''Vicious Circle'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''Błędne koło'') is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

from 1895–1897 by the Polish

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

painter

Jacek Malczewski Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the f ...

(1854–1929). It has been considered one of Malczewski's major works and is generally interpreted as an

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

of the role of an artist. It is now in the

National Museum in Poznań National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Description and analysis

The painting depicts a fantastic vision of human figures whirling dynamically in mid-air in a magical circle. The artist represented himself as a pensive boy sitting on top of a stepladder above the titular

vicious circle A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results. It is a system with no tendency toward equilibrium (social, economic, ecological, etc.), at least in the short r ...

and holding a brush in his hand. He is surrounded by the naked bodies of

Bacchante In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...

s; youths and elderly men personifying the feelings and imagination of a young artist. Paradoxically, they seem both real thanks to the painting's illusory visual expression and unreal because of the abstract space they occupy in the painting. The left and better-lit side of the painting symbolizes sensual ecstasy while the right, dark side represents the fears and anxiety of the artist. According to Irena Kossowska, this inner

dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another ** ...

of the artist's creativity portrays the vitality of human instincts as well as the tragedy of human fate. In this work, Malczewski expresses the idea of the tortured creative genius of the artist who is searching for inspiration. The work can be interpreted as a question on the nature of art and the vocation of an artist.

Trivia

Commenting on ''Vicious Circle'', philosopher, painter and playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz said that the artist and art in general play an important cognitive role. Artists can see the human soul by ridding themselves of ordinary ways of thinking while creating in direct contact with the universe.

References

{{Reflist 1890s paintings Paintings by Jacek Malczewski 19th-century allegorical paintings Allegorical paintings by Polish artists Paintings in the collection of the National Museum, Poznań

Description and analysis

Trivia

See also

References