Home/Symbols/Diagonal bed edgeDiagonal bed edge SymbolismA raking diagonal that makes gravity and duration felt; organizes the body’s sprawl and directs the eye.Common ThemesErotic desireAge & agingMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Mortality & transience (memento mori)Beauty & the idealArtworks Featuring This SymbolPortrait on a White CoverLucian Freud (2002–2003)Lucian Freud’s Portrait on a White Cover turns the human body into a field of <strong>material truth</strong>, setting warm, bruised flesh against a <strong>cool, worked cloth</strong> that is named in the title. The diagonal sprawl, clenched left hand, and twisted feet make <strong>gravity</strong> and <strong>duration</strong> felt as subjects in their own right <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
