# The scariest picture I have ever seen



## The Aesthete (Apr 27, 2014)

I was listening to Monteverdi's Gloria on youtube where I found this picture. Now I'm by no means an art lover. The last time I saw a painting was probably 3 years ago at a museum and I wasn't enthralled by any of the art I saw there. However this painting is very jarring to look at. I think it's the proportion of the man, of both his arm and face. His upper arm appears very long and as though it belongs to the other man beneath him. One side of his face appears to be smiling (if you cover it up with a piece of paper) whereas the other side seems to be crying. I'm reminded of those persona masks used in drama which depict tragedy and comedy. Except they appear to be merged into one face, the face of the man in this picture.

Certainly this picture is scarier than any horror movie that I have seen.

Do you know the name of that picture. I think I have just become intrigued, and deeply disturbed by this picture...


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

The Aesthete said:


> I was listening to Monteverdi's Gloria on youtube where I found this picture. Now I'm by no means an art lover. The last time I saw a painting was probably 3 years ago at a museum and I wasn't enthralled by any of the art I saw there. However this painting is very jarring to look at. I think it's the proportion of the man, of both his arm and face. His upper arm appears very long and as though it belongs to the other man beneath him. One side of his face appears to be smiling (if you cover it up with a piece of paper) whereas the other side seems to be crying. I'm reminded of those persona masks used in drama which depict tragedy and comedy. Except they appear to be merged into one face, the face of the man in this picture.
> 
> Certainly this picture is scarier than any horror movie that I have seen.
> 
> ...


It looks as if he was just caught trying to murder the winged creature.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Pontormo - San Matteo


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, this goes to show that not-superb artists exist... even in the Renaissance...


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Well, this goes to show that not-superb artists exist... even in the Renaissance...


Pontormo belonged to the mannerist school: the distortions they introduced were quite deliberate, not accidents brought about by lack of technique.

I am not too fond of mannerism in general, but I find this particular picture rather beautiful. Don't see why anyone would think it is scary. But then, as art lover I routinely get to see rather more grim stuff than this.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Well, I'm guessing you live in a ball of bubble-gum cotton candy.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

Vesuvius said:


> Well, I'm guessing you live in a ball of bubble-gum cotton candy.


Haha yeah I'm not seeing what's so incredibly scary.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Pontormo wasn't a Renaissance artist. He was a painter during the period that immediately followed upon the heels of the Renaissance known as Mannerism. Mannerism begins with the late works of Michelangelo in which the artist began to increasingly distort the anatomy of his figures until they took on a superhuman quality:



The art of the "High Renaissance" (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael) was exemplified by a mastery of anatomy and physiology, a clarity of form and space commonly suggested through the use of linear and aerial perspective, a central focal point drawing attention to the main character or narrative, and a balanced color harmony... commonly employing a predominance of the primary colors (red, yellow, blue).

In 1527 Rome was sacked by the French and various troops of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. The churches and monasteries were looted and pillaged, nuns and other female citizens were raped, there were massacres, including most of the elite Imperial Guard. Some 10,000 were murdered in a city of 55,000. By the end of the siege, the population of Rome fell to a mere 10,000.

The idea of the "Renaissance" was that Europe was seeing a "rebirth" of the great Greco-Roman empires of antiquity. This idea of a rebirth was especially important in Rome and Florence. Much of the art supported by the great Florentine and Roman patrons was part of a concerted effort to establish a dominant European culture in Italy headed by the Roman Catholic Church.

When these efforts came crashing down, a generation of younger artists turned against the values and goals of the Renaissance... much as might be more recently witnessed with the development of Expressionism and Dada following the horrors of WWI. The Mannerists employed an intentionally artificial style as opposed to the "naturalism" of the Renaissance. They consciously distorted form (the human body especially) and space. They frequently employed strange or unusual color harmonies, and their paintings were often exemplified by a central void or emptiness... in contrast to the Renaissance focal point of great importance.

Jacopo da Pontormo was one of the finest Mannerist painters. He was a masterful draftsman...



...intentionally distorting/elongating the anatomy of his figures. He was also a brilliant portraitist:



>>>>>


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Pontormo was known for a number of complex narrative paintings with a disturbing and disjointed sense of space and confusing narrative:



Even so, the artist produced several masterful multi-figure compositions, the finest being a marvelous Deposition:



Pontormo's finest works, however, tended to be those that were simpler... employing but a few figures... as in this beautiful painting of the Annunciation and Visitation:



>>>>>


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

One of Pontormo's greatest works was this late Annunciation in fresco:



The artist was clearly inspired by Michelangelo's use of "shock color" (placing complimentary or opposite colors immediately next to each other... or even suggesting form not through the use of shadows, but rather through employing dramatically contrasting colors as shadows for another color... as in the purple shadow on the Virgin's mantel). The triad of purple, orange-red, and green on the Virgin's mantel is virtually centuries ahead of its time:


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

What's "wrong" with the painting? I don't find it disturbing at all.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I find the painting to be curiously refreshing.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

There seems to me to be a certain lyricism and focus on linear design in Pontormo's work, which reminds me a bit of Botticelli (who also distorted his figures!)

Anyway, I rather like his work, more so than that of most other mannerists (though I am quite an El Greco fan).


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## Guest (Apr 28, 2014)

The Aesthete said:


> I was listening to Monteverdi's Gloria on youtube where I found this picture. Now I'm by no means an art lover. The last time I saw a painting was probably 3 years ago at a museum and I wasn't enthralled by any of the art I saw there. However this painting is very jarring to look at. I think it's the proportion of the man, of both his arm and face. His upper arm appears very long and as though it belongs to the other man beneath him. One side of his face appears to be smiling (if you cover it up with a piece of paper) whereas the other side seems to be crying. I'm reminded of those persona masks used in drama which depict tragedy and comedy. Except they appear to be merged into one face, the face of the man in this picture.
> 
> Certainly this picture is scarier than any horror movie that I have seen.
> 
> ...


"Scary" might be putting it a mite too strongly, but the central figure looms somewhat disturbingly, invading the viewer's personal space. It's as threatening (if not as horrific) as if the Boogeyman had turned around to face you!


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## Guest (Apr 28, 2014)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Well, this goes to show that not-superb artists exist... even in the Renaissance...


That is most definitely NOT what this goes to show.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> The artist was clearly inspired by Michelangelo's use of "shock color" (placing complimentary or opposite colors immediately next to each other... or even suggesting form not through the use of shadows, but rather through employing dramatically contrasting colors as shadows for another color... as in the purple shadow on the Virgin's mantel). The triad of purple, orange-red, and green on the Virgin's mantel is virtually centuries ahead of its time:


You're right about it being years ahead of its time! It reminds me of Picasso's neoclassical works.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

I found a painting similarly disturbing whilst listening to a piece by Sciarrino.









The Wine of Lovers by Carlos Schwabe.

Some of his works give me horrors!


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