Publication Magazine Volume 2 Art And Soul | Page 29

Velázquez – Las Meninas (c 1656)
The king and queen stand where you are standing, in
front of a gathering of courtiers. Velazquez looks from the
portrait he is painting of the royal couple. The infanta and
her retinue of maids (meninas) and dwarf entertainers are
gathered before the monarch. In the distance, a minister
or messenger is at the door. In a bright mirror, the royal
reflection glows. This painting is a many-layered model of
the world’s strangeness.
Leonardo da Vinci The Foetus in the Womb
(c 1510-13)
Leonardo expresses the human condition in a nutshell –
indeed, his rendition of the womb resembles an opened
horsechestnut casing. Inside is the beginning of us all
laid bare. Five hundred years ago, this artist and scientist
could portray the human mystery with a wonder that is
not religious but biological he holds up humanity as a fact
of nature. It is for me the most beautiful work of art in the
world.
Cézanne – Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902-4)
The broken vision of Cezanne is a glittering array of
glimpses and hesitations and reconsiderations. The
intensity of his gaze and the severity of his mind as he
attempts to see and somehow grasp the essence of the
mountain before him is one of the most moving and reve-
latory struggles in the history of art. Out of it, very quickly,
came cubism and abstraction. But even if Cezanne’s
researches had led nowhere, they would put him among
the greatest artists.
Caravaggio – The Beheading of Saint John
the Baptist (1608)
Caravaggio shows a murderous moment in a prison
yard. The executioner has drawn a knife to sever the last
tendons and skin of John the Baptist’s neck. Someone
watches this horrific moment from a barred window. All
around is sepulchral gloom. Death and human cruelty are
laid bare by this masterpiece, as its scale and shadow
daunt and possess the mind.
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