Minotaure aveugle guidé par une fillette, III

Pablo Picasso

1934

Etching, aquatint and burin

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A mythological scene depicts a bull-headed man, a young girl, and other figures in a chaotic composition. The etching is rendered in black and white with textured shading. The Minotaur—half man and half bull—is a creature from Greek mythology. Picasso felt such kinship with bulls that the Minotaur became an alter-ego in his art. In mythology, the Minotaur feasts on humans and is placed in a labyrinth to keep it from running amok. Picasso repeatedly depicted the Minotaur as powerful and virile, but several times—as here—the creature is blind and has to rely on the guidance of a young woman (Picasso’s lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter) carrying a bird. He walks past his wife, Olga Khokhlova, the tall figure on the right. Walter was pregnant when Picasso made this print, and Khokhlova left him the following ye