Two more deaths will ensue from the killing of Centaur Nessus in the hands of heroic Heracles depicted at this multilayered palimpsest that comes across as a trailer. Deianeira was the daughter of the god Dionysus, a lovely lady who drove a chariot and practiced the art of war. She was the wife of Heracles, who slowed the time while making love to his mother so the child in her womb would not be conceived in haste. Heracles grew up to be the strongest and the most masculine of all the heroes of Greco-Roman mythology.

The story is emerging from the distant past and the pigment processed to resemble the peeling stucco of ancient Roman walls is in stark contrast with the appearing and disappearing of elongated limbs insecure of their destiny in the hands of the painter. This dynamic time machine is revealed through a contrast between the mixture of clear and smudged lines and the presence of stucco-like pigment. The combined technique surprises with the addition of roughly woven textile calling into mind ancient Greek weaving looms, the quintessential feminine, crossed with several parallel black ink lines of a masculine energy. The intentionally clean section at the bottom right corner is where a tangle of etherical body parts is still waiting to be put together and defined by the pivotal force of Hercules.

Centaur Nessus pretended to help the couple cross the river, but instead carried Deianeira off and tried to violate her. We see enraged Heracles pulling his bow while Deianera is fighting against the monster whose blood has already been poisoned by the venom of Hydra from the tip of Heracles arrow. The two are just about to share a terrible mortal secret, a promise made by the dying centaur to a woman in love that a shirt soaked in his blood would make her husband faithful forever. Pedja Djaković gives this gigantic eventful canvas a fresco quality, not just by his choice of the pigment technique, but also by making the longer horizontal side reminiscent of medieval “stories” where a succession of events was painted on the walls, while at the same time adding a modern touch through the hints of color where another layer of future announces it coming into existence.

The seed of a sequel is planted by the dramatic movement of the limbs to the right of the static figure of Heracles. He will soon end up setting a funeral pyre to die in the flames rather than being cooked alive in the Shirt of Nessus, a gift from his jealous wife after she found out he fell in love with princess Iole. Desperate Deianeira will hang herself afterward. Desire, deceit, violence, jealousy, fighting, revenge and death are all coming to life in this one instant. It doesn’t feel like looking at a painting, but rather as if we were quickly flipping through the pages of a comic book catching the glimpses of the tragedy branching over time, emerging, disappearing and returning in the eternal cycle of Eros and Thanatos.

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Mixed Technique, 150 x 200 cm

2011