"Mediterranean
heritage" which was a reaction against the works of the Northern
artists such as Nietzsche and Wagner. At this time, Charles Maurras,
an important critic, advanced the idea that "Beauty
is harmony" and
a work of art "should
be submitted to superior reason"
with the "parts
subordinated to the whole" (qtd.
in Pool 127).
EXAMPLES
FROM 1905
"Boy
Leading a Horse" 1905 (22)
The
production of Picasso during this period manifested an interest in
this new classicism. One example of the influence of Greek Classical
art is found in Picasso's "Boy Leading a Horse" (22). The
figure of the boy is detached, serene and resembles the Greek Kouroi
of the sixth century B.C., especially in the placement of one foot
behind the other and the slim waist and chest. A painting of a boy
"Bather" (22B)by Cezanne has the same attitude with arms
bent and a hand resting on the hip. The feet in Picasso's version
are seen from a lower viewpoint and are more foreshortened than the
feet in his earlier figures which were like the feet of El Greco's
figures pictured as though we were looking down at the top of the
feet. Rembrandt's "Study of a Male Nude" (22A) may have
contributed to this work.
A
taste for El Greco and the gestures of his figures which are a form
of mime in the manner of Greek Classical Miming could have prepared
Picasso's vision for an attraction to Greek art. El Greco also
influenced Picasso's concept of space. The Picasso paintings have
the same shallow space as the space in El Greco's "St. Martin
and the Beggar," but the flattened form of the distant landscape
refers to the work of Puvis de Chavannes with a flatness not unlike
stage scenery.
EXAMPLES
FROM 1906
"La
Coiffure" 1906 (23)
In
1967, the artist William Gambini showed me "La Coiffure"
(23) by Picasso and told me he thought it was based on "A Young
Woman at Her Toilette" (23A) by Rembrandt. The child in (23)
fits nicely in the dark shadow
30
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