Mary Stuart - Cleyde Yaconis

Fourth piece based on the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia. Each canvas illustrates at least one actress, one director and one play.

Cleyde Yáconis played Queen Elizabeth in the play Mary Stuart, by Firedrich Schiller, directed by Ziembinski in 1955. In spite of the somber tone of the story, I opted to aproach the subject in a more humorous tone, depicting Elizabeth, about to sentence her cousin Mary Stuart to be beheaded for treason, as a head thinking about guilhotines (for paper, in this case...). I'm aware of the anachronism, since such executions were carried out with axes at the time. Actual guillotines wouldn't be invented for another two hundred years. The fact that the English queen is portrayed as a head intends to serve as a memento mori, reminding her that she is also prone to such a fate.

Mary Stuart - Cleyde Yaconis

April 2010

Oil, asphalt and solvent transfer on canvas

80 x 100 cm

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