On a recent trip to the Des Moines Art Center, I chanced upon an amazing and curious work of art. It hung in the Nathan Emory Coffin Collection room. A rather dark and somewhat twisted painting. Study after Velasquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, a painting by Francis Bacon, immediately drew my attention. The sketchy oil on canvas, approximately 60 by 46 inches, consists of Pope Innocent X sitting in his golden throne. The purple cape draped around his shoulders symbolizing his royalty and prestige. This painting is not so boring as you may think. This is no painting just to be casually ignored and I will tell you why.
Pope Innocent, with a name like that how can anybody think otherwise. However is he so innocent? His face is pale and hardly distinguishable. His mouth, contorted into a hellish scream filling my mind with its echo. The Popes pale and blurred hands grip his throne as if he is holding on for his life. The black streaks pulling onto the Pope fill the remains of the background and give an overwhelming sensation that he is being pulled into a different place. This painting is not thick and layered with paint but instead is thinly painted and in some spots the canvas is clearly visible. The visible canvas accents the gold throne and adds a glow of light. The canvas is more visible just beneath where his robe ends. At that point where his robe ends, we see more thick black streaks. This time they come from the Pope and are not vertical but stream from him. Most disturbing of all maybe that on the Popes white lace gown, there are splatters of blood. The splats of blood trail down his gown and is a deep and dark red. Yet another disturbing twist in this painting.
The fact that the painting is not layered with coats of paint adds to the overall visual effect. The canvas enhances the Popes golden throne and adds a glow of light to the Pope as if he is ascending to heaven. However it may go the other way around. You cannot ignore his scream and the splats of blood on his gown. Perhaps the Pope is fading into the black instead and the gold is just the last rays of the fading light. There is a lot to be seen from this painting. The more you look at a painting the better you gain a knowledge and understanding for it. You can start to see new things that you missed before. The authors Martin and Jacobus state, “we miss things, and often times we miss things that are right there for us to observe”( Martin and Jacobus 56). I did not, at first glance notice, but after a little while of studying the painting I realized that the Pope has no legs. The black streaks coming from the Popes gown maybe giving a clue as to why. What if he is not fading away but disintegrating like sand in an hourglass.
This painting draws out a sense of wonder and curiosity. It raises questions that do not have any right answer to. Why is he screaming? What does the splats of blood mean? this painting definitely requires more than a quick glance. It is inexhaustible and there could more to be seen from it. Pope Innocent or is he?
Work Cited
Martin, F. David, and Lee A. Jacobus. The Humanities Through the Arts. 6th ed.
Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004.
