Exhibition Text
Title: The Kiss of Death
Size: 11x14 Medium: Pencil on Illustration Board Date: December 2022 |
'The Kiss of Death is inspired by the work of the same name; a sculpture created around 1930 to mark the grave of a young man to symbolize a quiet, compassionate release instead of the fearful perception of death most people think of. I wanted to use this sculpture as a reference to a drawing, made on illustration board with pencils, to express some of the feelings I have about my own experiences.
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Inspiration
The inspiration for this piece is a sculpture in Barcelona, called "The Kiss of Death" or "El Petó de la Mort" in Catalan or "El Beso de la Muerte" in Spanish, remains the most highlighted sculpture in the Poblenou Cemetery. The marble-based piece is considered a momento mori artwork-translating to "remembering that you will die". The statue was created for the grave of José Llaudet Soler, with an inscribed poem by the famous Catalan poet Jacinto Verdaguer below. The epitaph reads: ‘His young heart is thus extinguished. The blood in his veins grows cold. And all strength has gone. Faith has been extolled by his fall into the arms of death. Amen.” Although his date of birth is unknown, Soler is believed to have died young, prompting his family to commission the portrait. The family, conceivably, was comforted by the thought that Soler accepted his death more than he feared it and died peacefully. The emotions it evokes are one of the many reasons it has attracted visitors for nearly 100 years. But its reason for creation aside, Kiss of Death is praised for its masterful appearance. It is believed to have been built by Jaume Barba, whose name is engraved on the base, although others suggested the design to Joan Fontbernat. In the tradition of Bernini’s supple marble sculptures and Giovanni Strazza’s The Veiled Virgin, the statue is a beautiful depiction of texture in marble.
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The statue is a depiction of a young man on his knees, with a skeleton representing the Angel of Death bent over him. Its right arm is wrapped around him, the other on the man’s left bicep. Skeletal bones are juxtaposed with the man’s healthy young body as boney fingers poke through soft human tissue in a way that reminds viewers of the likeness of the human body. The man’s eyes are closed, his mouth slightly open, with both his arms hanging limply at his sides as Death holds him up. Attention to detail is evident in every wrinkle, muscle, joint and bone of the sculpture, adding realism to the piece. It appears as though the man is resigned to his fate or struggling unsuccessfully. Instead of Death in the form of an angelic bird, the sculptor chose a skeleton. It's hard to escape the feeling of a kiss - it incites the feeling of death as a partner, a combination of decay, vitality, and entropy. The sculpture is both romantic and horrifying at the same time, which is symbolic of different views of death by different people. The sculpture’s tone pulls and repels together, creating a mood with the desire to touch meets the desire to escape. |
I was inspired by this work because of how I felt upon seeing it for the first time. I was simply scrolling through social media when I saw it. Immediately, it invoked strong emotion within me and knew I could create an artwork based upon it. I was reminded of my own feelings towards death-which have cultivated over the course of almost a decade. As an atheist I don't believe in religion or an afterlife, and gear towards a slightly spiritual approach instead. I stopped believing in God at a very young age and have maintained that belief throughout my life, which is my only gripe with this inspiration's religious undertones. That aside, I quite liked its calm, albeit haunting nature. In 2020, I had an experience in which I my body completely shut I had to be resuscitated multiple times. Without going into much more detail, I have healed completely, but some emotional scars remain. While I was, essentially, dead, I felt nothing. It was deeper than sleep, and darker, and devoid of anything. There was no afterlife that I remember, solidifying my atheism. However, it was an experience that was relatively calm and gentle, and reflective of the peace found in this work of art. I wanted to demonstrate that in my own artwork.
Planning and Experimentation
Process
To begin my process, I first had to create a grid on the reference and also on the illustration board. After matching the original image with a corresponding 1-inch square on the illustration board, I transferred the outline onto the board. This was relatively simple, except for the complicated twists and folds of the fabric. I began with the left side of the board, filling in the shading for the skull, then the face and right arm. Next, I began filling in the darkest values with a 8B and 9B pencil to make sure no white showed through. This took multiple layers and a lot of pressure on the lead, and I had to use a q-tip to blend together the excess lead on the board. Next, I began adding in other areas of shadow, such as the right ribs. I decided to take the liberty of moving around the work, as I often do (and despite my desire to work methodically through the piece this time) and began to work on the stone platform on which the statue rests. I decided not to include the inscription found on the original piece, as it felt wrong to steal someone else's grave markings. For the platform, I used lighter pencils and lighter pressure in order to capture the lighter marble in comparison to the stone. I continued to add multiple layers and used blending to make it seem smooth.
I then began working on the wings, blocking out the areas of shadow there and adding depth to the feathers and wing bones. I added more to the darkest areas around the ribs, neck, and head of Death. I also added more detail to the cloth draped over the figure, going over with an eraser to show greater contrast and highlighting. from this point, it was mostly small details that I did, including the final components of the knees, thighs, left arm, and leg of the Death skeleton.
Critique
Firstly, the inspiration and my work, visibly, are very similar due to the fact that I took the same design. The differences come mostly in the physical form, with the statue being quite large in comparison to my illustration board, with the material being chiseled marble instead of pencil-drawn. Finally, it is a 2-dimensional work against a 3-dimensional inspirational piece.
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Reflection
Overall, I feel like I learned a bit from using a different material to draw on than paper. I didn't have to worry as much about overworking it, as one does with drawing paper, and I liked the stiffness of the board. It was easier to work with, I think, and I wasn't concerned about accidentally bending it or crinkling it. While pencil isn't a new medium for me, each time I push myself to complete a project I feel like I am working on my skills. There were a lot of intricate parts in this work, and a lot of obscure details that required challenging shading. Overall, I feel like this project turned out okay. I still think it has a lot of issues and I'm not happy with it. I feel like my skills did not necessarily improve and that it could have been drawn better by most other people. I don't think I pushed myself enough in this project and I let myself take the easy way out during the process stage. I don't think it conveyed what I hoped it could due to my lack of technical abilities, and I struggle to believe that the message can be interpreted the way I wanted it to be when I began. If I could do it over, I would replace my body in place of the young man's. as it isn't quite clear that it is my face in the drawing.