Jose Clemente Orozco
Amanda Rumble P.6
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This
painting has a very coincidental history. It shows Cortez and his
adventurers arriving in America at the same time as the return of the
legendary prophecy, the god Quetzalcoatl. It was painted between
1932 to 1934 and is showing Cortez against his background of his
burning ships, and of the stern cross both supporting and supported by
a priest. Also there are heaps of slain and subjugated natives
and the wreckage of despoiled civilization. Both Cortez and the
priest represent the mizture of positive and negative values of
conquering European culture. The tone is very dark and sad with
the people dead and the civilization taken over. I think the
artist painted this because he was not happy about the way new things
were and was trying to portray how sad everything was. I like this painting because it shows the way the painter thinks about the "New World". This painting makes me feel distressed because of the way people are dead and just thrown into a heap, the burning ships, and the way only one man seems to rule it all. The colors of this painting are gloomy with all the gray, and silver. Also in a way the colors are frightening with the bright red burning ships and the bright dead people. Cortez seems to have a sad expression on his face, and the priest looks scared. This painting says Cortex came to this land, conquered it, and killed many. To change the painting I would make the burning ships more noticeable. |