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A varieaty of artistic work signals the traces of mind’s activity imprinted in the history of human beings. What the artist creates is not so much the memetic representation of a visible world as the subjective expression of an inner world of feeling. A painting transmits thoughts, stories, and concerns of the world through employment of forms, lines, colors, and materials. Therefore, artistic work is a form of language as well as an object. As a form of interpretation and communication, metaphor involves not only rhetorical techniques, but also conceptual structures. Moreover, in terms of aesthetic experience, metaphor encompasses a whole range of our sensory experience, including our perception of colors, shapes, and textures. Focusing on Van Gogh’s artistic work, this study aims to explore the way and significane metaphor has been used as forms of feeling in Western painting. Through a critical survey of his life work and artistic work, I propose to address in this study Van Gogh’s aesthetic theory, creative innovation, and the spiritual worth inherent in his painting, specifically through a discussion of some of his representative work. This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is an introduction of approaches and agendas of this study. Chapter Two –“The Mirror of Van Gogh’s Life”—scrutinizes the course of Van Gogh’s painting career along the change and development of post-impressionism. In this chapter, I also attempt to provide a comparision of Van Gogh and his contemporaries, with a specific focus on post-impressionist painters. Chapter Three—“Metaphor in Van Gogh’s Painting”— addresses the employment of metaphor as forms of feeling manifest in the expressive content and formalistic characteristics of Van Gogh’s work, beginning with an effort to define “metaphor” as well as an examination of its function and value. The final chapter concludes with a summary and an expectation that this study might provide a new perspective and possibilities for aesthetic appreciation and judgment. Key Words : Vincent Van Gogh,Metaphor
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