Triumph of Death by Felix Nussbaum
Pain and suffering is difficult to justify for someone that believes that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. If God is all of these things, then there is the question of why human beings suffer. Theodicy attempts to justify why God would allow evil things to happen to human beings. It tries to show that pain and suffering are compatible with religion. Pain and suffering is often addressed in modern art because it is an unavoidable aspect of life. The artwork can reflect suffering of an individual as well as representing an event that caused great suffering. Often, artists express suffering in their artwork as a way to cope with the pain they feel internally. Pain, whether emotional or physical, is expressed in art because it is difficult to address it in words. Art visually engages the viewer to evoke strong sympathetic reactions to what is being shown. The Triumph of Death by Felix Nussbaum shows not only internal suffering, but it is relevant to the suffering that was being experienced during the time period in which it was painted.
Felix Nussbaum painted the Triumph of Death in 1944 while he was in hiding for being Jewish, a short amount of time later he and his wife were caught by the Nazi police and shipped to Auschwitz concentration camp. The painting depicts a desolate landscape with skeletal figures triumphantly playing music. The figures have smug, grim smiles on their faces. The bottom of the painting shows broken, destroyed items which are representative of normal human activity. There are broken scientific instruments, paint brushes, film canisters, and music scores. Many of these items were from Nussbaum’s everyday life. Most notably, there is the smashed head of the Roman goddess of Justice discarded among the rubble1. The representation of the concept of justice is important because given the context of when and under what circumstance the Triumph of Death was painted by Nussbaum, there was no justice for the people that were suffering during the Holocaust. Placed at the top of the painting are evil faced kites flying in the sky. They are a foreboding presence that are inescapable. The kites in the far background are flying together in formation which represents a German bombing squad during WWII.1 Another notable aspect of this painting is the figure sitting on the organ in despair. It is the most human-like figure in the painting and the only figure not playing an instrument. The figure is an altered self-portrait of Nussbaum, and it represents his despair. The winged skeleton is standing over him in victory. The hopelessness that is present in the paining is representative of Nussbaum’s own sense of doom from being in hiding.2
Because Nussbaum experienced hiding and isolation for being Jewish and the genocide of the Jewish population in Europe, his painting has a lot of despair and anger. He anticipated his capture and he portrayed his fate in the painting.2 There is a sense of questioning God in the painting because humanity is being destroyed while death is triumphant. This intense anger, despair, and confusion can be seen as communion theodicy because his anger is bringing him closer to God. In communion theodicy, suffering provides a direct relationship between God and humans.3 The anger that Nussbaum feels creates an intimacy, although negative, between God and himself. Deferent theodicy emphasizes that humans do not have the capacity to understand God’s actions.3 The destruction and discarded human objects at the bottom of the painting could be connected to deference theodicy because everything we know as humans is being discarded and we are suffering from something we do not understand. The chaotic state of the painting is also deference theodicy because it shows a sense of confusion where Nussbaum does not understand why these things are happening.
Counterlight's Peculiars. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2014/08/felix-nussbaum.html
Objects - Felix Nussbaum: Triumph des Todes (Triumph of Death), painting (1944). (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://kuenste-im-exil.de/KIE/Content/EN/Objects/nussbaum-felix-triumph-des-todes-en.html?single=1
Jones, L. (2005). Theodicy. In Encyclopedia of religion (pp. 9111-9120). New York: Macmillan.