Decline and Fall (Selected Readings from Volumes 1, 2, and 3)

Artist Michael Waugh (born 1967)

Date2009

MediumPigment ink on Mylar

DimensionsThree panels, each: 69 × 42 in. (175.3 × 106.7 cm)
Framed (each): 72 × 45 × 3 in.

ClassificationsDrawing

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2011.8

Accession number 2011.8

On View

Not on view

Provenanceto (Schroeder Romero & Shredder, New York, NY); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2011
Label TextAt first glance, this triptych seems to simply depict three animals in a charred landscape. However, hidden among these beasts is a harsh critique. The artist disagrees with Edward Gibbon’s book. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) which claimed that the adoption of Christianity feminized and weakened Romans, and was to blame for the Empire’s demise. Inspired by micrography, a tradition in which words are shaped into images that illustrate their meaning, the artist created the entire work using only scribbled words from Gibbon’s book.The three images together tell the story of the Empire’s fall. The left scene, featuring a bear with a mauled deer, includes text describing the Empire’s military might and its early exploration of Christianity. The second panel depicts a docile bear hugging himself under a smoldering cross and uses text describing the capture of Rome and religious disputes among Christians during that era. The final panel describes the late era of the Empire and a violent leader who was banished from Rome, symbolized here as a lone wolf.