Pablo Picasso

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, oeuvres de 1967 et 1968, vol. 27, Paris, 1973, no. 459, illustrated p. 181 
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Sixties II, 1964-1967, San Francisco, 2002, no. 67-057, illustrated p. 282

In this work Picasso plays on the rich tradition of Spanish Baroque painting, a frequent source of inspiration for the artist in the 1960s and early 1970s.  References to Old Masters are especially prevalent in the series of drawings from early 1967 of which this sheet is a part.

The 20^th century master found inspiration in a wide range of 17th century painting, including secular, mythological, and religious art.  The watermelon eater is the lineal descendant of the cheerful urchins depicted by Murillo; the fruit evokes Mediterranean heat and sensuality.  The flute player is a secularized faun, his mythical pipes replaced by a modern instrument, his goat legs supplanted by a mortal's, but with the pagan vitality remaining.  Picasso has moved the male figure holding a lamb from a religious to a secular setting.  He descends from the most egalitarian of standard Christian images, the Adoration of the Shepherds, in which humble field hands arrive to celebrate the birth of the Messiah.

Perhaps it was in response to the 1966 monographic exhibition held at the Petit and Grand Palais in Paris that Picasso felt the urge to measure himself against his Spanish artistic legacy.  Recognized as one of the greatest artists of his age, he no doubt felt the impulse to test himself against the great masters of the past.