Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso was born on the 25th of October
1881 and died on the 8th of April 1973. In life he became a Spanish
painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer and poet who spent
most of his adult life in France. A rather peculiar print by Picassos is “Faun
Uncovering a Sleeping Woman”. This print was the last in the sequence of one
hundred prints in his collection called The Vollard Suite. The series depicted mostly
mythological characters and themes as well as allusions to Picasso’s
relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walther. The print “Faun Uncovering a Sleeping
Woman” is specifically based around Rembrandt’s engraving Jupiter and Antiope
which was produced in 1659. The print itself is an aquatint and sugar lift
etching with engraving on copper in black, on ivory laid paper. It measures in at
340mm x 445mm. Some people say that this print was based around Picasso and his
wife of ten years Marie-Thérèse Walther. Faun who possibly represented Picasso and
Antiope his wife. In Greek mythology, Antiope was the daughter of the King of
Thebes (Nycteus). Zeus known as Jupiter in roman mythology was attracted to
Antiopes’ beauty and disguised himself as a half human creature who had the
horns, legs and hooves of a goat known as a faun in roman mythology. In my
opinion I personally don’t like this piece. I think my opinion is mainly based
around the subject matter. In most works of art I like the fact of not
completely understanding why it is, what it is but the whole story around this
print, I just don’t like and particularly understand.
