward the center.
10 M. M. Gedo, op.cit., p. 201.
11 R. Graves, The Greek Myths, Baltimore, 1955, 2 vols., I, 75, b, c.
12 For birth of Pegasus, see ibid., 1, 73, h, and W. Darr, op.cit.,
p. 345.
13 H. B. Chipp, ((Guernica: Love, War, and the Bullfight)), Art Journal,
25/4, 1966, pp. 338-346.
 1) ((Guernica)), Final, 1937, Canvas, Madrid, Prado. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

the baby appears on the right. The bull at the extreme left, The New Woman
facing left, is frowning, looking gloomy [Fig. 5].
In the composition study of May 9, the stage is more
clearly defined with a doorway on the left and the fire of the
exploding bomb at the extreme right.
Long arms with clenched hands rise from the ground. There Starting to work on May 11 on what was the first
are more bodies scattered on the ground. The horse's neck of the mural on canvas, Picasso carried out some import
is twisted in convulsion. The mother with the baby is on the changes in the conception of the painting. He replace
right. The bull is taken closer to the center into the orbit of
grieving mother on the right by a woman looking ferv
the burning lamp brought by the woman in the window. The up to the lamp, her glance guided by an auxiliary line t
flame crackles furiously. top of the lamp, while another line drawn from the lamp
The bull in the middle of the clamor and turmoil broods: vertically to the ground - emphasizing the centrality of
eyes staring, nostrils dilated, the mouth firmly shut [Fig.kerosene
6]. lamp [Fig. 7].
With this dramatic climax reached on May 9, the work The is mother with the baby, now greatly reduced in size
not resumed until May 11. and importance, is on the left.

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 ...:- f
4: .\
i
f ,\

1 " - '~.-~.--.; t.\a

~~~~~"~ "~ ! <~ X~~~~~
f
i?~1
.. .. Ho )1
1- u
,,~~~~~> 1 fX
* _--

2) 3) ((Bull,
((Horse, Horse, and Pegasus)). Study May
Bull, 2, 1937, Madrid,
and
Prado. Photo: Prado. Prado. Photo: Prado.

The Militant Soldier plant as flowers 16 showed how little the climate of the
Civil War was understood.
At about that time, later in May, 1937, Picasso made a
statement which reached the Exhibition of Spanish Posters in
We are still at the first state on canvas. The soldier, New York in July. It was intended to counteract rumors that
suddently alive, raises his right arm - a strong muscular he was pro-Franco.
arm
with a clenched fist, a Communist salute.14 The bull, who in Picasso declared: ((The Spanish struggle is the fight of
the study of May 9 [Fig. 6] was apprehensively brooding, reaction against the people, against freedom)). He blamed the
disturbed by the clamor and turmoil, turns to the left, away ((military caste)) which ((has sunk Spain into an ocean of pain
from it all, infuriated, eyes staring, chin protruding [Fig. 7]. and death.)> 17 The Soviet emblem was removed obviously for
Meanwhile, the right part of the painting is being built up; a reasons of expediency.
woman with her arms outstretched is falling into the flames The work on the right side was continued in the second
blazing up here and there. state [Fig. 8]. The swollen leg of the victim on the lower right
In the second state of the mural on canvas [Fig. 8] the was extended into the space of the lower extreme right at
soldier's upraised hand clutches a bunch of ears of corn the expense of the woman falling into the flames. Her figure
enframed by a huge sun. The plant was readily identified. would now dominate the right side of the mural.
Hilton observed that (the salute with the blazoned militancy In the third state [Fig. 9] all that is left of the partisan
must not be ignored.)) 15 symbol is the flattened, shrunken sun. We record two little
The ears of corn evoke the reaping hook, the sickle, a noticeable signals; a thin line crossing the neck of the soldier
device of the Soviet emblem. Arnheim's interpretation of the who again lies prostrate on the ground. The other new feature

14 A. Blunt, Picasso's Guernica, New York, 1969, p. 40f. 17 For ((Picasso's Statement of July, 1937>), Ashton (as in Note 1),
15 T. Hilton, op.cit., p. 242. pp. 143-144f.
16 R. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 120. W. Darr, op.cit., p. 345.

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 5) <Study)), May 8, 1937, Madrid, Prado. Photo: Prado.

4) ((Study)>, May 2, 1937, Madrid, Prado. Photo: Prado.

on his ear. He leaves in a state of total disarray. Blunt attribut

is a slightly sketched-in, jagged, five-pronged object at the
back of the head of the woman in the window. As we hope
to demonstrate, it is an ((object capable of providing a surprise
solution)) - to use a Surrealist definition.18
his departure to fear of the woman holding the lamp.20
In the fifth state the sign behind the head in the window
becomes clearer und more elaborate [Fig. 11].
The Soldier Again

The head of the soldier marked by a line across his neck

The Rising Horse
In the fourth state [Fig. 10] the horse who had been twisting
his neck in convulsion, rises on his sprawled, staggering four
legs. His head is turned to the left, but his body occupies the
becomes a bust in the seventh state [Fig. 12], the last before
the final. As Arnheim has remarked, ((the statue evokes a work
of art which portays the soldier not as an individual fightin
man, but in a broader sense, as a monument of an historical
event.>) 21

center under the kerosene lamp. In Picasso's statement With the mouth wide open, the eyes out of focus, teeth
(Seckler: Interviews, 1944), the horse represents the Spanish showing, the bust seems to speak. The only male figure in
people.19 the scene, the dead warrior, has become the spokesman of
the victims, the tribune of the people. His ((dialogue with the
world,?> to use William Rubin's expression, will tell the story
The Bull of Guernica.22
We have drawn attention to the new spirit of the victims
On the upper left, the bull leaves in a U-turn movement, - the new woman on the right looking up fervently to the
his tail swinging, his eyes out of focus, nostrils dilated, tongue
light of the kerosene lamp, the rising horse, and now the
showing, deafened - if that is the meaning of the black patch soldier, revived and speaking.

