Focus on Arnold Comes of Age and analyze the Interpretation.
The art critic Luciano Cheles says that many of Wood's paintings—including his famous American Gothic—were inspired by works produced during the Italian Renaissance, especially those of the fifteenth-century artist Piero della Francesca. Arnold Comes of Age may have been inspired by his painting The Resurrection, as the paintings share several similarities. In both paintings, the central profile is "neatly" set apart from the background, looking at the viewer with a serious gaze; a figure with a distant look was a typical element of della Francesca's art. The paintings also have two trees framing them: in Wood, one young and one mature, and in della Francesca, one bare and one full of leaves. For Cheles, these contrasting trees represent life and death, as well as a general transition between two states. Della Francesca also painted The Baptism of Christ, and Cheles argues that the nude bathers in Wood's painting are similar to that work. These bathers may symbolize baptism, and consequently, one coming of age.Ulysses Grant Dietz, a former curator of The Newark Museum of Art, said that the painting indicates an "obvious love" for Arnold. Details such as recurrent couplings (of trees, bushes, and stacks of hay) may demonstrate a love for Pyle, and the two nude swimmers in the back could represent the Christian figures Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Wood chose to sign his name beside Pyle's beltbuckle—adorned with AP, for Arnold Pyle—perhaps so the two men could have their names forever linked. Arnold Comes of Age also depicts a butterfly—which was understood at the time as a gay symbol—landing on Arnold's shirt. The painting is thought to be homoerotic, although critic Faye Hirsch says this interpretation allows researchers to make claims about Wood's life with only minimal evidence.
Garden of Eden Adam and Eve Italian Renaissance The Baptism of Christ Piero della Francesca The Resurrection Baptism The Newark Museum of Art homoerotic baptism American Gothic