Expert: AliMcJ - 11/15/2003

Question
What is the signifiance of the sheep and/or goats in Chagall's paintings?  Is it him?  his village?  his wife?  God?  just something out of a dream? different meanings in different works?
I appreciate any information you can give.
thanks

Answer
In my understanding, the images are simply the kind of images that one has in a dream and a memory; sheep were in his village and the painting is a dream and memory of that.

The painting of his dream is his most well-known and has been analyzed endlessly, has a lot written on it, so simply doing a google or dogpile search on "My Village" + "Marc Chagall" will turn up many resources; once you find those, you can search within the findings with more specific search terms.