18 S. Alexandrian, Surrealist Art, New York, 1970, p. 141. 21 A. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 94, 102.
19 Ashton (as in Note 1), p. 136. 22 W. S. Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of the Museum of Modern
20 A. Blunt, op.cit., p. 42. Art, New York, 1972, p. 280.

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 irI

6) ((Study)>, May 9, 1937, Madrid, Prado. Photo: Prado.

The bull does not share the exhilaration of the victims. His 12]. The politically charged word ((engaged)> calls to mind th
disconfort, his anger, his sudden departure sets him apart; reaction of the Great Powers to the Spanish Civil War. Franc
and yet he is part of the traditional scenery of Spanish life. Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia had agreed on
In a state of elation, Picasso liked to identify himself with the
Non-Intervention. The war started in July, 1936. The first
bull in the image of the legendary Minotaur with his human meeting of the Great Powers took place in London, September
feelings and animal urges. 9, 1936.24 Germany and Italy were already deeply involved
In order to understand the bull's alienation, we must decode
in the war. France had closed her borders to Spain for exports
the few metaphors left obscure: the kerosene lamp and its of war material in August, 1936.25 Russia helped in many
carrier in the window, the object set behind the head in the ways.26
window and the electric bulb in the shrunken sun. Carla Gottlieb understood the metaphor of the electric bulb
Rudolf Arnheim has interpreted the flattened sun with the interpreted by Arnheim as a (<symbol of detached awareness>)
electric bulb as (a world informed, but not engaged)> 23 [Fig.
- to use another of his Delphic definitions - as alluding to the

23 R. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 20. 25 Ibid., p. 152.

24 1. Werstein, The Cruel Years: The Story of the Spanish Civil 26 Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 21, 1966, s.v., Spain, mentions
War, New York 1969, p. 133, 154. a first payment made by the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.

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I . -
I r r I II I se -r " --- -
~-~P;~S.+L --~~ -i''' w-.-=- -- ~- -
?r,~ ~~~~~~.- r

7) First State, May 11, 1937, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

neutral Nations.27 She further felt that the realities of the
political situation called for the inclusion of Russia in the
program of the mural. In her article, ((The Meaning of Bull and
Horse in Guernica,)) she interpreted the woman on the lower
right as representing Russia, identifying the woman's ((breast
ornaments)) as the Soviet emblems, hammer and sickle.28
What she sees as (ornaments) are stylized nipples of the
woman. She is a victim, a survivor of the bombing, handicapped
by a swollen knee. There is, however, formal evidence for the
presence of Russia in the imagery of Guernica. It is provided
by the contrast between the electric bulb and the kerosene
lamp. The bulb in the shrunken sun alludes to the uncommitted,
industrial Powers, France and England, as shown by Gottlieb;
the kerosene lamp stands for the backward economy of Soviet
Russia. Russia did lend assistance to the Spanish Republican
Government. The carrier of the kerosene lamp, the head in

27 C. Gottlieb, ((The Meaning of the Bull and Horse in Guernica)), already in ((Rudolf Arnheim: Picasso's Guernica,)) Art Journal, 23/3
Art Journal, 24/2, Winter, 1964/65, pp. 110-111. (Spring, 1964), p. 268.
28 Ibid., p. 111. Gottlieb mentions the Soviet emblems in passing

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 8) Second State, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

assistance. The Soviets sent rifles and riflemen, machine guns

the window, represents Russia. Flying in on a wing - the flight
suggested by the extended back of the head - coming from and gunners, tanks and tank drivers, airplanes and pilots. The
a distance - the head personifies the foreign country. Internationals, who were trained by Russian instructors at
The question may arise as to why Picasso chose as the Albacete - midway between Madrid and Valencia - had been
(engaged one> Russia and not Mexico, for example - the only organized into brigades on their arrival in Paris.30 One of the
nation in Latin America to side with the Spanish Loyalists.29 organizers was, by the way, Joseph Broz, later known as
Or, why did Picasso not include some symbol to allude to the Marshal Tito.31
International Brigades which valiantly fought for the Spanish Picasso was kept informed on these activities by Paul
Republic? The answer is in the visibility of the Russian Eluard, poet, Communist, correspondent of L'Humanit6, who

29 I. Werstein, op.cit., p. 138. 30 Ibid., pp. 162-163.

31 Ibid., p. 160.

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 9) Third State, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

came to Picasso sometime in 1936 as an admirer, and became
his close associate and his mentor in political matters.32
I have mentioned the grotesque extension of the head in
the window, which had impressed even Salvador Dali.33 In
the study of May 2 [Fig. 3], the head, identified as a woman's
by female breasts in its back, flies in on a five-pronged wing
or sail. In the subsequent stages the sail disappears, but the
breasts are still recognizable up to the third state on canvas
when they are replaced by a slightly sketched-in five-pronged
object [Fig. 9]. We have referred to this object as (capable of

32 P. Daix, Picasso, New York 1962, p. 157 and passim, follows
up Paul Eluard's presence and friendship in Picasso's life from around
the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 up to Eluard's death
in 1952. See also: J. P. Crespelle, Picasso and his Women, New York,
1969, p. 144 and passim.
33 See Salvador Dali, Sleep, 1937, Edward James Collection. The
painting, representing a greatly magnified head supported on rods in
a landscape, is a close version of the head in the window in Guernica
with its grotesque extension in the back. Reproduced in S. Alexandrian,
op.cit., Fig. 101. Dali evidently had seen Guernica at the Universal
Exhibition in Paris of that year.

