Lot Essay
"I often think about what Stravinsky used to say about making cocktails. In his Pulcinella, for example, he mixed some Vivaldi with some Stravinsky and he had his cocktail. Picasso used to do it too, mixing his own drawing with an inspiration from the Greeks and from Ingres. These cocktails are very important in 20th century art, and they are only possible in the 20th century. We have so much art documentaion that we can play with all sources. The Bacchanal is an antique theme and a Renaissance one too. After the ancients, Bellini did it, then Titian. Later, Rubens copied Titian and then there was Poussin. It is an homage to life in all its plenitude. In my Bacchanal, the people are modern. They have, perhaps, just left a discotheque and are continuing their homage to Bacchus in a field. The field is by the sea which symbolizes liberty and plenitude. The Mediterranean has always been the site of erotic gatherings. I relate eroticism to the sun, nature to the water." (1)
With seventeen figures, the present painting is probably the most complex picture ever done by Claudio Bravo. The above mentioned quote summarizes the personality of a cultivated, talented, humorous and sensitive spirit. It also shows his love for music, theater, the Renaissance and the Mediterranean, and for story-telling and eroticism. This Arcadian celebration does not have a specific literary source. Nymphs, shepherds and a satyr dance before the god Pan draped in garlands. Pan was the ancient Greek deity of gardens and woodlands and is also associated with Bacchus, the god of wine.
Bravo depicts the scene as a stage piece, consciously continuing a long art tradition, and as he has stated, "I am very connected to the European past-to ancient art, Renaissance art". Self-portrait (1970), Madonna (1979-1980), The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1984) or The Last Supper (1994) are good examples of this production, where the source of old masters is present. As a teenager in the studio of Miguel Venegas Cienfuentes in Santiago de Chile, the technique taught was the copying of old master paintings and drawings as well as plaster casts. "I was always having to make perfect copies of the masters. It is something that has stayed with me." But Bravo does not exactly copy, "...it's something more, the painting is a concept.... Paintings are a whole mental process. In the end, after going through several stages, the painting begins to function. But always up to the very last moment you're altering your first idea.... I have no limits."
Living in Madrid he was a frequent visitor of the Prado. He has expressed his admiration for Titian as well as for Zurbarn and Velzquez and has consistently admitted his preference for the southern Renaissance and Baroque traditions over those of other European nations and particularly those of Bellini, Titian, Poussin and Bourdon. However, two paintings in particular were the focus of his study: Bellini's The Feast of the Gods (fig. a, National Gallery, Washington) and Titian's The Andrians (fig. b, Prado Museum, Madrid). If one examines these paintings, Bravo investigates, transforms and changes the compositions, mixing both of them, combining their elements, places and sitters to paint his Bacchanal.
Bravo regards himself as a realist, "but I transform reality". He takes the "real" to another plane of perception, paying great attention to detail and utilizing a unique mastery of light, tactility and atmosphere. Referring to this picture he stated, "some are put off by the colors. They're strong and strident. But if I'm going to paint a composition of vibrancy and sensuous life, the colors have to fit the theme. I finished this painting in less than 60 days. People of various nationalities posed for me...Moroccans, Italians, English. Most of them posed for me individually."
Edward J. Sullivan, art historian and friend of Claudio Bravo, wrote, "When we observe a work of Claudio Bravo we are able, at first, to identify and intuit the empirical qualities that it possesses. However, upon more prolonged examination and contemplation, we realize that the fruits and flowers, landscapes or figures that he has painted belong not only to our own realm of perception but also to one which is slightly beyond our reach. Bravo's art, in many instances, seems to straddle two worlds, that in which we exist and another, just slightly beyond our comprehension." (2) One can also link this statement with the artist's comments on the painting Vanities (1981), "...There's neither optimism nor pessimism in my vanitites. I like the attitude that some painters such as Velzquez take, neither optimistic nor pessimistic. The viewer must decide." One can address all this to the Bacchanal, where the artist depicts a stage-fiction with the statuesque figures like "still shots" of operatic fantasies. These large figure compositions are the artist's favorite works, or in his own words, "If I am to be remembered in the future, I would like it to be for such pictures as these."
