“The Frieze of Life” by Edvard Munch: Philosophical and Art Analysis

Abstract

The article presents a philosophical and art analysis of three paintings by the Norwegian artist E. Munch, namely “Melancholy” (1891–1892), “Separation” (1896), “The Dance of Life” (1899–1900), included in the “The Frieze of Life” cycle. The purpose of the analysis was to uncover the artistic ideas of each of the selected works and to identify the general conceptual basis of the artist’s work. As a result of the methodological analysis of the paintings, it was substantiated that the work of E. Munch, firstly, is fundamentally consistent, in the sense that each work should be considered as part of the painter’s holistic art world view; secondly, the dominant compositional features of the works, relating them to the style space of Areo-romanticism, are highlighted; thirdly, such a characteristic of E. Munch’s creativity as a programmatic approach is revealed, which is expressed in the embodiment of the deep meanings of human life through the sign-symbolic forms of works