Would a Vulture in a Cage?" is an acrylic painting that portrays a vulture enclosed in a cage, symbolising the concept of captivity and confinement.While this particular piece is not available for purchase, I am open to commissions for similar works. It is also available in my print collection.
 
This painting is part of a new series that I am creating that delves into thought-provoking themes using a more traditional technique.
 
I really enjoyed working in a more traditional way again and have started to think about making portraits once more, who knows?
 
So what's it about?
 
The title is a corruption from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence,” specifically the line "A Robin redbreast in a cage puts all Heaven in a rage". The  poem consists of a series of paradoxes in which Blake juxtaposes innocence with evil and corruption. The word augury in the title means omen or token, and the robin is the poem’s first noted “augury of innocence.” 
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The robin’s song, personality, and countenance are such that Blake saw the act of putting one in a cage as not only an enraging violation but also as a profound perversion of holiness. 
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The full title for this painting is Would a Vulture in a Cage put all of Heaven in a Rage?
 
By swapping Blake's Robin with a Vulture and placing the tiny robin below and outside the cage I was thinking about Beauty/Ugliness, the often unfounded association of  beauty with virtue and ugly with degradation and revulsion.
 
How much are we influenced with subjective ideas of physical beauty being equated with innocence, goodness and purity, if so, what hope the vulture if she ends up in a cage? Would she never be free?
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​I wanted the painting to have an old fairy tale feel to it, dark woods and candlelit castles, something that Rumplestiltskin may have on his wall? The Cage is taken from an antique French design that I have altered somewhat to create an unwieldy, tilted and slightly off proportion.
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I hope you enjoy the work :)