Beautiful, disturbing paintings
December 11, 2018 7:03 AM   Subscribe

Roberto Ferri appears to have grown up looking at Robert Mapplethorpe pictures. If you are easily disturbed by cruelty, distorted bodies, and Catholicism, or are at work, pass by. If not, he will at least stimulate your imagination, and may educate it. His paintings are some combination of Renaissance religious art, high-end magazine advertising illustration, fetish porn, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and body dysmorphia anxiety. They are beautiful. [NSFW]

Here is his online gallery.

He paints knees with great tenderness: these strong, fragile, slightly grotesque places where insides come near outsides.
posted by ckridge (11 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite


 
Thank you for sharing. These are beautiful and awful all at once.
posted by Fizz at 7:06 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Whoa. Good find.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:21 AM on December 11, 2018


Really really needs NSFW tag and note above the fold.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:23 AM on December 11, 2018


I did say to pass by if you are at work. Is that not enough?
posted by ckridge at 9:25 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Mod note: I added an NSFW warning just out of caution, even though your description in the post is perfectly clear, ckridge
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:34 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thank you.
posted by ckridge at 9:40 AM on December 11, 2018


A lot of folks skim the descriptions or don’t have the best reading comprehension on first pass, and we’ve kinda trained ourselves to look for the the nsfw tag because it’s a salient symbol that has an easily understandable meaning.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:42 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


cute paintings
posted by sarahdrugs at 9:45 AM on December 11, 2018


I appreciate the technical ability but the vision leaves me unmoved. I don't see anything challenging or disturbing - it's beautifully rendered fantasy art with a classicist's eye for detail and proportion.

The only strange here for me is the artist's insistence on depicting grown women in perfect anatomical detail except for a total lack of pubic hair. I get the Renaissance reference but why bother to correct the rest of the feminine physique if not also that?

Those knees are amazing though.
posted by freya_lamb at 2:56 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


A generous interpretation would be that he is just accurately painting his models, who happen to be following modern styles. But really it stands out as a dissonant element, given how many of the dudes are allowed to have hair.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:27 PM on December 11, 2018


Thank you!
posted by james33 at 6:03 AM on December 12, 2018


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