JD introduces the eclectic work of a modern composer:
Mathias Duplessy is a French composer of film and TV soundtracks. He is also a musical explorer seeking out other musical traditions from around the world and adapting and fusing these into his own unique blend of music: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Duplessy
Duplessy & the violins of the world: "CRAZY HORSE"
Duplessy & Guo Gan: "LE VOL DU HERON"
Mukhtiyar Ali & Mathias Duplessy: "Tere ishq natchaya"
"Hélas mon cueur n'est pas à moy"
Duplessy & Aliocha Regnard: "The road to east"
Friday, September 16, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
The Parliamentary assault on democracy: a sneak preview of coming changes
The British people are inconvenient:
* They lobbied their MPs against the bombing of Syria, thus depriving Mr Cameron of his opportunity to follow Blair's example as condom for the US President's illicit sorties.
* They voted the wrong way in the EU Referendum.
* They persist in the delusion (shared by some of their representatives, e.g. Hons Dennis Skinner, Frank Field, David Davis) that Parliament is there to serve the common man and woman, as though the contemptible riff-raff had ever been intended to share in the rights secured by their betters under Magna Carta and the Glorious Revolution.
Now, thanks to unrestricted breeding and the extension of the franchise to men of all classes, women and children (some wish the voting age to be lowered to 16), each seat has 71,300 voters, and once 50 of the present 650 Commons seats have been abolished it will be some 77,250.
This is proceeding most satisfactorily. Already, the people must combine and it takes all of them, including the voice of the littlest Who, to be heard by Horton:
But it must be admitted. even that was an impertinence. As the Duke of Wellington remarked when cheered by his men at the Battle of Waterloo,"It comes dangerously close to an expression of opinion."
As so often, we can learn from the Bard:
A Gentleman informs me, that doing away with 1/13th of MPs is merely the first stage in the national plan. I can exclusively reveal several future developments:
1. Progressive reduction in Commons numbers to two, one for the Government and one for HM loyal Opposition. The draft constituency boundaries are illustrated on the map below.
2. In divisions, each of the two MPs' votes will be weighted according to the number of votes cast for them in the previous General Election. Votes of no confidence will be pointless, since the Government will have a permanent majority.
3. Initially, General Elections will continue on the basis of "one person, one vote". But since the seats roughly represent Wealth Creators and Parasites, the system will at some stage be altered to "one pound, one vote." The expected revenues raised in this way may enable the Government to abolish income tax altogether.
4. The House of Lords to be abolished; their Lordships will be granted automatic membership of the Groucho Club or an alternative London club of their choosing. They will continue to receive their allowances, which will help defray their expenses at the buttery and cellar of their club.
5. Parliament to remove to a UK central location and the Palace of Westminster sold to developers fainting with greed and gratitude.
Where should the new Parliament be sited? The centre of the UK's population is said to be Appleby Magna in Leicestershire; of England (the only country of any importance), Meriden in Solihull. Neither of these is suitable: where is the room for civil servants, policy wonks, paid liars, lobbyists, hairdressers, restaurateurs, mistresses, whores, rent-boys etc?
Fortunately, a planned high-rise building in Birmingham could provide the necessary space and access to exploitable human dross:
The top floor might accommodate both MPs and the Speaker, plus office retinue; upper floors could contain the other workers mentioned above; lower floors, the online and on-phone Customer Service Representatives who will perform the functions of the now-redundant constituency MPs' offices; security on the ground floor; and the army of spies where they belong, in the many-tiered basement levels, away from natural light and air.
The savings on taxis and ministerial cars will in themselves be sufficient to fund the move.
Far more efficient, and far less fuss.
* They lobbied their MPs against the bombing of Syria, thus depriving Mr Cameron of his opportunity to follow Blair's example as condom for the US President's illicit sorties.
* They voted the wrong way in the EU Referendum.
* They persist in the delusion (shared by some of their representatives, e.g. Hons Dennis Skinner, Frank Field, David Davis) that Parliament is there to serve the common man and woman, as though the contemptible riff-raff had ever been intended to share in the rights secured by their betters under Magna Carta and the Glorious Revolution.
Now, thanks to unrestricted breeding and the extension of the franchise to men of all classes, women and children (some wish the voting age to be lowered to 16), each seat has 71,300 voters, and once 50 of the present 650 Commons seats have been abolished it will be some 77,250.
This is proceeding most satisfactorily. Already, the people must combine and it takes all of them, including the voice of the littlest Who, to be heard by Horton:
 |
| Image adapted from http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/jh4kjh4.png |
But it must be admitted. even that was an impertinence. As the Duke of Wellington remarked when cheered by his men at the Battle of Waterloo,"It comes dangerously close to an expression of opinion."
As so often, we can learn from the Bard:
A Gentleman informs me, that doing away with 1/13th of MPs is merely the first stage in the national plan. I can exclusively reveal several future developments:
1. Progressive reduction in Commons numbers to two, one for the Government and one for HM loyal Opposition. The draft constituency boundaries are illustrated on the map below.
3. Initially, General Elections will continue on the basis of "one person, one vote". But since the seats roughly represent Wealth Creators and Parasites, the system will at some stage be altered to "one pound, one vote." The expected revenues raised in this way may enable the Government to abolish income tax altogether.
4. The House of Lords to be abolished; their Lordships will be granted automatic membership of the Groucho Club or an alternative London club of their choosing. They will continue to receive their allowances, which will help defray their expenses at the buttery and cellar of their club.
5. Parliament to remove to a UK central location and the Palace of Westminster sold to developers fainting with greed and gratitude.
Where should the new Parliament be sited? The centre of the UK's population is said to be Appleby Magna in Leicestershire; of England (the only country of any importance), Meriden in Solihull. Neither of these is suitable: where is the room for civil servants, policy wonks, paid liars, lobbyists, hairdressers, restaurateurs, mistresses, whores, rent-boys etc?
Fortunately, a planned high-rise building in Birmingham could provide the necessary space and access to exploitable human dross:
 |
| http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/business-news/plans-birminghams-tallest-office-building-9890130 |
The savings on taxis and ministerial cars will in themselves be sufficient to fund the move.
Far more efficient, and far less fuss.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Little-Known Facts 1: Laughter in Mesopotamia
One of the most popular features in the Sumerian equivalent of “Reader’s Digest” was a merry look at military life entitled “Humour in Cuneiform”. A sample is shown below:
The magazine throve because it was light reading - the monthly issue could be borne by a single yoke of oxen.
