Narrative in Painting
John McHugh

http://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.html
Full text of the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel:

The simplest way to begin a discussion of closure and ending is studying a work that embodies both complete ending and complete closure. Fairy tales are probably the most familiar example of perfect closure and ending, but rather than talking about them in general, it may be easier to look at one tale in particular. We can chose anyone fairy tale, say Hansel and Gretel, rather arbitrarily, but it rather nicely can be used as a specific example of a general trend in fairy tales. Everyone already knows how fairly tales are supposed to end: "and they lived happily ever after" and much time has been spent in modern interpretations poking holes in this convention. Nevertheless, that clichéd phrase marks the example par excellence of ending and closure. Let’s return to Hansel and Gretel, all the conflicts presented in the story are perfectly closed by the end. The poverty of the family is ended when Hansel and Gretel return with pockets full of jewels from the witch’s house, the "wicked" step-mother who had convinced the father to leave the children in the woods is dead, the witch has been killed, and the children are finally reunited with their loving (though apparently rather weak-willed) father. Not only have all the conflicts presented in the story been rather tidily straightened up and closed off, but the very ending itself "and they lived happily ever after" even denies the possibility of future complications. Arguably, the ending invites us to continue the story past the last word of the narration. We should be curious as to what happens, but we aren’t. We already know that whatever happens in the lives of Hansel and Gretel, they will be happy. That’s why every attempt to narrate events in the life of characters from fairy tales (the most recent example being the TV miniseries The Tenth Kingdom) starts with the assumption that the "happily ever after" ending must be a lie. Without conflict, there is no tale and by denying any possibility of major conflict, the fairy tale successfully brings the tale completely to an end with perfect closure.

http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/m/michelan/3sistina/lastjudg/
This page includes a full view of The Last Judgement as well as individual details.

Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement (figure 1) embodies the fairy-tale model of closure and ending. The narrative is totally self-contained within the frame of the work. While it is still a single frozen moment, the picture hints at both what happened before and what will happen after this moment. Each individual character has their fate clearly set out, we know the outcome of each of the scenes. Moreover, the gaze of almost every figure in the work is turned inwards, to the center (the returned Christ), towards their final destination, or towards another character in the painting. One notable exception, the damned sole in the lower right quadrant (figure 2) has his gaze fixed outward. Yet even upon a closer look, we see that the object of his gaze is neither the audience, nor anything outside the painting at all. The figure seems to be looking out at nothing, increasing the sense of despair his countenance conveys. The inward gaze further develops the sense of a closed and complete unit, nothing external to the picture is important to the narrative of the piece. The conflicts in The Last Judgement are presented and resolved in the same frozen instant. As with Hansel and Gretel, the Last Judgement hints at action that will take place in the future and like Hansel and Gretel, the outcome of all the action that is not bound by the frame is already determined by the events within the frame. Since the outcome of all the action in the narrative is known in that still frame, the end of the entire action is implicitly set out for us, much as with the "happily ever after" closing for Hansel and Gretel (only, some will not live happily ever after, but the point remains the same). Our interest in the narrative does not extend beyond the frame for the same reason it doesn’t extend beyond the narrated part of Hansel and Gretel, all conflict has been resolved, the system is perfectly closed and ended.

http://www.museumsnett.no/munchmuseet/
english/artworks.htm
The site for the Munch Museum in Olso, the best place to see The Scream and other works by Edvard Munch.

We have already looked at a painting whose frame encompasses the totality of the narrative, we now need to turn our gaze to a work in which this is not true. Edvard Munch’s The Scream stands as one of the greatest examples of a painting expressing raw emotion. Very little attention, however, is generally paid to the narrative aspects of the painting. Munch himself provides the narrative of the painting’s inspiration, but that isn’t necessarily the same as the narrative of the painting. The Scream supplies very little information as to its own narrative within the picture itself. We do not know the events that have led up to this frozen moment, nor to the events that will occur afterwards. At first, then, The Scream seems like the most basic narrative possible, a single instance frozen in time with nothing about the past or future presented and in actuality, unnecessary to the narrative of the painting. However, the evocative nature of The Scream is so powerful, viewers can’t but help imagining what events would have led up to moment we see and what will occur afterwards. The Scream moves, through the audience, from a closed set, a single instance caught in its totality, to an unclosed work, where the audience is invited, even required, to flesh out the narrative. It seems that this requirement of the audience to fill out the rest of the narrative enhances the evocative nature of the work. The audience personalizes the work, and the narrative at the same time, in a much more complete manner than can be achieved through written narratives where the audience at most can identify with the characters, but cannot make the tale their own. With The Scream, however, the tale must be personal because so little information is given by Munch, we must try to imagine what could cause the featureless figure (the lack of features also heightens our ability to make the figure ourselves) to scream. In order to accomplish that successfully, we must use something that would cause us to scream in that manner, thus making the narrative completely personal, a construction of our own mind. In a way, Munch accomplished in 1893 with The Scream something that modern html-novelists are often trying to do today, create a narrative in which it is the audience, and not the author who creates the story.

All material on the Narratech website (C)2001 by the respective authors. Academic use is welcomed and encouraged. All other material used with permission.