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“The Questioner of the Sphinx,” painted by Elihu Vedder in 1863.
More about this enigmatic painting 👇
When I first saw this painting, I immediately thought of one of my favorite poems, Ozymandias by Percy Shelley. While I was not able to find confirmation that this was the inspiration behind the painting, I’m not the only one who has made the connection between the two works as there are many similarities. Just like in the painting, the poem describes a wanderer in the desert who discovers the ruins of a massive old monument, now broken up amidst the sands. On the monument it says, “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramses the II. The Sphinx, on the other hand, was a monument to a different pharaoh, so the painting certainly isn’t meant to be an exact illustration of the poem. But in my mind, the theme of the painting matches the poem perfectly. Ozymandias’s grand proclamation in the poem is contrasted with the emptiness of the desert in which his statue has been abandoned, a reminder that even the greatest rulers and monuments in the world will one day be forgotten. This painting seems to try to invoke that same sense of contrast, between the desolation of the old Sphinx with our own knowledge of how grand it once was/is. This seems to line up with what Vedder has said himself about the painting, which is that he wanted to portray a sense of hopelessness in the face of the laws of nature.
Still, I’m left wondering what exactly the man or wanderer is doing in the painting. He is pressed up to the lips of the Sphinx as if he is trying to listen for something. But what is he trying to hear? The title is interesting, it implies he has come to ask the Sphinx a question, but what? Also, there’s a skull in the bottom right corner, does that have any meaning? Vedder doesn’t seem to have written anything to clarify what these answers may be, so perhaps he meant it to be up for interpretation. As always, I’d love to hear all of your thoughts.
Thanks for learning about this interesting painting with me ❤️
Here is the full text of Ozymandias:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away