Earlier I mentioned Telesphoros in the two 1921 Three Musicians, in the 1925 Studio with Plaster Head and the 1937 Guernica.

Telesphoros* is also in an unauthenticated Picasso work titled Picasso’s Unknown Masterpiece.

The title Picasso’s Unknown Masterpiece was assigned by the owner Mark Harris who discovered the work in 1991. Picasso’s Unknown Masterpiece is a 1934 ink drawing with gouache.

The Picasso Estate, despite Mark Harris’s requests, has not authenticated the work as by Picasso. Under French Law the Picasso Estate has sole authority to authenticate newly discovered previously unknown works thought to be by Picasso. Thus, for a newly discovered work the French Law acts as a brick wall which can be breached only by heirs to the Picasso estate.

Like Guernica the 1934 drawing has many hidden images.

Hidden at center is Telesphoros** in his monk-like robe with pointed Capuchin-like hood. Telesphoros’s black tablet, at center in Guernica, is also at center in the 1934 drawing. Telesphoros’s scroll is unfurled in front of him and seems to be held by the woman on the right who has been identified in one role as Isis***. This is Isis in her underworld role. As always in Picasso’s work when we find Telesphoros we find him in the underworld.

*See Illustration L1, page 122, Epilogue II, June 6, 1994, to Picasso’s Guernica – Images within Images, 1987. The illustration is titled “Mithras”, but it is also Telesphoros.
**See my page 157, Epilogue XVII, July 2, 1998, to Picasso’s Guernica – Images within Images, 1987.
***See pages 13 and 15, The Discovery of Picasso’s Unknown Masterpiece, A Preliminary Report, 1993, by Mark Harris. Harris identifies Isis with an overlapping Devil profile. This leaves no doubt that this 1934 drawing depicts an underworld scene.

Telesphoros and Asklepios sources:
De Telesphore au {{moine bourru}} Dieux, genies et demons encapuchonnes, W. Deona, 1955.
Asklepios, C. Kerenyi, 1959.
Mythology and Humanism – The Correspondence of Thomas Mann and Karl Kerenyi, translated by Alexander Gelley, 1975.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C. G. Jung, 1965
Essays on a Science of Mythology, C. G. Jung and C. Kerenyi, 1949, 1959, 1963.

Melvin E. Becraft, author, date and copyright April 18, 2004.
email: mbecraft34@aol.com or mbecraft24@yahoo.com