Song of Songs  II
1957
Oil on canvas
139 x 164 cm
Most of the figures in the first painting of the cycle appear in the following canvases too: the young naked woman, alone here, lying on a palm leaf above the city of  Jerusalem; David, flying near his throne here, in the top-right-hand corner, in the form of a bird since his music has been compared to that of birds and angels. In the middle, the man’s head harks back to Chagall’s many self-portraits. To show the extent to which he sees himself in the verses of the Song of Songs, Chagall features in several of his paintings.