Home/Symbols/Diagonal floorboards (raked stage)Diagonal floorboards (raked stage) SymbolismA tilted world that accelerates the eye and suggests instability and exposure.Common ThemesLoneliness & isolationThe modern lens: urban life & speedMedium reflexivity (art about art)Power & authorityMortality & transience (memento mori)Beauty & the idealLabor & workArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe StarEdgar Degas (c. 1876–1878)Edgar Degas’s The Star shows a prima ballerina caught at the crest of a pose, her tutu a <strong>vaporous flare</strong> against a <strong>murky, tilted stage</strong>. Diagonal floorboards rush beneath her single pointe, while pale, ghostlike dancers linger in the wings, turning triumph into a scene of <strong>radiant isolation</strong> <sup>[2]</sup><sup>[5]</sup>.
