Roberto Matta - The Mirror of Cronos [1981]

In this work one can see anthropomorphic figures, some aquatic and others terrestrial, so characteristic of Matta's works. Given the colours used, the viewer is left confused as to whether it is perhaps outer space or the depths of the sea. Another ambiguity is the origin of the bodies represented: at times it seems that figures from pre-Columbian culture emerge, but at the same time the title of the painting evokes Greek mythology and particularly Cronos, the god of human time.

 

Tradition has it that Cronus, by freeing himself from his father Uranus, also unleashed time, which was finally able to run towards infinity. If the mirror reflects Cronus, the personification of time, what the viewer sees is nothing other than the dismemberment of that time and of the figure of the mythological god himself.

 

[La Moneda Palace, Santiago - Oil on canvas, 313 x 495 cm]

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