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 10) Fourth State, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

providing a surprise solution.> 34 It evokes the five-pointed
star of the USSR. The star identifies the woman holding the
lamp as Russia.
In discussing Picasso's method of changing the representa-
tion of figures or objects, Pierre Daix indicates a device of
((different arrangement.)) 35 A woman is recognizable in spite
of a different arrangement of her body; similarly, a five-pointed
star is recognizable in the irregular five-pronged object.
In the fifth state on canvas [Fig. 11] five faintly designed
fingernails appear on the five prongs, evidently to make sure
that the number five calling to mind the five-pointed Soviet
star will not be missed. Two crescents were added.
The crescents stand for the sickle and the hammer; the
sickle on the left, the hammer on the right, both represented
by the heads without the handles. Grooves on the crescents
indicate the points where the handle of the hammer would
cross the sickle if the design were completed.
The sign becomes more marked in the seventh [Fig. 12],

34 S. Alexandrian, op.cit., p. 141. 35 P. Daix, op.cit., p. 135.

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 mi.'f ? . o m-.-...g ~ ,/P X*? * .;*-as':** .,
* : -" ' " -..l _ C S v -*''"

11) Fifth State, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

the last state before the final. The Soviet symbols were never does not explain the crescents.
noticed, except most recently by Reinhold Hohl who became Most convincing, however, is Hohl's discovery of the model
aware of the enigmatic configuration. Hohl explains the tiny for the huge arm carrying the lamp in Guernica, in Bronzino's
five-pronged object as the second hand of the head in the allegory: Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, c. 1546 [Fig. 13].37 In
window, the first being the hand with the huge arm carrying Bronzino's painting Time lifts the curtain with the majestic
the lamp,36 a very implausible interpretation; all the more as movement of his powerful, muscular arm. Truth, the figure on
hands in Guernica - and there are quite many - have thick, the upper left, helps holding up some folds of the drape. The
fleshy fingers. If the object were meant to represent a hand, central figures are Venus with Cupid on the left and Deceit
what was the purpose of distorting and camouflaging it? Hohl (rather than Folly) on the right. Two masks are on the ground

36 R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47. 37 Ibid., p. 50.

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 12) Seventh State, Canvas. Photo: Cahiers d'Art, Paris.

on the right.38 was the subject of Guernica, that Picasso spontaneously

Picasso must have seen the Bronzino painting in the National reacted to the allegation of the Nationalists that the Basque
Gallery during his visit to London in 1919.39 <<extremists>> had burned Guernica themselves. The protest
Hohl interprets the head in the window in Guernica as an and denial of the Basque headquarters in Bilbao, and their
allegory of truth.40 This interpretation was not new.41 Hohl demand for an international fact-finding Commission appeared
believed that the revelation of truth, the disclosure of deceit in Le Temps on May 1, 1937. The outrage over the incredible

38 For discussion of Bronzino's paintings, see E. Panofsky, Studies Fluegel. Published on the occasion of the Exhibition Pablo Picasso: A
in Iconology, New York, 1962, pp. 86-91 and Fig. 66. Only one hand Retrospective, May 22 - September 16, 1980, New York, Museum of
is visible on photos. Modern Art, New York, 1980, p. 199.
39 M. Raynal, Picasso, Genova, 1969, p. 11. Picasso stayed in 40 R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47.
London in 1919, from early May, 3 months with Olga. See: Pablo 41 H. Ried, <<Picasso's Guernica,)) London Bullettin, No. 6, October,
Picasso: A Retrospective. William Rubin, ed. Chronology by Jane 1938, p. 6.

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claim of the Nationalists would have made Picasso start That is how Picasso wanted to see and present the situation.
working that very day.42 It was hopeless. Franco was winning the war with his
The decisive shock for Picasso, however, seems to have Moorish troops and Legionnaires from Morocco.47 The Popular
been the sight of a photograph from Guernica in L'Humanit6 Front was breaking up, undermined by the feuds between the
of April 28, 1937. It showed a dead woman's head lying in Communists and the Anarchists.48 Picasso had blamed the
the street, the face turned upward. Herschel Chipp recognized (<military caste) for plunging the country into an <ocean of
this head in Picasso's study for Guernica of May 2, where the pain and death.))49 Atrocities, however, were committed on
woman's head had become the helmeted head of the soldier both sides, by the Nationalists 50 and the Loyalists.51
[Fig. 3].43 In his attitude toward the country of his birth - Picasso
It may be remembered that Picasso had started on January had lived in France for over thirty years - was an element of
8, 1937, his etching suite of The Dream and Lie of Franco, the guilt of the expatriate. The Civil War in Spain had confronted
reproductions of which were to be sold for Spanish refugee Picasso with political problems he had always avoided. Under
relief. The etchings, finished on June 7, 1937, were prefaced the influence of his friends - Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, and
by Picasso's poem in the stream-of-consciousness style, a other Communists with whom he came in touch in connection
sort of magical execration text.44 Picasso had been working with the Spanish relief work - he idealized Russia, seeing it
on these etchings while he was painting Guernica. Just another as the only true friend of his country.
