Los Esposos Palofini by Orestes Campos

“Los Esposos Palofini,” by the Cuban artist Orestes Campos of Santiago de Cuba was painted in 1994.

This large painting is made of oil and canvas.

Similar to Jan Van Eyck’s painting, “Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride,” painted in 1434, this painting reflects the artist, no longer in situated in the Renaissance palace of grandeur but in the wooden sheds in which some people now live in Cuba.  The subject is no longer marrying his elegant bride dressed in silk and velvet, but rather, must choose from a selection of wooden puppets which hang on a wall.  Gone is the glory of the Renaissance of van Eyck’s painting, replaced by the reality of the modern world where politics contributes to the poverty in which the Cuban artist must create to survive.