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Why Francis Bacon Destroyed Velázquez's Famous Pope Portrait
For years, Francis Bacon was haunted by a single image: Velázquez’s 17th-century masterpiece, the Portrait of Pope Innocent X. But Bacon didn’t want to admire it—he wanted to dismantle it. In this film, with Art critic Alastair Sooke, we explore how one of the 20th century’s most provocative artists took a symbol of absolute divine power and dragged it through the carnage and mass communication of the post-war world. This is how Francis Bacon Turned the Papal Throne into an Electric Chair. From the early "Dictator" heads to the iconic screaming Popes of the 1950s, discover how Bacon "survival-painted" against art history to find the raw, human animal beneath the silk robes.
Time Period:
20th century
Themes:
Alastair Sooke is an author and broadcaster, and chief art critic at The Telegraph, for which he has been covering art since 2003. He has presented more than 60 hours of television and radio for the BBC (Modern Masters, Treasures of Ancient Egypt, An Art Lovers’ Guide) and written several books, including studies of Henri Matisse and Georges Seurat, and a history of Pop art. He is a trustee of The Ampersand Foundation and was educated at the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art.