Home/Symbols/Parliament silhouette (Victoria Tower and spires)Parliament silhouette (Victoria Tower and spires) SymbolismInstitutional power and permanence, here softened into something provisional by lightCommon ThemesMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Lasting vs. fleeting (ephemerality)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Sovereignty & legitimacyAnthropocene & ecological crisisPublic space vs. private spaceArtworks Featuring This SymbolHouses of ParliamentClaude Monet (1903)Claude Monet’s Houses of Parliament renders Westminster as a <strong>dissolving silhouette</strong> in a wash of peach, mauve, and pale gold, where stone and river are leveled by <strong>luminous fog</strong>. Short, vibrating strokes turn architecture into <strong>atmosphere</strong>, while a tiny boat anchors human scale amid the monumental scene.
