“Hina Tefatou” or “Moon and Earth” is devoted, like many works of Gauguin, to the past of Tahiti. Filled with mysticism and some magical power, it is another evidence of the artist’s deep interest in the culture and religion of the Tahitians.
On the canvas, the viewer sees a large figure of a naked black-skinned woman turned with her back. It quenches the thirst from the spring. Water pours a small waterfall at the chest of a man. The figure of a man resembles the grim and stern statues of the Incas. He is cold and motionless. The figure of the woman is a sharp contrast to the static image of a man – from her body comes heat and light, thanks to small strokes of red, descending the body from top to bottom.
The plot of the picture was inspired by Gauguin’s text from the book of Tahitian legend Noah-Noah, which tells about the conversation of two deities – Hina and Tefatou. Hina, the goddess of the moon, asked the god of the Earth to resurrect people after their death, to which Tefatou responded with a resolute refusal – “The man will die, the vegetation will die, as well as those who feed on it. The earth will die… Life will end, never again not reborn. ” Then Hina answered that the god of the Earth can do as he pleases, it will also resurrect the Moon.
There are many allegorical elements in the picture. The whole composition is subordinated to focusing on two figures at the expense of realism. The planar image gives the picture still more decorative, while the bright colors complete this effect.
It is not hard to imagine what interest the myths and legends of the Tahitian people evoked from the European Gauguin. In them he found an exceptional identity, unlike all known myths and religious subjects of the continent, and this very layer of Tahiti culture was an invaluable inexhaustible source from which the master relentlessly drew inspiration.
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