Dragon and Serpent

Dragon and SerpentChico da Silva · 1973 · Acrylic on paper mounted on hardboard
A horned dragon with a scaled tail, beneath a branch where two striped snakes coil. Dragon and Serpent, Chico da Silva, 1973, acrylic on paper.
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Description for blind and low-vision visitors

A dragon with a purple, spike-crested head and an open jaw trailing red flame-like tendrils occupies the composition, its body scaled in red scallops that widen into a large circular tail densely patterned with orange medallions and dark dotwork. Brown clawed legs grip the golden-yellow ground. Above, a gnarled brown branch crosses the upper portion of the painting, where two striped snakes coil around the wood; one snake's head, rendered with a bird-like beak, reaches toward the branch tip. The upper background dissolves into soft, cloud-like brushwork in pale blue and pink.

Artist
Chico da Silva
Year
1973
Technique
Acrylic on paper mounted on hardboard
Support
Paper mounted on hardboard
Dimensions
70 x 100 cm
Motif
SnakesDragons
Collection
João Cunha Collection
Signature
FOZILVA, lower right (reversed D and S)
Photo
Eric Keki
Inventory no.
JCC-075
Article
Jean-Pierre Chabloz and the Discovery of Chico da Silva

The signature

Detail of the painted signature: «FOZILVA»
The canvas is signed “FOZILVA”, in the lower right corner. The D and the S are reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”.

Provenance

  1. Private collection
  2. Miguel Salles Escritório de Artes, dealer, 2024
  3. João Cunha Collection

How to credit

Photographs free to reuse, with credit (CC BY 4.0)

Chico da Silva, “Dragon and Serpent” (1973). Photo: Eric Keki, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-075

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

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