Study after Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X 1953

If you tuned in for yesterday’s art feature, something about this painting might look a little familiar to you… Francis Bacon’s Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X is an icon of twentieth-century art. The haunting image depicts Pope Innocent X open-mouthed, screaming as he melts into a sea of streaky brushstrokes. Here, Bacon directly references a 1650 portrait by the Spanish Baroque artist Diego Velazquez. Velazquez’s original portrait has often been referred to as a masterpiece of the seventeenth century. Here, Bacon has transformed a famous portrait, symbolising papal authority, into a disturbing image. Bacon’s reinterpretation of the celebrated painting actively forces the viewer to contemplate religious traditions and customs. In this painting, Innocent X is distorted by energetic vertical brushstrokes. Thin layers of oil have been applied to create translucent colour, suggesting that the figure is dissolving into the black background. His open mouth evokes a visceral impression of pain and violence. The effect is frightening and unexpected. Bacon has extended the lines of the gold throne, bringing the shape into the foreground of the painting. This forms a physical and symbolic cage around the figure of the Pope. Could the cage symbolise social repression and restrain? Bacon himself has hinted to the theme of religious tyranny in this piece. Painted by a gay atheist at a time when homosexuality was still criminalised in the United Kingdom, this work might explore the artist’s complex relationship with traditional Christianity. The abstract nature and raw emotions of this piece allow for a variety of interpretations. What does this disturbing painting mean to you? Editor: Lucy Jude Grantham #