Sculpture's Depiction of Suffering

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Rodin's "The Gates of Hell", the "Palette of King Narmer", Auguste Preault's "Slaughter" and Edward Keinholz's "The State Hospital", in terms of what they convey of suffering, the human condition, the origin and results of suffering, across cultures and periods. Through this paper, one realizes that suffering as depicted in sculpture has different meanings, according to theistic or other culture and how the individual is anticipated to respond to it.

From the Paper:

"A theme of human suffering has appeared, many times, in sculpture, and as this paper conveys, in remarkably different periods. Examining Rodin's 'The Gates of Hell', 'the Palette of King Narmer', August Preault's 'Slaughter', and 'The State Hospital' by Edward Keinholz is not as curious an exercise as it may, at first, seem. Emily Vey Duke argued that, "art is for empathy, and empathy... for the reduction of suffering". (Suffering, 2005, 8) However, the very different works discussed in this paper indicate something different, even if some similarity is found in the way that suffering is their foremost, memorable message."

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• Comparison Essay # 3052 : "The Depiction of Women in Three Escapist Fictions"

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