Titled "Eurynome and Ophion", this drawing takes its name and subject matter from the pre-Greek myth of creation. The Pelasgians, the all-inclusive name applied to the inhabitants of Greece before the Greeks arrived, believed that all existence was born out of pure chaos. Eurynome, the first intelligent being and creatrix of our world, was born from this primordial chaotic void. She immediately created a serpent, named Ophion, out of the chaotic wind surrounding her. In order to warm herself up, she began an exotic dance...and this aroused Ophion so much, he simply had to make love to her. From that union sprang a giant egg, within which our universe and everything we know is contained.
It was nothing but pure chance that Eurynome was born from this chaos, quickly bringing order and balance to reality. What I find especially interesting is understanding this myth in terms of modern quantum physics - our universe as we know it supposedly sprang about by the same chance - the conditions for a universe to last longer than a millisecond in the quantum field requires the perfect balance of energy (in our universe's case that number is a perfect ZERO). In this sense, it was extremely lucky for us that the conditions were exactly as they were, otherwise...there would be no us.
In terms of the composition and style, I was looking a lot at Picasso at the time, particularly his Classical Period. The way he modernized and further abstracted the already schematized Classical Greek forms was, to me, absolutely brilliant as well as beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment