Deep

[poliphilo]

I was a bit hard on Grunewald. And the Church. So I thought maybe I'd make amends by posting a picture of the Crucifixion that I like.

Ummmm.....

Perhaps the truth is I don't like any pictures of the Crucifixion.

They're all trying to manipulate me. 

Besides, naked blokes with beards don't do it for me.....

And then I thought of this one.

Masaccio.  

The Jesus is the least thing about it. 

The people you remember are God the Father and Mary the Mother- figures of immemorial dignity. 

This isn't the picture of a guy being tortured to death. It's the picture of a Mystery.

Masaccio was the first painter to master the third dimension. And it's not just about trompe l'oeil.  

It's about creating a doorway, a gateway, a portal .




 

Comments

[sovay]

Masaccio was the first painter to master the third dimension. And it's not just about trompe l'oeil.  

I discovered Masaccio through Mary Gentle's Ilario: The Lion's Eye (2006), in which he appears as a minor character and, not unlike Swinburne in Elizabeth Hand's Mortal Love (2004), steals all his scenes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I walked into a church in a rough-seeming district of Florence and there was his cycle on the life of St. Peter. I hadn't been expecting there to be anything special in there and it just blew me away.