The torso is almost complete. Hopefully I’ll have more to say (and show) tomorrow. I don’t want to rush on any part, no matter how seemingly insignificant. The maestro wouldn’t stand for that!
Archives for May, 2008
This is the second installment of the David With Goliath’s Head reproduction. I actually painted David’s face yesterday after Goliath’s head, but the hand I painted today. I also painted the rough draft of the torso, but I’m not done with it yet so I’ve excluded it.
I’m happy with David’s face and I think it resembles the original well. The face is a little weird looking but I think the same is true of the original. We know that Caravaggio used average looking street people for models, and this one is no exception. This particular one was possibly the artist’s assistant and friend. David’s expression differs here from the two earlier ones. The first shows a child David almost giddy having just felled the giant. The second shows a confident adolescent, chin up and celebrating his victory. The third and final one (possibly the final painting) shows an expression of compassion for his victim.
The next post should show a completed painting, done in oil on a 36″ x 24″ canvas, with the composition slightly cropped from the original, to fit in these dimensions.
Normally I wouldn’t have shown you this until its completion but I am so pleased with it I must share. I always show unfinished paintings to friends and family as long as I am happy with the progress, so why not here? Two hours have passed and I didn’t really want to stop but I need to grab a bite to eat and another iced coffee.
So here is the result of the first session for recreating David With Goliath’s Head (1610) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. I have recently been commissioned to paint Sacrifice of Isaac on a huge canvas, and I haven’t painted in over six months. So, I need to get back into the art, as well as practice my skills with the strong tenebrism characteristic of Caravaggio, of which Sacrifice is a particularly strong example. David and Goliath is not so bad, so will make good practice.
A little background: Caravaggio revisited the theme of David and Goliath several times. This particular one is thought to be the last. In fact this is regarded as the artist’s last painting executed before he died. He had made the trip on a small boat loaded up with several canvases, including this one, to seek a final pardon and gain the support of patrons. He had been on the run for several years, convicted of murder. As the years progress toward the end of his life in 1610, Caravaggio’s anxiety showed more and more. For instance, his fear of decapitation and persecution are evident in this painting: he has painted himself as the slain giant.
As the head was taking shape I realized I had accidentally made the head look out directly at the viewer. While it differs from the original (as I’m sure many parts will- it’s never perfect), I am thrilled with the result. It’s what Bob Ross would call a “happy accident.” Though I doubt Bob painted many decapitated heads in his career.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress.
If you can’t see the video click here
If you can’t see the video click here
If you can’t see the video click here
If you can’t see the video click here
Death stares us in the face- as is evident in the above detail of an anonymous French painting. It is around every corner, with the threat to show up in an instant to breathe its icy breath down our necks and snatch our frail lives in its bony fingers. There is nothing we can do to stop it, and sooner or later it will consume each and every one of us.
This image is an example of vanitas, coming from the Latin for “emptiness,” and was a popular theme for painters particularly in Northern Europe during the 17th century. This was a time when the still life was becoming a favorite genre and was no longer considered a low art. Caravaggio said that a well portrayed bowl of fruit is as difficult to paint as a person. This was also a time when many painters preferred to depict scenes of pleasure and leisure. Hence the reaction of the rise of vanitas still lifes.
Vanitas paintings show how vain humanity is. A typical object is the skull, frequently juxtaposed against symbols of human pleasures such as musical instruments. The skull above is a particularly powerful statement as it looks in the mirror with black sockets, searching for meaning- searching for anything. It is a warning of the transience of all life.
It is surrounded by games such as chess and cards. Isn’t life a game or a gamble? We see objects of worldly pursuits such as the sword and money purse with coins, books to represent our thirst for knowledge, tulips to show some hint of our vitality. And yet, no viewer can escape the ominous skull. It is a motionless and unforgiving reminder that all human aspirations, hopes, and dreams eventually lead to the grave. We will all end up as dust. The orange will rot, the tulips will wilt.
Memento mori- Remember that you are mortal.