(1). Claudio Bravo's comments on his Bacchanal (E.J. Sullivan, Claudio Bravo, Rizzoli 1985, p. 99)
(2). E.J. Sullivan, Wrapped Packages, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Nov 1997-Jan. 1998, p. 13
With seventeen figures, the present painting is probably the most complex picture ever done by Claudio Bravo. The above mentioned quote summarizes the personality of a cultivated, talented, humorous and sensitive spirit. It also shows his love for music, theater, the Renaissance and the Mediterranean, and for story-telling and eroticism. This Arcadian celebration does not have a specific literary source. Nymphs, shepherds and a satyr dance before the god Pan draped in garlands. Pan was the ancient Greek deity of gardens and woodlands and is also associated with Bacchus, the god of wine.
Bravo depicts the scene as a stage piece, consciously continuing a long art tradition, and as he has stated, "I am very connected to the European past-to ancient art, Renaissance art". Self-portrait (1970), Madonna (1979-1980), The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1984) or The Last Supper (1994) are good examples of this production, where the source of old masters is present. As a teenager in the studio of Miguel Venegas Cienfuentes in Santiago de Chile, the technique taught was the copying of old master paintings and drawings as well as plaster casts. "I was always having to make perfect copies of the masters. It is something that has stayed with me." But Bravo does not exactly copy, "...it's something more, the painting is a concept.... Paintings are a whole mental process. In the end, after going through several stages, the painting begins to function. But always up to the very last moment you're altering your first idea.... I have no limits."
Living in Madrid he was a frequent visitor of the Prado. He has expressed his admiration for Titian as well as for Zurbarn and Velzquez and has consistently admitted his preference for the southern Renaissance and Baroque traditions over those of other European nations and particularly those of Bellini, Titian, Poussin and Bourdon. However, two paintings in particular were the focus of his study: Bellini's The Feast of the Gods (fig. a, National Gallery, Washington) and Titian's The Andrians (fig. b, Prado Museum, Madrid). If one examines these paintings, Bravo investigates, transforms and changes the compositions, mixing both of them, combining their elements, places and sitters to paint his Bacchanal.
Bravo regards himself as a realist, "but I transform reality". He takes the "real" to another plane of perception, paying great attention to detail and utilizing a unique mastery of light, tactility and atmosphere. Referring to this picture he stated, "some are put off by the colors. They're strong and strident. But if I'm going to paint a composition of vibrancy and sensuous life, the colors have to fit the theme. I finished this painting in less than 60 days. People of various nationalities posed for me...Moroccans, Italians, English. Most of them posed for me individually."
Edward J. Sullivan, art historian and friend of Claudio Bravo, wrote, "When we observe a work of Claudio Bravo we are able, at first, to identify and intuit the empirical qualities that it possesses. However, upon more prolonged examination and contemplation, we realize that the fruits and flowers, landscapes or figures that he has painted belong not only to our own realm of perception but also to one which is slightly beyond our reach. Bravo's art, in many instances, seems to straddle two worlds, that in which we exist and another, just slightly beyond our comprehension." (2) One can also link this statement with the artist's comments on the painting Vanities (1981), "...There's neither optimism nor pessimism in my vanitites. I like the attitude that some painters such as Velzquez take, neither optimistic nor pessimistic. The viewer must decide." One can address all this to the Bacchanal, where the artist depicts a stage-fiction with the statuesque figures like "still shots" of operatic fantasies. These large figure compositions are the artist's favorite works, or in his own words, "If I am to be remembered in the future, I would like it to be for such pictures as these."
(1). Claudio Bravo's comments on his Bacchanal (E.J. Sullivan, Claudio Bravo, Rizzoli 1985, p. 99)
(2). E.J. Sullivan, Wrapped Packages, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Nov 1997-Jan. 1998, p. 13