Melissa Tkacs

Professor Gilliland

Philosophy

Blog Post 4

2 December 2014

Starry Night: a Biblical Twist

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh was painted in 1889 only one year before his death. It is stated that van Gogh composed this work of art during his stay at a mental institution after the incident of him cutting off his ear. It is said that this depicts the view that he had outside of his window there. His paining depicts a scene in the night overlooking a small town in the night. The painting shows a very swirled sky with all of the colors of the sky, moon and stars blending into each other.

            The interpretation of the Starry Night that I have chosen I believe is particularly insightful. Vincent van Gogh was a painter in a time that believed that paintings should portray an accurate representation of the scenery that is being painted. However, van Gogh’s paintings were more abstract, it is said that he used his exaggerated and non life like brush strokes as a way to portray the way that he was feeling inside. This painting of his may have originally been inspired by the darkness that he was feeling while in the institution, therefore explaining why the town was painted as a night scene. But, author of this interpretation says that the starry night may have a religious meaning to it. Backed up from the bible verse saying “Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” Genesis 37:9” because, within van Gogh’s painting, he portrays eleven stars and the moon. The bible verse has to do with the biblical character Joseph who was thrown into a pit and sold to slavery under the watch of his eleven brothers. Therefore explaining the quotation of the eleven stars shining over him as he was in the darkness not being good enough. This is said to be how van Gogh felt about the critics and other artists of the time shining over him and not appreciating his work.

            This interpretation has a great deal of explanatory breadth, it explains both the darkness of the town that van Gogh was in, and the lights of the critics and people who were believed as better artists shining over him.

            There is a lot of explanatory depth also. The explanation goes into saying why van Gogh was feeling this way in the mental asylum and the religious backing behind it all.

            When it comes to simplicity, it is complex to jump to this conclusion based on the fact that van Gogh was religious and may have painted this because of the verse in genesis. It has a lot of structure to the argument, with many explanations towards why van Gogh would paint it this way, so I would not classify this as a simple explanation.

            I would say that this view is conservative with our current views towards art. I would say this because it had a solid reasoning behind why he painted this, and not just an assumption that he painted this way just because he was in a certain state of mind.

There is evidence that van Gogh was religious and was being criticized poorly as an artist, so this points to there being great predictive power pointing towards this explanation being accurate.

1. The religious theory is an interpretation of the meaning of artwork Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

2. Though the religious theory is complex, it has a great deal of explanatory breadth and depth and predictive power with a moderate amount of conservatism.

3. Therefore, the religious theory is a good interpretation of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

http://legomenon.com/starry-night-meaning-of-vincent-van-gogh-painting