Figure with Meat

Figure with Meat is a 1954 painting by the Irish born artist Francis Bacon. The figure is based on the Pope Innocent X portrait by Diego Velázquez; however, in the Bacon painting the Pope is shown as a tragic figure and placed between two bisected halves of a cow. The carcass hanging in the background is likely derived from Rembrandt's Carcass of Beef, 1657. The painting is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. According to... more

Figure with Meat is a 1954 painting by the Irish born artist Francis Bacon. The figure is based on the Pope Innocent X portrait by Diego Velázquez; however, in the Bacon painting the Pope is shown as a tragic figure and placed between two bisected halves of a cow. The carcass hanging in the background is likely derived from Rembrandt's Carcass of Beef, 1657. The painting is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. According to Mary Louise Schumacher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Bacon appropriated the famous portrait, with its subject, enthroned and draped in satins and lace, his stare stern and full of authority. In Bacon's version, animal carcasses hang at the pope's back, creating a raw and disturbing Crucifixion-like composition. The pope's hands, elegant and poised in Velázquez's version, are rough hewn and gripping the church's seat of authority in apparent terror. His mouth is held in a scream and black striations drip down from the pope's nose to his... less