How can this snake be charmed? Our art review of "The Nude Snake Charmer."

Jan 02, 2018

We begin our series of of reviewing famous art with "The Nude Snake Charmer" by Paul Desire Trouillebert.

Trouillebert (1829 -1900) was a French Barbizon school painter.  This group of painters moved towards Realism in art, in contrast to the dominant Romantic movement of that time.

The Nude Snake Charmer expresses a fundamental battle of primordial forces: the carnal world of material fleshly desires and the sublimation of Beauty.

Beauty stares at the snake gently, in innocence and in mastery, charming with her gaze as her hands grasp wand and percussion to surround the snake in a dazzle of sound and vision.

The danger is near.  The danger is present.  At any moment there could be a venomous bite.  A fatal bite.

She is naked on her bed, unprotected by clothing, adorned with touches of gold, inving the snake.  Their world is gold.  Their world is golden light.

The snake is pointed to enter her, yet poised to wait.  The more we stare, the more we feel.  We lose track.  Who is charming who?   Does being charmed mean that she allows the snake to enter her?  Does being charmed mean the snake must wait in submission without killing?  The more we stare the more we feel and the more we feel the more we stare and here now we feel us going higher together into that oil on canvas and the spell is cast and if the spell is broken--suddenly, it all comes crashing down.

The love of our life is a snake.  A toxic snake.  How can something so good be so bad?  How can that feeling change so quickly if the spell is broken?

"The Nude Snake Charmer" by Paul Desire Trouillebert.