Starry Night at St. Rémy

... Tim Devore Art Appreciation Kenneth Verdugo February 6, 2003 Starry Night at St. Rémy Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night at St. Rémy of June 1889, expresses the comforting power and spirituality of the infinite night sky over the humbler, earthly brand of nature through a synthesis of exceptional visual power, elements of religious allegory, and of modern spiritualism. This work is the product of van Gogh's refusal to depict the purely imaginary, but willful manipulation of what is real in order to achieve a more powerful work, both visually and through symbolism and allegory. Starry Night is more powerful than van Gogh's literal Agony of Christ would have been because, in separating itself from imagery that is strictly religious in its connotations, he was able to saturate the work with cultural and literary meanings that could appeal to a society no longer confined to the rhetoric of organized religion. Moreover, the work is so visually

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