http://at.bc.edu/jefferyhowe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jefferyhowe Mon, 18 Jul 2016 13:25:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3 http://at.bc.edu/jefferyhowe/comment-page-1/#comment-108 Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:32:18 +0000 http://kuhnn.bc.edu:8080/wordpress/jefferyhowe/#comment-108 As an afficianado of Khnopff, I was pleased to encounter not only a well-versed professor on the subject but also a thought-provoking inquiry into the man and his work. Despite its brevity, the interview was filled with numerous insights into this most questionable of painters, although I was puzzled by the fact that during a discussion on The Caresses, Professor Howe attempts to rationalize the ‘hieroglyphs’ found behind the sphinx. It is possible they relate to the myth of the riddle that is posed, but it is also reasonable that since Khnopff is re-interpreting the myth, the hieroglyphs are a symbol of the sphinx herself. It is interesting to note that two of the ‘irrational’ or open symbols that appear in the painting reside on the half where the sphinx is located. The sphinx herself is an amalgamation of two seemingly rational beings, placed together to form an irrational ‘creature’, so that one might interpret the imagery as being symbolic of the dream-like, super-rational state in which she resides. And though although the sphinx crosses the space to embrace Oedipus, while he in turn leans to snuggle against her, there is a suggestion that Oedipus is still too much in the ‘rational’ world to either understand or accept what the sphinx is truly offering him. Perhaps even Khnopff is suggesting the same as well, that in order to ‘read’ the symbolism one would have to ‘cross’ into the sphinx’s territory more completely, a surrender that Oedipus, and perhaps the viewer, is incapable of.

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