Theme—Into the mind of masters

DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY

"Great art picks up where nature ends.”

- Marc Chagall

A photographic rendering of the sculpture of Narcissus (by Florentine sculptor Valerio Cioli, ca. 1560) at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. Narcissus is a Greek mythological character who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool which eventually led to his death as he refused to disturb the reflection and was unable to draw himself away. Incapable of leaving the magnetism of his reflection, he finally realised that his love could not be mutual and the fire of passion burning inside him eventually turns him into a flower.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

November 20, 2019; Victoria and Albert museum, London; Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.

Artistic rendering: July 1, 2023.

A photographic rendering of the sculpture ‘Pluto carrying off Proserpina’ (about 1565 by Vincenzo de' Rossi) from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This dramatic sculpture shows Pluto, the king of the underworld, carrying off Proserpina with whom he had fallen in love. The background impression depicts ‘Samson slaying a Philistine’ (about 1562 by Giambologna) from the same museum.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

November 20, 2019; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.

Artistic rendering: July 1, 2023.

I spent almost two hours transfixed in front of this painting ('The Crowning with Thorns' by Caravaggio, made around 1603 AD) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (September 2, 2016). The painting shows a crown of thorns being thrust onto the head of Jesus on his way to crucifixion, to ridicule his power. The anatomy of Christ was inspired by the Belvedere Torso (a beheaded marble statue of a male nude, known to be in Rome from the 15th century). The painting was supposedly a 'supraporte'—meaning the Christ image was meant to be hung over a doorway. As Caravaggio is and always will be the painter of my heart, I was naturally overwhelmed by his typical iconoclastic masterstrokes—for example, the haunting use of chiaroscuro or his use of the bottom of the wooden grip of the brush for the lacerated contour lines of Christ's head. However, while the inhuman suffering of Jesus was tearing my heart apart, the close-up of his face suddenly sent chills down my spine—as I could discover a faint smile on his face. I went on trying to confirm and negate whether the trace of a smile is genuinely present or not. And I never was sure. You don't smile when you are in pain—you don’t smile when you see someone in pain—you don’t feel a smile on a face in pain. Or—Do You?

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

Artistic rendering: June 22, 2024.

A digital rendering of ‘The Crowning with Thorns' by Caravaggio, made around 1603 AD.

Picture Credits: Closeups taken on September 2, 2016 at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna by Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay (Camera: Samsung Galaxy Grand 2) and from Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain artwork resource).

‘To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.’

—Eckhart Tolle (German-born Canadian author known for ’The Power of Now’ ).

—A photographic rendering of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker (1881 – 82) at a special exhibition at the British Museum.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

June 6, 2018; The British Museum, London; Camera—Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

September 3, 2016; Vienna, Austria; Camera—Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.

‘The Best Film about the Physical Creation of Art’

— Roger Ebert (Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic)

' Where am I going?

Why wouldn't a stroke burst the sky?

It's only just begun.

Whirlwinds!

Galaxies, the ebb and the flow...

Black holes!

The original hubbub,

Have you never heard of it?

That's what

I always wanted from you.

I'm nothing. I'm doing nothing.

I want nothing, I told you.

It's the painting...

You and I, we're just involved.

It's going to be a whirlwind,

A cataract, a maelstrom...

Faster, faster...

Until you see nothing, feel nothing.

I've no more ears,

I can't feel my body.

That's almost it... almost.

All we need is just... '

—Excerpts from Jacques Rivette's  ‘La Belle Noiseuse ‘  (1991).

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

Original Picture was taken on September 2, 2016;

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria;

Camera—Samsung Galaxy Grand 2;

Artistic rendering- January 1, 2021.

‘How will l know if he chooses me?’

—‘He will try to kill you.’

‘Avatar’ (2009), Dir. James Cameron.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

Digital Art, December 26, 2022; India.

"l'm looking at these unpretentious

and unskillful pictures.

l forgot how l made them

but one thing l remember clearly.

l didn't make them for money.

Not even that unfortunate window,

l didn't do that for money either"

—Words of Jan Saudek (photographer).

From:

‘Jan Saudek, Trapped by His Passions, No Hope for Rescue’ (2007 film; Dir. Adolf Zika).

Revisiting Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ (1917).

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

Photograph, January 06, 2023; Bengaluru, India;

Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.

"I've no religion in the conventional sense,

Yet I believe.

There's a Zen saying...

We have two suns:

The one outside in the sky,

And the other inside here.

As the one outside fades for us, so...

The other raises up

More and more."

— Henri Matisse.

From the film: Surviving Picasso (1996) directed by James Ivory, and starring Anthony Hopkins as Pablo Picasso.

Theme—Into the mind of masters.

Photograph, January 29, 2023; Bangalore, India;

Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.