Skip to main content

The message of the Hugo Simberg painting “At the Crossroads”


"At the crossroads"
Hugo Simberg
(1894)

Kimmo Huosionmaa

The symbolism of the art is the very deep thing. When the portrait is looked the first time many people see only the picture of something. But when we are thinking about the portrait, there might be the very deep story to tell for the watcher. Above the text is Hugo Simberg painting, where angel and devil are walking together with the man.


First, we will see the very funny situation, but then there would be a serious message for the observer. Hugo Simberg wanted to tell us, that when the man learns some skills, this person makes always own choices between good and bad. The devil is on the right side, and it pulls the man to walk together with this character.


Angel in at the left side of the person. The symbol of this character is that the choices must be made by using the heart. This is sometimes difficult, and when we are looking at this portrait, we must say, that the choice to follow the devil seems sometimes be right. And following the devil always looks like very easy.


Evil always promises something nice looking thing, what symbolizes those ships at the strait. The canvas of those ships is red, what symbolizes hate and violence. This thing means that devil promises the revenge for that man. Angel promises nothing. But when we are thinking about those promises, the devil will set this man to the position, where this person must thank this devil. So devil hangs this person in his character, and addicts this man about the gifts what this bad character gives to this man in this painting.


When people are walking with the angel, they will walk straight ahead. But then there would be no choice than choose of two roads what are offered. This person has come to “T” crossing, where he must make the choice, what road would he choose. And they would understand the consequences of the decisions, what this person makes. Following the devil seems very easy, but it would not take the life anywhere. The initial setting of the portrait is quite a mark of Stoic philosophy, where people should be very cold and objective.


And the devil at the right side of the man symbolizes also the inducements of the life. There are many things, how the person can destroy the own and other people life. And those things like drugs, illegal activities and bad company should be avoided. This is the thing what Simberg wants to tell the people in this portrait.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese innovations and space lasers are interesting combinations.

Above: "Tiangong is China's operational space station located in low Earth orbit. (Image credit: Alejomiranda via Getty Images)" (Scpace.com, China's space station, Tiangong: A complete guide) Chinese are close to making nuclear-powered spacecraft.  Almost every day, we can read about Chinese technical advances. So are, the Chinese more innovative than Western people? Or is there some kind of difference in culture and morale between Western and Chinese societies? The Chinese superiority in hypersonic technology is one of the things that tells something about the Chinese way of making things.  In China, the mission means. And the only thing that means is mission. That means that things like budgets and safety orders are far different from Western standards. If some project serves the Chinese communist party and PLA (People's Liberation Army) that guarantees unlimited resources for those projects. Chinese authorities must not care about the public opinion.  If we th

Iron Dome is one of the most effective air defense systems.

The Iron Dome is a missile defense system whose missiles operate with highly sophisticated and effective artificial intelligence. The power of this missile defense base is in selective fire. The system calculates the incoming missile's trajectory. And it shoots only missiles that will hit the inhabited area. The system saves missiles and focuses defense on areas that mean something. The system shares the incoming missiles in, maybe two groups. Another is harmless and another is harmful.  Things like killer drones are also problematic because their trajectories are harder to calculate than ballistic missiles. The thing that makes drones dangerous is that they can make masks for ballistic missiles. And even if those drones are slow, all of them must be shot down.  The thing is that the cooperation between drone swarms and ballistic missiles is the next danger in conflict areas. In the film, you can see how drones make light images of the skies. The killer drones can also carry LED li

The innovative shield that protects OSIRIS-APEX can also protect the new hypersonic aircraft.

"NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft successfully completed its closest solar pass, protected by innovative engineering solutions and showing improvements in onboard instruments. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab" (ScitechDaily, Innovative Engineering Shields NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX During Close Encounter With the Sun) The OSIRIS-APEX probe travels close to the sun. The mission plan is to research the sun. And especially find things that can warn about solar storms. Solar storms are things that can danger satellites at the Earth orbiter. And the purpose of OSIRIS-APEX is to find the method of how to predict those solar storms. Another thing is that the OSIRIS-APEX tests the systems and materials that protect this probe against heat and plasma impacts.  The same technology. The researchers created for OSIRIS-APEX can used in the materials and structures. That protects satellites against nuclear explosions. That means this kind of system delivers information on how to prot