location; Christ on the cross flanked by two crucified criminals. However, Bacon often intends his triptych works to be read as three separate scenes, not linked by temporal or spatial continuity. In this work, the subjects of the three separate canvases do not seem to interact or interrelate, but they are shown with similar simple backgrounds: an orange floor joining a curved red wall which is pierced by black openings. Here, the left panel appears to show two figures in a butcher's shop with joints of meat on the counter. The centre panel is occupied by a bloodied human body writhing on a bed, with a white dot on the foot possibly a nail scar. The crucifixion is moved from its traditional place in the centre panel to the third panel, where a figure reimagined as a gutted carcass that is sliding down a cross in the right panel; its contorted form is a reference (but inverted) to Christ's body in Cimabue's 13th-century Crucifix and is also influenced by Rembrandt's Side of Beef. Bacon later commented, "one has got to remember as a painter that there is this great beauty of the colour of meat … we are meat, we are potential carcasses". Michael Peppiatt's alternative interpretation is that Bacon's vehement denial of any auto-biographical story in this work as an indication of quite the opposite; Peppiatt suggests the three panels relate to Bacon leaving home, an unsatisfactory sexual experiences in Berlin, and the death of Bacon himself. Notes References Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Crucifixion, Guggenheim Museum, New York "Francis Bacon: From Picasso to Velázquez", Guggenheim Bilbao, 30 September 2016 - 8 January 2017 The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections, Robert Penn Warren, p. 182-187 Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure, Kent Brintnall, p. 140-151 Francis Bacon in the 1950s, Michael Peppiatt, p. 61 1962 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Modern paintings Triptychs Paintings by Francis Bacon