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duccioThis painting was at the auction place this month. It is unfinished. The catalog said "...Spanish school, 19th century." Although this painting appears unfinished I wondered if it is actually so. I have seen several unfinished Madonna and Child paintings, some from the middle ages, and others from the 19th century. There must be many more as this was probably the most common subject demanded of artists in Christian and especially Catholic countries. I always first wonder if these paintings, with the faces and hands complete and waiting for the background, were an example of a division of labor in the craft of painting, an attempt to fill the demand by primitive mass production methods, identifying them as commodities, which of course, paintings are.
Sometimes though I think that maybe it is an intentional incompleteness and the subject of the paintings is something else, something fragmentary, not the expected, wanted, Madonna and Child scenario.
10114382
Here is another Madonna and Child painted by Ford Madox Brown, a Pre-Raphaelite Victorian. It was supposedly left unfinished at the painter's death in 1892. Depicted are the artist's second wife and baby son. The name of the painting is "Take your Son, Sir." and the father is visible in the mirror. The painting seems to me to be a tableau of a failed relationship where the father may be abandoning the mother to deal with the child herself, but ironically expressed in a Christian iconography. It is also perhaps a self-righteous condemnation of any man who views the painting who might be a dead beat dad, seeing himself in the mirror. Victorians were highly moralistic. The painting being left unfinished expresses the hope of the Madonna and Child idea, an expectation of a happy family, being left unrealized. I believe that Brown considered the picture finished in that he signed and titled it in an area that should later have been painted over had he considered it not complete. It certainly is compelling as is.
Ford Madox Brown.
The incomplete auction painting rang a bell in my mind of the unfinished Madonna and Child paintings out there, spanning art history, as perhaps occasionally, being intentionally left incomplete, as an unhappy tolling for fondest hopes that now remain unfulfilled. I thought of that, and I think of us, and post today's entry. One wonders about the motivation of the high bidder. (I was interested, but my antagonism to religious content thwarted my more thoughtful sentiments.) This auction lot #4382 was offered at $50. and sold at it's lower estimated value of $100 (+ taxes and fees).
Sometimes though I think that maybe it is an intentional incompleteness and the subject of the paintings is something else, something fragmentary, not the expected, wanted, Madonna and Child scenario.
10114382
Here is another Madonna and Child painted by Ford Madox Brown, a Pre-Raphaelite Victorian. It was supposedly left unfinished at the painter's death in 1892. Depicted are the artist's second wife and baby son. The name of the painting is "Take your Son, Sir." and the father is visible in the mirror. The painting seems to me to be a tableau of a failed relationship where the father may be abandoning the mother to deal with the child herself, but ironically expressed in a Christian iconography. It is also perhaps a self-righteous condemnation of any man who views the painting who might be a dead beat dad, seeing himself in the mirror. Victorians were highly moralistic. The painting being left unfinished expresses the hope of the Madonna and Child idea, an expectation of a happy family, being left unrealized. I believe that Brown considered the picture finished in that he signed and titled it in an area that should later have been painted over had he considered it not complete. It certainly is compelling as is.
Ford Madox Brown.
The incomplete auction painting rang a bell in my mind of the unfinished Madonna and Child paintings out there, spanning art history, as perhaps occasionally, being intentionally left incomplete, as an unhappy tolling for fondest hopes that now remain unfulfilled. I thought of that, and I think of us, and post today's entry. One wonders about the motivation of the high bidder. (I was interested, but my antagonism to religious content thwarted my more thoughtful sentiments.) This auction lot #4382 was offered at $50. and sold at it's lower estimated value of $100 (+ taxes and fees).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 01:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 02:12 am (UTC)My post here wasn't really about religious content, but rather an idea about the paintings and the messages they hold as a result of their state of incompleteness. I wonder what messages things have to say to me as they are (which would have to be completely subjective to each person individually) and not what message they are supposed to have regardless of condition or anything else. What does this singular object mean to just me (and maybe other people too), rather than what is this group of objects supposed to mean to everyone. Things have unexpected stories to tell. I think you did assess the Ford Madox Brown painting in just that way; you looked at it carefully and it spoke to you. It's not bad or good, it's just there. It presents an idea to the mind.
Maybe I am not understanding your comment. I am not wanting to be dismissive. I just have not much interest in religion, although I am somewhat educated in the notion.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 02:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 02:42 am (UTC)I was only worried I'd get you pissed - don't want that. Sorry if I did.
Peace, sister.