Bacon's painting is a distorted version of Diego Velasquez's 'Portrait of Innocent X'. The streaks I saw as light are supposedly drapes or curtains of some kind, however I prefer my interpretation as it makes for a more intriguing idea - why would a Pope be screaming in the presence of light? Unless the streaks are in fact, not light, but streaks of dark. I personally think that the notion the Pope has perhaps been corrupted, and now cannot bear to be in the presence of light is far more captivating. Bacon's trademark box in the painting adds to the Popes suffering, in that he's also trapped, and it also sort of looks like his chair/throne is fading away around him symbolising perhaps a loss of power.
Another point to think about is that the only feature of his face that is in focus is the screaming mouth. His eyes, nose etc. are all blurred out, and you'd think in a portrait showing pain that you'd want a lot of focus on the eyes. That way, you could empathise more with the subject and relate to them, but Bacon's intentional removal of those features could indicate that perhaps he doesn't want us to feel compassion for the subject, although I must say that I still find it hard to not pity him at all.
I chose this painting as it's the one that stood out to me the most. I think that there is so much material to draw on from within this piece that I could do a lot of different things with, meaning I would have a several paths to choose from with my soundscape.
The streaks of light shining through the painting, contrast strongly with the obvious torment of the Pope, and could symbolise multiple things such which I will explore when I do my soundscape.
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