Sin, death or just a trick of the eye: what is the art-historical symbolism of the fly?
After the pesky bug made an unexpected appearance in the U.S. Vice President debate last night and pounced on Vice President Mike Pence’s head (and got involved for a full two minutes), social media was rife with interpretation.
So, a fun art historical fact! Flies are used to represent putrefaction, waste, decay, death, and melancholy.
A fly hovering over a church official or nobleman indicates dissatisfaction with the king or corruption and neglect of duty. pic.twitter.com/aLuiKFwWNI
– Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) October 8, 2020
Flying has a long history in Western art. The appearance of the beetle in a work of art from the Middle Ages was used to symbolize the death or putrefaction of the flesh and soul.
At the time, it was believed that flies arise spontaneously from mud and have a strong connection with the devil or Beelzebub, who is described in the New Testament as the “Lord of the Flies”. In vanitas paintings, flies often appear next to a skull, evoking the impermanence of the physical body and the inevitability of death. Flies buzzing over a woman indicate lustful arbitrariness and inappropriateness. And in the presence of a nobleman or a clergy, the mistake is said to have implied corruption and deception.
Some art historians have argued that artists have included flies less for their symbolic meaning than as a sign of the artist’s own talents – and for good reason. Flies often appear as playful trompe l’oeil on the margins of medieval manuscripts and on painting frames.
For example, Renaissance art historian and artist Giorgio Vasari told a popular story (which was probably just a legend) in which Giotto, while an apprentice to Cimabue, was painting a fly on a portrait of his master, and Cimabue trying to hit Fooling for a moment held the fly away before realizing the prank.
The meaning of the bow tie inevitably varied from painting to painting. Below you can decide which interpretations you think fit these art history paintings from art history.
Petrus Christ, portrait of a Carthusian (1446). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Caravaggio, fruit basket (around 1599). Collection of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.
Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child (around 1480). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Salvador Dalí, The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1969–70). Collection of the Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida.
Frans van der Mijn, Lady with a Bow Tie on Her Shoulder (around 1596).
Barthel Bruyn the Elder, Vanitas (1524). Collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum.
Meister von Frankfurt, self-portrait of the artist with his wife (1496). Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.
Damien Hirst, fly painting (1997).
Clara Peeters, Still Life with Venetian Glass, Roemer and a Candlestick (1607). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Carlo Crivelli, St. Catherine of Alexandria (around 1491–94). Collection of the National Gallery, London.
Ambrosius Bosschaert II, Dead Frog with Flies (1630).
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Do you always want to be one step ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news, insightful interviews, and succinct critical attitudes that keep the conversation moving.