Ultimately it became a victim of its own success when the increased weight of advertising significantly diverted logistical resources during the Elamite siege of Ur, leading to the fall of the city, the abduction of King Ibbi-Sin and, of course, the slaughter or enslavement of its subscribers.
 |
| The text reads: "What's an Elamite urn?" - "Thirty karsha silver* a year." *(Regarded as a good wedge, in those days.) |
The magazine throve because it was light reading - the monthly issue could be borne by a single yoke of oxen.
Ultimately it became a victim of its own success when the increased weight of advertising significantly diverted logistical resources during the Elamite siege of Ur, leading to the fall of the city, the abduction of King Ibbi-Sin and, of course, the slaughter or enslavement of its subscribers.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Choose your battles
Never contend with a Man who has nothing to Lose; for thereby you enter into an unequal conflict. The other enters without anxiety; having lost everything, including shame, he has no further loss to fear.
Baltasar Gracian - The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
Why did Theresa May choose to resurrect the battle over grammar schools and selective education? She may feel strongly about it as many do, but the issue is controversial and Jeremy Corbyn should have no trouble making political capital from it.
Unfortunately for May, she has now engineered a situation where she must contend with a Man who has nothing to Lose.
Friday, September 09, 2016
Friday Night Is Music Night: A Night At The Operetta
JD serves up a tapas assortment of tunes:
Here is another selection of music which reminds me of my good old daze in Madrid :)
Many years ago there was a bar in Madrid who would have, every five or six weeks, a musical evening. There would be three or four singers plus a piano and they would belt out a few operatic arias and popular songs from Zarzuela which is a Spanish style of operetta similar to Gilbert & Sullivan. The bar was always packed with customers who enjoyed a splendid evening's entertainment. And in the early hours we would meander homewards full of joy and good cheer! I say meander because who walks in a straight line when they are happy? The bar is still there but under new ownership so I don't know if they still have musical evenings. I hope they do and here follows a sample of what we enjoyed on those splendidly convivial evenings.
This next one may look like "The Good Old Days" on BBC TV but the costumes worn on stage can be seen on the streets of Madrid during the Fiesta de San Isidro, 15th May every year (actually a nine day festival)
Here is another selection of music which reminds me of my good old daze in Madrid :)
Many years ago there was a bar in Madrid who would have, every five or six weeks, a musical evening. There would be three or four singers plus a piano and they would belt out a few operatic arias and popular songs from Zarzuela which is a Spanish style of operetta similar to Gilbert & Sullivan. The bar was always packed with customers who enjoyed a splendid evening's entertainment. And in the early hours we would meander homewards full of joy and good cheer! I say meander because who walks in a straight line when they are happy? The bar is still there but under new ownership so I don't know if they still have musical evenings. I hope they do and here follows a sample of what we enjoyed on those splendidly convivial evenings.
This next one may look like "The Good Old Days" on BBC TV but the costumes worn on stage can be seen on the streets of Madrid during the Fiesta de San Isidro, 15th May every year (actually a nine day festival)
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
ART: "Las Tres Gracias", by Alejandra Hernández
 |
| Source: http://www.gallerialaveronica.it/artworks/alejandra-hernandez-038-las-tres-gracias/#&gid=1&pid=1 Reproduced with the kind permission of the artist |
There are many things that attract and interest me about this painting, which I think is a masterpiece.
In the first place, it is women's nudity seen by a woman, and does not have that Peeping Tom feeling of so much conventional nude art, in which the models often seem to be irritated, resentful, uncomfortable. By contrast, I don't think there is much in men's art to match e.g. Zinaida Serebriakova's portraits of her daughters, clearly proud of them physically, in their entirety, and also full of love for them as her children and as extensions of that very confident, sexy and determined self that was apparent in her early dressing-table self-portrait. (3).
With Hernández's painting here, too, the figures are unembarrassed yet not showing off to a male eye. Not knowing at first the circumstances, I had the impression of flatmates in a hot climate, passing through the most enervating part of the day.
As Catherine Beaumont has observed to me, the girl at centre is not staring back at us directly, and this allows the eye to rove around the picture and explore the objects (the artist encouraged sitters to bring artefacts of personal significance with them). I love the innocent absorption on the face of the melodica player and she introduces another dimension - sound - which teases us to imagine what she may be playing and what the timbre might be like (and the puzzle of the grey fingers - a potter, perhaps?) I'm also drawn to the creature - a piranha? - with savage teeth; the fly-whisk; the rather young-child's toy at bottom right; the items on the wall; the studio light.
Then there are the different attitudes, again informal and demonstrating the unconsciously beautiful suppleness of the female body (I'm reminded of a favourite D H Lawrence word, "flexuous"). A series of meetings and conversations paved the way for the palpable atmosphere of relaxation and trust. There is clearly a sense of familiarity and engagement with their emotionally charged objects, with each other and the artist herself. In this nurturing one sees a parallel with Rubens' nude portrait of his young wife in a fur coat - her slight smile and shining eye said, as my wife noted, that she trusted him. (4)
There is humour in the extravagant, abandoned inversion of the girl on the left and its juxtaposition to the tensed concentration of the middle girl, while the one on the right is bored or patient, half-dreaming and with (if I see right) rather modern tattooed eyebrows. All are natural in their own way, but in a way not often seen in art, and merit the term Graces.
And the energizing colours! I love that milky blue, the sort of hue chosen to make you feel less oppressed by heat, yet contrasting with the sharp reds on the shawl and some of the other items.
The girls are self-possessedly adult and yet, because of the socks and some of the items they have chosen to accompany them, also still very young, a picture of transition, a group that will soon separate: I think of Larkin's trainful of people arriving at the final destination - "A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower / Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain." (4)
(1) Her site: http://alejandrahernandez.com/
(2) http://alejandrahernandez.com/gallery/art-o-rama-marseille-solo-show-with-galleria-laveronica/
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinaida_Serebriakova#/media/File:Serebryakova_SefPortrait.jpg
(4) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Het_pelsken_1636-1638.jpg
(5) "The Whitsun Weddings" - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/48411
Monday, September 05, 2016
Japan threatens Britain
"Brexit: Japan warns firms may move European HQ out of Britain" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37270372
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| http://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers/cover-256 |
Saturday, September 03, 2016
Globalism: The Final Conflict Looms
The EU is just a model village of globalism. Leaving the EU - not that we've done it yet - is only the very beginning, tough as that was.
"These three agreements solidify the creeping corporate coup d’état along with the final evisceration of national sovereignty. Citizens will be forced to give up control of their destiny and will be stripped of the ability to protect themselves from corporate predators, safeguard the ecosystem and find redress and justice in our now anemic and often dysfunctional democratic institutions. The agreements—filled with jargon, convoluted technical, trade and financial terms, legalese, fine print and obtuse phrasing—can be summed up in two words: corporate enslavement.
