Words Have Meaning

Adding words to an image can change the meaning that it has. Without words a picture on its own means that the viewer is left to decided for itself what the meaning or the message behind it could be. Adding word can display the message clearly, intensify the meaning behind the image or could change the meaning of the image altogether.

René Magritte's painting of the pipe is an example of how adding words to an image can change its meaning. Without the caption to Rene's painting the veiwer would simply be looking at a painting of a pipe. However Ceci n'est as une pipe alters the meaning to the painting. Ceci n'est as une pipe which translates to this is not a pipe seems like a contradiction to what the eye is viewing however after the initial thought it becomes obvious that this statement is actually true, this is not a pipe but actually a painting of a pipe.

This idea is also true in Rene's painting of an apple. Rene paints an apple and then captions it with Ceci n'est pas un pomme which translates as this is not an apple. As well as telling the viewer that they are looking at an image of an apple or a pipe, I think that Rene with this caption is trying to say that no matter how hard you try to depict an object accurately that you cannot and that you can only capture an essences of accuracy.