Bacon and Eliot
guilt, angst and existentialism 11 are major themes in the play as it explores the death of Harry’s wife and his mother’s dead spouse.
How Francis Bacon was inspired by T.S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion
T.S. Eliot’s Eumenides inspired the three biomorphic figures of Bacon’s 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion [ Illustration 1 ]. It was painted over two weeks and the work is in the mode of a triptych, with each panel measuring 94 x 74 cm and painted on boards, a material Bacon was using at the time as an inexpensive alternative to canvas. Each panel bears a single taut sculptural, biomorphic, form pitched against a harsh orange background. The orange hue displays inconsistently across the canvasses, due in part to the low level of oil in the paint, which resulted in varying rates of
[Illustration 1] Three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion 1944 Oil and pastel on fibreboard, each panel: 94 x 74 cm Tate Gallery London https://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N06/N06171_10.jpg
absorption into the board. The figures have the hue of pallid flesh tones, appearing grisaille and radiating horror, with vague but recognizable human features, tortured and distorted. The figures seem to inhabit a liminal state between man and monster.
The figure on the left is the most human-like, with a visible nose and an ear visible under a mop of hair. It has been suggested that this figure could represent a mourner at the cross. The delineation of the background space forces the viewer’s gaze to the central figure of the triptych : the mode of the triptych here is to overwhelm and engulf the viewer. The figure is draped in a white cloth, which could be construed as a reference to Grünewald’s 1502 work The Mocking of Christ . The right-hand figure is situated on a patch of grass, with its mouth opened into an inhumanly wide scream. The black lines in
11 Palmer 1962.
231
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator