Caravaggio, Seven Acts of Kindness, oil on canvas, 390×260cm, 1606
Does an artist's moral level affect his artistic height? Can we judge an artist's work in terms of his character? The ancients said: "Words are the voice of the heart" and "literature is like its people", but when the artist's personality appears "stained", will it affect the audience's feelings about his works? Today, Harper's Bazaar Takes You to see the dark side behind the aura of famous artists.
01 Arrogant Thief: Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Let's talk about the most familiar Cubist master Picasso. Because of his fame, you may have heard anecdotes about his chaotic private life and indifference to his relatives. Not only that, but the famous art magnate was arrested for stealing art from the Louvre before he became famous.
Picasso and his lover Marie Teresa
In 1911, Authorities in London confirmed that two ancient Iberian statues owned by Picasso were stolen from the Louvre four years earlier by his friend Géry Pieret. According to art history professor Norman Mailer, Picasso was well aware of the source of the sculpture, and it is even likely that he commissioned a friend to steal it. Therefore, whether it is because of his fanatical love for statues or his inability to be greedy, his illegal act of taking the artwork for himself is really unexplainable.
Picasso, The Avignon Girl, oil on canvas, 243.9×233.7cm, 1907
02 Troublemaker: Michelangelo Caravaggio
Michelangelo Caravaggio
Caravaggio can be described as a "geek" who is extremely bad in art history, and his mantra is: "I will castrate you", which is enough to see his "true temperament". While receiving a steady stream of commissions and creating wonderful paintings, he was busy fighting and fighting with the police, showing a high level of time management skills. He openly slandered his opponents and hacked to death to name a well-known politician, Tomassoni, for the sake of women... He was wanted for murder and eventually forced him to flee to Naples.
Portrait of Michelangelo Merrisi de Caravaggio, 1571-1610
After escaping the disaster, Caravaggio was exiled to Malta and became famous as a Knight of the Order for painting a portrait of the leader of the Order. But the "artist's repentance through paintings" did not happen, and he was imprisoned again for attacking his companions less than a month after he was knighted, and escaped with bribes. In 1610, this "heinous" painter finally died of illness on the way to escape. Nevertheless, he left many works in the history of art that are difficult to surpass by future generations.
Caravaggio, Jesus Summons the Saint Matthew, oil on canvas, 322×340cm, 1599-1600
03 Overindulgence: Raphael Sansey
Raffaello Sanzio
Why did Raphael die on his 36th birthday on April 6, 1520? According to art historian Giorgio Vasari, Raphael "disappeared" seven days after being betrothed to maria Bibbiena, the bishop's daughter, a week before his death. Someone swore that he had seen him go to the house of his lover, Margarita Luti, and when he returned, he had a high fever. Because he concealed the truth, the doctor mistakenly adopted bloodletting therapy, so that the genius painter died after 15 days of high fever, and his talent and life became the sacrifice of carnal desire.
Raphael Sansey, Self-Portrait, oil on wood, 45×33cm, 1506
04 Abandoning his wife and son: Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin, as a post-impressionist master who has influenced countless artists, also had a "wonderful" private life to write a book called "The Moon and Sixpence". At the age of 35, he resolutely resigned to seek his dream, and his wife, who had no rice, was forced to return to her mother's house with her children. Gauguin traveled to Tahiti after a fruitless development in Paris, left many works in Tahiti, and met his lover Titi. After discovering that the other party could not meet his requirements, he immediately threw himself into the arms of the 14-year-old girl Taihu and conceived a son with him. But Gauguin soon abandoned the two again, returned to France, and became lovers with Anna, a mixed-race woman. Unfortunately, Anna was not a "good person" and left after Brittany took Gauguin's money.
Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903
Frustrated Gauguin was once again called upon in the pristine land of Tahiti and married another indigenous maiden. However, as he entered middle age, his health deteriorated, and he suffered from venereal diseases due to promiscuity, and eventually died in pain. People praised his ambition to "look up and see the moon", but could not see the shadow cast by the moon hanging over the women and children he had failed in the name of art.
Gauguin, "Death is Gazing", oil on canvas, 116.05×134.62cm, 1892
05 "Indefatigable Destruction": August Rodin
Auguste Rodin
Before meeting Rodin, Camille Claudel was a brilliant sculptor whose artistic talent was even envied by Rodin. Rodin fell in love with Camille almost the moment he saw her talent, and turned her into his own student, model, and lover. But after the other party broke up with his family and even had an abortion for him, Rodin used her as an inspiration "cash machine" while refusing to leave his wife Rose and stepping on two boats with honor.
