Metabolism - Edvard Munch

The painting by Edvard Munch, poorly named in its modern reinterpretation as "Metabolism," but much more accurately known as "The Tree of Knowledge," created between 1898 and 1899, is a profound representation of the human condition through the prism of Christian theology and existential thought. We cannot understand the Norwegian Edvard Munch without considering his history. His great-grandfather, Peder Sørensen Munch, was a Lutheran pastor in Vågå; his grandfather, Edvard Storm Munch, was a provost (similar to an archpriest) in Kristiania (now Oslo); and his father was a doctor, but also a deeply religious man.

This work belongs to the Symbolist movement, and within the composition we find deep Christian and paternal influences. The painting depicts the biblical narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve, with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at the center of the composition. At the heart of this tree, Munch carefully sketches the figure of a baby symbolizing Christ, from whose side blood and water flow, resolving once and for all the problem of man—the desire to become God—by making him a son and heir.

Some intermingled symbols can be seen, such as Adam's skull underground, which in religious art always points to the old man who is buried and dead (perhaps of sadness), whom Christ wants to rescue, but in this case seems to speak of the inevitable death as the end of life and everything. In front of this skull, which appears in the wooden frame (a frame he himself carved), are the remains of an animal, possibly a horse, while the tree of good and evil draws its nourishment from this death to carry it up to a city situated at the top of the tree. Hence, the modern interpretation of the composition's name mentions "metabolism," because people think the painting seeks to illustrate a kind of synergy, how what dies nourishes what lives, and thus establishes a natural cycle of... nutrients?

Munch seems to want to speak here about his own life and about everyone’s life. These dead loved ones he carries in his heart (his mother, his father, his brother), and that in some way we all carry, beneath a life that on the surface appears very good, religious, and divine (Adam and Eve, full of golden light, are depicted here before the fall). These dead nourish the city, condemning it to decay along with them, but what a surprise! The city appears in perfect condition—more than that, it is a beautiful city with its walls perfectly intact. Here, the appearance of the baby, who is the Messiah, in the middle of the tree trunk, comes to explain the good health of the city. Through his life, the baby gives meaning to sadness and despair, which is death, transforming and giving new meaning to what seems like inevitable misfortune, and allowing the painter’s life and everyone’s (the city’s) to be filled with grass and blue skies.