"The TPP removes legislative authority from Congress and the White House on a range of issues. Judicial power is often surrendered to three-person trade tribunals in which only corporations are permitted to sue. Workers, environmental and advocacy groups and labor unions are blocked from seeking redress in the proposed tribunals. The rights of corporations become sacrosanct. The rights of citizens are abolished."
Now comes the big fight, against TPP, TiSA, TTIP etc.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/09/the-most-brazen-corporate-power-grab-in-american-history.html
"The TPP removes legislative authority from Congress and the White House on a range of issues. Judicial power is often surrendered to three-person trade tribunals in which only corporations are permitted to sue. Workers, environmental and advocacy groups and labor unions are blocked from seeking redress in the proposed tribunals. The rights of corporations become sacrosanct. The rights of citizens are abolished."
Friday, September 02, 2016
Friday Night Is Music Night: A Good Night Innes
JD introduces the genius of Innes:
Some more music for your friday slot. This time it is Neil Innes; all good stuff :)
Often overlooked by the cognoscenti, Neil Innes is a very talented musician who contributed a great deal to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. He also provided the music for Rutland Weekend Television and then had his own TV series the Innes Book of Records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Innes
He did a song with the Bonzos called "can blue men sing the whites?" You may remember it. That set me thinking and I found quite a few 'blue' men and women who really can sing the 'whites' and so another music post was born for later :)
Sackerson adds a couple of bonus tracks: the first ("My pink half of the drainpipe") was featured yesterday on Bill Sticker, and the other one ("Cat meat conga") has given me a friendly wave in my head on and off for decades:
Some more music for your friday slot. This time it is Neil Innes; all good stuff :)
Often overlooked by the cognoscenti, Neil Innes is a very talented musician who contributed a great deal to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. He also provided the music for Rutland Weekend Television and then had his own TV series the Innes Book of Records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Innes
He did a song with the Bonzos called "can blue men sing the whites?" You may remember it. That set me thinking and I found quite a few 'blue' men and women who really can sing the 'whites' and so another music post was born for later :)
Sackerson adds a couple of bonus tracks: the first ("My pink half of the drainpipe") was featured yesterday on Bill Sticker, and the other one ("Cat meat conga") has given me a friendly wave in my head on and off for decades:
Thursday, September 01, 2016
A pint of Pol Roger please
From the Daily Telegraph we hear
One of the world’s oldest champagne makers is preparing to sell the fizzy drink in pint bottles – Winston Churchill's favourite measure – after Britain leaves the European Union, the Telegraph can disclose.
Pol Roger wants to sell champagne in imperial measures for the first time since 1973, when Britain’s decision to join the European Economic Community meant only metric measurements were allowed.
One of the world’s oldest champagne makers is preparing to sell the fizzy drink in pint bottles – Winston Churchill's favourite measure – after Britain leaves the European Union, the Telegraph can disclose.
Pol Roger wants to sell champagne in imperial measures for the first time since 1973, when Britain’s decision to join the European Economic Community meant only metric measurements were allowed.
Seems reasonable, but will it have a decent head on it?
Sunday, August 28, 2016
ART: JD on Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" (c. 1490-1510)
JD explores the mystery of Bosch's painting:
I found this on one of the BBC web pages about the painting "The garden of earthly delights" by Hieronymus Bosch: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160809-hidden-meanings-in-the-garden-of-earthly-delights
It is mainly about a musical notation painted on the posterior of a naked body in the right hand panel of the triptych. The music was transcribed in 2014 by Amelia Hamrick, a music student at Oklahoma Christian University. Here is the music (played by Jim Spalink):
The convention among art scholars and critics is that the three panels of the triptych are read from left to right as Paradise; this world; a vision of hell. The music is in the panel showing hell but it doesn't sound hellish to me... quite the opposite in fact. But there is another, choral version of the same music which sounds much darker:
I have stood or sat in front of that painting many times in the Prado and it is baffling and fascinating. So what do I know about it? Well, I know that Phillip II acquired the painting at auction in 1591. He also owned this painting by Bosch:
- which was used as a table top in his private rooms at El Escorial.
They are both now on display in The Prado.
What does it all mean? Well, nobody seems to know. The medieval mind inhabited a very different universe. There are many theories; alchemical references, biblical references, hermetic references as well as the idea that Bosch was on a 'psychedelic trip' because at that time a great deal of the bread was contaminated with the ergot fungus. LSD is distilled from ergot so eating such bread could possibly induce similar effects. I am not entirely convinced by that last one.
Alchemical? Lots of books devoted to the idea but Adam McLean is less than convinced:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bosch/alchemy.html
Christianity? Certainly Bosch was a devout Christian and the painting is believed to have been commissioned by Engelbrecht II of Nassau, in or shortly after 1481, when he attended the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, this Order being a Roman Catholic Order of Chivalry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece
Another link from the BBC page is to art critic Kelly Grovier who points to the existence of an egg at the centre of the painting:
"To find it, one’s eyes need merely draw an ‘X’ from the four corners of the work and an egg marks the spot, smack before us at the dead centre of the painting. Suddenly, the tempestuous vision collapses into a mystical vanishing point. Through the timeless symbol of the unhatched egg, Bosch offers us a way out of his troubled work: the hope of a birth that’s evermore about to be."
There are many instances of ostrich eggs hanging from the ceilings of cathedrals as well as in Mosques or Temples of other religions both east and west. There were still two hanging in Durham Cathedral as late as 1780.
The second painting mentioned above is called "The seven deadly sins" and is very explicitly Christian. It is painted in the form of an eye with the 'sins' arranged on the periphery. In the centre, in the pupil is a small painting showing Christ rising from the tomb. Around it are written the words 'Cave Cave Deus Videt' - "Take care, God is watching!" Note also the significance of placing Christ in the pupil of the eye. There are several Biblical references along those lines including Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8, Psalm 17:8, Proverbs 7:2.
Hermetic? Phillip and his two principal architects of the Escorial were very well versed in The Hermetica. The new palace of El Escorial was designed to be a replica of Solomon's temple so he and they would see something in the paintings which is now hidden to us with our different perceptions, education and experience.
It is worth pointing out that Phillip, like Bosch, was a devout Catholic but at that period people would not differentiate between Christianity and magic. Phillip's nemesis, Elizabeth of England, was of like mind. One of her most trusted advisors was the Magus John Dee.
