Hand

The Hand is a complexly composed work that combines the automatic technique of frotage with classic drawing, modern photographic reproduction and alchemical illustration. Štyrský used collage to add a child’s and a male hand to the woman’s hand that is adorned with a sparkling ring. The child’s red hand, cut out from a reproduced photograph holds a ball – an attribute of a game that was one of the main themes of Štyrský’s oeuvre. Furthermore, the sphere symbolizes the world. The male hand, pasted to the back of the female hand, is the only one whose palm is turned towards the viewer. It bears an esoteric message: this is the Hand of the Philosophers with seven signs, depicted in Die Hand der Philosophen by Johann Isaac Hollandus (1667). Another symbol, appearing on the palm, is the Eye of Providence enclosed in a triangle, with rays emanating from it.