Saturnalia 2005

Sorin Ilfoveanu's "Saturnalia" depicts a bacchanal scene of revelry through spare lines and figures, evoking the ancient Roman festival of Saturn. The artist populates the canvas with an ungulate, flutist, and figures with crossed arms. The figures are depicted with an economy of lines, bringing to mind the cave paintings in Lascaux, where animals are reduced to their barest, most recognizable forms. In this work, the bird perched on the figure's head may hearken back to ancient practices of divination, where birds served as messengers between the earthly and spiritual realms. The flutist provides a connection to ecstatic rituals and altered states of consciousness, where music is the vehicle for transcending the mundane. Ilfoveanu masterfully employs a visual language rooted in the past, reminding us that the human experience is a continuum. Through the image's emotional intensity, the artist conjures the enduring echoes of ancient rites and communal celebrations.