Killer look …
Apollo’s cloak billows like apocalyptic red smoke. Yet his face is serene. His attention, however, is not fixed on his lyre, the instrument with which he just trumped the pipe-playing satyr, Marsyas. Rather, he is dealing out this upstart’s punishment: being flayed alive. Marsyas screams in agony but it is Apollo’s eerie, unflustered sadism that makes this 1637 painting so disturbing.
Twisted fantasy …
Its creator, Jusepe de Ribera, carved an illustrious career out of excruciating scenes such as this. As with Marsyas, who recalls an inverted, crucified Christ, he twisted bodies into extreme, technically challenging poses. Yet the expertise never distracts from the drama.
No pain, no gain …
Working largely for the Catholic church during the counter-reformation in Italy, De Ribera and his tortured martyrs propagandised an image-shift from opulence to suffering and sacrifice.
Gods and monsters …
The painting’s moral remains mysterious. Is the satyr a martyr suffering for his art and beliefs? If an allegory of artistic hubris, who is the villain?
Ribera: Art of Violence, Dulwich Picture Gallery, SE22, Wednesday 26 September to 27 January 2019
