MICROSTORY OF ART
MICROSTORY OF ART
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Dedicated to Philemon & Baucis
(Picture: DS)
Philemon & Baucis
(15.9.2023) I’ve been rethinking the traditional Philemon and Baucis iconography. The gods are rude, not polite. After having decided that the inhabitants of a whole area did neglect the duty of hospitality, the gods have decided to eradicate the whole area. And they have climbed a mountain with Philemon and Baucis, the old couple that had showed hospitality and is being spared, and now the whole group is contemplating the destruction (Philemon is the dark figure on the right; Baucis has not yet fully reached the top of the mountain; the gods are schemes). Destruction by flood; or by wildfire. And this is what makes this iconography interesting today. Contemplating destruction, with or without the gods, with or without thinking about what caused destruction. By flood, or wildfire. I have tended to choose a more Howard-Hodgkin-approach, not a Rubens approach (see the rather rare example below; rare, because most Philemon and Baucis iconography is not about contemplating destruction). This kind of landscape painting is about looking down at a (flooded) landscape (it is reminding me of an alpine reservoir-landscape) – down from the top of a hill or a mountain.
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