

Permeated by tormented visions of humanity, Francis Bacon’s paintings embody the ethos of the postwar era. Beginning in the late 1940s, Bacon created a series of works modeled on Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1649/50), in which he transformed the celebrated masterpiece into grotesque, almost nightmarish compositions. In this version, he replaced the noble drapery framing the central figure with two sides of beef, directly quoting Rembrandt van Rijn and Chaim Soutine’s haunting images of raw meat. By linking the pope with these carcasses, Bacon allowed the viewer to interpret the pope alternately as a depraved butcher, or as a victim like the slaughtered animal hanging behind him.(Internal links added). No wonder the Joker saved the painting from destruction.


Bacon appropriated the famous portrait, with its subject, enthroned and draped in satins and lace, his stare stern and full of authority.In sum, the painting "exhibit[s] Bacon's fascination with the screaming mouth set against a gray face that seems to be in the later stages of necrosis, with wrinkly eyes peering out helplessly from behind a mask of decaying, translucent flesh."3 Litt, in the piece linked above, observes that Figure with Meat is "less an assault on Catholicism per se than an image of an authority figure reduced to utter anguish and helplessness."4
In Bacon's version, animal carcasses hang at the pope's back, creating a raw and disturbing Crucifixion-like composition.
The pope's hands, elegant and poised in Velázquez's version, are rough hewn and gripping the church's seat of authority in apparent terror.
His mouth is held in a scream and black striations drip down from the pope's nose to his neck. It's as if Bacon picked up a wide house painting brush and brutishly dragged it over the face.
The fresh meat recalls the lavish arrangements of fruits, meats and confections in 17th-century vanitas paintings, which usually carried subtle moralizing messages about the impermanence of life and the spiritual dangers of sensual pleasures. Sometimes, the food itself showed signs of being overripe or spoiled, to make the point.
Bacon weds the imagery of salvation, worldly decadence, power and carnal sensuality, and he contrasts those things with his own far more palpable and existential view of damnation.2
See for yourself (and click upon the image to enlarge it):


The Joker defaced a number of paintings in that sequence (though I've been unable to locate an online listing thereof), but he did append his signature to one work for good measure:

1. Dorothy Shinn, "85 Drawings at Oberlin Mark Ohio Son's Return; Jim Dine's Portraits, Figure Studies and Pastels in 40 year span on Display," Akron Beacon Journal, June 26, 2005.
2. Mary Louise Schumacher, "Screaming in Paint," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 27, 2007.
3. Colin Dabkowski, "The dark side: An Albright-Knox exhibit of Francis Bacon's paintings provide a chilling study of the violence that seemed unending in the 20th century," Buffalo News, May 8, 2007.
8 comments:
what are you're thoughts on the Dark Knight scene when the Joker has a batman lookalike reading notes his demands that Batman reveal his identity. reference to this painting and scene from previous batman film? good thoughts twisted painting great art
Great post. Francis Bacon's work looks like the minds eye of the Joker.
You know, when I saw that painting in "Batman" in the theaters (I believe I was twelve), I mistook Bacon for the artist I now know to be Marshall Arisman. I recently interviewed him at Crappy Indie Music: The Blog, and any of Arisman's work could easily have stood in for that painting... or the Joker's mind, for that matter. His "Gotham" connection would have made it even more appropriate. Great piece on Bacon, tho!
This article is defnitely MEAT Clown Approved! We might just have to do a "Bacon" themed advertisement now. Seriously. Thank you for the inspirado!
Christopher Nolan revealed in 2013 that Bacon inspired Ledger's Joker. http://youtu.be/u1R4CFUxj9c
Christopher Nolan revealed in 2013 that Bacon inspired Ledger's Joker. http://youtu.be/u1R4CFUxj9c
تعمیرگاه تخصصی موبایل و تبلت در انواع و اقسام مدل ها در تهران
دسته ی تعمیرات موبایل
طراحی لوگو صنعتی
Post a Comment