J.M.W. TURNER

Fingernail Issues: From the Maya to Turner

Left: Bloodletting Ritual, c. 790, fresco.  The Temple of Murals (Structure 1), Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico; Right: J.M.W. Turner, Long Ship’s Lighthouse, Land’s End, 1834-1835, watercolor and bodycolor.  The Getty Center, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

These two works of art have relatively nothing in common, being separated by over on thousand years of history and thousands of miles apart in their geographic origin.  The only real connection I’m willing to think about this early in the morning / late in the week is about fingernails.  On the left, the Mayan governor of Bonampak,Chaan Muwaan II, stands majestically above prisoners who are being ritually bled from their fingernails in a process called bloodletting.  In J.M.W. Turner’s mesmerizing watercolor, the artist used his right thumbnail to scratch into the pigment to reveal the white of the paper underneath (especially to make the sea gulls).

WTF?!?  Why make such a random connection between two unrelated works of art?  Simple answer.  As I entered the gym this morning, the door slammed on my thumb and ripped off most of the nail.  Rather than let that ruin my day, I thought, “WTF?  There must be some way to spin this for content on WTF Art History.”  So there you have it.  Life imitates art… or something like that.

Bloodletting Ritual, c. 790, fresco.  The Temple of Murals (Structure 1), Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico

J.M.W. Turner, Long Ship’s Lighthouse, Land’s End, 1834-1835, watercolor and bodycolor.  The Getty Center, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Be sure to visit the Getty Center (@GettyMuseum) before Sunday, October 13 to see the Turner watercolor in the brilliant exhibition Luminous Paper: British Watercolors and Drawings.