 The Flayed Ox
Rembrandt |
One of the wonderful things about each genre is the number of ways they can be approached. Let’s look at the “monumental” approach, where the subject of the still life is really in your face. The greatest example of this is the famous Rembrandt “The Flayed Ox.” I always thought my “Cavolo” fitted into this category, and also my “Basket of Tomatoes.” Monumental simply means an image that gives an impression of being huge and extremely weighty. I saw those tomatoes arriving in a Moroccan market early one morning and loved the look of them so much I simply bought them as they stood, had them rushed to my studio and painted them that day. Believe me, there were heavy! And even though my “Laundry in a Terracotta Bowl” is in fact a tiny painting, the impression is that it might be huge, and again, it is certainly a weighty vision, those bowls full of washing weighed a virtual ton!
 Detail from 'The Chicken Man'
Christian
But the “Flayed Ox” is not only a brilliant monumental work, many see it as an expression of pity for the suffering of animals on their way to making meat for humans to eat. As a vegetarian I suppose I should believe this, but frankly I don’t think Rembrandt had any such sensibilities. As the great meat-eater he was, I believe that he simply saw fantastic forms and textures that drove him wild with excitement and this painting is the result. Not that Rembrandt was insensitive in the slightest, or that his sensitivity was dulled by his obsession with paint. He created hundreds of religious works, but they were always done for himself and he never sold any. That was his Spiritual meditation. And then of course there are the many sublime portraits of his wives, Saskia and Hendrijke; there’s nothing callous or insensitive about those. No, but when faced with a large still-life like that carcass, I really believe that it becomes then just a question of light, form, texture and perhaps colour. I know it was like that for me, many years before I became a vegetarian, when I saw some Chickens in a Moroccan marketplace. Again, as I had done with the “Basket of Tomatoes,” I bought the lot, in the basket in which they were being delivered. I then set up a composition in my studio, bringing in one of my favourite models off the street, who actually sold baskets not chickens, and I painted him with these chickens, as if he were the vendor. Believe me, at the time I had no statement to make about the “poor chickens,” my conscience felt as free as anyone who eats meat (and particularly enjoys chicken!)
 The Ham
Manet
And while on the subject of meat, I couldn’t resist painting a Ham once, before eating it with relish; I later discovered that it had excited Manet in the same way. If asked if now that I am a vegetarian, would I paint a meaty still-life, I’m afraid that my answer would be no. Since I stopped eating meat over twenty years ago for health reasons, I have become sensitive to the suffering of animals on their way to their doom on our behalf, to the point where I could neither share a meal with anyone eating meat, or paint it. That does not mean, however, that I don’t enjoy either memories, or the paintings I did in my carnivorous days. |
