Allegory of Winter by Remedios Varo (Interpretation and Analysis)

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Allegory of Winter
Source: WikiArt
Today is the last day of the year. It’s been a wild and stressful ride, and I have to say that I’m glad to turn the page on this year. As we look forward to 2021, however, I want to share one more painting: Allegory of Winter by Remedios Varo.

I am often captivated by Varo’s paintings. She was one of the most imaginative artists of her age, employing a complex set of symbols and visual story-telling techniques to convey meaning. As a result, her paintings often conjure images of some half-imagined, legendary past, steeped in magic.

Varo’s profound creativity can be seen in paintings like Allegory of Winter. The painting portrays strange, spiky, cactus-like plants growing in a parched, barren landscape. White snowflakes swirl in the background against a flat, grey sky. Ice-like pods grow between these strange trees, crystallizing into multi-faceted shapes. Each of these ice crystals contains a different bird, flower, or insect, perhaps representing relics of past seasons and the promise of future summers.

Varo uses Allegory of Winter to explore the relationship between death and life, the perennial push and pull that winter represents. These pockets of crystalized life represents the ties that connect the living world, set against a lonely and lifeless background. Varo returned to these themes time and again in her work. 

Allegory of Winter was one of Varo’s early works, and it is a fine and excellent example of Varo’s developing style. It is a fantastical and imaginative and the perfect way to celebrate winter as this year comes to an end.

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