Andrew Ivanentis Melancholia

Andrew Leventis’ Melancholia (Figure 1) offers a point of view of a person pouring what looks like Bourbon or Whisky. Painted with oil on linen last year, there is a fuzziness and texture that wouldn’t be possible with a standard canvas. What seems to be a simple action takes a complete different approach with this rendering due to a use of minutia and perspective quite different than what we are likely to see in terms of painting this everyday action. This disorientation in terms of viewpoint and accentuation of details in certain areas serve the purpose of adding sadness, melancholia (which explains the title) and vicious curiosity of what this person is going through and how she copes with it. This painting presents a person pouring, what is probably, an alcoholic beverage in a vase or carafe while holding the top of the bottle in the left hand. The presence of nail color indicates that the person in questions is a woman. Except her arms, no other parts of her body can be seen which unable a personal recognition. However, the lack of folds in the
The work has several tints of brown and beige which gives a vintage ambiance to the scene. The most eye catching part is the color of the liquid which almost has a golden hue. Even though the atmosphere is somber, the picture is quite well-lit which is probably to show that even during a bright sunny day, people can feel down and melancholic to a point of drinking alcohol on their own. To conclude, Andrew Leventis wants to show a simple action that people usually do to either celebrate or when felling down and by using a sense of disorientation and confusion with fuzzy lines and curious perspective proves his point which is the title Melancholia. This painting is a representation of an action resulting of a feeling in our everyday life and almost anybody can relate to this