While the goddess Minerva, patron of the arts and crafts, is generally depicted as a young woman wearing a helmet and breastplate, she is a child in this painting.
Infant Minerva, with a bird crown atop her egg-shaped face and small birds on her fingers, smiles innocently through a scattering of cream-colored light mixed with blue and orange facets.
Move closer and you can see that under the scattered colors there are many raised lines that run across the work like a mesh. To make these lines, Max Ernst had first laid his canvas on the floor, hung a can of paint with a hole in its bottom above, and then swung the can like a pendulum. Staring at the resulting mesh pattern, he discovered a shape that had emerged automatically: the child goddess. This method of painting, which Ernst called “child’s play,” reflects one of the principles of Surrealist painting.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)
While the goddess Minerva, patron of the arts and crafts, is generally depicted as a young woman wearing a helmet and breastplate, she is a child in this painting.
Infant Minerva, with a bird crown atop her egg-shaped face and small birds on her fingers, smiles innocently through a scattering of cream-colored light mixed with blue and orange facets.
Move closer and you can see that under the scattered colors there are many raised lines that run across the work like a mesh. To make these lines, Max Ernst had first laid his canvas on the floor, hung a can of paint with a hole in its bottom above, and then swung the can like a pendulum. Staring at the resulting mesh pattern, he discovered a shape that had emerged automatically: the child goddess. This method of painting, which Ernst called “child’s play,” reflects one of the principles of Surrealist painting.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)