Rodin and Camille, biographical film Camille Claud, 1988
August Rodin, The Eternal Idol, Marble Statue, 75×40×52 cm, 1890-1893
And Camille's artistic path was also suppressed by Rodin. Both love and creation are hurt, which is equivalent to breaking her wings, making her sad and desperate and irrational. Eventually, Camille was sent to an insane asylum by Rodin and spent her old age miserable.
06 Arsonist: Olive Varry
Olive Wharry
Olive has left few traces in art history, casting a veil of mystery over him. The female artist is also a Member of the British Senate and a "regular" in prison. In December 1911, she was arrested for her involvement in the "Breaking Glass" social movement and imprisoned for two months. She claimed in court that she had chosen to break the law for the sake of every woman's self-esteem. Two years later, she set fire to a tea pavilion in Kew Gardens and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Immediately after her imprisonment, she went on a hunger strike, but was forced to be fed and the protest was ineffective. Although her behavior is too radical and deliberately illegal, she is a martyr woman.
Olive Varry, 1886-1947
Olive Varry, The Winsonosaurus, pencil sketch, 17.1×12cm, 1912, at Holloway Prison.
07 Alcoholism and Drug Abuse: Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
"What I want is a short and meaningful life." Modigliani said. The representative artist of the Italian "Paris School" did as he wished, and died of tuberculosis due to alcoholism and drugs. He painted with spirits as water and marijuana as food, creating a series of "long-necked people". He never knew if he would finish the painting first or if he would get drunk first. From his paintings, one seems to be able to smell alcohol, drugs and women.
Amedeo Modigliani, "Jenny Hepton in a Yellow Sweater", oil on canvas, 100×65 cm, 1918
Amedeo Modigliani, The Woman with the Fan, oil on canvas, 65×100cm, 1919
08 Abducted Girl: Egon Schiller
Egon Schiele
When Schiller was 24 years old, when he saw a pair of sisters in a neighbor's house, he once said the classic "scumbag line": "It is okay to marry a sister or a sister, I love the atmosphere of their family." "It can be said that the flower heart is straight, and the slag is fresh and unworldly." In addition to the chaos and repeated change of lovers, he also moved to the small town of Nurembach in 1912 and found many young children to work as nude models for himself. The police then found more than 100 "obscene" nude paintings in his studio, for which he was sentenced to 24 days in prison.
Egun Schiller, Self-Portrait, oil on canvas, 398×322cm, 1912
Egon Schiller, Death and the Maiden, oil on canvas, 60.96×45.72cm, 1915-1916
The artist, who became famous for his "pornographic paintings", defended himself this way: "All that you feel is filthy and adulterous, but the fear and madness that you cannot face." What do you think of this statement?
09 Murder Escape: Jacob Van Lou
Jacob Van Loo
As a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Jacob van Löw's depictions of women were even rated better than Rembrandt.' He had an unlimited future, but he died in a foreign land because of his murderous escape. In 1660, he accidentally stabbed another person in a verbal altercation and left Amsterdam immediately after realizing the disaster and fled to France. But he could not escape the trial of the law, was sentenced to death in France, and could never set foot in his homeland again.
Portrait of the Family of Rutger van Weert and Maria Beels, oil on canvas, 100×116cm, 1628-1670
10
Defiant Monk: Flavi Philip Libby
Friar Filippo Lippi
Flavi Philippe Libby was one of the outstanding monastic painters of the Renaissance, creating a large number of excellent frescoes on religious themes for the Holy See. As a disciple of the monastery, although he lived in a monk's house, he was not willing to live a pure and widowed life, and his personality was rebellious and not detached from the world. When he was young, he abducted a beautiful nun from a monastery and kept her in his private home, painting a large number of images of the Virgin Mary based on her.
Frah Philippe Libby, Annunciation, oil on canvas, 144×155cm, 1440
The two betrayed their faith, broke their vows, and gave birth to two children. His "deviant" behavior was executed by the Inquisition, which was the most powerful court at the time. However, because of his reputation in the painting world, he was protected by the tyrannical ruler Cosimo and pardoned by the Pope, so he was able to return to the world and hold the wedding ceremony.
Frah Philippe Libby, Virgin and Child and Two Angels, oil on canvas, 95× 63.5 cm, 1456
After reading the "black history" of artists, will you have a new view of their works? But when judging these artists, whether their character is included in the work or detached from the work, it can provide a warning and introspection for the viewer: do not do what is contrary to morality and the law.
And if the artist is as wise as a saint, stripped of the dark and ugly side of human nature, his work may also become impoverished. In fact, the works and character of the artist are like twin brothers, which will reflect each other in the judgment of time, Picasso said: "Art is a lie, but this lie can teach us to know the truth." "The style and character of the artists' works may not be the same, but in their sincere pursuit of art and truth, sex and emotion, heart and matter, beauty and ugliness will eventually lead to the same destination."
Editor, Wen Li Xiaole
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission