Arty Farty Friday ~ Allegory of Bad Government

Around this time last year I wrote an Arty Farty Friday post on Carrie Ann Baade an associate professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University. Now, a year later I'm going to feature her again, but focus on one of her paintings, for reasons which will not be especially difficult for any stray readers in the USA to appreciate. The painting is titled "Allegory of Bad Government."

Before posting the image, a word to explain that it was inspired by Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s 14th century moralistic civic mural cycle titled The Allegory of Good and Bad Government. This consists of a series of three fresco panels, six different scenes, painted between February 1338 and May 1339 in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico—specifically in the Sala dei Nove (Salon of Nine), council hall of Siena's nine executive magistrates, elected officials who performed executive, and some judicial, functions. The paintings have been construed as being "designed to remind the Nine [magistrates] of just how much was at stake as they made their decisions". The 14th century was a turbulent time for politics in Italian cities, due to constant violent party struggles; governments were overthrown, and governments were reinstated.
See Wikipedia HERE.

Carrie Ann Baade's painting "Allegory of Bad Government" inspired by Lorenzetti, and also by The Mad Hatter's Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland, depicts figures as guests who embody traits such as Cruelty, Greed, War, Hate, with echoes of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth. Tyranny’s cape is the tablecloth. The painting is both political critique as well as commentary on our internal states of mind.

Click on image for a clearer, larger view.

I shall point out all the gnashing greedy teeth, the waste lying around below, and...look to centre back of the painting: a pair of eyes with tentacles of yellow hair above...remind you of anyone? I shall now leave it to any passing stray readers to relate further allegorical inferences to....well, ya know!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Carrie Ann Baade

Carrie Ann Baade's surreal oil paintings, rich with allegory inspired by literature and art history are peculiar, discomforting but intriguing. The artist's own website, portfolio & archive is HERE. Or, for a quick look at some of her work see
The oddly disturbing royal portraits of Carrie Ann Baade by Ann VanderMeer. More examples, in one place, can be seen at the Google Image page HERE


As a single example, I like this one, it's one of the least depressing and easier to interpret:
Lady or Tiger

This 51 second video shows a few more samples of detail from her artworks.



From a piece at denversyntax.com - which also has a series of illustrations attached.

SNIP ....admittedly, her work is complex. It is rich with symbols and it speaks to traditions of the past. And when somebody is as hyper-intellectual as Baade – you can be certain that she has a wealth of commentary, both in her work and in her life.

Baade is not an erudite, even though she is a professor. She is not pedantic, despite her rich vocabulary, love of creating sniglets (made-up words) and knowledge about the history of art. She is not crazy, but she will admit to having lived a pungent and somewhat extraordinary life.

Working with traditional painting techniques, Baade is a steward of history. At times she employs the works of old masters in her paintings. In this she is interested in creating a meta-narrative of a work, commenting on its original context as well as its contemporary relevance.

For Baade, her picture planes are compact. And this is exactly her aim – to pack her canvases with as much information as is possible. At once hyperbolic and overly-dramatic (placing your head on the body of Christ certainly is just that), Baade has an astute interest in being a storyteller. And with her rich color palate, on her canvases and in her life – the aim is for something extraordinary. The aim is to live a life less than commonplace.

ASTROLOGY: A 12 noon chart only, for a brief look in relation to the artist's style - no time of birth known so Moon and rising sign will not be as shown.
Born on 18 February 1974 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A Grand Trine predominates - in Air signs - linking Sun conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius to Saturn in Gemini and Uranus in Libra. An Airy circuit combining the two rulers of Aquarius, Saturn and Uranus = traditional and modern; that must give extra significance to this particular Grand Trine, bearing in mind Ms Baade's style does combine traditional painting style with modern/avant garde surrealist subject matter. Venus, planet of the arts in Capricorn (Saturn-ruled) echoes again the traditional link, Capricorn and Saturn have links to tradition, time etc. Venus is also semi-sextile Sun/Jupiter, hightlighting a kind of hybrid combination, which sometimes might be an uncomfortable link, but here has been cleverly combined - perhaps thanks to that Grand Trine in Air (mental acuity).