Joan Miró’s La masia (1921–1922) As the Great Work (original) (raw)

Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, 2024

Abstract

Magical thinking was one of the guiding principles of the aesthetic and vital conception of Miró. Alchemy is a practice which has had diverse variants and phases, including one that understands it as a cosmic and ontological reflection grounded in a symbolic language. La masia can be interpreted symbolically and alchemically, its meaning dovetailing perfectly with the imagery and ideas deployed in books of alchemical engravings. Many of the figures depicted in Miró’s painting coincide with alchemical iconography and symbols, including the farmhouse, the philosophical tree, the baptismal font and a variety of animals, such as the ass and the cock. Thus, the hermeneutic analysis performed here on La masia covers some of those parallels and enquires into the meaning of the painting on the basis of the alchemical lexicon.

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