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Le caïman

Painting

Author

By (artist) Aloys Zötl

Description

"In Zötl's eyes, no such thing as a 'ferocious' animal exists (which, to my sense, suffices to establish the extraordinary beauty of Caïman from 1849, one of the artist's unsurpassable masterpieces (a beauty which is also in complete harmony with the splendour of the surrounding landscape))." José Pierre (Julio Cortazar (texte de), Giovanni Mariotti (introduction de), José Pierre (postface de), Aloys Zötl (1803-1887), Milan, Franco Maria Ricci, 1976, p. 135).

Aloys Zötl
"Here I am proposing my own personal choice, which-far from any desire to be authoritarian and definitive-is, on the contrary, an invitation to each individual to make his own choice. First because beauty is a personal affair [...] and then because the affinities that we may feel in regard to this or that animal space proceeds from reasons which often are not ruled by our consciousness.
I like [...] Le Semnopithèque from 1839 [...], La Loutre and Rana varia (one of the most beautiful Max Ernst's I know) from 1863, [...] Le Rhinocéros from 1872 (Oh, powerful marvel of ponderousness and grace) [...]" José Pierre (Julio Cortazar (texte de), Giovanni Mariotti (introduction de), José Pierre (postface de), Aloys Zötl (1803-1887), Milan, Franco Maria Ricci, 1976, p. 140-144).

Bibliography

- Julio Cortazar (texte de), Giovanni Mariotti (introduction de), José Pierre (postface de), Aloys Zötl (1803-1887), Milan, Franco Maria Ricci, 1976, rep.p. 71, p.135, p. 142, p. 147

Le Bestiaire de Zötl