I have been looking again at one of my books called "The Mercurian Monarch" and it occurred to me that this was an age when both Phillip of Spain and Elizabeth of England believed in the divine right of Kings as being very real. They believed in a divine succession through Adam, Moses and Solomon to themselves and thus had a direct connection to God which is why they felt able, even obliged, to defy ecclesiastical authority. (The king and queen on the chessboard rank higher than the bishops.)
The established Church itself was extremely hostile to any such heresy although looking at the Gothic Cathedrals or much of Renaissance art one wonders if such hostility was genuine.
I bought this book in the bookshop at El Escorial and it is extremely informative- https://www.amazon.com/Arquitectura-Magia-Biblioteca-Sumergida-Spanish/dp/8478441344 (Originally published in English but I have never seen an English version.) The book is dedicated to Rudolf Wittkower, which brings me to another book I have with the title "Allegory and the Migration of Symbols" by Wittkower: http://thamesandhudson.com/Allegory_and_the_Migration_of_Symbols/9780500274705
I looked through the last chapter "Interpretation of Visual Symbols" and it echoed the thoughts of Ernst Gombrich in his "Art and Illusion." What we see depends on perception and interpretation. Wittkower refers to the chronicles written by Marco Polo after his travels. He was widely denounced as a liar and a fantasist because those who read his stories had no concept of the things he described, they were unable to interpret his descriptions in any meaningful way because such descriptions were outwith their own experience. If you have never seen an elephant or a camel for example then you will regard a drawing of such as pure imagination or fantasy - or the product of a hallucination.
You might like to look at the illustrations from the "Livre des Merveilles", several of which are reproduced in Wittkower's book:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=livre+des+merveilles+du+monde&biw=1152&bih=611&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE8LvlmMHOAhWZOsAKHdQRAHYQ_AUIBigB
As you can see the landscapes are very stylised in the manner of Bosch and there are some very strange looking creatures in there too. Some of the images shown are of Marco Polo's book but, as the Wiki entry says, they should not be confused with Jean de Mandeville's book- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livre_des_merveilles_du_monde
There is also the way in which the accepted meaning of symbols changes over time. The most obvious example is the swastika which is a symbol of good fortune in Tibet and parts of India but is now a symbol of evil in the western world.
Another and probably more serious handicap in trying to interpret and understand the painting came with the invention by Brunelleschi of single point perspective in architectural drawings and in paintings. This changed painting forever and also altered how we now look at not just paintings but the world around us. Via photography, cinema and television we have been subtly and unintentionally brainwashed into looking without seeing. We see paintings now as if through a window, it is 'framed' and therefore we are some how set apart from the scene; peeping through a keyhole as it were.
Over the years a few painters tried to highlight the absurdity of perspective; Piranesi, Hogarth, Picasso and Escher among them. Velazquez turned it around with his painting "Las Meninas" and El Greco ignored it altogether. So it is now very difficult and almost impossible to 'see' the painting in the way that Bosch and his contemporaries saw it.
Your best guide to what it all means comes from the American painter Frank Stella who said "What you see is what you see." In other words it depends on your own perception and an interpretation based on your own experience of life which is where education becomes a handicap rather than a help - anything other than the orthodoxy of received wisdom is regarded as heresy.
Make of it all what you will but always remember the famous phrase from the Tao Te Ching: "Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know" (Lao Tzu). That includes me, so what I have written above should be taken with a grain of salt. Ignore any and all experts. The best way to understand anything, anything at all is to work it out for yourself. Start with your intuition and filter that through your reason and you will arrive at something approximating to the truth.
Note: There is currently in the Prado, Madrid an exhibition of the paintings of Bosch. It ends on 25th September. Go and see it if you can!
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/bosch-the-centenary-exhibition/f049c260-888a-4ff1-8911-b320f587324a
______________________________________________________________
References (other than those cited in the text):
1) "Architecture, Mysticism and Myth" by W.R. Lethaby, [1892] http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm03.htm
2) "the apple of his eye" http://biblehub.com/zechariah/2-8.htm
3) "Hermetica" - by Walter Scott (Translator) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hermetica-Trismegistus-Hermes/dp/0877733384
4) The Mercurian Monarch" by Douglas Brooks-Davies https://www.amazon.com/Mercurian-Monarch-Magical-Politics-Spencer/dp/0719009545
5) Symbolism in chess http://enchantedmind.com/html/creativity/techniques/creative_chess.html
6) "Art and Illusion" - by E H Gombrich https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Illusion-Psychology-Pictorial-Representation/dp/0714842087
7) Tao Te Ching http://taotechingdaily.com/tao-te-ching-chapter-56-essay/
8) "The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral" by Louis Charpentier https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysteries-Chartres-Cathedral-Louis-Charpentier/dp/0902103164
9) "That's the Way I see It" - by David Hockney https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-Way-See-David-Hockney/dp/0500280851
10)"The Object Stares Back" - by James Elkins https://www.amazon.co.uk/Object-Stares-Back-Nature-Seeing/dp/0684800950
 |
| By Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516) - Galería online, Museo del Prado., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45147809 |
It is mainly about a musical notation painted on the posterior of a naked body in the right hand panel of the triptych. The music was transcribed in 2014 by Amelia Hamrick, a music student at Oklahoma Christian University. Here is the music (played by Jim Spalink):
The convention among art scholars and critics is that the three panels of the triptych are read from left to right as Paradise; this world; a vision of hell. The music is in the panel showing hell but it doesn't sound hellish to me... quite the opposite in fact. But there is another, choral version of the same music which sounds much darker:
I have stood or sat in front of that painting many times in the Prado and it is baffling and fascinating. So what do I know about it? Well, I know that Phillip II acquired the painting at auction in 1591. He also owned this painting by Bosch:
 |
| By Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516) or follower - www.museodelprado.es : Home : Info : Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1170708 |
What does it all mean? Well, nobody seems to know. The medieval mind inhabited a very different universe. There are many theories; alchemical references, biblical references, hermetic references as well as the idea that Bosch was on a 'psychedelic trip' because at that time a great deal of the bread was contaminated with the ergot fungus. LSD is distilled from ergot so eating such bread could possibly induce similar effects. I am not entirely convinced by that last one.
Alchemical? Lots of books devoted to the idea but Adam McLean is less than convinced:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bosch/alchemy.html
Christianity? Certainly Bosch was a devout Christian and the painting is believed to have been commissioned by Engelbrecht II of Nassau, in or shortly after 1481, when he attended the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, this Order being a Roman Catholic Order of Chivalry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece
Another link from the BBC page is to art critic Kelly Grovier who points to the existence of an egg at the centre of the painting:
"To find it, one’s eyes need merely draw an ‘X’ from the four corners of the work and an egg marks the spot, smack before us at the dead centre of the painting. Suddenly, the tempestuous vision collapses into a mystical vanishing point. Through the timeless symbol of the unhatched egg, Bosch offers us a way out of his troubled work: the hope of a birth that’s evermore about to be."
