German expressionist Otto Dix painted The Seven Deadly Sins in 1933, which was not the best year for the artist. At that time, Adolf Hitler became the head of Germany, and throughout the country in all cultural institutions began a mass purge - looking for those who had Jews in their family or who were in any way associated with the socialists. Knowledge, experience, past merits were no longer of any importance, the main thing was purity of blood and trustworthiness. Otto Dix was also fired, and his house was searched, after which many things had to be thrown into the dump. The paintings were especially damaged - they were not spared, and when Dix's wife Marta asked to treat them sparingly, the police replied: "The paintings will be destroyed anyway, and it would be better if you did it yourself to avoid unnecessary problems, because we don't need such smears.
The Seven Deadly Sins
Not surprisingly, after all this, Dix tried to find an outlet in a caustic satire on Hitler and the Nazi regime. However, the plot for it took quite traditional - the display of the seven deadly sins, which in Christianity are basic. Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder wrote on this subject, but no one dared to do it as Otto Dix did.
To determine which of the characters represents which sin is not difficult. The hunched old woman - greed, the dwarf on her back, strikingly reminiscent of Hitler's mustache - envy, a promiscuous woman with naked breasts - lust, dancing skeleton - laziness, a monster resembling a creepy mask with horns - anger, the head pulled up from above - vanity, and the fat man who put a pot on his head - gluttony.
Flanders
True, this picture had to hide from prying eyes, and Dix himself to go to the village, away from the prying attention of the Nazis, and to make ends meet prabrabrabrabotnika writing frivolous landscapes and portraits of smiling German girls, to which even the strictest censor can not be challenged. I even had to go to some tricks - to reduce the size of the canvas, but put it in a lavish frame - all as liked the good German burghers.
The Triumph of Death
Thanks to old connections, Dix receives commissions for portraits and murals - only within the bounds of decency, no creative experiments. Survival works, but Dix does not get joy and satisfaction from such artwork. It is hard to step on the throat of his own ideas about art,to write as it should be, and not as you want.
To finally not feel unnecessary, he writes "in the desk" quite other paintings, for example, "Flanders" and "Triumph of Death". This is proof that the artist has not yet given up, not yet reconciled with the Nazi regime, as if he had a premonition of what all this could eventually lead to. One can only wonder at Dix's foresight - at that time, most Germans supported Hitler, associated with him dreams of a strong Germany.
A sailor and a girl
By the way, if you look closely, the drawing on the skeleton, representing laziness, is folded into a swastika. Later, Dix reproached all Germans, whose laziness and desire to find those who could take over the solution of all the economic problems facing Germany in those years, led to the arrival of the Nazis.
Christ and Veronica
However, the main character is not laziness, but a dwarf on a hunched old woman-almost symbolizing envy. In him unmistakably recognizable features of Hitler - the very mustache, which is inextricably linked to his image. He is the smallest and most insignificant of all the characters, but it is because of envy, according to Otto, other sins grew. Germans envied people living in neighboring countries, where the standard of living at that time was higher, those who came out victorious from the First World War and very much wanted to change the existing order of things. Everyone knows what it all led to.
Indeed, this picture of Otto was prophetic.
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