| Creator | Title | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schaefer, Taf Lebel | Octopus | Playful. | |
| Maugham, W. Somerset | Of Human Bondage | Life is a fearful gray spread of actions and in-actions without genuine values. We are all deformed in mind or spirit and should accept convention as demanded by those around us. | Man's life is outside his control. Conventionality is the final ideal. |
| Painter: Ghirlandaio, Domenico | Old Man with a Young Boy | Human companionship or family closeness is real. | Quiet familial love. (A grandfather (perhaps) gazing upon a grandson, and vice versa, in a clear moment of happy communion.) |
| Playwright: Shakespeare, William | Othello: the Moor of Venice | Malevolence and horrible tragedy is unrelieved. Evil is potent. |
A great man can be gullible and controlled by an evil character. Or, an evil character can have potency in the world, because of the weakness of a good man.<br> |
| Director: Gauger, Stephane | Owl and the Sparrow | A child shows sweetness and strength and determination. | Searching for family, for soulmates. |
| Sculptor: Buonarotti, Michelangelo | Pieta | Resignation in the face of tragedy. | Recognition and acceptance of a great personal loss. |
| Photographer: Ommer, Uwe | Pirelli Calendar Diver | Women can be strong, dynamic and unconsciously beautiful. | |
| Author: Young, Phyllis Brett | Psyche | Optimistic, Hopeful, even under terrible circumstances. |
We are beings of self-made soul<br> |
| Sculptor: Fedi, Pio | Rape of Polyxena, The | Strength and complex beauty are central. Vitality, passion and action are hallmarks of this work. |
Life is complex strife, entwined with strong god-like characters. |
| Director: Kurosawa, Akira | Rashomon | The world is terrible and full of disasters and mankind is awful and pathetic. | Objectivity is a myth -- everyone sees a different reality, a different "story". |
| Author: Webster, Henry Kitchell | Real Adventure, The | Life is wonderful as long as you realize that life has to be earned the hard way. | Creating your *self* is the only way to live. |
| Architect: Guarini, Guarino | Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo (Royal Church of St. Lawrence) | The world is perfected. The joy of seeing complexity that is simplicity, i.e., that the rich complex vision arises from simple elements which because of their arrangement provide layers of visual thrills. | Complex, soaring geometric order. |
| Director: Korda Alexander | Rembrandt | Life is hard as an independent spirit, and wealth will elude you, but you will be happy, after a fashion. | |
| Painter: Alexander, John White | Repose | Life is extravagant and lush and sensual. | Feminine Sensuality is a main theme, though one can argue that a related (equal theme or sub-theme) is: The Lushness of the Material World. The dramatic draped womanly figure pressing against a divan, whose figure is clearly oulined, shares the visual dominance of the painting along with the magnificent sweeps of her dress and the giant pillows, the massive backrest, and even the strong elements of the floor material and the golden back wall. All together a remarkable composition. |
| Myron? | Riace Bronze A | Man is strong and indomitable | Intelligence, Pride, Strength = Man |
| Director: Caton-Jones, Michael | Rob Roy | Life is a struggle. The life you make for yourself can be difficult, but living it with strength and morality is the way to live. Happiness is possible in romance. | Heroism in everyday life leads to heroism writ large. A man works hard to lead his life and those of his extended clan in an honorable, productive, honest way. This is the everyday heroism. But dishonorable, evil men seek to steal from him and ruin him. This leads to a life of larger-than-life heroism to vanquish his mortal, and stronger enemies. |
| Architect: Wright, Frank Lloyd | Robie House | The world is open and has sweeping, unending possibilities. | The essence of a house as shelter, and providing a sense of strength and privacy. That is, a structure that exudes strength through its massive cantilever and massive brick and stone forms, along with its big overhangs sheltering the windows to create a sense of privacy and enclosure, in its urban situation. |
| Director: Luhrmann, Baz | Romeo + Juliet | Tragedy is central to life. | Romantic Love is doomed and we don't control our own lives. |
| Designer: Unknown | Rose Window - La Sainte-Chapelle (aka The Holy Chapel | The world is open and bright and colorful and gay. | |
| Director: McCarey, Leo | Ruggles of Red Gap | Happiness and fulfillment is in yourself. | Personal declaration of independence from servitude |
| Architect: Anonymous | Sainte-Chapelle | The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly. | The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly. |
| Hiroshige | Senso-ju Temple at Asakusa | Pure, simple, quiet tranquility. | |
| Rodin, Auguste | Shade, The | Life is a gruesome trial. There is no hope. | The world destroys man. (Some unknown evil force is destroying this young strong man.) Given that the sculpture is titled as a "Shade" and is related to the Group sculpture "Gates of Hell", one can presume the evil is some unnamed condition that can overpower life and cause destruction of the good. |
| Designer: Tiffany, Louis Comfort | Spider Web Narcissi Table Lamp | Richness of form, sumptuous shapes. | |
| Singing Group: Soviet Army Chorus and Band | Sports March | Happiness triumphs. | The power of joy to motivate action. |