Art and Symbolism in BTS’s Blood Sweat & Tears
In case you were curious about the art and some symbolisms involved in BTS’s new album Wings, specifically the song “Blood Sweat & Tears,” this walkthrough is for you!
If you want to learn more about these works or the artists, just click on their names (colored purple) and it should lead you to their coinciding wikipedia pages.
Did I miss anything? Notice anything else? Feel free to comment down below or send a message!
The painting shown in front of Jin is called The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Bruegel, a Flemish Renaissance artist, in 1562. (Did anyone notice that the left side has a black door, while the right side is white? Interesting…)
The subject of this painting surrounds a biblical passage from Revelations 12, especially verses 7-9.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelations 12:7-9)
This painting depicts the war of good versus evil, in which the demons are cast back into the hell from which they came from. Pay close attention to this painting, as it becomes a very important part of the MV later on.
Since there is a biblical theme going on, let’s continue seeing how the Bible is also depicted in this video. As seen in the screenshot above, Jimin is holding an apple.
The most classic story in the Bible is that of the fall of humanity in Genesis 3, in which Satan convinces Adam and Eve to go against God’s orders, eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of this tree is most commonly depicted by that of an apple, though the actual type of fruit or the tree’s appearance is not mentioned. By eating the apple, humanity is forever doomed to sin and is forbidden from living in the Garden of Eden.
Satan is also a large part of this story as well, since he himself was actually one of God’s most beloved angels that betrayed Him, therefore losing his place in heaven and “losing his wings.” (hint hint)
This painting that V is sitting in front of may just seem like an out-of-place backdrop, but it actually has its own meaning behind it. This painting can also be found in Jungkook’s room, fondly known as “the swing room.”
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, also assumed to have been painted by Bruegel, depicts an ocean scenery with Icarus drowning in the corner, as shown below in the red circle. (It’s a rather strange painting…)
Icarus is also brought back into the light of the MV as another painting in the background of Jungkook’s room.
This painting is known as The Lament for Icarus, painted by the English Classicist artist, Herbert James Draper. It depicts the fallen Icarus being mourned over by two nymphs, also known as spirits of nature.
Now you may be wondering, who in the world is Icarus and what is his story?
Icarus’ father, Daedalus, created what was known as The Labyrinth. Because of it’s secretive nature, the king who commissioned the maze decided to lock up Daedalus and his son in a tower. However, the smart designer made wings out of feathers and wax, allowing them to fly out of the tower and over the ocean, escaping their prison. Daedalus warns his son Icarus to stay far away from the sun. Despite this, Icarus, overcome by giddiness and the thought that he could reach the pinnacle where the gods themselves lived, flew closer and closer to the sun, until the wax on his wings melted and he fell into the sea. You want to know who else has wings?
And who lost them?
You’re welcome. Also, guess who has dripping wax on their finger? (Jungkook)
Continuing on.
Now, if you read the book Demian on which this MV is based on, Emil Sinclair paints two paintings. One of them is that of a bird.
If you read the book itself, one of the beginning interactions between Emil and Demian are that of the crest that hangs above the doorway of Sinclair’s house gate. (This is seen in Jungkook’s teaser, BEGIN…hmm…) To be a little more specific, it is that of a sparrow hawk. Throughout the book, it becomes a symbolism of being set free. However, will he really be free? Or will his wings collapse under his weight and yank him down into the dark abyss below?
When trying to find out how else the sparrow hawk could be connected to the story, I went searching for a relationship to Roman and Greek mythology, something that popped up quite a bit in this MV. What I came up with is probably totally a coincidence, or maybe not…
Here is a picture of a seemingly, just-trying-to-troll-us-fangirls-into-fainting Jungkook.
And here is a statue of the Egyptian-turned-Greek god, Harpocrates. Don’t their gesture look similar? Finger to lips? (Bonus: he has wings!)
Harpocrates was the Greek god of silence, taking the form of a child. He actually originated from the Egyptian god, Horus, who was the son of Isis and Osiris. In Egyptian mythology, his head was symbolized by that of the sparrow hawk. Coincidence or not, pretty interesting.
