The Triptich of Saint Christopher

•

"The triptych of Saint Christopher" or "The triptych of the travel" is my piece for the collective illustration exhibition "The polyptych of the Enlightened. An illustrated travel to the Hyeronimus Bosch´s legacy", in homage to the painter of the Garden of Delights. This exhibition, curated by me, opens on September 16 in Madrid as an epilogue to the retrospective of the Prado Museum in the 5th centenary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch.

For this work I was inspired by his painting of the same name, based on the story of this saint described in "The Golden Legend", a book written in the 13th century by Jacob de Voragine. The book describes Saint Christopher as a giant formerly called Reprobus, which becomes carrier and protector of Christ child and patron of travelers, soldiers and sailors.

I started from this iconography and symbology to represent the dramatic plight of refugees by war and I have become the saint on the the central panel in the carrier on the weight of death, symbolized by one of the thousands of children drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. This character who apparently supports the weight of travel protecting travelers is compromised by the fragility of their support and for not being able to save their protected, while in the foreground takes place a party to distract the new arrivals of the drama. In the right panel, freedom and European social rights are sold to Death in exchange for her and her monsters take charge of this whole mass of people fleeing to the supposed European prosperity.