narrativecapriccio

ALLEGORIES, NARRATIVES, & CAPRICCIOS

The pinnacle of the hierarchy of the arts in the Old Master tradition was what used to be called "history painting," that is, narrative and allegories--stories or images with a wider cultural or conceptual reach than straightforward representation.

Classical painting differs from Classical Realism precisely in this importance attached to invention, story-telling, and the ideal (for more on the ideal, see the essay The Idea of the Beautiful and the Art of Drawing).

"What narrative painting demands of the figurative artist is not only the capacity to invent figures and scenes without recourse to the staged model, but more importantly that Idea that Bernini prized as the essence of the artistic act. The mythological, allegorical, and sacred stories can still be told and retold with novel interpretations: my paintings of Apollo & Daphne choose a psychological moment after Daphne's transformation, evoking Apollo's remorse and Peneus' reproach. This is a wholly new take on the story, yet rooted in the tradition."

His conceptual process was featured in American Artist magazine.

Muses | Mythologies | Allegories | HISTORIES

Capriccios

See plein air landscapes in oil here

See the Diogenes & Alexander process images here