Feeling of Dependency

Narrator:

Being different takes courage.

And standing out as something other than what is generally accepted can have consequences...
This was also the case for the German artist Sascha Schneider.

 

Schneider was open about his homosexual orientation at a time when it was prohibited by law in many countries. This created great difficulties for him personally and as an artist, and meant that he chose to live in Italy for long periods, a country where it wasn’t actually prohibited at this time.

 

It’s rare that a work shows psychological experiences and emotional life as strongly as this painting that Schneider painted at the very end of the 19th century.

 

The naked man with his back to us shows all his vulnerability – turning away from the viewer, but seemingly drawn towards the beast that grows out of nature.

 

The chains around both wrists bind him tightly and symbolize the feeling of dependence.

 

Artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries looked back and found inspiration in medieval art's ability to describe people's inner emotional lives in a genuine and "true" way.

 

In Schneider’s work we can see that he clearly interprets inner feelings and the mysterious nature.