The Condottiere 1821

Curator: This is "The Condottiere" painted in 1821 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, using oil paint. Editor: My first thought? Intense. Like staring into a storm brewing beneath those brow lines. It has a dramatic quality, but it is also...intimate? Curator: Right? Ingres really manages to catch a psychological depth even in a straightforward portrait. I feel like the rosy cheeks and beard soften what otherwise would be an expressionless face, perhaps hidden behind armor. Editor: But is he hidden, or presented? Condottieri were mercenary leaders, right? This image has to be saying something about power, about being a strong man... even an unscrupulous strong man during periods of intense violence. What do you think the message is here? Is Ingres mythologizing military men? Curator: That's interesting because his face shows the humanity beyond the armor! Maybe Ingres wants to point to what connects all humans beyond warring. The armor is only what separates and what obscures. Editor: Hmm, I see what you mean. The way the light catches on the metal almost seems to emphasize its coldness, while his face practically glows with warmth. I still wonder though, is it possible to divorce that softness from the violence that created his position? Does the humanizing take away from confronting his possible exploitation? Curator: It is a dance that the work plays upon; light and shadow, warm flesh versus cold steel, vulnerability versus the strength a man requires to wield power and dominate during the rise of modern European nation-states. Editor: Indeed. Ingres's classical training gave him an unbelievable skill to catch those contradictions and to leave us here pondering the legacy of war. Curator: Yes, It is these oppositions within the frame which give the painting life! We leave this historical portrait asking: Who was this person behind the armor? Editor: Yes, exactly, this is why a closer inspection is needed! And it leads us to the history that informs his features!