Thursday, December 3, 2009

Study After Velasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X



The painting I chose today was created by the Irish artist Francis Bacon in 1953. This painting shows a distorted version of the Portrait of Innoncent X painted by the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez in 1650.
The painting depicts the pope Innocent X screaming but his voice is silenced by the drapes surrounding him. The artwork resembles like a nightmare due to the dark and unusual colors used.
The color imbalance and the constrast in the painting forces the viewer to analyze the painting. When I look at this painting, I see it as an opposition against the Pope and the catholic church, maybe because the pope,depicted in a zombie look, approved slavery or maybe because Bacon is Irish and therefore he may follow a Protestant version of Christianity.
What I like in this painting is the use of color purple, an unusual color to use in paintings, and the dark nightmare look that the painting presents. It also seems that the Pope is trapped in his chair and his screams might be because of solitude or payback for approving slavery.

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