Fine Art Fables: The Bear Prince

The Bear-Prince is a fairytale that originates from Mexico intended to teach children about key aspects of Mexican culture. The fairytale begins with a woodcutter, chopping down trees in the forest. A bear is mad he is doing so, and stops him by grabbing the ax. The man says he must chop down trees or else he won’t have money to feed his three beautiful daughters. The bear says that the only way he will not kill the man is if he gives him one of the daughters to marry. Ninfa, the youngest daughter, volunteers to marry the bear. The two marry, and when they go back to the bear’s cave he transforms into a human. The bear-prince tells her that he was cursed into being a bear by an evil witch. Eventually, Ninfa returns home to see her family, and because the bear-prince is rich is is adorned in nice clothing and jewels. Her sisters are envious, and she tells them his secret. However, this breaks their promise of secrecy and the bear-prince runs away to the Castle of Faith in which Ninfa must now find. She encounters many different ‘beings’ along the way, including the Sun and Moon personified. Eventually, it ends with the prince being permanently transformed into a human and they two can be together. 

My artwork this week features the key elements of the story, with the bride and groom figures standing apart from each other and the bear figure in the middle.