To all appearances, it was a hand of flesh and blood just like my own
Original title: To all appearances, it was a hand of flesh and blood just like my own
kurzbeschreibung
Where many Symbolist prints put the supernatural plainly on display, Odilon Redon's 1896 lithograph keeps it hidden in plain sight: an almost deceptively lifelike hand lying on an open book. The image belongs to his series The Temptation of Saint Anthony and fuses close observation of nature with a dreamlike mood that is hard to pin down.
Description
A hand drawn with naturalistic care rests on an opened book. Its fingers appear to touch the left-hand page while the right one stays uncovered. A deep black ground surrounds hand and book, so the paler areas stand out all the more sharply. Light falls from above, picking out the contours of the hand and the texture of the pages. Tonal values stay within greys, as is typical of lithography.
Context
This sheet was made in 1896 as part of Redon's cycle The Temptation of Saint Anthony, inspired by Gustave Flaubert's novel. Between 1888 and 1896 Redon produced several graphic series on this subject, in which Symbolist and naturalist tendencies mingle. The hand above the book points to the marvellous and the occult, an interest widespread in the Symbolist movement.
Impact
The print unsettles and fascinates at once: the hand looks convincingly real yet sits in a puzzling context. The dark ground and the sparing light heighten its mysterious aura and prompt reflection on the relationship between reality and imagination.
Technique
Redon chose lithography for this work, a planographic process in which the drawing is applied with greasy chalk to a limestone. The technique allowed him finely graded tones from deep black to delicate grey. In this way he could create soft transitions and an atmospheric gloom characteristic of his Symbolist works.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)