“For Chagall, the gods are not dead...He tells us that man's earth is not abandoned, that it is not an insignificant sphere roaming in the vastness of creation, but rather that it participates in that infinite grace which is diffused everywhere.”

—Robert Marteau

Mark Chagall’s Sur la Terre des Dieux, or “In the Land of Gods,” depicts a series of stories from Greek mythology to contemplate man’s relationship with the world and the soul. Greece is what Chagall refers to as “the land of the gods,” revealing this work as a fundamental piece in his vast exploration of Greek art within his later work. Some lithographs in this series contain scenes of couples in nature, some depict angels, and while others depict strange creatures, animals, and settings, conveying both love and violence. Accompanying the 10 lithographs in this series is text by Robert Marteau, a French poet and novelist who collaborated with Chagall on various creative endeavors. Along with this are brief texts by various ancient Greek poets like Anacreon and Theocritus, whose lyrical poetry illuminate Chagall’s vibrant imagery. This text introduces the essential theme of Chagall’s art in this series: humanity in nature and the nature of humanity.

Chagall’s two visits to Greece, one in 1952 and one in 1954, would inspire a deep commitment to the country, its culture, and its art that would profoundly shape his late work. His creative relationship with ancient Greek art and culture began when French-Greek poet and publisher Stratis Eleftheriadis, better known as Tériade, suggested to Chagall that he should illustrate a new book edition containing the second century Greek pastoral prose epic Daphnis and Chloé by Longus, which he would produce in 1961. Following this was Sur la Terre des Dieux in 1967, the same year he was commissioned to create a large mosaic depicting Homer’s Odyssey for the Department of Law at the University of Nice. In 1956, two years following his second trip to Greece, Chagall would fully devote himself to lithographs and etchings with a primary focus on illustrating narratives. Greek mythology and biblical stories were often at the center of his narratives, making his travels to and fascination with Greece an intrinsic reason for the shift in his artistic practice.

“When Chagall approaches the subject of Greece he approaches it in the same way as life. He does not come to it as still life, but as to a living flesh of dream and memory.”

—Robert Marteau

Chagall’s employment of dense symbolism to explore human nature would translate effortlessly into his visualization of Greek mythology, which is famously characterized by its raw, brutal, and psychological content, a topic very fitting for the post-war period the world existed in at the time he created Sur la Terre des Dieux. As a French Jewish artist who came to maturity in the wake of World War II, Chagall experienced religious persecution and was condemned as an artist of “degenerate art” during Nazi rule. In many ways, Sur la Terre des Dieux is an avenue for Chagall to navigate the multitude of humanity’s religions, which he portrayed as existing together. After his experience in Greece, the artist related the Acropolis in Athens to the Temple of Jerusalem, understanding them as necessary counterparts. His skillful portrayals of Jewish lore and the symbolic vocabulary embedded in his earlier work would come to deeply resonate in his poetic depictions of Greek mythology.