| Creator | Title | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Director: Stone, Oliver | Wall Street | There are bad people in power who use ordinary people as pawns in their endless pursuit of money. Those who are not ruthless are sheep to be slaughtered by the rich and powerful. Greed is bad. |
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| Sculptor: Saint-Gaudens, Auguste | Diana | Serenity in action. But not a strong world view in any case, quite placid. | |
| Sculptor: unknown | Winged Victory | One of the great expressions of the Greek Classical and Hellenistic spirit -- that men (and women) are larger than life and triumphant. While the image is partially a fantasy since the woman is winged and probably represents a goddess: Nike -- this concretization depicts a "god" in the form of a human woman, thus glorifying women. |
The grandeur of being alive and free. |
| Painter: Veronese, Paolo | Wisdom and Strength | Sumptuousness is good, and the human form is good. | |
| 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. |
| Director: Luhrmann, Baz | Romeo + Juliet | Tragedy is central to life. | Romantic Love is doomed and we don't control our own lives. |
| Rand, Ayn | Anthem | The book starts out psychologically dark and disorienting because of the protagonist struggling with the radically collectivist world he was born into. But what shows even in the early pages, and grows to the climax is the triumphant struggle of a rare few who break free of the yoke of total mind control and become free to live a life as a conceptual human and rediscover what it means to be an individual. Thrilling and emotionally satisfying (unless the reader is a committed determinist.) |
Ego and using one's individual mind is the core of being human. |
| Choreographer: Lander, Harold | Etudes | Thrilling pleasure at beautiful movement and great success at developing the best within you. |
Hard work results in great achievement in life -- and that results in beauty and excitement in life.<br> |
| Sculptor: Buonarotti, Michelangelo | Pieta | Resignation in the face of tragedy. | Recognition and acceptance of a great personal loss. |
| Director: Korda Alexander | Rembrandt | Life is hard as an independent spirit, and wealth will elude you, but you will be happy, after a fashion. | |
| 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. |
| Composer: Lerner and Loewe | Camelot | One must attempt to live by values, even though virtue is powerless and hopeless. | Camelot: a medieval place of goodness and justice, and its inevitable failure. |
| Singing Group: Soviet Army Chorus and Band | Sports March | Happiness triumphs. | The power of joy to motivate action. |
| Director: Gauger, Stephane | Owl and the Sparrow | A child shows sweetness and strength and determination. | Searching for family, for soulmates. |
| Villeroy & Boch | Chocolate Pitcher and Butter Dish | Friendly warmth (arising from the simple graceful lines, and the unadorned simplicity of the colors without ornament) | |
| Painter: Peale, Charles Wilson | Staircase Group (aka Portrait of Raphaelle Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale) | Perceiving accurately is important and playing with the artistic medium is fun. | |
| Director: De Felitta, Raymond | Two Family House | Feelings of benevolence and optimism about life. Happiness comes from making choices for your own good. | Going after what you want in life; Don't be stopped by conventional standards of the people around you. It takes courage to be selfish. |
| Hiroshige | Senso-ju Temple at Asakusa | Pure, simple, quiet tranquility. | |
| Director: Coppola Francis Ford | Godfather | Life demands death; life is a horror of killing and retribution. Life is tragedy and malevolence | Behind beauty and success lies corruption and death. |
| Director: Reiner, Rob | American President | Romance is fun, funny and important. | |
| 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 |
| Director: Parker, Alan | Fame | Life is hard, but you can succeed, and it is worth it and exhilarating. | Go after your heart's desire. |
| 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. |
| Miron - Parish | Tzena Tzena Tzena | Joyous celebration | Joyous celebration |
| Director: Hallstrom, Lasse | Chocolat | Pleasure is good; religion and conventional thinking is bad. | Follow your dream and disregard convention. |