Innocenti's Shark

The Innocenti drawing again plays with ideas of perspective and uses the frame to its full capacity. The monster emerges from the sea is quite thin compared to the head which is attacking Pinocchio. The monster grows in size as it attacks (similar to the tiger in the  Dali painting "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee”) to surprise the audience into not fully understanding how far away is the end of the shark from its head, adding to the uncanny quality of the beast.  The monster is quite mobile (and hence different from the other few drawings) It has the same indifferent quality about its face (apart from the Disney drawing). It is another “hybrid” – not because it looks like anything but a shark but it looks like the Megaladon Chalcadon, an enormous beast from an ancient past, bringing about the “ancient” quality of the monster. It is as if the monster has always existed to pose a threat to humanity.

Back