After the Battle by Antonio Fillol
The work of Antonio Fillol fascinates me, a master of painting things indirectly. He is always
a bit out of frame, a
bit too late, and
insanely good at rendering light. But he liked to paint to denounce the abuse and exploitation of others (specially women and kids) which led to him ended being ostracized and sadly a good chunk of his work is lost to time. There's been an effort to recover his work and now the two works that led to him being branded as "inmoral": "
The Human Beast" and
"The Satyr" are considered some of his best work.
But is
"After the Battle" the one I think the most. There's something about how empty it is that I find striking. Some very dark trees, buildings rendered with not much detail, hats and canes, a incredibly well rendered pavement... and of course, the corpse. We don't know what led to this death: was it a fight between rivals, a drunk argument that escalated too much, a violent repression of a protest? We have no way to know. Like with a lot of Fillol work, we never get to know the details of what happened, we are just shown the consequences and left to think about them.
EDIT: I also have to ad. It is incredible how well composed it is for how sparse of a paint it is and it's main subject being put literally in a corner.
EDIT 2: And what about the contrast between what we are being suggested ("a lot of people were here") and how deserted the entire street feels now? Sorry, I think a lot about this painting. It is damn good.
