O jednym z aspektów obrazu "Dziwny ogród" Józefa Mehoffera. Między Stworzeniem a ewolucjonizmem

My study of Józef Mehoffer’s famous painting Strange Garden, 1903, represents a departure from the polemics that argue that it was meant to depict the artist’s happy family life. I am not saying that the painter lacked happiness, only that his painting had another meaning. In my analysis of the structure of the image, I refer to the distinct painterly treatment of the dragonfly, as compared to the garden and the figures, often remarked upon by art critics and researchers. By focussing on the relationship between the depicted scene and the surface and boundary of the picture, and thus on the identification of the strictly painterly aspects of the work, my analysis led me to the conclusion that the painting contains a coded reference to the biblical story of the Creation of the world and of man’s salvation. The woman picking an apple can be interpreted as Eve, whilst another woman in the background serves as her mirror image,