If you had to name the most influential movies of all time, Sergei Eisenstein’s
Battleship Potemkin made in 1925 is definitely among them. It reenacts a 1905 mutiny on a
russian battleship. Act IV of the movie is one of the most shocking. The Odessa Steps
will be the setting of a massacre where, very notably, a baby carriage rolls down the steps...
But this video isn’t about film history... The reason why I’m
talking about this is because one of its stills was a major influence in
the making of a 1953 painting; Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X.
But before talking about this painting, let’s look at who made it.
Francis Bacon was born in Ireland in 1909. His 1933 Crucifixion is his first work of art that
will get public attention. Already, we can see Bacon’s attraction for pain and fear.
What is commonly said about Bacon is that his brushstrokes are violent and you can already
see this in Crucifixion. There’s violence in the subject’s neck and what appears to be ribs, but
there’s also a certain ghostliness with the figure almost blending at times with the background.
In 1944, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion also gains notoriety and, again,
the themes of fear and pain are exploited. These are monstrous figures and they’re all suffering.
5 years later, in 1949, Bacon creates a series of 6 heads. The first one has the same surreal
feeling as the figures in the previous paintings. But there’s a clear evolution in this series
which results in the 6th head, which might seem familiar. It’s one variation of Francis
Bacon’s popes. Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X is, in fact,
far from being the only time Bacon painted a pope. He created some 50 versions over 20 years.
Head VI and Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X are the most popular
renditions of Bacon’s popes and they’re very similar. The difference is that, of course,
Head VI focuses on the pope’s head, while the Study after Velazquez’s Portrait shows the full
body of the pope. Head VI also doesn’t show the upper side of the pope’s face,
while Study after Velazquez’s Portrait does, though it still retains a ghostly transparency.
The paintings, as seen earlier, are influenced by Battleship Potemkin,
but also more importantly by Velasquez’s 1650 Portrait of Pope Innocent X.
Now let’s take a closer look at the painting. You see the pope sitting on a golden throne,
wearing white and purple. While in Velazquez’s portrait the pope looks comfortable and relaxed,
Bacon paints him screaming and rigid. His hands seem to be tightly gripping the armrests of his
throne as if he was suffering deeply. So far, the painting is pretty scary,
but what really makes it horrifying and violent is, at least to me, the dark vertical lines
covering the canvas. Those are thought to be curtains. Bacon often experienced with painting
curtains and the pattern observed here is very similar to what he did in the past. But here,
the lines don’t really look like curtains. If anything, they look like they’re heavily falling
on the pope, painfully raining down on him and then crashing on the floor. The popes transparency
makes it look as if the lines descending on him were, in a way, slowly burning him and
making him disappear. We could also see these vertical lines as ascending, as if the pope was
burning and reduced to smoke. Either way, these vertical lines are definitely a great example
of Bacon’s famous violent brushstrokes. They seem to be the reason for the pope’s suffering.
Many have tried to interpret why Bacon decided to paint a screaming pope. Perhaps
it was because the catholic church brutally repressed his homosexuality or maybe it was
because of Bacon’s staunch atheism, but the truth of the matter is that he only
wanted to paint someone wearing purple and not many figures wear purple aside from the pope.
By putting Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X next to Portrait of Pope
Innocent X, we don’t only see the difference between the rendering of a similar subject,
but also the incredible transformation art went through between 1650 and 1950.
Velasquez’s pope is extremely realistic and is regarded by many as one of the best portraits
ever created. It was made to reproduce, with great accuracy, reality. It was made so that
pope Innocent X could be remembered. Before the invention of photography,
having your portrait painted was the only way to have future generations know what you looked like.
Bacon’s pope on the other hand is extremely different. Instead
of being made to reproduce reality, it was made to share and express feelings;
in this case, the intense pain and suffering boiling inside Bacon.
Here, there’s an immense difference between the reason why these painters made these
portraits and how they did them. One painted to reproduce reality in order to immortalize someone,
while the other painted to express deep feelings. And the interesting thing about this is that this
difference doesn’t have much to do with the artists themselves, but more with the social
and historical context in which these artists lived. This is why art history is fascinating.