Titlesort icon Creator Date Era City Country Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) Theme
Repose Painter: John White Alexander 1895 1900s New York United States

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.

Rembrandt Director: Korda Alexander 1936 1931-1950 United Kingdom

Life is hard as an independent spirit, and wealth will elude you, but you will be happy, after a fashion.

Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo (Royal Church of St. Lawrence) Architect: Guarino Guarini 1680 1600s Torino (Turin) Italy

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.

Real Adventure, The Author: Henry Kitchell Webster 1915 United States

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.

Rashomon Director: Akira Kurosawa 1950 1931-1950 Japan

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".

Rape of Polyxena, The Sculptor: Pio Fedi 1866 1800s

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.

Psyche Author: Phyllis Brett Young 1959 Canada

Optimistic, Hopeful, even under terrible circumstances.

We are beings of self-made soul

Pirelli Calendar Diver Photographer: Uwe Ommer 1984 Italy

Women can be strong, dynamic and unconsciously beautiful.

Pieta Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti 1500 1500s

Resignation in the face of tragedy.

Recognition and acceptance of a great personal loss.

Owl and the Sparrow Director: Stephane Gauger 2007 1991-2010 Saigon Vietnam

A child shows sweetness and strength and determination.

Searching for family, for soulmates.

Othello: the Moor of Venice Playwright: William Shakespeare 1603 1600s Stratford-on-Avon United Kingdom

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.

Old Man with a Young Boy Painter: Domenico Ghirlandaio 1490 1400s Florence Italy

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.)

Of Human Bondage Maugham, W. Somerset: 1915 1900 - 1950 United Kingdom

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.

Octopus Schaefer, Taf Lebel: 2005

Playful.

Niobe Sculptor: unknown c. 200 BC Rome Italy

Human action is beautiful.

Life is movement.

National Farmers' Bank Architect: Louis Sullivan 1907 1900 - 1950 Owatonna MN United States

Being able to breath freely -- expansively, and feeling that there are no limits to what man can do.

The world is expansively, infinitely rich.

Much Ado About Nothing Playwright: William Shakespeare 1993 1991-2010

Sweetness and light and beauty are what the world is made of.

Monster, The Director: Roberto Benigni 1994 1991-2010 Italy

Just laughter and more of the same.

Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) Composer: Franz Lehar 1905 1900s Vienna Austria

Love brings gaiety and joy to life.

Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous.

Mad Men Creator: Matthew Weiner 2007 Los Angeles United States

Men must sell their souls in order to live, and they are chauvinist pigs to boot. And women are sluts. Dark.

Love Actually Director and Screenwriter: Richard Curtis 2003 1991-2010 United Kingdom

Romantic love, family love, filial love, and the love of friendship are of central importance to human existence, and are possible to achieve.

Wonderful experiences of love are found in many forms and places.

Laocoon (Laocoön and His Sons) Sculptor: Agesander 1st century BCE to 1st century CE 500 BCE - 1 CE Rome Italy

Life is a desperate, agonizing struggle.

The heroic but agonizing defeat of Men. This sculpture certainly represents at the same time the heroic nature of men but cast into an impossible situation that can only be tragic.

Landfall Shute, Nevil: 1940 1900 - 1950 United Kingdom

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.

La Grande Nevrose Loysel, Jacques: c.1896 1800s Paris France

The dynamic female body is beautiful and exciting. Although it may not explicitly suggest it, the nude and its tense position could be felt as erotic.

An animated female body is a vessel of perfection.

La Gomena (Towing a Boat) Painter: Ettore Tito 1909 1900s Italy

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.