Composition 4

The Baroque gentleman in his baroque frame looks on, guardian and inspiration. This work is a heady celebration of autumn, the most baroque season, where abundance and exuberance teeter dramatically on the brink of collapse and impending decay.

The gentleman’s fabrics burst out of his portrait and into the backdrop: his expensive lapis blue scarf and amber coat echoed in the framing silks and hydrangea, and the curls of his baroque wig, brought to life in the whisps of the old man’s beard.

Two baroque Italian double winged angels add to the drama of the scene: one looming celestially over the proceedings, whilst the other lies haphazardly by the urn, the victim perhaps of a Sicilian earth tremor.

The dual nature of autumn is everywhere: abundant flowers but in their midst, blooms that need deadheading and foliage that is browned and decaying, fruit in the basket but caterpillar on the champagne grapes, a clutch of seasonal vegetables but fallen, dried, rain-burnt rose petals, the beautiful urn, whose surface is cracked and weathered.

The pleasures of life are intense, but the fade and decay is always around the corner.