Pope II
| Pope II |
|---|
| Francis Bacon , 1951 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 198 × 137 cm |
|
Kunsthalle Mannheim , Mannheim
Link to the picture |
Pope II , is a painting by the Irish painter Francis Bacon . The 198 cm × 137 cm picture, painted in oil on canvas, is part of a three-part series ( Pope I , Pope II and Pope III ) from 1951. It shows a screaming Pope sitting on his throne, surrounded by a cage-like line construction. Until 1971, the year in which he completed his last Pope painting, Francis Bacon occupied himself almost continuously with the Pope portrait of Innocent X , which Velázquez painted in Rome in 1650. The painting is now in the collection of the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim .
Image description
In papal regalia - with a choir shirt , Mozetta and Camauro - the Pope sits on a throne. While the head, the mouth open to scream and the upper body of the figure are clearly worked out, parts of the lower body are only vaguely recognizable. The seat of the throne is shown only vaguely. The embedding of the figure on the throne in a cage-like, "transparent structure of lines of different strengths" suggests a spatial depth. The position of his right upper arm is only hinted at, his hand may be on his right knee. The upper body of the figure turns towards the viewer in the direction of the seat dictated by the throne and screams at him frontally. It remains unclear whether the person depicted here appears in the role of the tormented or the tormented. The figure's strong urge to move is emphasized particularly emphatically by the contrast to the rigid room structure.
Bacon illustrates this contrast through his spontaneous and fleeting style of painting, in which the traces of the brushstrokes of varying degrees within the figure convey the painting's process character. In the impasto paint application on unprimed canvas, the colors whitish turquoise and light blue as well as a whitish purple and a little yellow orange dominate the dark purple background. In Bacon's portrayal, the Pope is not seen in his powerful and heroic position and demeanor, he is depicted in isolation.
literature
- Christoph Heinrich: Francis Bacon - The Portraits . In: Christoph Heinrich (Ed.): Francis Bacon - Die Portraits. Ostfildern-Ruit 2005, pp. 28-109.
- Joachim Heusinger von Waldegg : Francis Bacon. Pope Shouting 1951. Mannheim 1985.
- John Russell: Francis Bacon. Revised and updated edition. London (et al.) 1993.
- Ernst van Alphen: “Reconcentrations”: Bacon's reinvention of his role models. In: Wilfried Seipel (Ed.): Francis Bacon and the picture tradition. Vienna 2003, pp. 57–69.
- Armin Second: Bacon's cry. Observations on some of the artist's paintings. In: Armin Second (Ed.): Francis Bacon - The violence of the factual. Munich 2006, pp. 69-104.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heusinger von Waldegg 1985, p. 4.