\n\n\u2013 Fedor Bronnikov ..+-+.. Consecration \u2013
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Okay here\u2019s how I read this picture: homeboy in bright white is the guy who commissioned this thing, as part of his \u201coh shit I\u2019m old and mortal better tend to my legacy\u201d thing. He gets to do the ceremonial duties, pouring out oil for his dead homies, dudes actually pushing it up are his servants.
At the stump in red with the sacrificial lamb is homeboy\u2019s eldest son, the surrounding figures are his family, blondie at the stump in pink is a younger son.
And look at what\u2019s stiffly vertical in this composition, that\u2019s interesting. The herm isn\u2019t. The herm\u2019s whole purpose is to be vertical as a sacred object, but it\u2019s like \u201coh nope, just a human creation being humped around by some sweaty dudes\u201d. You can see the rough foundation that\u2019d normally be buried underground.
Dude with the spade - the spade\u2019s vertical which is correct because the spade represents the artifice and the work here and the work is what is true. Dude\u2019s leg is only slightly off and he kind of gets a pass as being the close-enough respectability of labor.
Homeboy in white - straight up. Look at his face, look at the sculptured herm. That\u2019s the dude. This is his legacy - he\u2019s old now and thinking about eternity and transcendence. He is taking this seriously, he\u2019s fucking loving this.
In the background, the tower of the compound on the hill - oh hi there, hazed out, you\u2019re the even more impressive site of human creation we\u2019re only recreating in miniature. Herms along the path and in the woods, that one that gets red at the base almost halfway to modeling the trees, the trees that shoot up higher and spindlier reminding you that the human creations are only inferior imitations of natural form.
Grandson with the fruit bowl, young enough to take his role in this seriously.
(The donkey\u2019s standing up straight, doing his job, but looks sarcastic. I think that\u2019s the point of donkeys.)
And look who\u2019s not standing up straight.
Red son at the stump is frustrated, cheek in his palm waiting for this to be over. (You saw statue face and white homeboy\u2019s face? Look at red dude\u2019s face, you see the resemblance. Balding. Unfortunate.)
He\u2019s old enough to realize this is theatrics, but not old enough to be the honored elder. Dad\u2019s having fun spending his inheritance on a roadside dick statue. Awesome. He\u2019s there because he\u2019s obligated.
(Pink bro, what the hell. He says nothing to me.)
Granddaughter in pink is straight-ish, but not ramrod like the two males in the center. Slumped shoulders, garland hanging by her side she\u2019s just putting up with this. Teenage girls were the same in 1874, when this painting was made, the same in whenever the hell it was set.
Naked babe taking the proceedings in uncomprehendingly, wife in blue kneeling propping the babe up, inducting him into the ritual.
The laborers of course literally wearing rags, all too busy exerting themselves to be either solemn or resentful and\u2026 IS STRIPEYSHORTS MCMUSTACHE EYEING UP GRANDDAUGHTER?
I THINK HE IS
holy shit
This is an amazing tableau on the subject of religion: an honorably ridiculous process by which old men fool young boys into taking them seriously.
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