There are many instances of ostrich eggs hanging from the ceilings of cathedrals as well as in Mosques or Temples of other religions both east and west. There were still two hanging in Durham Cathedral as late as 1780.
The second painting mentioned above is called "The seven deadly sins" and is very explicitly Christian. It is painted in the form of an eye with the 'sins' arranged on the periphery. In the centre, in the pupil is a small painting showing Christ rising from the tomb. Around it are written the words 'Cave Cave Deus Videt' - "Take care, God is watching!" Note also the significance of placing Christ in the pupil of the eye. There are several Biblical references along those lines including Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8, Psalm 17:8, Proverbs 7:2.
Hermetic? Phillip and his two principal architects of the Escorial were very well versed in The Hermetica. The new palace of El Escorial was designed to be a replica of Solomon's temple so he and they would see something in the paintings which is now hidden to us with our different perceptions, education and experience.
It is worth pointing out that Phillip, like Bosch, was a devout Catholic but at that period people would not differentiate between Christianity and magic. Phillip's nemesis, Elizabeth of England, was of like mind. One of her most trusted advisors was the Magus John Dee.
I have been looking again at one of my books called "The Mercurian Monarch" and it occurred to me that this was an age when both Phillip of Spain and Elizabeth of England believed in the divine right of Kings as being very real. They believed in a divine succession through Adam, Moses and Solomon to themselves and thus had a direct connection to God which is why they felt able, even obliged, to defy ecclesiastical authority. (The king and queen on the chessboard rank higher than the bishops.)
The established Church itself was extremely hostile to any such heresy although looking at the Gothic Cathedrals or much of Renaissance art one wonders if such hostility was genuine.
I bought this book in the bookshop at El Escorial and it is extremely informative- https://www.amazon.com/Arquitectura-Magia-Biblioteca-Sumergida-Spanish/dp/8478441344 (Originally published in English but I have never seen an English version.) The book is dedicated to Rudolf Wittkower, which brings me to another book I have with the title "Allegory and the Migration of Symbols" by Wittkower: http://thamesandhudson.com/Allegory_and_the_Migration_of_Symbols/9780500274705
I looked through the last chapter "Interpretation of Visual Symbols" and it echoed the thoughts of Ernst Gombrich in his "Art and Illusion." What we see depends on perception and interpretation. Wittkower refers to the chronicles written by Marco Polo after his travels. He was widely denounced as a liar and a fantasist because those who read his stories had no concept of the things he described, they were unable to interpret his descriptions in any meaningful way because such descriptions were outwith their own experience. If you have never seen an elephant or a camel for example then you will regard a drawing of such as pure imagination or fantasy - or the product of a hallucination.
You might like to look at the illustrations from the "Livre des Merveilles", several of which are reproduced in Wittkower's book:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=livre+des+merveilles+du+monde&biw=1152&bih=611&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE8LvlmMHOAhWZOsAKHdQRAHYQ_AUIBigB
As you can see the landscapes are very stylised in the manner of Bosch and there are some very strange looking creatures in there too. Some of the images shown are of Marco Polo's book but, as the Wiki entry says, they should not be confused with Jean de Mandeville's book- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livre_des_merveilles_du_monde
There is also the way in which the accepted meaning of symbols changes over time. The most obvious example is the swastika which is a symbol of good fortune in Tibet and parts of India but is now a symbol of evil in the western world.
Another and probably more serious handicap in trying to interpret and understand the painting came with the invention by Brunelleschi of single point perspective in architectural drawings and in paintings. This changed painting forever and also altered how we now look at not just paintings but the world around us. Via photography, cinema and television we have been subtly and unintentionally brainwashed into looking without seeing. We see paintings now as if through a window, it is 'framed' and therefore we are some how set apart from the scene; peeping through a keyhole as it were.
Over the years a few painters tried to highlight the absurdity of perspective; Piranesi, Hogarth, Picasso and Escher among them. Velazquez turned it around with his painting "Las Meninas" and El Greco ignored it altogether. So it is now very difficult and almost impossible to 'see' the painting in the way that Bosch and his contemporaries saw it.
Your best guide to what it all means comes from the American painter Frank Stella who said "What you see is what you see." In other words it depends on your own perception and an interpretation based on your own experience of life which is where education becomes a handicap rather than a help - anything other than the orthodoxy of received wisdom is regarded as heresy.
Make of it all what you will but always remember the famous phrase from the Tao Te Ching: "Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know" (Lao Tzu). That includes me, so what I have written above should be taken with a grain of salt. Ignore any and all experts. The best way to understand anything, anything at all is to work it out for yourself. Start with your intuition and filter that through your reason and you will arrive at something approximating to the truth.
Note: There is currently in the Prado, Madrid an exhibition of the paintings of Bosch. It ends on 25th September. Go and see it if you can!
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/bosch-the-centenary-exhibition/f049c260-888a-4ff1-8911-b320f587324a
______________________________________________________________
References (other than those cited in the text):
1) "Architecture, Mysticism and Myth" by W.R. Lethaby, [1892] http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm03.htm
2) "the apple of his eye" http://biblehub.com/zechariah/2-8.htm
3) "Hermetica" - by Walter Scott (Translator) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hermetica-Trismegistus-Hermes/dp/0877733384
4) The Mercurian Monarch" by Douglas Brooks-Davies https://www.amazon.com/Mercurian-Monarch-Magical-Politics-Spencer/dp/0719009545
5) Symbolism in chess http://enchantedmind.com/html/creativity/techniques/creative_chess.html
6) "Art and Illusion" - by E H Gombrich https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Illusion-Psychology-Pictorial-Representation/dp/0714842087
7) Tao Te Ching http://taotechingdaily.com/tao-te-ching-chapter-56-essay/
8) "The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral" by Louis Charpentier https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysteries-Chartres-Cathedral-Louis-Charpentier/dp/0902103164
9) "That's the Way I see It" - by David Hockney https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-Way-See-David-Hockney/dp/0500280851
10)"The Object Stares Back" - by James Elkins https://www.amazon.co.uk/Object-Stares-Back-Nature-Seeing/dp/0684800950
Friday, August 26, 2016
Friday Night Is Music Night: The McGarrigles
A feast from JD:
Sackerson adds: The penultimate one makes my skin prickle - perhaps because of the harmonies of the sisters' voices as much as for the hymnal melancholy. But the LP I played until the grooves were pretty much worn through was "French Record" - the sequence on YouTube begins with this one:
Sackerson adds: The penultimate one makes my skin prickle - perhaps because of the harmonies of the sisters' voices as much as for the hymnal melancholy. But the LP I played until the grooves were pretty much worn through was "French Record" - the sequence on YouTube begins with this one:
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Who’s Queen Of The Castle? Chelsea Clinton Accepts Democratic Party Nomination
 |
| Pic source: http://gizmodo.com/chelsea-clinton-offers-her-mother-adorable-internet-adv-1785615174 |
As multiple controversies continue to swirl around her mother despite the partisanship of most mainstream news media and Google’s search-engine-tweaking, Chelsea Clinton today stepped forward into the limelight and accepted the emergency renomination in her favour by the Democratic Party.
