Skip to main content

Jacques-Louis David, 'Male Nude - Patroclus', c.1780

File:Jacques-Louis David Patrocle.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

My eye first notices the surprising delicacy in which David has drawn this figure. Although the viewer sees this strong, muscular form filling the pictorial space of the canvas, the softness of the lines of the body and the colour of the skin is in complete juxtaposition. Furthermore, the shadows settling on the body do not create hard lines but rather extenuate the smoothness of the skin. The only hard lines are on the red drapery which the figure leans on. The body is not geometric or made up of any straight lines, everything flows into the milky white skin and down the figure's arched shoulders to his feet. 

Moving away from the body which obviously catches any viewer's eye, I notice the arrows in the bottom right hand corner. The representation is ambiguous but perhaps these link somehow to the brutish nature of this figure, contrasting with the softness of the lines that make up his body. He may be preparing to kill, with the red drapery like a pool of blood underneath him. He is often called Patroclus, Achilles best friend and soldier in the Trojan war, but I associate him with a sword rather than arrows. Or, could they be a reference to Cupid - the arrows are discarded in a messy pile which could imply that this man is unlucky in love or fallen out of someone's favour. But the man's head is facing away from the viewer so it is difficult to gauge his emotions. From the way he is lying, he seems unsure of himself, shy, maybe even embarrassed. The lack of interaction with the viewer could highlight how he just wants to be left alone to himself. It is ambiguous and that is part of the attraction of the painting.

The depiction of his hair is also interesting and it implies something that the viewer cannot see that is not contained within the four walls of the frame. His hair seems to be blowing forward, suggesting that there is some sort of wind source. This is also backed up by the apparent light source hitting the figure's foreshortened shoulder jutting out of the frame. Perhaps there is a window close to the shoulder of the viewer standing in front of the painting. David allows the light to give some body and some three-dimensional qualities to his painting, emphasising his skill as an artist. He hasn't just painted a reclining figure, he has incorporated movement, softness of brushstroke and ambiguity. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mark Rothko, 'Light Red over Black', 1957

  My eye is not drawn to the painting itself but the title of the painting, 'Light Red Over Black'. We would automatically think that the black is on top of a red background, but Rothko has flipped this around, subverting the title just like he subverting the meaning of what it was to be an artist and what Art actually was. During this time, art was going through rapid changes, with abstract expressionism coming into full force (Rothko, Pollock). But Rothko showed that all this change was for the good, even if for him, it was short lived.  The colour red in this painting is searing and the black struggles to fully cover this velvety border, especially at the bottom of the canvas. Unlike the black squares which have a hazy quality to their edges, the red is clear and impregnable. It is hard to figure out what this represents - the Tate has suggested a window perhaps, but if it is a window then what are we looking out into? Perhaps it is night, or perhaps the viewer is catching ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Frans Hals, 'The Laughing Cavalier', 1624

  The Laughing Cavalier is a man on the cusp of unseriousness. His eyes follow a viewer around the room, his curled moustache twitches endearingly as if he struggles to maintain composure, whilst his lip is pursed to stop laughter escaping. The pose, meanwhile, is proud and monumental, filling the canvas with a foreshortened elbow and shoulder pushing into a viewer's world, serving to emphasise the silks and expensive dress against the monochromatic background.  Frans Hals was first and foremost a portrait painter. His oeuvre includes wedding portraits of solo male and female sitters, multifigure works including The Banquet of Officers from 1627, yet his depictions often turned to peasants or comical characters, notably his Jester with a Lute now in the Louvre, proving that portrait painters also had range. The Laughing Cavalier remains an equally intriguing work: despite being Hals' most famous piece, the sitter remains anonymous. Yet, the smile is so familiar to a viewer, an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Artemisia Gentileschi, 'Jael and Sisera', c.1620

  My eye firstly notices the hand wielding the hammer above the unsuspecting man's head. Gentileschi is depicting a new and particularly horrible kind of weapon here instead of the huge sword she gave Judith to slice Holofernes' head off in 1620. The tent peg seems all the more violent, especially as the viewer is looking at the split second before the deed has been committed. Moreover, the gaze of the women (Jael) is focused and calm, making the piece seem unnerving. This is not a moment of hesitation but a snapshot of action - the woman has made up her mind and will commit to this murder. The viewer can only imagine how Gentileschi would have depicted the bloody aftermath, in her usual violent and tenebristic way. The fact that the artist has signed her name in the tomb-like stone above the man is significant - she is signing his life away in this painting, sending him swiftly to the grave.  The body of the man (Sisera) is also interestingly depicted. He lies in a rather eff...
Post a Comment
Read more