Creator Breakdown / Art

• The Starry Night (1889), perhaps Vincent van Gogh's most famous and best work was made shortly before his apparent suicide in 1890. As was "Crows In Wheat Field' which was full of symbols of death, including corn about to be mowed, paths leading nowhere, and hovering crows.
• From 1901 to 1904, Spanish painter Pablo Picasso entered his Blue Period following the suicide of his friend, Carlos Casagemas, which sent Picasso into a severe depression. During this time, Picasso's paintings featured somber imagery and mainly utilized blue & blue-green colors. Thankfully, he started a romantic relationship with Fernande Olivier in 1904, leading to his Rose Period.
• Francisco de Goya for a majority of his career as an artist painted bright and colorful portraits, mostly of people enjoying life◊ or of pleasant scenes like the Spanish Royal Family.◊ However, towards the end of his life he began to paint much, much darker scenes, as can be seen in his Black Paintings. This is primarily blamed on a debilitating illness that deafened him and left him mentally scarred and the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent government turmoil that left his life in ruins. The infamous {painting of Saturn devouring one of his children, in particular, takes on a new significance if you know your Classical Mythology and that Goya had six children, only one of whom lived to adulthood.
• Michelangelo Buonarroti:
  • His The Last Judgment might have reflected his declining physical and mental health.
  • There was also the fact that he was coerced by the Vatican to create in a medium he disliked. He even made a subtle Easter Egg as a Take That! to the papal chamberlain who made him do it (basically, he drew Satan as the unfortunate Chamberlain, depicting him naked with a snake covering his man bits). When the outraged Chamberlain asked the Pope to censor it, the Pope replied that he only had authority in Heaven and Earth.
  • To top this, Michelangelo portrayed the known writer Pietro Aretino as St. Peter. Aretino had been scoffing at Michelangelo publicly for some time, and Michelangelo portrayed himself as the flayed skin of St. Bartholomy, hanging in the hand of Peter (Aretino). The best way to tell the world, and posterity: "This is how I feel about this".

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