“Figure with Meat” by Francis Bacon analyzed by theory of Leo Tolstoy
Like most Francis Bacon’s painting the Figure with Meat is visceral and violent window into autor’s tortured soul. It depicts Pope Innocent X in front of cow carcass cut in half with face expressing pure horror. Screaming mouths wasn’t uncommon for Francis works as he used them in manny of his greatest hits. That explicit horror with which Bacon wants to influence painting viewer matches exactly with Tolstoy’s view of art as way of sad or angry author making art consumer as much sad and angry. Bacon’s art does exactly that. Figures trapped inside dark rooms with their screaming mouths gasping for air as Bacon often did thanks to his long life troubling sickness of asthma are exact case of expressionism bringing us closer to author experience. His traumatic experiences frames most of Francis works from troubling childhood when he was literary whipped for his sexual tendencies until his abusive relationships in later years of his life when he often ended up on hospital table thanks to injuries caused from fights between him and his lovers. In theory of Tolstoy that art shouldn’t make us smarter but more human Bacon painting certainly makes us more humane by exposing us to one of the most human emotions of all: fear. His paintings showing character’s exposed crocked teeth with their terrifying screams inspired by his sadistic experiences from his whole life almost reaching to us with cold, traumatic touch of true horror changes almost all of their viewers instantly thanks to real stories inspiring it.
The meat of Figure with Meat is also symbolizing death which by words of Francis Bacon awaits us all. His morbid tendencies in his art as well as in his life was also caused by untimely deaths and suicides of his loved ones. This contagious atmosphere is exactly what is Tolstoy describing by viewers being infected by artist’s experiences so they can experience themselves. Francis Bacon brings us this disturbing view of his world not because he just wanted to but because he had to. Deep need to communicate though his art was deeply rooted in his personality much more even than his passion in masochism and gambling. Thanks to it I thing we can classify him as one of most influential expressionist also successful in expressing his rare twisted worldview by his immortal artworks hailed as one of the most integral pieces of art of his generation and maybe any other. All the colors are so weirdly brushed and mushed together as in some memory of strangers dream. Every background is filled with this all consuming deep void reminding us of that time always present existencionalism caused by recent memory of two world wars. All Bacon’s characters are twisted in some kind of unnatural poses seemly caused by some unknown great pain and often they are in mid of unhuman screaming inspired by Sergei Eisenstein silent film Battleship Potemkin where is depicted women shot thought her glasses twisted in unending agony.
Barrett, T. (2017). Why is that Art? New York: Oxford University Press.
[wikipedia.com - Francis Bacon] [youtube.com - Wei Yu : Francis Bacon - Brush with Violence]
