Three Studies for a Crucifixion
Three Studies for a Crucifixion is a 1962 triptych oil painting by Francis Bacon. It was completed in March 1962 and comprises three separate canvases, each measuring 198.1 by 144.8 centimetres (6 ft 6.0 in × 4 ft 9.0 in). The work is held by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Background
Bacon produced a number of works inspired by the
This work was created over a period of about two weeks, in preparation for his first retrospective at the
Description
The triptych is monumental in scale, some 6½ feet tall and nearly 15 feet long, twice the dimensions (four times the area) of the 1944 work, with its human figures depicted near life size. It deliberately associated animal slaughter with the crucifixion. In medieval triptychs, the panels were usually intended to be read in chronological sequence; with
Here, the left panel appears to show two figures in a butcher's shop with joints of meat on the counter. The centre panel is occupied by a bloodied human body writhing on a bed, with a white dot on the foot possibly a nail scar. The crucifixion is moved from its traditional place in the centre panel to the third panel, where a figure reimagined as a gutted carcass that is sliding down a cross in the right panel; its contorted form is a reference (but inverted) to Christ's body in Cimabue's 13th-century Crucifix and is also influenced by Rembrandt's Side of Beef.
Bacon later commented, "one has got to remember as a painter that there is this great beauty of the colour of meat … we are meat, we are potential carcasses". Michael Peppiatt's alternative interpretation is that Bacon's vehement denial of any auto-biographical story in this work as an indication of quite the opposite; Peppiatt suggests the three panels relate to Bacon leaving home, an unsatisfactory sexual experiences in Berlin, and the death of Bacon himself.
Notes
References
- Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Crucifixion, Guggenheim Museum, New York
- "Francis Bacon: From Picasso to Velázquez", Guggenheim Bilbao, 30 September 2016 - 8 January 2017
- The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections, Robert Penn Warren, p. 182-187
- Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure, Kent Brintnall, p. 140-151
- Francis Bacon in the 1950s, Michael Peppiatt, p. 61