Pedro Paricio: Popularising Greek Mythology

Pedro Paricio’s Narcissus (2024) directly appropriates and adapts Caravaggio’s version, but through a distinctly modern lens. He retains the structure of the original composition, yet his treatment of form is entirely his own. His flattened planes of colour, vibrant hues and kaleidoscopic shapes transform the work into something both contemporary and timeless.

Paricio’s use of Surrealist techniques, possibly including decalcomania or grattage (methods of spontaneous, mirrored image-making) in the reflection of the water beneath, enhances the sense of visual play. His Narcissus, rather than being rendered with Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, is instead fractured, his head and arms dissolving into fragmented, geometric colour fields. The removal of any discernible background forces the viewer to focus solely on the figure before them.

In many ways, Narcissus is a self-referential work, not just in its direct connection to the myth, but in its engagement with the act of seeing itself. Just as Narcissus gazes upon his own reflection, so too does the viewer see themselves in Paricio’s shattered mirror. There is also reason to suspect that this work is a self-portrait, encouraging the viewer to correlate the myth with the artist and making the work an interrogation of self-reflection. As is true of most of Paricio’s works, his characteristic kaleidoscopic shapes invite the viewer to reconsider themselves in the narrative, in this case to the myth that continues to shape our understanding of human identity.

Hanging alongside Paricio’s Narcissus are two further works that interrogate the artist’s interest in mythology. In Roman myth, both Venus and Flora are important symbolic deities, with characteristics that enliven the narratives of these works. Venus is the Goddess of love, fertility, victory, beauty and sex. The Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite, she has become one of the most referenced deities in art since. A symbol of maternity, she is frequently depicted springing from a shell, pertaining to her origin myth that dictates that she emerged from sea foam after the Titan-God Cronus threw his father, Uranus’, genitals into the sea. Other retellings of the myth are more poetic, preferencing the narrative that she was born out of an oyster shell and thereafter blown to the Greek island of Crete.

Paricio’s adaptation of this myth is twofold. Reference to the deity is made via the foaming mound that she stands on. Her voluptuous body and luscious hair also speak to her beauty and grace. The pose is reminiscent of Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1484-86) that hangs in the Uffizi Museum in Florence. He positions Venus standing atop a shell, covering her modesty, with her long golden locks wistfully wisping in the wind. A second reference, inspired by Botticelli’s rendition, is of Jean Augustus Dominique Ingres’ Venus Anadyomene, 1848. Though mirrored, their compositions directly relate to one another. They stand in sea foam, hand wrapped around their head, other hand resting in their hair.

Paricio’s other largescale mythological piece is Flora. This work bears compositional similarity to Venus, perhaps drawing attention to them both as icons of fertility. Flora also represents Spring, beauty, flowers, abundance, and is most often depicted with roses which symbolise love and beauty. Paricio stands this Goddess on a reflexed rose, symbolising her mythological origins.

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