Modern Artwork

Picasso, Pablo Bull Skull, Fruit, and Pitcher, 1939, Oil on canvas, 65 x 92 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Bull's Skull, Fruit and Pitcher is a modern Cubist painting that has adopted the conventions of the seventeenth century vanitas still life.
• It was painted around the time of the fall of the Spanish Republic and during the rise in dictatorial governments in Europe, and this painting provided hope for the people. 
• One idea portrayed in this artwork is the opposing principles of life, which is shown through the contrasting elements present - the gloomy foreground and the bright background - providing that there is light and dark to every situation.
• Life and death are also present in this work as the skull, a representation of death, contrasts with the fruit, a symbol of nourishment and life, and the tree in full bloom which gives this otherwise depressing work hope for something better.  
• The third idea relates to the dismay Picasso felt after the fall of the Spanish Republic, which is shown through the symbol of the bull which signifies power, contrasted by the fact that the bull in this work is dead and decaying.