| Creator | Title | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villeroy & Boch | Chocolate Pitcher and Butter Dish | Friendly warmth (arising from the simple graceful lines, and the unadorned simplicity of the colors without ornament) | |
| Composer: Verdi, Giuseppe | Attila (live performance) | Life is a mix of strength, heroism, romantic passion. The work is a long complex opera, so it has many other lyrical emotions as part of it, but this covers the basic sense of life. |
Loving a heroic woman leads to death |
| Composer: Warren and Dubin | Boulevard of Broken Dreams | Weariness & Sadness | Life is loss of dreams and sadness |
| Designer: Anonymous | Confectionary Basket from Japan, Fukui region | Life can be dynamic and purposeful and intriguing -- because of the dynamic form and economy of materials and diagonal symmetry of the composition. | |
| Photographer: Ommer, Uwe | Pirelli Calendar Diver | Women can be strong, dynamic and unconsciously beautiful. | |
| Vance, Louis Joseph | Brass Bowl, The | The world is a delightful place. Good things happen to the deserving. | Life as a gay, lighthearted adventure. |
| Director: Hudson, Hugh | Greystoke | Life is Loss -- life is grim and culture is grim and the jungle is grim. All is grim. The other important feature of the film emotionally is that Tarzan has been crippled by his circumstances of being brought up in the jungle -- he cannot live as a man, so the great tragedy of the story is that he has to return to the jungle, which is below primitive -- it is an isolated hell in which death is at every corner, and at best the companionship of apes. Given that the story partly portrays civilized men as brutes who relish killing animals, perhaps the emotional intent is to make the choice to return to the jungle as positive, but for this reviewer it is unutterably tragic and ugly. |
Loss, Loss, Loss. Man as metaphysically alien from human culture. |
| Blum, Robert Frederick | Moods to Music | Life is colorful and glorious. |
Pure joy of movement and femininity. |
| Hiroshige | Senso-ju Temple at Asakusa | Pure, simple, quiet tranquility. | |
| Sculptor: Canova, Antonio | Three Graces | The female human form is beautiful, graceful, ideal. | Quiet repose and sisterly love. The piece exudes a quiet elegance and peacefulness amidst the complex three-dimensional composition. The inclusion of "sisterly love" is less certain, except that taking into account the mythological background of the piece. It can be argued that one should not take that into account, so perhaps that should not formally be included in the theme. |
| Author: Young, Phyllis Brett | Psyche | Optimistic, Hopeful, even under terrible circumstances. |
We are beings of self-made soul<br> |
| Director: Reiner, Rob | A Few Good Men | Justice should be fought for, needs to be fought for and can be fragile. |
Commitment to a moral code is central to a good man's life. |
| Director: Ballard, Carroll | Black Stallion | Everything is possible between boy and beast, between an innocent human and mother nature. | Man and nature in harmony. |
| Composer: Coward, Noel | I'll See You Again | Life is bittersweet | Sweet memories of love last forever |
| Sculptor: Buonarotti, Michelangelo | David | Man is a strong, indomitable creature who has the intelligence to overcome terrible odds. | [requires assumption of some context of this work -- not a "cold" introduction to it]: A man able to face a daunting task, with tremulous calm and determination. This is the depiction of the David/Goliath story of the Bible in which David takes on the much more formidable Goliath and wins. |
| Shute, Nevil | Landfall | Heroes and Heroines are self-made, by anyone at any level of intelligence who seriously pursues what is important in their lives. |
Truth will triumph -- with perseverance. |
| Architect: Anonymous | Sainte-Chapelle | The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly. | The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly. |
| Designer: Unknown | Rose Window - La Sainte-Chapelle (aka The Holy Chapel | The world is open and bright and colorful and gay. | |
| Director: Gauger, Stephane | Owl and the Sparrow | A child shows sweetness and strength and determination. | Searching for family, for soulmates. |
| Painter: Tito, Ettore | La Gomena (Towing a Boat) | There is great effort in life, and a woman can be the master of it. This painting is a curious combination of romantic heroism and 19th century genre naturalism. It has a visual dynamism and dramatic content that is strongly romantic, yet the subject is the prosaic task of pulling a boat out of the water. |
The will and the power of a woman. Implacable determination. |
| Author: Shute, Nevil | Trustee from the Toolroom | A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world. |
The importance of pursuing one's personal values.<br> |
| Designer: Tiffany, Louis Comfort | Spider Web Narcissi Table Lamp | Richness of form, sumptuous shapes. | |
| Miron - Parish | Tzena Tzena Tzena | Joyous celebration | Joyous celebration |
| Painter: Hosner, William | Her Face to the Wind | One gets the feeling that the young woman is able to stand strong in the world, with panache and beauty all at once. | Facing life in a fresh, strong, vivacious way. |
| Draftsman: Boscoli, Andrea | Horse Seen from Behind | Not much except perhaps stylistic -- confident, strong drafting style, and a vibrant, alive, horse. |