Lajos Gulacsy: On the Bridge, Freaky Weird Folks Marched Through 1906
I like the title; It is like, “What happened, Lajos?” would somebody asked the painter and he replied, “ Man, on the bridge, freaky weird folks marched through.” That was it.
At Carnival time in Venice, folks are going crazy sometimes, because their real personalities are hidden under the painted masks and costumes. In a twisted, ironic way, they can be themselves in their full when they impersonate someone else. I had the pleasure to participate in the Venetian Carnival a few years ago and I liked the experience. Our hotel was full of costume-dressed people, even at breakfast. I remember the elderly guy in white stockings and wig with a rice powdered face nibbling the scrambled eggs.
At daytime everybody promenaded around the Piazza San Marco, or had a coffee at Florian like Casanova did some centuries before. It was very uncomfortable to sit at the café chairs in wide crinoline and corset, and of course, with oversized, heavy wig. But I would have not changed it for anything. I really felt I lived in a different time for a week. Everybody felt that way as if the costume changed the whole world around us, how we behaved, how we moved, how we thought. I like this kind of time travelling.
Gulacsy himself dressed like a medieval jester all the time, not just at the carnival. He visited Venice many times, and unfortunately, it happened in the city when he had a nervous breakdown and schizophrenia escalated on him. But when he painted this remarkable painting, in 1906, he was yet fairly alright.
Against an orange-brown backdrop, on an arched, typical Venetian bridge, there are the marching folks in costumes. Their figures, their faces are barely recognizable. A bright something is hanging from the handrail occupying the center place in the composition. It is marvelous.
I see this painting as the path of life. Our life is like a bridge we go through from one bank to the other while playing roles. Somewhere in the middle we reach the zenith, the best years of our lives. That represents the bright circle light in the center. Whatever we do, we have to go through this bridge of life. Either way we live, happily or miserably, or just loitered, we will reach the other bank at the end.
So the freaky weird folks on the bridge were damn right marching crazily happy. It is better to revel our life through like a masquerade ball. We will have enough time to get over the hangover in the hell, for eternity.
