Skeletons fighting over a Hanged Man

Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man is an 1891 oil painting by the Belgian symbolist painter James Ensor which is in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

Description and analysis

The work depicts an on-stage drama in which two skeletons dressed in masks and women's clothing are fighting with traditional female weapons such as brooms and umbrellas. Behind them hangs a dead body described as "civet", the French description for a hare stew. In both wings, extras wearing masks and carrying knives are watching the fight. A loose web connects the body to the combatants.

One interpretation of the work is that the two quarrelling women represent Ensor's wife and mistress and he the helpless body over which they fight. An alternative more androgynous interpretation is that the quarrelsome pair represent Ensor's embittered view of his critics where he again is the powerless prize; the people in the wings would in this case represent the public, some for and some against his art.

摘自英文维基百科「Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man」（暂时没有中文条目，下面是英文原文），按 CC BY-SA 4.0 使用，去掉了参考文献、外部链接等尾部小节和表格，其余文字未作改动。