Commentary

From ancient times to the contemporary, what is the most commonly portrayed animal? There have been many works depicting familiar animals such as dogs, cats, and horses. However, bulls possessed very special meanings to the artists of yesteryears.
Cattles became livestock around 8000 years ago. Since then, they have become an important provision for our civilizations as labor force, producers of dairy, and meat. Various types of cattle were bred around the world. A very familiar animal yet portrayed as holy in some cultures, depicted in many mythologies and legends.

In Greek mythology, Europa gives birth to Minos after being kidnapped by a white bull, Zeus in disguise. By the fury of Poseidon, King Minos’s wife Pasiphae gives birth to a horrendous beast, Minotaur. The violent creature was locked in the Labyrinth, eventually defeated by Theseus.

Some religions portrayed cattle as sacred, such as Mithraism and Hinduism. Sacred cattle were sacrificed to the sun god, Mithras, from the 1st BC to 5th AD, while Hindus worshipped the bulls as the sacred vehicle of Shiva, the god of destruction.

Since the days of cave paintings, cattle remained a common subject even into the 20th century. The primordial strengths of bulls and Minotaur were represented as the force of renewal. Picasso portrayed himself as a bull and have left many works regarding this subject. A surrealist magazine of the 1930s, Minotaure, used images of Minotaur for its covers drawn by renowned artists of that time.

Le Corbusier began drawing bulls as his subject in the 1950s, around the time when he received a commission in Chandigarh. Cattle and people coexist in the streets of India, perhaps a strong influence during his time in the country, leading to his series of bull paintings published in 1952. The enamel work on the main entrance to the <Palace of Assembly> in Chandigarh portrays a great horned bull in its sunny and green environment together with goat, cock, snake, and turtle.

In Le Poème de l’Angle Droit, he writes:

They are but half, and feed life but by half And the second half comes to them and binds And good or evil come to all those who encounter each other!

The corresponding image portrays an intimate moment between a bull and a woman, perhaps a representation of Zeus and Europa, or possibly Le Corbusier himself with his wife Yvonne. This female figure, who holds down the bull’s head, can even be interpreted as Pasiphae embracing her child, Minotaur.

They are but half, and feed life but by half
And the second half comes to them and binds
And good or evil come to all those who encounter each other!

The corresponding image portrays an intimate moment between a bull and a woman, perhaps a representation of Zeus and Europa, or possibly Le Corbusier himself with his wife Yvonne. This female figure, who holds down the bull’s head, can even be interpreted as Pasiphae embracing her child, Minotaur.
Le Corbusier promoted originality in his bulls by introducing unrelated objects into the compositions, such as wine bottles, glasses, tree stumps, and small rocks.He created the image of a bull by rotating the still life painting 90 degrees.
The bull's eyes and nostrils are drawn with the symbol of infinity. This symbol seems to imply Minotaur’s labyrinth. Several horns, the biggest weapon of bulls, are drawn above the head. A woman's face overlaps the bull's face.
By repeatedly drawing the objects he made, he changed the shape and created various bull variations.
His use of the bulls extends to his architectural works, which can be seen in two ways. Sometimes a bull as a motif is carved as a sculpture, while in other cases a horn-shape is embedded in the plans.

In Entre Deux, he uses the symbol of a bull. He drew a sketch of Parthenon together with a symbol of up-side-down roof which also represents a bull. Such symbolisms can be seen in his architectural works in <Palace of Assembly>, <High Court> in Chandigarh and <Maison de la Culture> in Firminy. In <Maison de la Culture> in Firminy, Le Corbusier’s Taureau is carved in its façade as the signature of the architect.
Le Corbusier depicted still objects from various angles in his geometric compositions in the early 1920s, evolving to more swollen and curved forms later in the decade. By the end of the 20s, his work included “poetic objects” such as bones and seashells as well as female figures. His style of painting transformed rapidly, and by the 1940s, the architect began using his own characters to compose stories. The most prominent of them all, the bull, often portrayed Le Corbusier himself, was not only represented in his paintings but in his architectural works as well.