Almost immediately, this painting caught my eye for obvious reasons. How could it not? When asked to find a strange, captivating or confusing painting, a beheaded Ox beside two bizarre naked people would not be an improbable choice. But it wasn’t just the erotic aspects of the photo that made it so unique. The rope extended from the Ox’s stomach also baffled me. Further, the two-dimensional aspect of this painting along with the lack of color variation and depth caught my attention. This simplicity seemed to me to be deceiving. Clemente had to have had more meaning behind this painting, and I wanted to uncover the story behind it. When I saw the title, Water and Wine, I was unsure and curious as to why Clemente would title it this, as there was neither water nor wine in the painting.

Francisco Clemente’s work is expressionist and surrealist. The Italian painter was self taught, often using psychedelics, which seems likely in regards to this painting. Clemente finds inspiration in Indian culture and many of his paintings capture mythology, symbolism and spiritualism of India. This painting illustrates Clemente as the man who has bound the Ox and holding its head, portraying his masculinity, and the hand gesture he makes above his head imitates the Ox’s horns, showing Clemente to be not only masculine, but animalistic as well. Another main focus of this painting, which I did not notice before researching it, is the Ox is both a cow and a bull, which symbolizes both nourishment and paternal power. Finally, I found that Clemente was fond of tying different religions together, believing all religions to be one, and the title confirms this fondness when he named this mythological Indian piece Water and Wine, which refers to when Christ turned water into wine.