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The painting represents whole layers of life of many generations, whose destinies are tied together with a symbolic thread. This thread is in the hands of a Horseman in the guise of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote.
It can be of interest in this case to remember the history of Europe. In the beginning of the 20th century Austria-Hungary was referred to as “patchwork empire,” for it looked as if it was made of pieces of multiple small countries and regions “stitched” together. Even on the map it appeared as patchwork: Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the other hand is the river – the mighty symbol of a road running like a winding axis from top to bottom in the painting and connecting separate countries and regions, destinies of people and generations. In Europe such a symbol is represented by the rivers Danube and Rhine, in Russia – by the Volga river. In Hinduism the Ganges river was an axis-type symbol of the whole Universe, simultaneously representing the movement of time (and it is known that, like water, “time flows”).
The ongoing metaphor “river-road-life” is represented in a number of paintings by the artist, including Current and Le Reve.
Hands touching to “throw a bridge” connecting the two sides of the river is one more metaphor with an obvious meaning of unity in the painting.