Image of the Week 011

Marc Chagall, The Juggler, 1943.

Read about Marc Chagall here.

"The theme of Hermeticism was revived in the 20th century by Surrealism and metaphysics, and by artists like Chagall, Man Ray, and Picasso.

"Here, the image of the juggler embodies the concept of the Hermetic man, the magician-artist who works in a sacred region that may be compared to the upside-down world of carnivals and circuses. The perimeter of the circus ring alludes to the motif of the magic circle. The head of the juggler has been replaced by that of a cock, a magical animal of solar origin linked to the myth of Circe and to the Egyptian divinities Horus and Thoth."

— Matilde Battistini, Astrology, Magic, and Alchemy in Art