The place of the concept of melancholy in Picasso’s blue period paintings

Abstract

In this study, the elements that connect the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period paintings with the concept
of melancholy were investigated. Various definitions of the concept of melancholy, which has undergone constant
changes in meaning throughout history, are emphasized. The use of the color blue is one of the elements that
connects the blue period and the concept of melancholy. Based on the fact that the color blue expresses melancholy
in Western culture and Christian belief and the symbolic meanings of the color in history, this art period in which
the artist used the color blue dominantly; The subject has been examined in terms of style and stylistic features. In
this context, the works named “Life”, “Blind Man’s Breakfast”, “Old Guitarist”, “Tragedy”, “Old Jew and a Boy”
were analyzed in terms of plastic language and content, and the points compatible with the concept of melancholy
were determined. From the point of view of the emerging binding elements, the place and effect of the concept of
melancholy in the development of the period was investigated.