Illustration for Oidipus 1920

Curator: Let's take a look now at Artuš Scheiner's Illustration for Oidipus, created around 1920. What's your first impression? Editor: There’s an unsettling beauty here. The sphinx lounging on her rock, almost like a bored cat, with that slightly dazed expression... and the pile of bones nearby certainly raises the stakes! It is like a bizarre storybook image teetering on the edge of a nightmare. Curator: Exactly! Scheiner beautifully captured this pivotal scene from the Greek tragedy. The symbolism is rich. We see Oedipus confronting the Sphinx, that guardian of Thebes. It is an archetypal clash. Editor: Yes! Sphinxes represent riddles, secrets, the unknown... They have such a weight to them! Their features represent the joining of intellect with raw, bestial nature. Here, the skeletal remains speak volumes about the deadly price of failing to understand. Curator: Indeed. Notice how Scheiner renders the Sphinx’s gaze. It's not overtly threatening, more… knowing. It suggests the Sphinx possesses knowledge that Oedipus desperately needs. I find the choice to create it as a watercolor painting really fascinating, making a terrifying scene almost dreamlike. Editor: That ambiguity works really well. Watercolor lends itself to this dreamlike quality, like memory made manifest. Also, water is the symbol for emotion; painting the encounter this way means the situation, in all of its symbolic weight, isn’t cold or logical but deeply personal. It makes you wonder what riddle or self-knowledge she holds over you. Curator: And perhaps, that’s the point, right? Each of us are confronted with sphinxes, with challenges that test our knowledge and force us to confront hidden aspects of ourselves. Editor: It certainly shifts how one engages with this illustration. At first glance, the painting may appear simply narrative, illustrative; it suddenly grows, becomes a confrontation with fate. Curator: A hauntingly rendered reminder that self-knowledge can be both a gift and a curse. Editor: Absolutely. Scheiner truly makes you consider which path of knowledge you want to choose.