 This work is based on the Antigone by Sophocles. The event shown above does not occur on stage in the play but is reported off-stage. Antigone's two brothers were killed fighting in a civil war for the Theban throne. One, Eteocles, who defended the city, was given proper burial but the other, Polyneices, was refused burial and his body was left exposed outside the city. The scene above shows Antigone recovering her brother's body for burial even though it was prohibited. The work above is set in a stark landscape with wild dogs and carrion birds. I have taken an artistic liberty in showing Antigone using her own robe to protect the body from the elements.    Euripides Sophocles Aeschylus There are busts existing of these three Greek playwrights but as far as I know, these busts were later reconstructions and no-one can be sure about their accuracy. The portrait of Aeschylus is suspect as he is traditionally represented as a bald man.   Monotype, 18 x 24" Monotype, 18 x 24"  Medea: The Poisoned Dress Monotype, 18 x 24" The man on the left is Jason; the woman on the right is his fiancee, who is being helped into a dress sent as a gift by Medea, who flies overhead. The dress is poisoned and the fiancee dies horribly. I've set this work into a stage-like context by use of the columns. Greek black-figure painting was an influence as well.   Prometheus Creates Man Oedipus and Teiresias Monotype, 18 x 24" Monotype, 18 x 24"  Teiresias Accuses Oepidus, Monotype, 18 x 24" The Furies were female chthonic dieties of vengeance. According to some accounts, they had faces of dogs, drooping breasts and bat-like wings. I have shown the exhausted Orestes hounded by the Furies, while Olympian Hermes comes to his aid with a garment. I particularly like the figure on the extreme right: a Fury who is hanging upside-down from something outside the picture frame, like a huge bat. I've often wondered whether that photo by Annie Leibowitz of John Cleese as a bat had stuck in my head.  Pandora I, Monotype, 18 x 24" Some people remind me that this should be Pandora's box, but according to Robert Graves, the 'box' was most likely a jug or container with a narrow neck that was stoppered. |
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