whose old master was the young Raphael!
I think of the self-portraits painted when he was in his sixties or seventies. Or himself as the penitent Saint Jerome, painted when he was in his eighties. (Perhaps itâs not a self-portrait; itâs only my guess, but I feel he was thinking intensely about himself when he was painting it.)
What do I find? A man who is physically imposing and has considerable authority. You canât take liberties with him. With the late, decrepit Rembrandt it would have been easy. This one knows how power works, and he has exercised his own. He has turned the trade of being a painter into a profession â like that of a General or an Ambassador or a Banker. Heâs the first to do this. And he has the confidence that goes with it.
And also a painterly confidence. In his late works, he is the first European painter to display â rather than hide or disguise â his manual gestures when putting the pigment onto the canvas. Thus he makes painting physically confident in a new way â the act of the painting hand and arm becomes expressive in itself. Other artists like Rembrandt or van Gogh or Willem de Kooning will follow his example. At the same time, his originality and boldness were never foolhardy. His attitude to everything in Venice was realistic.
And yet, yet⦠the more I look at the way he painted himself, the more I see a frightened man. I donât mean a coward. He doesnât take risks, but he has courage. He does not normallyshow his fear. But his brush canât help but touch it. Itâs most evident in his hands. Theâre nervous like the hands of a money-lender. Yet his fears could not, I think, have been concerned with money.
A fear of death? The Plague was rampant in Venice. A fear leading to penitence? A fear of judgement? It may have been any of these, but they are too general to help us understand him or to get closer to him. He lives to be a very old man. The fear lasts a long time. And long-drawn-out fear becomes doubt.
What provoked this doubt in him? I suspect it was intimately connected with Venice, with the cityâs special kind of wealth and commerce and power. All of which, as you say, had to do with the flesh.
Love, John
GIUDECCA, VENICE
John
,
Several times whilst I was wandering through the exhibition, I crossed paths with, was followed by, lost sight of, and then again found myself beside, an old man. He was alone and muttering to himself.
The first time I saw him, he was coming back from one of the last rooms and very decidedly making for thepainting
Christ Carrying the Cross
. And there at my side he stopped.
âOne uses paintingâ, he suddenly said, âto clothe oneself, to keep warm â¦â
At first, I felt put out and scowled at him, but he went on, as if nothing had happened.
âJesus carries his cross and, me, I carry the art of painting, I wear it like something woollen.â
He had won me over.
Now he was making for the
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
. In some way, I must have annoyed him, for he appeared to be angry, spitting out disconnected words.
âThe fur, ough! The fur of my painting⦠stuff, stuff â¦â
By
The Portrait of a Man
, he spoke directly to the sitter, poking his nose towards the painted nose.
âFirst I painted you all dressed up, then I did a whole painting of an animalâs skin!â
He didnât need to turn round to know that I was following him, and as we passed a group of visitors who were listening to their guide, he said to me out of the corner of his mouth, as if it were a joke, âDogs, rabbits, sheep, they all have their fur to keep them warm and, me, I want to imitate them with my brushes!â
When he next spoke, not without a little pride, I wasnât sure whether he was referring to the portrait of a Cardinal or to the
Portrait of a Man
.
âNobody else has painted menâs beards like that!â he said.
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain