The Moon 1751

Editor: Here we have Claude Burdel’s "The Moon," a print from 1751, currently housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. There's something unsettling about this image – the howling dogs, the dripping colors, the oddly human-like moon. How do you interpret this work, and what conversations might it spark? Curator: This tarot card vibrates with complex symbolism that challenges straightforward readings. Consider the moon itself, not merely a celestial body but a face veiled by a red cap. Red in that era signaled a patriarchal symbol of power. Is Burdel suggesting the moon—often associated with femininity, intuition, and the subconscious—is cloaked, perhaps stifled, by dominant power structures? Editor: That's fascinating! I hadn't thought about the colour of the cap in those terms. And what about the two canine figures? Curator: The wolves, traditionally linked to primal instinct and the wild, are shown baying at this repressed lunar force. Note their positioning - one in a shaded cool tone, and the other illuminated in an almost aggressive rosy hue. This suggests an internal struggle. Do you think they're yearning for release, perhaps protesting against this very stifling of the feminine divine? Furthermore, that crawfish in the water signifies coming from somewhere even deeper – into consciousness? Editor: Yes, the image really opens up all sorts of ideas about gender and the struggle for subconscious thoughts to surface into conscious ones. Curator: Exactly. And the imagery resonates profoundly in the current sociopolitical climate where discussions about the suppression of the feminine divine continues and the fight to take our place resounds still. It forces us to question who controls the narrative and whose voices are silenced. Editor: I see it now. Thank you! That reframes the work entirely and gives me much to consider. Curator: Precisely, and that's the power of contextualising art. It ceases to be a mere pretty picture, it's a loaded artifact within ongoing discourses.