Ascendance

#76001     42 X 29″      mmp

• Jose de Ribera: “La Trinite”, ca. 1636. Madrid, Prado
• Dove a la G.Braque』 （1636）

The crucified Christ icon by Jose de Ribera (1591-1652) is similar to the artist’s Crucifixion of St. Bartolomew seen through the window of Hangups.Ribera’s compositions achieved an exceptional monumentality. His early works were like a lighted drama happening in a setting of dark shadows. He rendered penitent saints and ancient philosophers as beggars. His palette clarified as he grew older, but his works remained monumental, and by the time he died he was one of the most important masters of Baroque art. He was of immense influence in Spain and Italy and much later upon certain painters of 19th century France.Georges Braque (1882-1963) was a founder with Picasso of Cubism. Towards the end of his career after World War II he began painting a bird whose wings were extended in abstract space. He first used the theme while decorating the ceiling of the Etruscan room of the Louvre Museum. He took the bird and its variations into other realms, and the Braque bird became a ubiquitous icon. The bird became the last symbol of meditation of an artist who seemed to want to escape to the inanimate world of his own painting.Braque’s bird flies with the doves of Picasso and Magritte as symbols of peace and human hope.

– Lawrance Jeppson