lie of Franco's could hardly have aroused Picasso to devote The tension between the head flying in from abroad
another work on the subject.45 If Truth were the subject of symbolizing Russia and the bull reached its climax in the final
Guernica, we would have expected a figure to represent Deceit, act. They represent two opposite competing forces. The
Calumny, as suggested by Bronzino's allegory. There is no meaning of the bull is still an enigma, however. For Juan
evidence of a symbol implying Deceit in Guernica. Larrea, the bull is the eternal totem of Spain.52 For Vincente
Reverting to the metaphor of the electric bulb juxtaposed Marrero, the bull signifies cruelty, i.e. Fascism.53 Wilhelm Boek
to the kerosene lamp, we bring to mind Arnheim's interpretation sees the bull as the continuation of the Spanish Nation, a
of the electric light as ((a world informed but non engaged,)) symbol of hope for survival.54 Gottlieb has tentatively suggested
and as ((coldness of an inefficient power.>) 46 The cold electric that the bull's ambiguity reflects the wavering policy of
light is contrasted with the warm light of the kerosene lamp. France.55 Hilton, after having examined the stages of the
Truth does not elicit the sensation of warmth. Truth is developmente of Guernica, could only say: (<Guernica is a vague
stern and must be fought for. The holder of the kerosene lamp
painting. Nobody knows what is going on in it. The vagueness
stands, therefore, for the friendly foreign power whichisisiconographic: there is no possible reading for the bull, the
lending assistance, rather than for cold truth. dor'inant figure, because it is always possible that the bull
Picasso does not refer to the Fascists, the Nazis, or to might stand for something else. But it is also pictorial: why
Franco at all. Guernica is concerned only with the situation in should we have to decide whether the light in this barn is
the Loyalist camp. France and England keep neutrality, Russia electric or supernatural?) 56 The boutade about the electric
lends support, the survivors express hope and confidence. light shows that Hilton did not pay attention to, or did not

42 R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47. 52 J. Larrea, op.cit., p. 36. Juan Larrea had difficultly in reconciling
43 H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 100 and Fig. 3. Also p. 108 and Fig. 32. Picasso's attitude toward the horse in its relation to the bull. In works
44 J. Larrea, Guernica, Pablo Picasso, New York, 1969, pp. 34-42, previous to The Dream and Lie Of Franco, the horse seemed to stand
Figs. 22-25, including Picasso's preface (autograph) and tr. for the woman, and the bull for the artist himself (p. 36). In The Dream
45 On the claims of the nationalists that Guernica was burnt by and the Lie the horse appeared to represent the Nationalists (p. 34).
its own people, and recollections of survivors of the bombing, see G. Since the bull remained to Larrea in all confrontations the symbol of
Thomas and M. Morgan Witts, Guernica, New York, 1975. the people, the totem of Spain, the horse in Guernica became to him
46 R. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 20. (an unclean hag) (p. 37). On the treatment of the horse in the
47 I. Werstein, op.cit., p. 144, 122. conditions of a real bullfight, see H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 106 and his
48 L'Humanit6, May 4 (1937). See H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 144 and Note 18. Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 4, s.v. Bullfight.
Note 7.
53 V. Marrero, Picasso and the Bull, 1956, pp. 53-79.
49 (Picasso's Statement of July, 1937,) Ashton (as in Note 1), 54 W. Boeck and J. Sabartes, op.cit., p. 231.
p. 143. 55 C. Gottlieb, op.cit., p. 111.
50 I. Werstein, op.cit., p. 128. 56 T. Hilton, op.cit., p. 246.
51 Ibid., p. 168.

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care for Arnheim's interpretation of the electric light. As for The slopes of the pediment convey in their outline the
the bull, his position was found consistent throughout. He is contrasting rhythms and moods of the figures. The right-hand
definitely hostile to the Loyalists' turn to the left. He represents slope ascends in a streamlined movement toward the lamp.
tradition, but in a new way. Picasso has changed the bull's The left-hand slope descends in a staggered line toward the
identity. Devoid of his sexual magic, tamed, the bull leaves - lamp. The left-hand slope descends in a staggered line toward
an image of anger and defeat. the zone of the dead soldier. The left, the bull's side, is marked
Some Guernica commentators had difficulty in accepting as the dark, unlucky side. The two halves of the scene are
the change from the mythic to the civic aspect of Guernica antithetical.
adopted by Picasso. The change may be illustrated by the Psychological change was recorded in facial expression,
making of the bust, a study prop in still-lifes of the mid-1 920's,57 particularly in the bull's reaction to the growing tension of the
a mouthpiece of the people as interpreted by Arnheim and unfolding stages of Guernica.
Rubin [Fig. 12].58 John Golding 63 pointed out ((the expressive distortions,
The idea of the bust emerging on the ground was most the ability to render states of emotion by the use of a few
likely inspired by Bronzino's Allegory [Fig. 13], where two calligraphic markings, the conventions used to evoke grief and
masks are set on the ground.59 Similarly, the conspicuous play horror; these were the features of Picasso's art that had been
of hands in Bronzino's painting60 may have conveyed to developing during the years of his association with the
Picasso the idea of a distorted hand, the fingernails alluding movement)). Golding has in mind the Surrealist movement.64
to the five-pointed Soviet star. The star identifies the woman We have noted the device of setting the eyes in and out
in the window as Russia. of focus, lips open or closed, etc., the placing of a black patch
The idea of good and evil, of light and dark, is expressed on the bull's ear, possibly to mark the effect on him of the
in the structural design of Guernica and defined, as noted deafening
by turmoil.
