{"id":462,"date":"2026-07-21T13:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:40:11","slug":"francis-bacon-and-the-pope-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"Francis Bacon and the POPE paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fractured echoes of modernity orbit Francis Bacon,\u00a0a luminary\u00a0etched\u00a0into the\u00a0annals of British\u00a0creativity\u00a0alongside\u00a0the\u00a0sequestered\u00a0spirits\u00a0of\u00a0Lucian Freud, Leon Kossof, and Frank Auerbach. Tethered\u00a0by\u00a0a\u00a0shared\u00a0temporal\u00a0zenith\u2014often\u00a0dubbed the \u201cLondon school\u201d\u2014this coterie\u00a0breathed\u00a0visceral vitality\u00a0into figurative\u00a0art, their canvases\u00a0pulsating\u00a0with\u00a0frantic, unabashed\u00a0brushwork.

Within this pantheon of dissonance, *Study for Portrait VI*\u00a0stands\u00a0as a\u00a0jagged\u00a0monolith. It thrusts\u00a0before\u00a0the\u00a0viewer\u00a0a \u201cscreaming pope,\u201d a\u00a0grotesque\u00a0metamorphosis\u00a0where\u00a0the\u00a0rigid,\u00a0sanctified\u00a0armor\u00a0of Catholicism\u00a0dissolves\u00a0into\u00a0a\u00a0psychic\u00a0hemorrhage.\u00a0Bacon\u2019s\u00a0obsession\u00a0lacked\u00a0theological marrow; rather,\u00a0it was a parasitic fixation\u00a0on the\u00a0sepia\u00a0ghost of Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s\u00a0*Portrait of Pope Innocent X*.\u00a0He\u00a0didn\u2019t merely\u00a0mimic;\u00a0he exhumed.\u00a0By deconstructing\u00a0a\u00a0masterwork\u00a0through\u00a0the murky\u00a0lens of\u00a0reproduction, Bacon dismantled\u00a0the\u00a0fetishization of\u00a0the\u00a0original\u00a0artifact.\u00a0He\u00a0presaged the\u00a0voyeuristic\u00a0scavenging of\u00a0the\u00a0Pop\u00a0Art\u00a0vanguard\u2014a harbinger of the 1960s who\u00a0whispered to the\u00a0likes\u00a0of\u00a0Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman\u00a0that imagery is merely raw, malleable ore.

The ecclesiastical\u00a0silhouette\u00a0first\u00a0haunted\u00a0his\u00a0repertoire\u00a0in 1946\u00a0with\u00a0*Landscape with Pope\/Dictator*,\u00a0a chilling\u00a0harbinger\u00a0of\u00a0looming\u00a0autocracy. Yet,\u00a0it was the\u00a0effervescent\u00a0frenzy of\u00a01953 that birthed his magnum\u00a0opus: *Study after Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s Portrait of Pope Innocent X*.\u00a0Within\u00a0a\u00a0claustrophobic\u00a0fortnight\u00a0that\u00a0summer,\u00a0a fever\u00a0dream possessed\u00a0him. He churned\u00a0out\u00a0eight\u00a0spectral portraits,\u00a0a frantic\u00a0alchemy\u00a0of\u00a0oil\u00a0and\u00a0intent intended to\u00a0colonize the\u00a0American psyche\u00a0at\u00a0his inaugural\u00a0New York\u00a0exhibition at Durlacher Bros.\u00a0His\u00a0work\u00a0became a mirror\u00a0that refused\u00a0to\u00a0reflect;\u00a0it\u00a0devoured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

www.ftn-books.com<\/a> has many Bacon titles available and among them the San Diego publication on the Papal portraits of 1953.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fractured echoes of modernity orbit Francis Bacon,\u00a0a luminary\u00a0etched\u00a0into the\u00a0annals of British\u00a0creativity\u00a0alongside\u00a0the\u00a0sequestered\u00a0spirits\u00a0of\u00a0Lucian Freud, Leon Kossof, and Frank Auerbach. Tethered\u00a0by\u00a0a\u00a0shared\u00a0temporal\u00a0zenith\u2014often\u00a0dubbed the \u201cLondon school\u201d\u2014this coterie\u00a0breathed\u00a0visceral vitality\u00a0into figurative\u00a0art, their canvases\u00a0pulsating\u00a0with\u00a0frantic, unabashed\u00a0brushwork. Within this pantheon of dissonance, *Study for Portrait VI*\u00a0stands\u00a0as a\u00a0jagged\u00a0monolith. It thrusts\u00a0before\u00a0the\u00a0viewer\u00a0a \u201cscreaming pope,\u201d a\u00a0grotesque\u00a0metamorphosis\u00a0where\u00a0the\u00a0rigid,\u00a0sanctified\u00a0armor\u00a0of Catholicism\u00a0dissolves\u00a0into\u00a0a\u00a0psychic\u00a0hemorrhage.\u00a0Bacon\u2019s\u00a0obsession\u00a0lacked\u00a0theological marrow; rather,\u00a0it was a parasitic fixation\u00a0on the\u00a0sepia\u00a0ghost of Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s\u00a0*Portrait of Pope Innocent … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ftn-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}