Bacchanalian Marginalia

The image of Turner's painting used here is a hand-colored reproduction by engraver John Cousen (b. 1804), identical to the original in terms of basic composition. I found this reproduction of Turner's painting makes for more clearly discernible comparisons, and so have elected to use it over the original. It is compared with the much earlier work by Titian which it resembles merely in the posing of its figures. As such, Turner's version of the episode of Bacchus and Ariadne on the island of Naxos has no amount of the "sacred conversation" so abundant in Renaissance painting. The figures appear artificially posed and totally bereft of any awareness of one another's presence, whereas the whole of Titan's work is comprehensively unified.

J. M. W. Turner – "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1840)

Seen here...
Titian – "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1523)

A Comparison of Details

A faun and his dog. Note his arched stance and brown cloth over left shoulder.

Compare the falling sweep of Ariadne's dress, posed right foot, and position of hands.

Noting similarities in the Bacchi, see Turner's use of the cymbal-player's pose.

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[Art Edition] This blog is intended as a space within which I will share my findings related to classical music appropriation. Many composers in the past have quoted, borrowed, and recycled the themes and melodies of others. Having already noted many such instances, I hope to include the more interesting, and convincing, examples herein.

Flora and Arnolfini, Chatterton and Satan

These images, particularly the Dore, have been modified for the sake of comparison. One is reminded of how frequently the painter looks to art of a previous era for models in producing a new work. In these paintings, it is not stylistic similarity which is worthy of examination but the degree to which the younger artist adopts the pose of the other's subject, and, to a lesser extent, a strong thematic resemblance, such as that of fertility in example one, death in two, boredom in three.

The tilted, egg-like shape of the head in the Arnolfini portrait and the rotation of the torso, hand on belly clutching cloth, mirrored closely in Rembrandt's depiction of Flora; the dissected square window top-center in the Chatterton scene known to Wyeth, faced straight-out, beneath the ledge of which is tucked the subject's hip with crescent right arm; the universal pose, hand supporting head from one side (dwelling, not thinking), brow and shoulders set low with a distant, concentrated stare borrowed from Dürer.

First Comparison

Rembrandt van Rijn – "Flora" (c. 1650s)

Seen here... 
Jan van Eyck – "The Arnolfini Portrait" (1434, right)

Second Comparison

Andrew Wyeth – "Overflow" (1978)

Seen here...

Henry Wallis – "The Death of Chatterton" (1856, top)
 

Third Comparison

Gustave Dore – "Satan" from Dante's Inferno (1861)

Seen here...

Albrecht Dürer – "Melancholia I" (1514, right) 

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[Art Edition] This blog is intended as a space within which I will share my findings related to classical music appropriation. Many composers in the past have quoted, borrowed, and recycled the themes and melodies of others. Having already noted many such instances, I hope to include the more interesting, and convincing, examples herein.

Passing Through a Mantel

Despite its rotated point-of-view, Balthus' painting closely resembles that of Magritte's in a number of details. In the Balthus: the white mantel with new embellishments retains its frontal view, thus appearing cubist, the centerpiece, changed from clock to blue vase, the square patterning of the baseboards, and, not least of all, the large, gold-framed mirror.

It may be interesting, furthermore, to note the relationship of the paintings, were one to place them together, the female figure and train confronting one another in a quasi-sexual manner. Balthus, however, has conceded to lower his mantel, so that his lady can see the reflection which is given in neither of the two works.

Balthus – "Figure in Front of a Mantel" (1955)

Seen here...
René Magritte – "Time Transfixed" (1938)

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[Art Edition] This blog is intended as a space within which I will share my findings related to classical music appropriation. Many composers in the past have quoted, borrowed, and recycled the themes and melodies of others. Having already noted many such instances, I hope to include the more interesting, and convincing, examples herein.

The Return of Mantegna

Slightly modified for the sake of comparison, one easily identifies Mantegna's "Dead Christ" in this screencap from the decade-old "The Return," their most striking similarity, other than the iconic foreshortening, being the turned down hands. Moreover, the work is something of a key needed for an otherwise vague, loosely mythological plot. It concerns the tension between two brothers and a long-absent father. The Mantegna connection refashions the stranger as Christlike, who teaches the children difficult lessons and will die for their sins of suspicion and distrust.

Note, general agreement among art historians indicates that the women depicted in the painting are likely later additions, which helps support Zvyagintsev's cinematography.

Andrey Zvyagintsev – "The Return" (2003, left)

Seen here...
Andrea Mantegna – "Dead Christ" (c. 1480s)

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[Art Edition] This blog is intended as a space within which I will share my findings related to classical music appropriation. Many composers in the past have quoted, borrowed, and recycled the themes and melodies of others. Having already noted many such instances, I hope to include the more interesting, and convincing, examples herein.