Suite of love

Artist: Josep Maria Subirachs

Title: «Suite of love»

Year: 1998

Media: acrylic on canvas

Location: room 219 

________________________

As we have already explained on other occasions, Subirachs is an artist who endows his works with a strong symbolic charge, where everything we see is not what it seems to the naked eye.

This room is a tribute to love.

Symbolism:

On the right, one can see the fortune teller or oracle from Delphi (Greece) who after inhaling the vapours that emanated from the subsoil in Delphi, or the result of a potion that she burned, went into a trance and was able to predict the future.

The figure of the oracle that can see the future is found in many ancient cultures in the form of shamans, sorcerers or simply witches.

The oracle was attended by people from all social classes, even the kings asked her if they would be victorious in their wars.

In our room, the oracle has predicted that someone is going to be born.

On a pedestal, also on the right of the scene, we find Eros -god of love called Cupid by the Romans- about to leave the scene and fly away. This implies that Eros has already done his job, he has already launched his arrow into the heart of someone who is going to fall in love and have a descendant.

The railing or balustrade (an architectural element widely used by Subirachs) symbolizes the life of that person who has just been born.

The first pillars of the balustrade correspond to that person’s childhood.

A little further on (to the left) we find that the balustrade has 2 pillars that match perfectly with each other. At the bottom of those 2 matching pillars, Subirachs drew a male and a female symbol. It is the moment of our life in which we find our couple.

Right at that point, we find the beginning of a rainbow that symbolizes happiness and that lasts for many years in the life of that person with his/her couple. Subirachs wanted the mirror in the room to be under the rainbow, so that the people who see themselves reflected in it are protected by this arc of happiness.

At the point where the rainbow ends, the railing is broken. And just in its perpendicular we find the full moon, symbol of changes. This is the moment of the final disease, the one that will take us to the grave.

Finally, on the left side, we find a storm that falls on a shroud. The storm is a bad omen, and the shroud symbolizes the death of that person. (The shroud is another item that Subirachs uses very often.)

The work symbolizes the life of a person, but since we are born as the fruit of love, Subirachs decided that the title should be the «Suite of love» (and not of life, as it could be interpreted).