John Canaday,61 by a pediment overlaid by a triptych. TheThe gaping mouth of the victims (except for the victim on
kerosene lamp is on top of the pediment. The electric bulb theinlower right with her gentle, classical profile) has been
the flickering, flattened, yet still incongruously large suntraced
is on to figures in an eleventh century French Apocalypse.65
Picasso's
top at the left. The silhouette of the horse - the central figure - preoccupation with facial distortion was manifested
is mirrored on the right in a bold configuration of planes in the Three Dancers, 1925, particularly in the design of the
illuminated by the kerosene lamp. Both the real horse, indented gasping, toothy mouth of the left-hand dancer, pointed out
and textured, and his mirror image dominate the scene. The by Hilton.66
woman in the window and the woman looking up to the lamp The Surrealist mode of seeing gave way however to the
on the right - both gentle, classical profiles - have their upsurge of a new feeling for the beautiful line, the classical
counterparts on the left in the disturbed bull and the grieving nude, the poetic emotion, the drama of passion and despair.
mother with the dead child. The prostrate soldier forms the Picasso's relationship with Marie-Therese Walter dated from
base of the structure. A flash of light between the horse and 1927.67 In 1931 Picasso had built himself a studio at

the bull signals the presence of a bird painted on the dark Boisgeloup, northwest of Paris, near Gisors, where
grey background, in grey with a black outline [Fig. 1]. The bird work undisturbed and have Marie-Therese with him.68 The
is perched on a table, unable to fly, his left wing broken.62 furious bullfights with the woman torero mounted on

57 For example: the black bust in the Still Life: The Red Tablecloth, 124ff. and T. Hilton, op.cit., p. 150ff. For expression of despair
1924, Zervos V, p. 364, reproduced in color, Pablo Picasso: A distortion of face and body see Frank D. Russel, Picasso's Guern
Retrospective, op.cit., p. 248. Montclair, New Jersey, 1980. On the aesthetics of Surrealism
58 See Notes 19 and 20. W. Haftmann, Painting in the Twentieth Century, New York, 1
59 See Note 37. pp. 188-196.
60 See E. Panofsky, op.cit., p. 90. 65 The Apocalypse with Commentary, by Beatus of Libana, 1
61 J. Canaday, ((Picasso)), Horizon, 7 (1965), p. 77. Cent., from Abbey of Saint Sever, Paris, Bibl. Nat., Lat. Ms. 887
62 For a clear view of the bird, see P. Daix, op.cit., p. 160. J. Larrea, op.cit., p. 56, Fig. 12.
63 J. Goldin, (Picasso and Surrealism,)) Picasso in Retrospect, eds. 66 The Three Dancers, 1925, The Tate Gallery, London, See:
R. Penrose and J. Golding, New York, 1980, p. 76, 1st ed., 1973.T. Hilton, op.cit., 146f., color Fig. 103, Z V 426. On Picasso's exhibitions
with the Surrealists, see Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit., p. 252.
64 Picasso took part in the First Group Exhibition of the Surrealists,
Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1925. See Raynal, op.cit., p. 12. On Picasso's67 Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit., p. 255.
involvement with Andre Breton and Surrealism, see P. Daix, op.cit., 68 Ibid., p. 276.

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13) Bronzino, ((Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time), National Gallery, London. Photo: National Gallery, London.

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frightened horse,69 the excesses of the Minotaur,70 Marie- golden hue on the left and in bluish tones on the right,
Therese portrayed asleep 71 or seated in an armchair with a suggesting sunset. Human feeling - tenderness - is expressed
book, her gaze blank,72 reveal, however, a relationship under here for the first time in terms of the bullfight imagery. In
stress. drawings of May 9 and 28, 1936, the Minotaur appears with
Girl Before a Mirror (March 14, 1932),73 painted at the haunted expression of guilt and penance.81
Boisgeloup, is a modernized Vanity image. A pretty girl sees In the so-called Bullfight of July 22, 1934, the identities
of the bull and the horse had been changed. The animals are
herself in a mirror, herface distorted and ugly. Meyer Schapiro 78
noted the influence of radiography in the design of the woman, shown in a relationship which contradicts their nature. In a
her clothed body partly exposed to reveal an inner organ, thebullfight world, the innocent, defenseless horse is the lowest
womb. Carla Gottlieb 75 traced the antecedents, works likelyin the rank of the bull's tormentors. In the Boisgeloup painting
to have been known to Picasso. Hilton 76 placed the painting bull and horse belong in the same world of human relationship
into the group of nudes of 1932 <celebrating)> Marie-Therese.and values.
He admitted, however, that it is not a celebratory work. The iconography of Guernica is similarly built on the identity
Girl Before a Mirror must be seen in the context of change of the bull and the horse. At the outset, the bull is a
Marie-Therese at Boisgeloup. The exposed womb, the protrud- saddled and bridled animal and the horse friendly and trustin
ing belly, clearly indicate the woman's state of anxiety, [Figs.
her 1 and 3]. Both are subsequently confronted with change
suspicion of being pregnant. She sees herself in the in the attitudes of the victims, their gradual politicization,
mirror
with bloodshot eyes, nose swollen, mouth open, breathing
which the horse joins them. The risen horse signals the retre
heavily in a spasm of distress.77 On October 5, 1935,
of Maia
the bull [Fig. 10].
was born; Picasso's marriage with Olga was dissolved.78Of
The
these gradual developments there is no trace in Guernic
unwanted child ended the idyll of Boisgeloup (1931-1935)
the final painting; the horse appears as the dominating figu
in the
and the Boisgeloup cycle of works inspired by the love scene, his centrality pointed out by the kerosene lam
for
Marie-Therese. The bull on the side is retreating with no suggestion of
It was also the end of the wild bull, the frightened horse, motivation.

