'Narcissus' by Caravaggio (1597–1599) depicts a young hunter’s arrogance; love for his own reflection, after having been lured there by the goddess of retribution, Nemesis. Unable to leave his reflection, Narcissus lost the will to live and died. Inspired by his work, I have creating a painting that contrasts to the arrogance of Narcissus, instead portraying body insecurities. The cracked mirror represents how the stereotypical image of 'beauty' is broken through the insecurities felt by the individual. This is one of two pieces I created for my final project, inspired by the work of Caravaggio whilst introducing contemporary themes.
After becoming fascinated in the work of Caravaggio, I decided to create a project based around recreating his work with contemporary themes. This painting, along with my other piece 'The Fallen' create a series representing modern day issues within society through traditional painting techniques as seen within Caravaggio's work.
This piece in particular focuses on insecurities with body image, and how prevalent these insecurities are within modern society. Having experienced these insecurities heavily, especially during the time this piece was created, this painting carries deep personal connections with a lot of emotion placed behind it. To this date, I believe this painting, as well as 'The Fallen' to be some of my most accomplished work because of this.
The piece is inspired by the painting 'Narcissus' (1594-96) by Caravaggio which depicts a young hunter named Narcissus lured into loving his own reflection by the Goddess of Retribution Nemesis due to his arrogance. He died, unable to leave his own reflection. I therefore decided to alter the composition and story to suit my own contemporary theme. The water replaced with broken pieces of mirror, represents how the girl's reflection fuels her insecurities, presenting a distorted image of herself in her mind. the pieces being scattered and broken further presents the sense of distortion in image as well as mentality, with a girl broken down in insecurities. This is an image of a girl with broken confidence in contrast to an arrogant, self-loving hunter.
(More information on the project can be found in 'The Fallen' blog)
This piece took 87 hours to complete.
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