See also Death and Art, Triumph of Death, and Anamorphic Perspective
I wanted to quick show you this picture that I really liked that I first saw on Lines and Colors, where Charley Parker gives us a good commentary. It is called Barge Haulers on the Volga or The Volga Boatmen and was painted in 1873 by Ilya Repin.
Born in the Ukraine, Repin became an important Russian Realist painter and sculptor with artworks usually making a statement on tensions in the social order. After his death a Repin cult was established which praised the artist for being a progressive. His works were painted in shocking detail which seem to put you in the scene much like a good descriptive book. His were the kinds of paintings which make you feel the heat or shade your eyes from the sun.
He was considered not just a Realist because he could portray a landscape as if you were seeing the actual situation with your own eyes, but because he depicted a real situation in terms of social reality- i.e. the differences in class amongst the subjects. Take Religious Procession in the Region of Kursk, for instance. Here we see all social classes- the raggedy poor and infirm juxtaposed against the finely dressed elite, with the State helping to separate the classes in the form of mounted policemen high and mighty on their “high horses.” The policeman on horseback about to strike the woman is as unnoticed in this painting as any police brutality is. All this while they all can agree on this form of religious worship.
The picture above (click for full resolution) can be seen as commentary on the plight of the peasant class. In amazing detail we see this group of laborers with a lack of supervision- the only hint is the sailors barely visible on the barge itself, who stand and wait.
Clear emphasis is placed on the young one in the center. Though his hands are “working man’s hands,” his spirit has not yet callused as the other men’s have. While the much older workers have a quietness and a just-get-it-done work ethic which comes from a lifetime of hard work, the young lad gazes off open-mouthed and wishes he could be absolutely anywhere else. Meanwhile the old man next to him has learned to mentally escape as he jots down some lines of poetry ignoring the sweltering heat and back-breaking work.
These men are most likely the sailors from the barge or for hire to help tug the ships, but it is not totally clear. They could be prisoners or on a work detail akin to community service. Regardless their situations would be similar. If they are prisoners, no guards’ portraits appear. Either way it reminds me of Van Gogh’s Prison Courtyard where the bourgeois guards in their top hats stand tall and look on at the inmates in their “sunshine call” exercise. The sight of the butterflies fluttering off is similar to the boy’s gaze in the Barge Haulers. It’s the idea of “so close but so far” in both situations.
If Repin had included the top hat elite with the women with their parasols present to enjoy the entertainment, this would indeed have been a more biting social statement. This happened at the battle of the First Bull Run a few years earlier in the states when the rich were delighted to view the battle and watch the lower class young men get slaughtered.
The elite, the wealthy statesmen, and the “haves and have mores” are indeed very much detached from the reality of the lower classes. “Send them all a $600 check and a sack of potatoes,” they say, and everything will be fine. Let them eat cakes.
None of that will ever change. But on the bright side we will always have things to make fun of in our paintings and editorials.
We saw some illusions in painting before with some examples of trompe l’oiel (to fool the eye) such as a painted oculus in a ceiling with cherubim looking down, and we even looked at some anamorphosis such as a giant skull super stretched so you can only see it in one angle. Now feast your eyes on some of these illusions of other sorts.
Do you first see the nine dolphins in the middle of that jug? Didn’t think so. When shown to young children all they can make out is the dolphins. The naked intimate couple is not part of their previous experience so they simply don’t see it. But that’s the first thing you saw, right? Get your mind out of the gutter!
Maurits Cornelius Escher was the master of what is called the paradoxical illusion. One famous example above shows the impossible staircase with people ascending and descending at the same time.
And then there’s the Escher with the water from the waterfall feeding itself again at the top- sort of a perpetual motion mill.
M. C. Escher pictures are amusing on different levels.
This one I like. Cover the top half, then cover the lower half. Which way is the window facing?!
Salvador Dali is another famous one for making illusions in his paintings. The one above is an ambiguous illusion called Visions of Don Quixote where we see the Man of La Mancha with his companion Sancho Panza, but at the same time we see the bust of a man. This is just one of many from the Spanish Surrealist.
Similar is this man/couple with sleeping dog.
If you look closely you can actually see Salvador Dali in this illusion.
Many of Dali’s illusions involved skulls.
A bowl of veggies?
