Barrio Escalante, San José

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LA Fuente de Morfeo, by Saúl Nájera. The space opens like a golden chamber where time seems to have suspended its physical laws.

Saúl Nájera

LA Fuente de MorfeoInquire about availability

Year
2015
Technique
Mixed Media
Dimensions
98 × 108 cm
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
golden ochre, carmine red, dark brown, olive green, ivory
Brushwork
Polished modeling on the figures contrasted with scumbling, scraping, and dense glazes on walls and floor

Curatorial analysis

The space opens like a golden chamber where time seems to have suspended its physical laws. An ignited, ochre atmosphere crossed by bands of vertical light holds an intensely theatrical and enigmatic scene. At the heart of the visual narrative, a polygonal gilded fountain expels two white horses amidst thick vapor, leaping forth as a singular animated force. Their sculptural whiteness and the gleam of their harness burst against the prevailing warmth, establishing the point of maximum luminous tension.

Facing them, a courtly figure with a gray beard and an introspective gaze officiates an unusual ritual. His imposing scarlet mantle falls in heavy folds across the dark tiled floor, anchoring his presence against the lightness of the equines. In one hand he holds a goblet and in the other a fruit from which a fine arc or filament springs directly toward the receptacle; this gesture, poised between magical invocation and offering, draws an invisible bridge between the artificer and the emerging creatures.

Toward the edges, details accentuate the logic of dreams: a small console table holds an impassive parrot, an ogival niche pierces the yellow wall, and within an opening in the tiled floor, a fish swims inside a dark pool of water that defies the solid paving. The pictorial handling alternates between delicate blending in flesh tones and coats and areas of scratching and rich glazes that endow the walls with an aged, almost alchemical patina.

Morpheus, god of dreams, governs here not through nightfall, but via a sun-drenched, golden reverie. These apparitions do not disrupt the order of the room; rather, they settle into it with the serenity of a Renaissance fable where fantasy becomes a domestic and solemn reality.

LA Fuente de Morfeo

More works by Saúl Nájera

7 works

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