Pyramid of  Skulls by Paul Cézanne shows four skulls on a mostly dark background. One of the skulls appears to be underneath another. The corner that the skulls are in has white, almost like a white sheet. Behind the skulls and to the left and directly above them the background is black. To the left there is red, yellow and green all with brown undertones. The skulls themselves are cream and ivory. The top one is the closest to pure white while the others are off-white. The Skulls also have small strokes of green on them

For the first things I thought of when I saw this were dark and creepy. I didn’t really notice the white in the lower right corner until I looked more closely. The white corner made me think of a sheet being pulled over someone after they have passed on. The red is the color of rust, or dried blood, which is another representation of death. The black on the upper right side of the painting shows the darkness of death. The skull in the back, not sitting upright is also the darkest. It is so dark that it almost blends into the background of the painting. The other skulls seem to almost have a look of sadness on them, but they are also in a position of power over the skull that isn’t upright. The lightest skull is on the top. The skulls upright, but underneath the lightest skull are darker, but the one in the background and tipped over is the darkest. This could be a statement of skin color leading to power. There are also small strokes of green on the skulls. To me green represents two things, nature and money. The meaning behind these things are different. To me nature, especially when it is green means life, which in this picture full of death is ironic. Money on the other hand represents power, and in this particular image it could suggest that power leads to death, but it seems even in death all that matters is the color of your skin, or in this case bone is all that really matters.

This painting made me think of a few scenes in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The first one is the scene when Marlowe is under the tree, and is describing the dying “workers”. They are skin and bones, they are shadows barley there. They are in the shade, so they are in the dark like the skulls in the paintings. It also made me thing of the heads on stick surrounding Kurtz’s house. The only part of the people being represented is their heads. The same is true for the painting. The only bones shown are the skulls, no other part seems to be important.