Semiotic Analysis of Chagall's I and Village(1911-1914)

Signs and relations—these are two of the key notions of semiotic analysis. Art is subjective and created for different purposes. When viewing art, we can never understand its true intent. It may seem valuable to the beholder, aesthetically, but its deep, true symbolic meaning is only known to its creator. This personal symbolism has inner meaning to the creator and is something that is not accessible to everyone, regardless of how old they are or where they come from.

Chagall’s I and the Village (1911-1914) is a good example of the use of symbolism and he has arranged them in a certain fashion as to derive meaning and significance. He has blended his nostalgia for his homeland, a reflection of his dreams with the adopted style of Cubism. Langer says, “A subject which has emotional meaning for the artist may thereby rivet his attention and cause him to see its form with a discerning, active eye, and to keep that form present in his excited imagination until its heights reaches of significance are evident to him; then he will have, and will paint, a deep and original conception of it.” Chagall has used signs both ambiguous and self-focusing, colors, forms and shapes that show landscapes and folk stories of Russia. Russian folklore believes everything bad and sinister comes at the left side, which here is the goat. Right side has more positive connotations such as being auspicious, good, and sacred, here a man wearing the cross chain When we look at the painting, we see the rendering of Chagall’s hometown, a church and some houses. Secondly, a man facing the goat, sign of practical wisdom. There is a hand that offers a plant, which symbolizes that he is worshiping the goat, a symbol of the omnipresent, God, as Chagall has created in almost all of his paintings.Thirdly, on the goat’s face, we see a cow and a milkmaid, typically seen in villages, symbolizes what Nature does provide to the commoners. Cows are primary symbols of passivity, docility and general contentment with life. The cow is mostly a positive dream symbol of prosperity, contentment and happiness.

Culture demands delicate handling of everything in creation. In the Vedic symbolism, the cow stands for the creation and also for Earth. The planet and the creation offer innumerable wealth, pleasure experiences, happiness, joyfulness and bliss. The creation nourishes the beings in creation with its milk. In the background is a man holding a scythe, usually to cut or hack down anything, symbolizing the time of life and death. A farmer cuts down the weeds, depicting death and plant something, to bring into life. There is a lady and some of the houses in the background are drawn upside down, emphasizing a dreamlike quality of the work.

Every thought we entertain circles around us and it never dies, it might get weak in time and then if we continuously think about something it becomes a power of source. Langer says, “the artistic idea is always a deeper conception” (Langer,206). At first glance, one may not see the fine line between the man’s eye and that of the goat, a self-focusing message, an eye to eye interaction between cosmic and human or confrontation between man and beast. The artwork, is an iconic sign, since it reveals an idea-we believe and give our offerings to the omnipresent, we could always win the beast, face it without fear. Our life is nourished and enriched and then finally does come death, it’s inevitable, but that’s a beginning of something new.