Painting(1946) by Francis Bacon
Similar
to Rembrandt’s “Butchered Ox,” Francis Bacon’s “Painting” (1946), depicts a
bloody animal “sprung up like a crucifixion.” Though Bacon did not intend to
reflect the war battles of the period, critics have been associating the
paintings with World War 2. With its use of bloody flesh, gore, and the
depiction of this butchered animal, I can see how critics may see a reflection
upon humanity with this painting.
Representative
of WW2 (from outside the artist’s perspective), the blood and flesh is used to
symbolized what society has become. With the millions of people killed during
WW2, the mass slaughter of Jewish people, and Hitler’s dictatorship, it seemed
like all faith in humanity had been lost. The figure under the umbrella
resembles the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain, also
known as the umbrella resembles the prime minister of the United Kingdom,
Neville Chamberlain, also known as the umbrella man. He is represented as the
butcher or murderer of the animal, mainly because he is best known for the
appeasement foreign policy toward Nazi Germany. The appeasement was used to
avoid war with the Hitler’s dictatorship, trying to avoid the events that
happened during WW1. Though he thought it was a good idea at first, many
critics said that he let Hitler’s Germany grow too strong. Though he had no
direct say to kill all the Jews, he is still looked as a murderer.
To accompany this painting, I have included a poem that
is from the perspective of those being “slaughtered”. It is really intense, and
there is so much emotion that you capture when you read this.
Heaven, beg mercy for me! If there is
a God in you, a pathway
through
you to this God - which I
have not
discovered - then pray for
me! For my
heart is dead, no longer
is there prayer
on my lips; all strength
is gone, and
hope is no more. Until when, how
much longer, until when?
You, executioner! Here's my neck - go
to it, slaughter me! Behead me like a
dog, yours is the almighty
arm and the
axe, and the whole earth
is my scaffold
- and we, we are the few!
My blood is
fair game - strike the
skull, and
murder's blood, the blood
of nurslings
and old men, will spurt
onto your
clothes and will never,
never be wiped
off.
And if there is justice -
let it show
itself at once! But if justice show itself
after I have been blotted
out from
beneath the skies - let
its throne be
hurled down forever! Let heaven rot
with eternal evil! And you, the arrogant,
go in this violence of
yours, live by
your bloodshed and be
cleansed by it.
And cursed be the man who
says:
Avenge! No such revenge - revenge for
the blood of a little
child - has yet been
devised by Satan. Let the blood pierce
through the abyss! Let the blood seep
down into the depths of
darkness, and
eat away there, in the
dark, and breach
all the rotting
foundations of the earth.
History of Modern Art by
H. H. Arnason and Elizabeth C. Mansfield
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8490307-On_The_Slaughter-by-Hayyim_Nahman_Bialik
No comments:
Post a Comment