“This not only reaffirms the established hereditary principle in US politics,” commented a senior campaign official, “but it also recasts Donald Trump as the ‘dirty rascal’, if you know the old children’s game. I don’t see how that oaf can recover from this.”
A visibly distressed Trump has been urgently consulting with his lawyers on the application of the Salic Law to the American Presidency.
Friday, August 19, 2016
Friday Night Is Music Night: The Dance Of Creation
JD celebrates:
Your musical offering for this week is a personal one as I reflect on things 'from this high hill of my old age' :)
The music of my youth, the music of my old age, the music of my soul: "I hear it in the deep heart's core."
;
;
;
"Nos cojimos de la mano, como los Druidas de Bretaña y Le pedimos a Dios o a los Dioses que esa danza de la felicidad. En la que estabamos immersos no terminase nunca en aquella fiesta final. Todos soplamos juntos por la pipa de la paz, De las Culturas y del Amor."- Carlos Nuñez *
Six this time - it could have been 600 or 6000! :)
____________________________________
* "Let us join hands like the Druids of Britain and ask God or the gods for the dance of happiness. The crowning celebration in which we are immersed shall never end. Together let us all smoke the pipe of peace, culture and love."
Your musical offering for this week is a personal one as I reflect on things 'from this high hill of my old age' :)
The music of my youth, the music of my old age, the music of my soul: "I hear it in the deep heart's core."
;
;
;
"Nos cojimos de la mano, como los Druidas de Bretaña y Le pedimos a Dios o a los Dioses que esa danza de la felicidad. En la que estabamos immersos no terminase nunca en aquella fiesta final. Todos soplamos juntos por la pipa de la paz, De las Culturas y del Amor."- Carlos Nuñez *
Six this time - it could have been 600 or 6000! :)
____________________________________
* "Let us join hands like the Druids of Britain and ask God or the gods for the dance of happiness. The crowning celebration in which we are immersed shall never end. Together let us all smoke the pipe of peace, culture and love."
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Smoking: could genetic testing help smokers' cause?
Genetic research holds out the hope that health advice and public policy could be targeted more precisely. The risks of smoking are not "one size fits all."
"Family, twin, and adoption studies also convincingly demonstrate a substantial genetic contribution to the development of addiction to nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drugs. Heritability estimates for nicotine, alcohol, and drug addiction are in the range of 50% to 60%." (1)
If this is so, then theoretically people could be genetically tested for their vulnerability to substance addiction and advised accordingly. And the others could continue in their habit, moderately reassured that they could stop if they so chose.
Testing might also help with more precise information about health risks. A longitudinal study of male British doctors (2) suggests that the average reduction in life expectancy is 10 years, but "that is not to say that all such smokers died about 10 years earlier than they would otherwise have done: some were not killed by their habit, but about half were, thereby losing on average more than 10 years of non-smoker life expectancy. Indeed, some of those killed by tobacco must have lost a few decades of life." It may be possible to identify the ones who are most at risk of dying in their middle years.
The same study also suggests that smoking for a few years may not be significantly life-threatening. For those in the 25-34 age group - where smoking prevalence is highest (3) - if they give up during this time, their life expectancy is almost exactly the same as for never-smokers:
If potential smokers could be forewarned of their likelihood of developing an addiction, and of their chances of dying very early from diseases associated with the habit, then the life expectancy gap might be narrowed without blanket bans.
Those who went ahead despite personalised warnings would at least be doing so on the basis of better information - and that then becomes a liberty issue, like hang-gliding (and cycling, the most dangerous form of transport).*
_________________________________
(1) "Genetic Vulnerability and Susceptibility to Substance Dependence" L.J. Bierut, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, February 2012 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095110/
(2) "Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years' observations on male British doctors" Doll, Peto & Boreham, BMJ, May 2004 - http://www.bmj.com/content/328/7455/1519
(3) ASH "Facts at a glance", June 2016 - http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_93.pdf
*I was wrong, I'm afraid. Motorcycling is worse: 1,789 KSI (killed or seriously injured) per billion vehicle miles vs. 1,036 for pedal cycles. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447674/pedal-cyclists-2013-data.pdf
I'm disappointed - I wanted something to get back at the Puritans of the road.
"Family, twin, and adoption studies also convincingly demonstrate a substantial genetic contribution to the development of addiction to nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drugs. Heritability estimates for nicotine, alcohol, and drug addiction are in the range of 50% to 60%." (1)
If this is so, then theoretically people could be genetically tested for their vulnerability to substance addiction and advised accordingly. And the others could continue in their habit, moderately reassured that they could stop if they so chose.
Testing might also help with more precise information about health risks. A longitudinal study of male British doctors (2) suggests that the average reduction in life expectancy is 10 years, but "that is not to say that all such smokers died about 10 years earlier than they would otherwise have done: some were not killed by their habit, but about half were, thereby losing on average more than 10 years of non-smoker life expectancy. Indeed, some of those killed by tobacco must have lost a few decades of life." It may be possible to identify the ones who are most at risk of dying in their middle years.
The same study also suggests that smoking for a few years may not be significantly life-threatening. For those in the 25-34 age group - where smoking prevalence is highest (3) - if they give up during this time, their life expectancy is almost exactly the same as for never-smokers:
 |
| "Mortality in relation to smoking", etc. - Fig. 4 (selected area) |
Those who went ahead despite personalised warnings would at least be doing so on the basis of better information - and that then becomes a liberty issue, like hang-gliding (and cycling, the most dangerous form of transport).*
_________________________________
(1) "Genetic Vulnerability and Susceptibility to Substance Dependence" L.J. Bierut, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, February 2012 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095110/
(2) "Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years' observations on male British doctors" Doll, Peto & Boreham, BMJ, May 2004 - http://www.bmj.com/content/328/7455/1519
(3) ASH "Facts at a glance", June 2016 - http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_93.pdf
*I was wrong, I'm afraid. Motorcycling is worse: 1,789 KSI (killed or seriously injured) per billion vehicle miles vs. 1,036 for pedal cycles. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447674/pedal-cyclists-2013-data.pdf
I'm disappointed - I wanted something to get back at the Puritans of the road.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Gaming Democracy
As a girl, Mother was a great reader. She would go to the glass-fronted book cabinet in the cigar-scented study and feel behind the rows for the good stuff father had hidden there, such as Madame Bovary: every system can be gamed.
