Spleen No. 09. - Limited Edition of 5 Print

The artwork is a Giclée, archival, Fine Art print on Canson 315 HighGloss paper. It is limited to AP+5 pieces. It's a closed series and certificate of authenticity is included. All 5 pieces are numbered and signed. The title of the work refers not to the abdominal organ (the spleen) but rather to the second, more literary meaning of the word, “melancholy with no apparent cause, characterised by disgust with everything”. In French, “splénétique” refers to a state of pensive sadness or melancholy. It has been popularized by the poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) The connection between spleen (the organ) and melancholy (the temperament) comes from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. One of the humours (body fluid) was the black bile, secreted by the spleen organ and associated with melancholy. I was also inspired by the Still lifes of the 16-17th-century painting genre in the Netherlands called Vanitas. The animal remains were found in the local forests, (except the goat skull) due to the hunters' activity.