I was in mourning yesterday because I had to take my laptop into the fix-it guys at my ISP to see if they could de-virus it, so I didn't write and didn't post. But I forced myself back to my desk this morning and wrote. Just to warn you, this is not my best writing, not even close, but it is writing and that's good.
July 15--Lucas Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve. Oh, the temptation of that soft hand filled with the red orb, forbidden but so alluring. In her ear the hissing words, "soft and sweet" and "why not have it all," that swelled in her mind making so much sense. Both of them have the first inklings of shame with a leaf or a hand over their genitals. She's drawing into herself, curling in remorse at her sin. You see that they argue about it, about no one knowing if they just nibble at the fruit. He wants to, she wants to, the serpent smiles at his success. In the next frame, if it were there, the black wind comes to blow them out of Paradise, to debase them, cast them out to struggle alone. Can't you feel it coming?
There are possibilities here, but it seems mostly an exercise in observation and projection.
July 16--Dominico Ghirlandaio, The Visitation. How did he do it? How did the artist make it look like fabric you can see through? All of the fabric in this painting looks real, as if you could reach out and touch it, but the sheer fabric of the mantles and the shimmering gold of the halos over the women's heads is amazing. The colors are so vibrant it's like it was just painted yesterday instead of nearly 600 years ago. Do you think the women on each side are supposed to be angels? If so, the one on the left has some explaining to do, she's pregnant. I heard that artists put their families or the families of their patrons in the scene. Maybe the pregnant angel is is wife or his mistress. that would be a great little secret, wouldn't it? Titillating.
Eh.
Later, dudes.
--Barbara
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