136 - MICHÈLE BROEDERS (Tongeren, Belgium, 1936 - Bruges, 2024).

MICHÈLE BROEDERS (Tongeren, Belgium, 1936 - Bruges, 2024). "Allegory of the soul", 1966. Oil on panel. Signed and dated in the upper right corner. Measurements: 95 x 30 cm; 115 x 51 cm (frame). "Allegory of the soul" is articulated around a male figure that emanates a classical aura. He appears surrounded by a symbolic universe formed by enigmatic faces and nocturnal animals. The verticality of the format reinforces the ascensional character of the scene, where the main figure seems to be situated between the earthly and the spiritual, between matter and inner vision. The presence of musicians, nudes, spectral faces, flames, eyes and birds as atmospheric forces enrich the reading of the scene and suggest a symbolic journey through different states of the soul: desire, knowledge, transformation, introspection and transcendence. The iconographic density, the monumental format and the careful execution give the work a singular character, conceived almost as a great profane altarpiece with spiritual resonances. Michèle Broeders was a Belgian artist trained at the Antwerp Academy under the direction of Gustaaf De Bruyne. Her work is situated in a figurative line of surrealist and symbolic resonances, with special interest in the human figure, imagination, fantasy and inner states. He lived and worked in Blankenberge, where he developed a personal and poetic production, close to the Belgian post-war surrealist tradition.