OCA FYW Assignment 2 Analysis of a painting

The painting I am going to analyse is a painting found in the Contemporary Art collection in the Vatican . I saw this painting 5 years ago and was completely mesmerized by it- sadly I did not record the name of the artist, or title of the painting,  and cannot find any record of the painting online. It sits between a Dali and a Bacon so is in esteemed company! From searching on the internet I have established that the artist is Pedro Cano born in 1944 - a highly regarded Spanish artist who studied at the San Fernando Art Academy under Antonio Lopez Garcia. Currently settled and painting in Italy . I know the artist had an exhibition in Rome in 2008 entitled " Terme di Diocleziano". The topic of this event was the human figure - oil paintings and watercolours which captured people from behind "so as to relate the lives of these protagonists through there gestures or movements".

The painting is approximately  120cm x 120cm and is , I think, oil on canvas. It depicts the back of one  person embracing another - neither face is visible.

Compostion 

Square format , the canvas is divided into horizontal thirds with the profile of 2 embracing  bodies intersecting all 3 thirds. The top 2 thirds have straight evenly spaced ( approx. 10 cm) vertical lines. The bottom third gives some sense of perspective as the lines on the viewers left are narrower and slightly angled in such a way as to suggest coming to the fore.Apart from the figures the only other discernable element are 2 arrows to the left of the figures - I am slightly unsure whether they are both directing the viewer to the left or not.  There is a darker  / warmer are in the bottom left hand corner possibly representing shadow?

Colour 

The painting is predominantly of cool colouring . A very limited palette has been used with a predominance of blue - possibly prussian blue and pthalo. 

The top third of the painting is a richly textured blue and is the darkest third by far. The other 2/3 comprises greys predominantly cool greys with a warmer grey and yellow in the bottom left hand corner. The warm colours in this corner certainly pulls my eye towards it.  

The paint application suggests a lots of layering and texturing probably using palette knives or other devices. 

Some colour mixing suggests that a similar palette  may be created using pthalo blue , raw umber , cadmium orange and possibly cadmium yellow with titanium white.

 This painting has a broad spectrum of tone . in my diagram I have indicated the broad tonal range using a scale of 1 (lightest) to 10(darkest). The centre of interest is around the shoulder area where there is also the greatest tonal range. 

Conclusions 

This painting has had a huge effect on me and my perception of art and its effect on the individual. My response to the painting had nothing to do with 'this is by a Master so must be great'  but was entirely to do with a deep visceral reaction to the emotion that was transmitted from the painting to me. I can only speculate as to the artists intention in this piece. For me it is a purposefully ambiguous painting - it is a man and woman or two people of the same gender. The warmest part of the painting is in the shadow area - is this telling the viewer something? The significance of the arrows? - my interpretation is one of social rejection(leaving, exit, rejection, disproval). For me the painting represents parting, joining, emotion, devastation and joy - I could go on!

Using the colours discussed above I had a go at a 30x30cm version and the result is below