"THE GOLDEN GARDEN"

In search for Eden Garden...

These are the first drawings of the series "The Golden Garden" I am working on. Along the upcoming drawings I will be developing a world relating Arthurian Legends, Alchemy and Christian Iconology

Books are my main source of inspiration. During the last two years I've become aware that I have been doing my readings in three different lines and that those lines are intimately linked (Arthurian Myths, Neoplatonic-Christian Mysticism, Christian Iconology):

As for Arthurian Myth my readings have been based in books by Chrétien de Troyes (Perceval, The story of the grail / Yvain, the Knight of the Lion / Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart / Erec and Enide), Wolfram von Eschenbach (Parzival), Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regum Britanniae), The Pearl Poet (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), Anonimus (Perlesvaus), The Didot Perceval, Robert de Boron (Joseph d'Arimathe / Merlin), The Prose Lancelot, Thomas Malory (Le Morte d'Arthur), Roger Sherman Loomis (The Grail, from Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol), Geoffrey Ash (The discovery of King Arthur, Merlin)...

As for Mysticism: Plotinus, Saint Augustine, Meister Eckhart, Angelus Silesius, Saint Teresa of Ávila, San Juan de la Cruz, Hildegard von Bingen, Hugh of Saint Victor, etc. / and christian thought with not a necessarily mystic approach: Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Anselm, Duns Scoto, St. Thomas Aquinas...

As for Chistian Iconology: André Grabar (The Process of Creation in Christian Iconography / The Beginnings of Christian Art / The Origins of Medieval Aesthetics), Erwin Panofsky (Studies in Iconology / Saturn and Melancholy/ Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer), Cesare Ripa (Iconology), Robin Cormack (Byzantine Art / Icons), Solrunn Nes (The Mystical Language of Icons), Hans Belting (Image and Cult / Anthropology of the Image), Juan F. Esteban Lorente (Iconography Treatise).

"The Holy Wound". 100X70 cm (39.37 X 27.55 inches). Graphite and white chalk on paper:




"The Fruit of Prayer". 32X24 cm (12.59 X 9.44 inches). Graphite and acrylic on paper:





"The Scent of the Unseen". 32X24 cm (12.59 X 9.44 inches). Graphite and acrylic on paper:




3 comments:

cloudgathererholdmedown said...

alvaro,

three things.

these works and the idea behind them are stunning and resonate so strongly with me.
increasingly so these days.

the books you list as inspiration.
little doors tempting me to open.

and libraries. YES.



“We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun.
We are not afraid of the darkness.
We trust that the moon shall guide us.
We are determining the future at this very moment.
We know that the heart is the philosopher's stone.
Our music is our alchemy.”
― Saul Williams

cloudgathererholdmedown said...

also,
the tattoo!
your image?
on whose body?
and what do the words say?

alvaro barcala said...

Three smiles for your kind words.

Books are definitely doors, windows, tunnels, stigmas or rabbit burrows through which we reach the other side.

Love that Saul Williams' poem. First time I read it.

which tattoo you mean? :)