Wednesday 2 May 2012

Angelic Visitation or Psychological Horror?

Georges de la Tour produced a lot of slightly unsettling paintings.  Like the musicians in a knife fight with what is clearly a zombie on the far left.  Or this gift-wrapped young man who is surrounded by women that look like they're short on mince for the pie and he will do nicely.  I think I just find his style of painting people a little off, like they're all a bit unhinged.  But this one particularly struck me as simple but nightmarish:

Ostensibly titled "The Angel Appears to St. Joseph in a Dream," that is clearly no angel.

Look at the black soulless eye-pits.  That is a 17th-century Sadako from the Ring, crawled forth from his book to devour his soul and torment it for all eternity.  Her hand above the flame appears to be channeling a legion of invisible demonic minions to flow into their new flesh-host.  It would not surprise me if he had been a young man only moments before, his life force sucked out through his beard.

No comments:

Post a Comment