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Fil Portrait the String of Pearls ) Shlomit Shakked The subtitle of Elie Shamir's painting implies that the mythological hero Achilles chose the string of pearls when his identity was challenged . Mythology , however , tells a different tale : Achilles' mother Thetis knew he was destined to be killed in the Trojan war . In order to prevent his death , she sent him to King Lycomedes' court , where he was made to hide among the maidens , wear women's clothes and occupy himself with weaving . Odysseus , who arrived at the palace disguised as a peddler , brought along women's jewelry as well as swords and daggers . The maidens crowded around the jewelry whereas Achilles went for the weapons . His choice revealed his identity and determined his fate . Achilles was killed on the battlefield , Paris' arrow hitting his heel—his weak point . The mythological Achilles is therefore driven by an uncontrollable determinism against whose tyranny he must move passively towards a reality that cannot be opposed . Elie Shamir disrupted the mythological narrative and instilled it with a new narrative frame through a choice that expresses a different stance , which he partakes of as a contemporary human being and an artist . Thus the story of Achilles' choice serves as a springboard for a fascinating pictorial journey taking place before our eyes . It is a journey fraught with double entities , moral dilemmas , taking responsibility and making choices that center on the visual phenomenon as a concrete , relevant source of knowledge . When Pontormo recorded his thoughts about painting in his journal , he used the simile of thin membranes placed upon each other like layers of onion . I would like to borrow the layered membrane simile for an intuitive examination of Family Portrait ( Achilles Chooses the String of Pearls ) , 1995 . I observe four figures in white gowns and two dogs engaged in some performative ritual in nature . Concreteness emanates from the painting : Family Portrait—the artist , his wife , his daughters and his domestic animals . The landscape , too , is distinct , and frequently appears in Shamir's paintings . Kfar Yehoshua—where he was born , where he lives and works . His village serves as the stage for a concrete , personal vision of choice that presents itself in the painting's subtitle as a mythological tale . Is the painting some distilment of the ideal that the ( Jezreel ) Valley and its inhabitants are Shamir's orchard of creation ? On second thoughts , isn't the thing which we know also that which we don't know ? The painting is divided into horizontal plains : in the forefront plain , which extends over most of the painting , plowed earth is seen . In the back plain , immersed in a purplish-greenish haze that seems to retreat from the distinct earth , thin strips of buildings and vegetation appear , a range of hills and sky . The moment of representing the poetic ghost-like figures seems to have frozen around some vacuum . Their horizontal positioning echoes the static landscape and lights it with a white , heavenly glare , but as in an inner paradox their presence conveys transience , and they ignore it . The landscape appears here as a phenomenon rather than an edict in the service of some ideal . Shamir / Achilles kneels down on the clumps of earth , his head tilted towards his hands , holding a string of pearls . His face seems to express wonder that strays from the boundaries of understanding . Is he asking , following Freud or even Martha Graham ( who played countless mythological characters ) : "What does woman want ? " The wife and daughters , also identified as maids of honor , stand at his left and right , their arms limp . Their presence seems obvious , they need no attributes to vouch for them . The burden of proof is on "Achilles" who hides among them , who is different from them , and who , as evident from the title , has chosen to be
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