In The Man with a Waterskin by George Minne we see a thin, sinewy man lifting a leather water bag to pour water. This is one of the few sculptures for which Minne made a series of preliminary drawings. They are in a sketchbook dated 1897-1898, which is also in the museum collection. In the sketches we see how Minne develops the composition from a baptism scene. Although in Christian symbolism water is the source of life, at the fin de siècle it represented the descent into the ‘primal waters within us’, a descent that leads to self-knowledge. This ambiguity is typical of Minne’s art.
| Artist |
George Minne
RKD
VIAF
Wikidata
|
|---|---|
| Title | The Man with a Waterskin |
| Date | 1897 |
| Period | 19th century |
| Collection | sculpture AAT |
| Object type | gypsum AAT |
| Inventory number | 1986-AB |
| Acquisition credit |
purchase
Kimpe (coll.) 1986 |
| Current whereabouts | Work on display |
| Permalink | https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1986-AB |
| IIIF Manifest | https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/3559/manifest.json |
| Art & Architecture Thesaurus |
300189808
figures (representations)
AAT
300055865 Symbolism (artistic concept) AAT |
|---|---|
| Keywords Iconclass |
11Q7321
baptism, christening ceremony ~ the first of the seven sacraments
Iconclass
21D water (one of the four elements) Iconclass 31A the (nude) human figure; 'Corpo humano' (Ripa) Iconclass 31A231 standing figure Iconclass 31A71 male sex; man Iconclass 31D14 adult man Iconclass 32A22 thin (human type) Iconclass 32A22(+0) thin (human type) (+ variant) Iconclass 41A776 container of leather: leather bag Iconclass |
| School / Style | Symbolism (artistic concept) AAT |
|
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