Antigone1.0091

Jean Cocteau, 1889-1963, Antigone, a tragic stageplay adapted from Sophocles, 1923, premiered December 1923 at Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris; incidental music by Arthur Honneger; decor by Pablo Picasso. Published Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

The image at right is by Cocteau, a line drawing called "Antigone and Creon" (Antigone2.0091_Cocteau), drawn about 1922 and held in private ownership. "Cocteau also achieved a work of importance in the visual arts with his drawing... Reduced to the vital elements of body language, the drawing presents the conflict so simply that it oscillates between seriousness and comedy. ... Defiance and obstinacy emerge in the extreme proximity of the figures; there is scarcely any space for the rudiments of a temple between them. Antigone's hem and scarf echo its columns and hence situate her on the side of the 'sacred' which the minimalist style seems to negate." (J. Söffner, Moog-Grünewald RMM) The backwards, anatomically impossible setting of Creon's elbows emphasize the extremity of his hard-line stance against Oedipus' actively pious daughter.