This cup also comes up in the MV, something I had noticed before, but never really took notice of. However, I did notice an underlying theme of “green” throughout the MV, and I was curious as to what this curiously colored drink was.
Lo and behold, the drink known as absinthe. It is actually a rather potent alcoholic beverage, also nicknamed “the green fairy.” Actually banned in many countries, this alcoholic drink can undergo many methods of preparation; the one in this specific MV is called the Bohemian Method. It involves, like it shows, placing a sugar cube on top of a spoon and lighting it on fire, then dropping it into the drink itself to burn. The main ingredient in this beverage is Artemisia absinthium, a species of wormwood/mugwort. Going back again into Greek mythology, Artemisia, or Artemis, was the goddess of the hunt, virginity, childbirth, and protector of children. Not really connected, but just wanted to give a food for thought. Many of the theories that I am reading consider this a symbolism of falling to the temptation of alcoholism.
This one I didn’t notice until re-watching the video, so this is sort of put in a weird place and I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the connection for the previous works of art mentioned, but anyways…
Crouching Venus is actually a topic done by many sculptors during the Hellenistic era. It apparently depicts a surprised Aphrodite/Venus, the Greek/Roman goddess of love and beauty, in the middle of her bath. She tries to hide her embarrassment by crouching and covering her breasts and face.
This particular example shown is the most similar one that I could find. Also known as Vénus Accroupie, it is part of King Louis XIV’s collection, and is now housed at the Louvre Museum in France.
Now this one was a work of art that I thought I wouldn’t be able to find… but I actually found it! (By the way, if you were curious about which scene Landscape with the Fall of Icarus shows up in “the swing room,” it’s in the bottom right corner of this screenshot. This also shows another angle of The Lament for Icarus)
It is an illusionistic ceiling painting by Giuglio Quaglio (Italian Baroque) on the ceiling of Ljubljana Cathedral in Slovenia. I could not find much more detail about the specific painting, except for a full picture of the ceiling which I had no energy to summarize.
A lot of famous sculptures, especially those in the Renaissance and Neoclassical period, were based off of Greek mythology. The famous sculpture of Perseus with the Head of Medusa, brought to life by Benvenuto Cellini (Italian Mannerism), told the story of the beautiful woman from Athens. There are two major stories involved with this woman, one of them being her relationship with the god Poseidon. However, the one that fits the story more is that of her pride.
One day, Medusa goes to the temple, where sculptures of the gods and goddesses are put in display to show their vast beauty. However, Medusa, being the unwise maiden that she was, bragged about her own beauty loudly in front of the statue of Athena.
Never flaunt your beauty, especially in front of a goddess. Enraged, Athena cursed Medusa, making anyone who laid eyes on her physical self turned into stone. One of Medusa’s symbolic, physical traits also bestowed onto her by this curse was her hair, which was replaced by live snakes, to give her a hideous appearance.
In the story depicted by this sculpture, the hero Perseus was ordered by King Polydectes to gift him with the head of Medusa. By using his shield as a mirror, he is able to “see” Medusa without looking her in the eye, thus allowing him to precisely cut off her head. (MIRRORS! They show up later too! I just noticed the connection when recollecting this myth for the sake of this theory)
In terms of the second sculpture, I was originally unable to find the exact replica/image on the internet. However, from a wonderful ARMY friend of mine led me to a reddit post, which helped me to discover that it is a statue of “Livia Drusilla,” who was the third and final wife of Julius Augustus. In this particular Roman artwork (author unknown), probably dating back to the 1st century CE, she stands with a wheat sheaf in her right hand and a cornucopia in her left (our left and right). These specific symbolic items are linked back to Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, fertility, and motherhood. However, there is also the possibility that she is not Ceres, but the goddess Ops, who was also a goddess of fertility. Her Greek equivalent was Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of all the twelve major gods and goddesses. There is debate as to whether or not Ops can be considered a goddess, but that is another topic in itself. As to why she is related to the story, it may be because of her title as a great mother to the nation of Rome, which links to the whole subject of Frau Eva, mother of Demian, in the book by which this MV is based on.
