Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002)

'Souza's treatment of the figurative image is richly varied. Besides the violence, the eroticism and the satire, there is a religious quality about his work which is medieval in its simplicity and in its unsophisticated sense of wonder. Some of the most moving of Souza's paintings are those which convey a spirit of awe in the presence of a divine power-a God, who is not a God of gentleness and love, but rather of suffering, vengeance and terrible anger. In his religious work there is a quality of fearfulness and terrible grandeur which even Rouault and Sutherland have not equalled in this century.' (Mullins, 1962, p. 40.)

As a child Souza suffered from a serious attack of smallpox and his Catholic mother vowed that if he ever survived she would enroll her son in the Jesuit priesthood. Although Souza never became a priest, religious imagery was a powerful source of inspiration for him, especially during the first few decades as an artist. Souza admits that the Roman Catholic church in Goa gave him his first ideas about images and image making. He states 'the Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolizing the accoutrement of Christ's passion. The wooden saints painted with gold and bright colors staring vacantly out of their niches. The smell of incense, and the enormous crucifix with the impaled image of a Man supposed to be the Son of God, scourged and dripping, with matted hair tangled in plaited thorns.' (Souza, 1955, p.10.)

The current work is however based upon one of the masterpieces of European portraiture, the famous triple portrait of Pope Paul III Farnese with his grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio by Titian. According to Vasari, this painting was commissioned by the Farnese family in 1546. Titian arrived in Rome in 1545 where he met several cardinals and was then received by Pope Paul III.  The painting, as one would expect of works by Titian, is technically highly refined but perhaps more importantly it illuminates the personality of the Pope and the politics of the Holy See in the mid-1540s more precisely than any document or contemporary account.  In Titian's painting Ottavio bends towards his grandfather with fawning obsequiousness, he is the embodiment of the scheming Renaissance prince.  Titian's own powers of observation create a brilliant projection of character through movement and pose, Ottavio's 'courtly bow sums up his character with a profound and scathing completeness.'  The portrait reveals in equal measure the treacherous nature of Ottavio and the Pope's own suspicious mind.  It is thought that even Paul III comprehended the insinuations of the painting which probably explains why it was left uncompleted. 

The subject would have appealed to Souza at two levels: firstly because its imagery was suggestive of the intrigue and politics that were prevalent in the 16th century Roman Catholic church, but perhaps more importantly the composition itself provides an artistic challenge to Souza to project equally Machiavellian characters in his own work.  Souza's composition is similar to Titian's and his characterisation of the central figures is equally demonic, but the bold application of paint to the canvas and the aggressive use of line and color is uniquely his own.  A final wry masterstroke in Souza's work is made by his choice of  red satin (the cloth of cardinals) for his canvas, that leaves the audience in no doubt about the satirical intentions of the work.