Art Museum

Once a month or so my father would take me to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

We would wander the galleries and dad, a scupltor/engraver for the US Mint, would explain things to me, answer questions or just let me wander.

I had two favorite galleries. I loved the suits of armor, swords, helmets and other assorted sundry of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. I thought chainmaille was the coolest thing in the world, unless displayed in Cher's Sanctuary catalogue or International Male. I was obsessed with jousting. I wanted to live in a castle and be king. Or princess. And I firmly believed in dragons. To that end, I watched the movie Dragonslayer religiously. Only recently did I realize that the lead in that movie was Peter MacNicol who moved on to something else I would watch religiously, Ally McBeal.

Anyway, I wasn't really interested in the facts behind all these things. I was more intent on making up wonderful stories of the men who wore/used them and the many accomplishments they achieved. I would start to create these stories and then go home and live them out with my Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark figured in my bedroom for hours.

My favorite painting at the museum was an enormous canvas painted by Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders. Measuring 95 1/2 x 82 1/2 inches, the painting hung on a wall entirely on its own. The title of the painting: Prometheus Bound. In it, a huge eagle whose wings span almost the entire length of the painting is on top of a nearly naked Prometheus, tearing his liver out. Prometheus is nearly naked, laying on top of blue and white silk. His muscular body is writhing in pain as the bird feasts on his bloody organ. The eagle has one claw holding down the hero's head and another pressing on his tightly muscled stomach. The two are making intense eye contact.

Now how could I lie and say that there was not something sexual about this picture? It certainly stimulated something in my mind and I'm sure triggered thoughts that have followed me to my work today. In my directing, I'm often driven to work that explores the close relationship between sex and violence; how they go hand-in-hand sometimes, and spiraling out of control at other times.

I would stare at this painting for hours. Wondering what it felt like to be dominated by that bird. Wondering what it was like to be as strong as Prometheus. Wondering what it was like to have your liver ripped out.

Ironically enough, there would be echoes of this painting resonating in my life at a later date that even I didn't see until after the events played out.