Francis Bacon

Bacon vs Velazquez vs Eisenstein. it was a film [The Battleship Potemkin] i saw almost before i started to paint, adn it deeply impressed  me - i mean the whole film as well the odessa steps sequence and this shot. I did hope at one time to make- it hasn't got any special psychological significance - i did hope one day to make the best painting of the human cry. I was not able to do and it's much better in the Eisenstein and there is. I think probably the best human cry in painting was made by Poussin... (from Interview with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester)

Bacon vs Velazquez vs H.R. Giger. Giger readily admits he was influenced by another artist. “It was Francis Bacon’s work that gave me the inspiration,” Giger said, “Of how this thing would come tearing out of the man’s flesh with its gaping mouth, grasping and with an explosion of teeth … it’s pure Bacon.”