Pietà (also known as Lamentation), a sculpture made by the famous Michelangelo that can be found in Vatican City at St. Peter’s Basilica, depicts the mourning of the mother of Jesus over her son’s corpse after His crucifixion. (Note: J-Hope has a lot to do with moms… like Frau Eva from the book “Demian,” as well as the mother of Jesus Christ. Also, his song is called “Mama”… How interesting… hint hint.)
This screenshot kind of sucks, so you probably can’t read the quote on the top. But I’m translating it and telling you about it, so it doesn’t matter! :)
“Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können.” (You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.)
This is from a book, written by Friedrich Nietzsche, called “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”
The book’s main premise surrounds the lack of gods in our world, as well as the power of humanity through sheer will. The specific quote shown here basically adds on to the notion that our worlds thrives off chaos (entropy, for all chemistry/biology students out there). It is only through chaos that we are able to give forth creativity and live freely.
Also, remember the painting at the beginning, The Fall of the Rebel Angels, that I said to remember? Well guess what? The painting is replaced by this quote and mirror!
If you are still here, congratulations! Last symbolism I’ve found significant so far. As a BTS fan, I’m sure you all know about Jin’s obsession with flowers throughout the last couple MV’s. Here, as shown, is a white lily that’s reflection is of a purple hyacinth.
White lilies, though mainly used as a symbolism of the purity of the Virgin Mary (Pietà shows up again!), it is also shown in funerals as the “soul of the departed [restoring their] innocence after death.”
The purple hyacinth is based off of another Greek myth. The god Apollo favored a young boy named Hyakinthos, whom was also loved by Zephyr, god of the west wind. One day, Hyakinthos was playing with Apollo, learning to throw a discus (basically a really hard and heavy frisbee). Zephyr, jealous at their relationship, made the discus lose its course and hit the poor boy in the head, killing him instantly. Apollo, brokenhearted, later sees a flower sprouting from the blood of Hyakinthos, thus giving it the name “hyacinth.” The purple hyacinth has its own unique meaning – “asking for forgiveness or having deep regrets.”
Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of theories surrounding these works of art at the moment, which is why I did not include them. I may finish my theories in a different post. However, one major theme that I found within all these is the fall of humanity to sin and our own pridefulness, the belief that we can do anything all by ourselves… even as everything falls (random note: first lyrics to BTS’s I Need U).
BONUS 1: Does “Chatroom 2, 3″ mean anything to anyone? I just randomly noticed it and thought it was funny… But I suddenly came to a revelation…
If the fruit is eaten in the room above the room where the paintings of fallen Icarus is located, is this a symbolism that we were originally “blinded” from our own nakedness (Suga’s blindfold) in the Garden of Eden, but after eating the “fruit,” (Jimin’s apple), we became aware of our own nakedness and became ashamed due to our humanly pride, therefore being shoved out of God’s paradise (Genesis 3) and fell down from our high standing, similar to Icarus falling from the sky? (more like shoved to the floor below…lol. Wait, so the third floor is paradise, second floor could possibly be earth… what is the first floor then? Hell? I’m thinking too much.)
BONUS 2: This is NOT from the MV, but some of the teasers. Now from the reddit post I had mentioned earlier, my fellow detective noticed a common symbol showing up multiple times.
It is seen in J-Hope’s “MAMA” teaser…
V’s “Stigma” teaser…
And finally Jin’s wallpaper…
After reading the book Demian and researching the MV enough times, I was able to find that it was a picture of the god Abraxas, which was mentioned on multiple occasions in the book on which this was based on.
“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God’s name is Abraxas.”
Here is a basic image of what he looks like.
Abraxas is actually a rather mysterious individual. He/She originated from Gnosticism, which was a religion that was based around knowledge being one’s salvation. Other than being mentioned in the book, there is not much information pertaining this particular god, other than the fact that he was a popular figure engraved on amulets and was meant to be the ruler over God and the devil themselves.
Boy Meets Evil