She would also spend a lot of time in the school library. However, one day, she entered to find big gaps in the shelves: without warning, all the Jewish and socialist writers had been removed. The new government was cleansing the librosphere of ideological pollution: nothing was to seduce impressionable minds away from socially-agreed norms. This was, after all, the clean and progressive East Prussia of the 1930s.
Half a lifetime later, a classical student was in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, researching an incident in the Peloponnesian War. The index occupied a room on its own, full of massive volumes with pasted-in entries giving descriptions and locations of the millions of items. You felt you had arrived as a scholar, just lifting one of these, thumping it on the lectern and turning the crowded pages. Now, where was a map of the ancient harbour at Lesbos? Ah, here, coded with a Greek φ. He filled in the order slip, but was told he would have to wait for the senior librarian to come back from lunch. The time came, and my friend was taken to another room. There was the large brown envelope; the librarian snipped the corner and slid out the contents – “Lesbos: twelve unretouched photographs of lesbian love.” So that’s what the phi was for. Still, it was a publication, so it was stored, and could be consulted on request. That was liberalism in action.
Today, while Crown copyright libraries continue to grow like Topsy, ordinary public libraries are closing and selling off or throwing away their stock - but we have the Internet, accessible at all times. It is so great that more than ever, we need a librarian to guide us through its virtual stacks. But there is no leather-bound index; instead, we have search engines, chiefly Google.
Now, there is no need to destroy information: the trusted guide can bury it like a needle in a near-infinite haystack. In our world that is so very unlike “1984” (or so we are told) the hidden persuaders could – perhaps do - operate by deliberately bringing us envelopes that we didn’t quite ask for.
Twelve months ago, the former editor-in-chief of “Psychology Today” Dr Robert Epstein described a series of experiments in which people were significantly influenced in their political decisions on the basis of surreptitious manipulation of Internet search results. (1) Even with candidates well-known to the sample groups, voting could be swayed by “20% or more.” In a follow-up article last February he says, “we now estimate that Hannon’s old friends [i.e. Google] have the power to drive between 2.6 and 10.4 million votes to Clinton on election day with no one knowing that this is occurring and without leaving a paper trail.” (2) Yesterday, Pamela Geller wrote a piece relaying and developing Julian Assange’s allegation that one way or another, Google is working on behalf of one of the Presidential candidates and against the other. (3)
At this point I must emphasise that I am not American and not only cannot vote for either Trump or Clinton, but should be extremely perplexed if I could.
The point is, every system can be gamed. There is no need to burn material if you can hide it in some rarely-visited and unsignposted corner of the Web; there is no need to disappear dissidents if you can shut off their means of communication (imagine if Milo Yiannopoulos had no other outlet than Twitter); for every person moved by attending one of Trump’s mountebank presentations, there must be thousands making up their minds from their private, yet thoroughly-monitored and interactively-tweaked Internet searches.
The socialists have it all wrong. Great power comes not from owning the means of production but, as Rockefeller showed, from controlling its distribution. Social media and search engines are part of the modern Fourth Estate, the gatekeepers and guides of public information. If they cannot be impartial, democracy faces an existential threat from its persuaders.
Remember what happened when Athens listened to Demosthenes.
UPDATE (27 August 2016): Heads have rolled -
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/08/27/entire-facebook-trending-news-team-fired-following-breitbart-coverage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
(1) http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4512.full
(2) https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts
(3) http://pamelageller.com/2016/08/julian-assange-google-works-with-hillary-clinton.html/ _______________________________________________________________
This post appeared previously on Talkmarkets:
http://www.talkmarkets.com/contributor/rolfnorfolk/blog/gaming-democracy?post=103515
She would also spend a lot of time in the school library. However, one day, she entered to find big gaps in the shelves: without warning, all the Jewish and socialist writers had been removed. The new government was cleansing the librosphere of ideological pollution: nothing was to seduce impressionable minds away from socially-agreed norms. This was, after all, the clean and progressive East Prussia of the 1930s.
Half a lifetime later, a classical student was in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, researching an incident in the Peloponnesian War. The index occupied a room on its own, full of massive volumes with pasted-in entries giving descriptions and locations of the millions of items. You felt you had arrived as a scholar, just lifting one of these, thumping it on the lectern and turning the crowded pages. Now, where was a map of the ancient harbour at Lesbos? Ah, here, coded with a Greek φ. He filled in the order slip, but was told he would have to wait for the senior librarian to come back from lunch. The time came, and my friend was taken to another room. There was the large brown envelope; the librarian snipped the corner and slid out the contents – “Lesbos: twelve unretouched photographs of lesbian love.” So that’s what the phi was for. Still, it was a publication, so it was stored, and could be consulted on request. That was liberalism in action.
Today, while Crown copyright libraries continue to grow like Topsy, ordinary public libraries are closing and selling off or throwing away their stock - but we have the Internet, accessible at all times. It is so great that more than ever, we need a librarian to guide us through its virtual stacks. But there is no leather-bound index; instead, we have search engines, chiefly Google.
Now, there is no need to destroy information: the trusted guide can bury it like a needle in a near-infinite haystack. In our world that is so very unlike “1984” (or so we are told) the hidden persuaders could – perhaps do - operate by deliberately bringing us envelopes that we didn’t quite ask for.
Twelve months ago, the former editor-in-chief of “Psychology Today” Dr Robert Epstein described a series of experiments in which people were significantly influenced in their political decisions on the basis of surreptitious manipulation of Internet search results. (1) Even with candidates well-known to the sample groups, voting could be swayed by “20% or more.” In a follow-up article last February he says, “we now estimate that Hannon’s old friends [i.e. Google] have the power to drive between 2.6 and 10.4 million votes to Clinton on election day with no one knowing that this is occurring and without leaving a paper trail.” (2) Yesterday, Pamela Geller wrote a piece relaying and developing Julian Assange’s allegation that one way or another, Google is working on behalf of one of the Presidential candidates and against the other. (3)
At this point I must emphasise that I am not American and not only cannot vote for either Trump or Clinton, but should be extremely perplexed if I could.
