Home/Symbols/Splashing handSplashing hand SymbolismMomentary action that symbolizes playfulness and the ordering of the ephemeral within a timeless scene.Common ThemesThe divine & the sacredMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Originality, authorship, and appropriationLeisure & recreationBeauty & the idealThe pastoral idealArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe Large BathersPierre-Auguste Renoir (1884–1887)Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s The Large Bathers unites modern bodies with a pastoral grove to stage an <strong>Arcadian ideal</strong>. Three monumental nudes form interlocking curves and triangles while two background figures splash and groom, fusing <strong>sensual warmth</strong> with <strong>classical order</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