the sadistic Minotaur, the savage bullfight imagery. In this Unable to make out Guernica, the critics questioned
context must be mentioned a painting, the so-called Bullfight, Picasso's statement in the Seckler Interview, 1944, that the
Boisgeloup, July 22, 1934.79 Herschel Chipp refers to it bull as is a symbol of the dark forces.82 They did not pause to
think that Picasso's attitudes could have changed, that in
another (<furious corrida.>> 80 The title under which it is usually
listed is misleading. A big black bull puts his forelegs gently 1937 he no longer produced ferocious bullfights, that he was
on the body of the pale gray horse shown in a female position. slowly recovering from a crisis in his personal life and that a
In the stand above appears the head of Marie-Therese in war a was on, the Spanish Civil War which involved him with

69 Bullfight. Death of the Female Toreador, Boisgeloup, September 77 I am relating Gottlieb's interpretation of (<Girl Before a Mirror)),
6, 1933. Musee Picasso, Paris, ibid., p. 314. at the conclusion of the discussion, because her arguments fit this
context better. In Gottlieb's view, the girl is (<gazing at her soul>). The
70 Minotaur and Nude, Boisgeloup, June 28, 1933, Mus6e Picasso,
Paris, ibid., p. 312. reference to the <soul> is derived from ((Psyche)), the French name
of the mirror represented in the painting. A mirror of this type is a
71 Nude on a Black Couch, Boisgeloup, March 9, 1932, ibid., p. 293.
72 Reading. Boisgeloup, January 2, 1932, Musee Picasso, ibid., full-length standing plate, fitted with an adjustable inclination. These
p. 294. Marie-Therese Walter committed suicide in 1977. See Calvin mirrors were popular in the 19th century. ((Psyche)) means soul; hence
Tompkins, ((The Art World)>, The New Yorker, June 30, 1980, p. the 58. assumed allusion. In Spain these mirrors were called (<Psiquis>)
Deborah Trustman, <<Ordeal of Picasso's Heirs)), The New York Times (soul). Picasso must have been familiar with this mirror name. Since
Magazine (April 20, 1980), p. 66. the emphasis in the picture is on the womb, a reference to the (<soul))
73 Girl Before a Mirror, Boisgeloup, March 14, 1932, Museum couldof only be a tasteless joke.
Modern Art, New York; Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit., p. 291. 78 Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit., p. 307.
74 Meyer Schapiro, ((Round Table on Modern Art>>, Life (October 79 Bullfight, Boisgeloup, July 22, 1934, ibid., p. 318. In color.
11, 1948), p. 59. 80 H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 103 and Fig. 8 (detail).
75 Carla Gottlieb, <<Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror>>, Journal of 81 Ibid., Figs. 37 and 39.
Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 24 (Summer, 1966), pp. 4, 509 ff. 82 Ashton (as in Note 1), p. 136.
76 T. Hilton, op.cit., p. 222.

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Paul Eluard and other Communists. the image of the Iberian wild ox of Spanish archaeology or
Picasso was well aware of his difficulties in being ethnic legacies, cultural peculiarities, provincial dialects, things
understood, difficulties due to the sophisticated allusions and that meant very much to the average Spaniard and still do.
camouflaged political devices he used in the preparatory stages Picasso saw tradition in Spain as a dark force in the political
of Guernica, but in the first place to the metaphoric change scene of 1937. The bull is retreating; he does not fight. That
of the images of the bull and the horse. In his statement about is what the bull was tamed for in the prefatory design.
his joining the Communist Party, 1944, Picasso explained to As an Andalusian and living abroad, Picasso did not belong
Pol Gaillard, that it was a kind of ((innocence) on his part to to any of the separatist movements in Spain. Naively he
believe that his work made his stand clear.83 Actually he never wanted to believe that the Communists would overcome the
revealed the meaning of his metaphors, even to his closest opposition of the conservative forces without violence. His
friends. But he had made sure that Guernica would be understood social ambitions were, moreover, French-oriented.
some day. In his conversations with Christian Zervos at In this highly emotional message to Pol Gaillard (1944)
Boisgeloup in 193484 he had expressed the wish to see Picasso said that he had been an <exile> in France; he wanted
preserved (not the stages, but the metamorphoses in a pictures>. to belong. Among the men with Communist leanings, or
He used the word metamorphoses intentionally. Already, outright Communists he admired, he mentioned the scientists
when he was illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses (1931),85 he Fr6edrick Joliot-Curie and Paul Langevin, and the writers Louis
may have speculated that it might be possible to retain a no Aragon and Paul Eluard, with whom he shared literary
longer suitable metaphor by just changing some feature in it. aspirations.86 It may be mentioned in this context how, under
The so-called Bullfight of July 22, 1934, was Picasso's German occupation, about four months before the Liberation
first attempt at humanizing the images of the bull and the of Paris, on March 16, 1944, Michel Leiris, ethnologist and
horse by changing their behavior. He used them as a medium writer, and his wife Louise arranged in their apartment a
for expressing personal feelings. reading of Picasso's play Le d6sir attrap6 par la queue Albert
In the case of Guernica - a political painting - he used the Camus directing, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
idea of (taming> suggested by the Pegasus myth to modify and Dora Maar, the photographer of Guernica, among those
the image of the bull and, correspondingly, the reaction to playing parts.87 Georges Braque was in the audience. A
him of the horse. Provided with their modified identities, the photograph commemorates the event.88
bull and the horse could be exposed to the radicalization of
the victims. The horse, a victim himself, rises to his full height,
Guernica and Autobiography
joining in spirit the militant soldier and the woman on the
lower right who gazes fervently at the kerosene lamp, the Some Guernica students were particularity attracted by the
symbol of Russia. The tamed bull, shocked by the demonstra- autobiographical references in the preliminary designs. The
tion of the Soviet symbols and ultimately by the sight of the episode of the woman with the baby in the process of birth
horse rising under the kerosene lamp, retreats in complete to which Picasso had devoted a number of sketches, was
disarray. dealt with by Mary Gedo 88 in a psychoanalytical study tracing
In Spanish folklore, the bull stands for tradition. It may be it to a childhood memory and some more recent experience.

83 The cable was published in L'Humanit6, 41, p. 64 (October
29-30, 1944), pp. 1-2, A. H. Barr, op.cit., p. 247.
