Screaming Clergy, Francis Bacon

It has been said about Bacon that all the emotion and drama is shown through the faces of his portraits. On visiting the exhibition now on at the Tate, i turned into room three to be faced with this man, Pope Innocent X, who seems to be sitting, eminating an opressed scream from his gaping mouth. Certainly, the face does initiate an intense psychological connection between the viewer and the subject - who could escape those frankly terrifying features? - and yet i cant help to notice more subtle elements to the work that contribute to the atmosphere of complete exasperation and helplessness of this poor, troubled man.

He seems to be gripping the arms of his seat, as a child grips to his mother out of sheer fright on, say, its first day of school. The scintillating brushstrokes that make up his fingers curl tensely round the wood, and the bolt upright seating position indicates yet further emotional distress. Furthermore, Bacon entraps the figure within a hexagon of lines, a frame that serves the purpose of suggesting the complete, entrapping and overwhelming sense of responsibility that we know Pope Innocent X felt for his job.

I would be reluctant to strongly recommend the exhibition, i personally do like a large portion of the work but came out of the exhibition feeling a slightly humbled and untalkative. Maybe it was something to do with the grotesque abstraction of hanging meat in the crucifixion room or the general dark feeling a lot of the paintings had about them, but i left with no contentment, only satisfaction on having witnessed a fair representation of the artwork of a (as i see it) very disturbed painter.