The Blind Man's Meal Analysis

Pablo Picasso is one of the most well respected artists of the 20th century and is widely known for introducing the genre of cubism into modern art. He was a diverse artist and dabbled in many different mediums, a dedicated painter, a sculptor, a ceramist and even took part in printmaking and playwright, producing roughly 22,000 works in his lifetime. Picasso was an accomplished traditionalist artist by his early twenties, then in 1901 during what’s known as his Blue Period, he transitioned from the realist era to abstract art. Following the suicide of a beloved friend, Carlos Casagemas, Picasso’s bereavement on top of his own struggle with poverty was thoroughly expressed in this sequence of intensely emotional paintings dominated with shades

He clenches bread in one hand and reaches his other hand to a pitcher of wine, the way his body is positioned and the contrast around his eyes further suggests his disability. Blindness is a common theme seen in many of Picasso’s works both in his early years and later years. There is speculation as to whether or not this was directly influenced by his father’s deterioration of eyesight at the time, or that perhaps Picasso had a fear of developing blindness himself. Blindness could also represent the existence of a deeper, spiritual

For someone like Picasso who was born into a Catholic family, he faced a tremendous amount of loss in his early life, both the loss of his friend and the death of his younger sister from diphtheria, there tends to be a lot of faith in question in this series. Religious symbolism can be interpreted from the blind man’s bread, the body of Christ, and the pitcher of wine, the blood of Christ. To this man with his hands reaching and grasping at both, this could show that regardless of his disadvantages in his life of being blind that it hasn’t broken his faith. An alternative could be just the opposite, his faith could be crumbling and due to his life and the problems he has faced puts his faith in question. After experiencing a sudden death, an illness, or a disability, it’s easy to understand how one’s faith in their higher power can be blurred by such circumstances, and both theories can be equally interpreted to Picassos own struggle with life and death at this