84 C. Zervos, (<Conversations avec Picasso?>, Cahiers d'Art, 10,
(1935), pp. 173-178, A. H. Barr, op.cit., p. 247.
85 M6tamorphoses d'Ovide, Thirty Etchings, 1931, Lausanne, Albert
Skira.
86 (As in Note 83). The passage referring to Joliot-Curie and Paul
Langevin is found only in the version of Picasso's message to Pol
Gaillard published in New Masses, 53, p. 4 (October 24, 1944), p. 11.
Picasso's cable appeared first in the New Masses.
87 For other names see Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit.,
p. 353. The friendly meeting of Sartre and Camus at an event honoring
Picasso does not forecast the breakup of Camus with Sartre (1952).
See James D. Wilkinson, The Intellectual Resistance in Europe, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1981, p. 100. The difference
between Camus and Sartre was a matter of temperament rather than
in attitude toward political issues, ibid., p. 61. Both became aware of
the dangers to human freedom from a Stalinist type of Communism.
88 The photograph, Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, op.cit., p. 353,
was taken in Picasso's studio where Picasso took the players and the
audience after the reading.
89 M. M. Gedo, op.cit., 201 f.

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Already in the first state, however, Picasso relegated the material points in the other direction. Picasso tried to move
anguished woman to the left, introducing on the right the our expectations of what is bull-like in an unexpected direction.
woman fervently gazing at the kerosene lamp. Picasso entirely Some drawings, such as that done on May 10, present him
redesigned the mother scene for the mural. The baby, now with a serene and god-like expression, a Grecian and beatific
shown dead, lies fully dressed on a neatly striped coverlet bull. But this is quite at variance with what Picasso himself
[Fig. 1]. said about the role of the animal in the painting>).93
The characteristic profile of Marie-Th6rese Walter which The answer to the ambiguities of the bull is to be found
Herschel Chipp 90 had recognized in the design of the woman in the drawings of May 1 and 2, 1937 [Figs. 2 and 3] which
in the window in several drawings, was gradually fading. In show the accomplished metamorphosis of the bull and the
Guernica it becomes dissolved in the classical mold used by horse prerequisite to their exposure to the new challenges.
Picasso in the designs of the profile of the woman in the These first drawings hold the key to Guernica.
window and its reflection, the profile of the woman on the With the metaphoric change of the animals in mind, we
lower right. Guernica was not meant to be autobiographical. understand the horse rising into the orbit of the kerosene
Every step the protagonists take in the preliminary stages lamp as the symbol of the Spanish people and the retreat of
is end-directed. From the first two drawings on May 1, and the disturbed bull.
May 2, 1937 [Figs. 2 and 3], the characters and relationships
of the bull and the horse are clearly defined. After the drawings
of May 2, 8, and 9 [Figs. 4, 5, 6] in which the tamed bull
appears confronted with a growing number of figures, Picasso
on May 10 and 11 made two drawings showing the bull EPILOGUE
singly: a pensive, almost human bull's head and a bull full face
with a good-natured, human expression.91 These drawings Picasso died in 1973. He died in peace. His urge to redes
were not used for Guernica, because on May 11 Picasso the human face from some inner vision had subsided. His
started working on the canvas, taking up the story from the portraits of Jacqueline Roque, the wife of his later years
drawing of May 9 [Fig. 6]. The two drawings of May 10 andwhom he could speak in his native Spanish, exhibit a str
1 1, showing a humanized, sensitive bull were particularly noted confident face. She had managed to protect her husband
by critics while the drawing of the tamed bull of May 1 [Fig. his Communist friends, with whom he had become disenc
ed after the Soviet suppression of the popular uprisin
1] was entirely overlooked. The idea of a thinking and feeling
bull was baffling. Referring to the two drawings, Herschel Budapest in 1 956 94 and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslo
Chipp writes: in 1968.95
(These are of course reversals of the Minotaur - who is In 1980 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted
a bull-headed man - but they demonstrate the wide range a hugeofexhibition, Pablo Picasso: a Retrospective, 1980
possibilities lying between the polar concepts of man and (Catalogue by William S. Rubin, 1980). The catalogue includes
beast).92 Timothy Hilton reacts in more concrete terms to the Picasso's Guernica 1937, which was then on an extended
drawings: ((One must start with the bull. He is prominent in loan to the Museum and is now in the Prado of Madrid.

all the early parts of the sketching and designing, where he The year 1937 had become just another date in the
is a leading figure - the real protagonist - in a way that retrospective survey. The painting was no longer associated
disappears in the final version. His significance is problematical. with the Spanish Civil War, which had pitted the Spanish
At no point does he seem frankly vicious. If we take him to Republican government against the Nationalist party of
be aggressive, it is only because we know it to be in the Generalissimo Franco. Franco, the victor in the war, died in
nature of bulls to be so. Indeed, the evidence of the preparatory 1 975, and Spain is now led by a moderate Socialist government

90 H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 103 and Figs. 6, 8, and 30. 93 T. Hilton, op.cit., pp. 240-241 and Fig. 178, representing the
91 J. Larrea, op.cit., Figs. 54 and 55. bull's head.
92 H. B. Chipp, op.cit., p. 111 and Fig. 40, representing the bull's 94 World Almanac and Book of Facts, New York, 1985, p. 546.
head. 95 Ibid., p. 533.

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under a restored consitutional monarchy.96
Following the 1980 exhibit in New York, two works, one
a book, the other an article, brought Guernica once again to
general attention. In his Picasso's Guernica, Labyrinth of
Narrative and Vision (Montclair, 1980), the painter Frank D.
Russel 97 has produced a kind of sample book of gestures and
postures gathered from Picasso's studies for the painting.
