Butterflies 1906

Curator: Butterflies, a 1906 oil painting by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis, presents us with a landscape in the Romantic and abstract styles. What’s your first impression? Editor: Hmm, ghostly, isn't it? Like memories fading in the wash. The shapes swim and suggest—the promise of butterflies but… blurred edges. What strikes me is this monochrome haze – a quiet world, seen through frosted glass. Curator: Indeed. Butterflies, for Ciurlionis, were not just insects. In Lithuanian folklore, butterfly represents the human soul. And color for him had symphonic, almost musical values. That would connect his soul-searching expression to those art-nouveau yearnings. Editor: So, these shapes could be considered symbolic souls taking flight, all bathed in a rather celestial gloom, then? There is almost an underwater effect happening here; something ancient about the feel and vision of this painting. Curator: Exactly! Ciurlionis, heavily involved in synesthesia studies, saw links between color, music, and spiritual states. What looks to our eyes like mere forms and washes may have resonated deeply within his perception as both music and psychological symbol. He often intertwined folk symbols within his art. Editor: And the butterflies – spirits, music, all blending. What seems hazy might just be how souls look leaving. The almost Romantic vision of it seems oddly right too. Very thought-provoking work and style that somehow matches that mood. Curator: Precisely. A beautiful bridge between art, sound and soul... Editor: That does linger…a melancholy harmony.