Special Exhibitions
Picasso: The Artist's Studio
|
|
Special Exhibitions |
|
Picasso: The Artist's Studio |
|
|
Infrared Reflectograms of La Vie Infrared Reflectograms of the "birdman scene" in La VieLa Vie’s most cryptic feature is an image of a strange flying creature that once appeared at lower center, but which Picasso subsequently obscured by overpainting it with an isolated, crouching woman. Infrared-reflectograms reveal that this flying creature — with the head and wings of bird, attached to human arms and legs — hovers over a naked woman reclining on the ground. The "birdman" may represent an ominous symbol of death, or conversely, it may refer to the artist’s procreative powers. Infrared reflectograms suggest possible relationships to several drawings, such as Allegory and Allegorical Sketch. Why Picasso left the birdman scene partly visible to the naked eye, rather than painting it out entirely as he did with other revisions to the composition, has never been explained.
Page 2 of 4 | On the next page: Preparatory Study for La Vie |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![<I>La Vie (Life)</I>, 1903<BR>Oil on canvas
<BR>The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of the Hanna Fund 1945.24
<BR>[Cat. no. 5]
<BR>©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York](../illus/(5)LaVie.jpg)