(Picasso's entire preparatory material for Guernica is found in
Juan Larrea, Guernica, Pablo Picasso (New York, 1947).98 One
turns the pages of Russell's collection of familiar designs with
a pleasant sense of recognition. As an attempt at interpretation,
the book is a labyrinth of suggestion, with moments of lucidity
and brilliant observations.
Werner Hofmann's article (<Picasso's Guernica in its Histori-
cal Context)),99 is based on lectures delivered in 1982 at
Columbia and Harvard Universities. It is primarily an attempt
to classify the painting, to place it against the background toattributing these changes to what he considers the artist's
which it belongs. Picasso, the famous painter had been
commissioned by the Spanish Republican government (the
Loyalists) to alert world opinion, with his work, to the plight head raised.104 Hofmann did not realize that the preliminary
of the small, undefended Spanish town of Guernica, which
had been bombed by the Nationalists. One would assume that
war, the destruction of cities, and collective suffering - physical ground in convulsions unable to raise its head, it is recovering
and mental - was the subject matter of Guernica.
Hofmann placed Guernica into a line with well-known great
works of art, beginning with Goya's series Desastres de la
Guerra (1810-13), going through the 1 9th-century Romantics
and the Expressionists of the 1910s to the 1930s (Oskar
Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Ludwig Meidner, George Grosz, interpretation of the electric bulb in Guernica [Fig. 1]. He
Otto Dix) and ending with John Heartfield's Madrid, 1936, a
photomontage.100
After reaching the point of highest emotional impact,
Hofmann pauses, having doubts about the thematic approach.
Skeptical from the outset, he begins his article with Arnheim's
sobering remark, <(lf any work was a transmission of emotion,
Guernica was not>.101
While using over 40 paintings to illustrate what he originally
regarded as the historical background of Guernica, Hofmann
devotes only about ten of Picasso's drawings to a discussion
of the painting. He begins with an examination of a preliminary
drawing for Guernica, which shows a frantic mother with a
baby in convulsions or dead.102 Picasso did not use this version
of the mother-child motif in his final painting, where the dead
child lies fully dressed on a neat striped coverlet [Fig. 1].
The design examined next shows a man lying on the
ground, his arm raised with a clenched fist. Hofmann explains
this gesture as the Communist salute [Fig. 7],103 noting that
it was later removed. The caption for this design is incorrect;
it is not Composition Study, May, 1937 but State I, May 1 1,
1937. Picasso had completed his final drawing on paper on
May 9. After a pause of one day, on May 11, he began to
work on canvas. Every step he set on canvas was photographi-
cally recorded. Picasso replaced the Communist symbol with
less conspicuous ones, but Hofmann did not examine these
states of the painting.
Hofmann cites Picasso's changing portrayals of the horse,
inconsistency and vacillations. The horse is shown in some
of the drawings with its head lowered, and in others with its
drawings and states of the painting show the gradual changes
in the position of the horse. A humble animal, lying on the
and lifts its head [Figs. 4 and 10]. In the final state it is
standing on its four legs, its head turned to the left, toward
the bull who leaves the scene [Fig. 1].
Hofmann overlooked the most important achievement of
Guernica commentators to date: Rudolf Arnheim's metaphoric
evidently did not pay attention to Arnheim's allusive references
to the bulb as a <<world informed, but not engaged? and a
<<symbol of detached awareness?.105 As a consequence, he
was not aware of Carla Gottlieb's decoding of Arnheim's
delphic pronouncements.106
He apparently did not know the drawing of May 1 [Fig. 2],
showing the horse resting quietly by the side of the bull, an
allegory of peace and friendship. Hence his pessimistic view
of Guernica. <None of Picasso's protagonists is a messenger
of hope, none a clear-cut symbol of survival,)> 107 he concludes.

96 Ibid., p. 380. 102 Ibid., Fig. 23.

97 See Note 64. 103 Ibid., Fig. 47.
98 J. Larrea, see Note 44. 104 Ibid., Figs. 48. 49, 50, 51.
99 Artibus et Historiae, 1983, No. 7, pp. 141-69. 105 R. Arnheim, op.cit., p. 20.
100 W. Hofmann, op.cit., Figs. 2-21; 24-25; 53-54; 57-59. 106 C. Gottlieb, op.cit., and see Note 27.
101 Ibid., p. 141. 107 W. Hofmann, op.cit., p. 169.

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And yet, one figure in Guernica that Hofmann does not mention with his visit of a prominent communist the conflict was
was clearly intended as a ((messenger of hope): the woman settled. Other conflicts were similarly ironed out. Picasso did
on the lower right looking intently - in the words of Reinhold not break with the party.109 Picasso seems to have never
Hohl - ((fervently)) 108 at the kerosene lamp. Her eyes guided heard about the holocaust. Meeting Chagall in Vence (Alpes
by a stream of light to the top of the lamp emphasize the Maritimes) after World War II he made a remark ((about people
centrality of the kerosene lamp as a symbol of light and hope. who fled to America when danger threatened.)) 10 By the
Picasso's Guernica draws an optimistic picture of the 1960's Picasso's creative powers had declined. Cubism was
situation. In fact, the Nationalists were winning the Civil War. losing its magic. Picasso's time was running out. The shift in
With the passing of time Picasso's feelings for Russia were artistic taste brought America on the stage: Pop Art, Minimal-
cooling. He was irritated by the communists' use of his name ism, Post-Modernism, ((color for the sake of color)) - The New
in their propaganda. He had protested against the Soviet York School.
suppression of the popular uprising in Budapest, 1956, but

108 R. Hohl, op.cit., p. 47. 110 Idem, p. 194.

109 J. P. Crespell, op.cit., p. 181. 11 Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word 1975.

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