Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures -- 2001-2002 Cultural Literacy Class Forum

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Date Posted: 16:48:04 03/19/02 Tue
Author: Laura
Subject:

Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures

Every time I look at the painting "Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures," I cannot help but wonder about the child, who is playing with the scarlet-clad woman's jewlery. Realistically, the little girl is probably just playing with the jewlery because she is bored; however, perhaps there is a deeper meaning to it. I thought so, but perhaps I am just going too off the chart yet again. Anyway, I was thinking:

Given that the title of the painting is "Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures," the children are labelled as treasures. Now one treasure has no interest in herself, but in another treasure, the jewlery. Since the other two children on Cornelia's right (our left) seem to be interested in each other, one can say that the little girl is not thinking of the self, but of the other treasure. Thus, the girl is unable to value the treasure of herself, but is quick to see it in something else, which has worldly value.

Isn't it strange how a treasure is fascinated with another treasure, overlooking the value that she herself has? It is kind of scary how one could arguably say that this painting predicts modern thinking. In today's world, nothing is considered of value unless it can be placed with a high monetary value.

But what is true value? This is the entire message of the painting. Thus the picture is like a scale, with one extreme (valuing for non-monetary worth) on the left, the other extreme (valuing solely for monetary worth) on the right, and the confused modern world in the middle, grappling with which side of the scale to go to.

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