The point is, every system can be gamed. There is no need to burn material if you can hide it in some rarely-visited and unsignposted corner of the Web; there is no need to disappear dissidents if you can shut off their means of communication (imagine if Milo Yiannopoulos had no other outlet than Twitter); for every person moved by attending one of Trump’s mountebank presentations, there must be thousands making up their minds from their private, yet thoroughly-monitored and interactively-tweaked Internet searches.
The socialists have it all wrong. Great power comes not from owning the means of production but, as Rockefeller showed, from controlling its distribution. Social media and search engines are part of the modern Fourth Estate, the gatekeepers and guides of public information. If they cannot be impartial, democracy faces an existential threat from its persuaders.
Remember what happened when Athens listened to Demosthenes.
UPDATE (27 August 2016): Heads have rolled -
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/08/27/entire-facebook-trending-news-team-fired-following-breitbart-coverage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+breitbart+%28Breitbart+News%29
(1) http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4512.full
(2) https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts
(3) http://pamelageller.com/2016/08/julian-assange-google-works-with-hillary-clinton.html/ _______________________________________________________________
This post appeared previously on Talkmarkets:
http://www.talkmarkets.com/contributor/rolfnorfolk/blog/gaming-democracy?post=103515
A painter on a painting: ‘Girl with a Kitten’ by Lucian Freud
Artist Catherine Beaumont looks at Lucian Freud's 1947 "Girl With A Kitten":
‘Girl with a Kitten’ by Lucian Freud, is to me as an artist, a very fascinating painting. It is a portrait of the artist’s first wife, Kitty Garman, who was the daughter of famous sculptor Jacob Epstein. Freud painted her in 1947, a year before their tempestuous marriage. The painter’s future wife is cloaked under the anonymous title, ‘Girl with a Kitten’, highlighting that this is a double portrait, equally of the ‘girl’ and of the young kitten who is clasped strangely by the neck.
The enigmatic pair are painted in muted, ashen colours, a myriad of dove greys and soft blues, set against the dark swathes of Garman’s mahogany hair, which seem frayed and static from the intensity of the painter’s gaze. The colours are a precursor of Freud’s later impasto flesh tones that would become so acclaimed, yet in this painting they appear restrained like the tight grip of the sitter on the kitten’s neck.
What so thrills me about this painting, as an artist and as a curious human being, is how impenetrable this portrait is. Freud structures the portrait with a three quarter profile of his future wife, with her gaze averted, making her inaccessible, yet he places the kitten staring directly out of the centre of the canvas. With such a direct gaze, it makes me feel that the kitten is more than just a passive addition to the painting, but an emblem of Kitty Garman herself. However, this is surprising as it is so unlike Freud to use symbols in his work, claiming that his ideal in art is to appear ‘in his work no more than God in nature’. But why is the kitten’s gaze so direct and unblinking? Why does it stare with such intensity at the viewer? To me it seems that the kitten plays with the sitter’s name, linking ‘kitten’ with ‘Kitty’, giving the anonymous ‘girl’ an identity and pairing their feline eyes and heart shaped faces.
If this is so, it would make me feel that it tells us more about Garman and Freud’s relationship. In the painting, the girl seems absent, with a look of almost horror in her eyes. She is distant from her grip on the kitten, which makes me wonder if this grasp reflects not herself but the artist’s grip on her, his ‘Kitty’, as her future husband. The look of tension in her eyes makes me think of ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning – “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall”… I feel that Garman becomes a possession of the artist, as in the Duke’s ruthless collection, to be collected with many other women that he would love and paint. In this piece, it seems to me that it captures Garman’s dawning realisation of her partner’s turbulent nature, suspending perfectly this line - ‘Then all smiles stopped together’…
On the other hand, on closer inspection you can see that Garman’s eyes are painted in startling hazel green, whereas the kitten’s eyes are a lucid pale blue, which more closely resemble Freud’s eyes.
Perhaps then, the captured kitten is not Kitty Garman at all, but represents how Freud felt trapped and suffocated by this serious, pre-marital relationship.
 |
Image: Tate - http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T12/T12617_10.jpg |
‘Girl with a Kitten’ by Lucian Freud, is to me as an artist, a very fascinating painting. It is a portrait of the artist’s first wife, Kitty Garman, who was the daughter of famous sculptor Jacob Epstein. Freud painted her in 1947, a year before their tempestuous marriage. The painter’s future wife is cloaked under the anonymous title, ‘Girl with a Kitten’, highlighting that this is a double portrait, equally of the ‘girl’ and of the young kitten who is clasped strangely by the neck.
The enigmatic pair are painted in muted, ashen colours, a myriad of dove greys and soft blues, set against the dark swathes of Garman’s mahogany hair, which seem frayed and static from the intensity of the painter’s gaze. The colours are a precursor of Freud’s later impasto flesh tones that would become so acclaimed, yet in this painting they appear restrained like the tight grip of the sitter on the kitten’s neck.
What so thrills me about this painting, as an artist and as a curious human being, is how impenetrable this portrait is. Freud structures the portrait with a three quarter profile of his future wife, with her gaze averted, making her inaccessible, yet he places the kitten staring directly out of the centre of the canvas. With such a direct gaze, it makes me feel that the kitten is more than just a passive addition to the painting, but an emblem of Kitty Garman herself. However, this is surprising as it is so unlike Freud to use symbols in his work, claiming that his ideal in art is to appear ‘in his work no more than God in nature’. But why is the kitten’s gaze so direct and unblinking? Why does it stare with such intensity at the viewer? To me it seems that the kitten plays with the sitter’s name, linking ‘kitten’ with ‘Kitty’, giving the anonymous ‘girl’ an identity and pairing their feline eyes and heart shaped faces.
If this is so, it would make me feel that it tells us more about Garman and Freud’s relationship. In the painting, the girl seems absent, with a look of almost horror in her eyes. She is distant from her grip on the kitten, which makes me wonder if this grasp reflects not herself but the artist’s grip on her, his ‘Kitty’, as her future husband. The look of tension in her eyes makes me think of ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning – “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall”… I feel that Garman becomes a possession of the artist, as in the Duke’s ruthless collection, to be collected with many other women that he would love and paint. In this piece, it seems to me that it captures Garman’s dawning realisation of her partner’s turbulent nature, suspending perfectly this line - ‘Then all smiles stopped together’…
On the other hand, on closer inspection you can see that Garman’s eyes are painted in startling hazel green, whereas the kitten’s eyes are a lucid pale blue, which more closely resemble Freud’s eyes.
 |
| Source image for second detail: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/freud-man-with-a-thistle-self-portrait-t00422 |
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