The Treachery of Images

The Treachery of Images
The Treachery of Images
Artist René Magritte
Year 1928–29 (1928–29)
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 63.5 cm × 93.98 cm (25 in × 37 in)
Location Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California[1]

The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images, 1928–29, sometimes translated as The Treason of Images) is a painting by the Belgian René Magritte, painted when Magritte was 30 years old. The picture shows a pipe. Below it, Magritte painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (About this sound pronunciation ), French for "This is not a pipe." The painting is not a pipe, but rather an image of a pipe, which was Magritte's point:

The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe," I'd have been lying![2]

The theme of pipes with the text "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is extended in his 1966 painting, Les Deux Mystères.[3]

Contents

Literary and cultural comment

A neuroscientific variant, featuring a neuron obtained from ray tracing.[4]

French literary critic and philosopher Michel Foucault discusses the painting and its paradox in his 1973 book, This Is Not a Pipe (English edition, 1991).

Scott McCloud uses this painting as an introduction to the second chapter of his book Understanding Comics. McCloud points out that not only is the version that appears in his book not a pipe, it is actually several printed copies of a drawing of a painting of a pipe.[5]

Douglas Hofstadter also discusses this painting and other images like it in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, a work on cognition and consciousness.[6]

The title echoes that of Denis Diderot's story Ceci n'est pas un conte ("This is not a story").[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), 1929, Painting, Oil on canvas. Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7). On public view: Ahmanson Building 2nd Floor.
  2. ^ Torczyner, Harry. Magritte: Ideas and Images. p. 71. 
  3. ^ "Olga's Gallery". http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte54.html. Retrieved 3 October 2010. 
  4. ^ "PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 4(12) December 2008". PLoS Computational Biology 4 (12): ev04.ei12. 2008. doi:10.1371/image.pcbi.v04.i12.  edit
  5. ^ McCloud, Scott (1994). Understanding Comics. New York: HarperPerennial. pp. 24–25. ISBN 006097625X. 
  6. ^ Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1999) [1979]. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books. p. 699. ISBN 0465026567. 
  7. ^ Ceci n'est pas un conte

Further reading

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Reformation —     The Reformation     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Reformation     The usual term for the religious movement which made its appearance in Western Europe in the sixteenth century, and which, while ostensibly aiming at an internal renewal of the …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The Five (gods) — The Five, also known as the Circle, are a group of five gods in Trudi Canavan s Age of the Five trilogy. Background After the War of the Gods, in which many deities were killed, only six gods were left alive. Following the suicide of the sixth,… …   Wikipedia

  • The Canterbury Tales — is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the SubGenius — J. R. Bob Dobbs The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained… …   Wikipedia

  • The End of Evangelion — Theatrical release poster Directed by Episode 25 : Kazuya Tsurumaki Episode 26 : Hideaki Anno …   Wikipedia

  • The Bonnie Blue Flag — also known as We Are a Band of Brothers , is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by Ulster born entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song The Irish Jaunting Car …   Wikipedia

  • The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah —   …   Wikipedia

  • The Mind's Eye (Star Trek: The Next Generation) — The Mind s Eye Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Geordi undergoes brainwashing treatments …   Wikipedia

  • On the Threshold of Liberty — Artist René Magritte Year February March 1937 Type Oil on canvas Dimensions 238.8 cm × 185.4 cm (94 in ×& …   Wikipedia

  • The Song of Roland — For the 1978 film starring Klaus Kinski, see The Song of Roland (film). Eight phases of The Song of Roland in one picture. The Song of Roland (French: La Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”