Velázquez paints her as an angel of empire; the nose might have told a different story. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ… and to the other the savour of death unto death.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 Few things are so deceptive in art as cleanliness. And few things so tragic in … Continue reading The Scent of Empire: On the Case of Princess Margaret Teresa
Tag: art
Ectoplasm and Ego: Reflections on Coward’s Blithe Spirit
Few things are more infuriating than being interrupted at dinner by a ghost. I say this not from experience - at least, not in the spectral sense - but because I’ve spent a good portion of my life watching Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit with the growing suspicion that I, too, may one day be haunted … Continue reading Ectoplasm and Ego: Reflections on Coward’s Blithe Spirit
Bearing the Broken: Van Gogh’s Good Samaritan and the Art of Endurance
Art imitates life, or so I’m told, but in The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh, life doesn’t just inspire the art - it bleeds into it. You can feel the strain in every brushstroke. This isn’t a tranquil tale of neighbourly virtue. This is what compassion looks like after the cameras stop rolling. After … Continue reading Bearing the Broken: Van Gogh’s Good Samaritan and the Art of Endurance
Stairway to Heaven and the Tunnel of Light: A Reflection on Bosch’s ‘Ascent of the Blessed’
Detail High time I talked about another piece of art. So… I’ve long maintained that heaven, if it exists, is probably not a harp-saturated cloudbank filled with recycled hymn lyrics and relatives you were secretly relieved had passed on. But then I stumbled - quite willingly - into Ascent of the Blessed, one of Bosch’s … Continue reading Stairway to Heaven and the Tunnel of Light: A Reflection on Bosch’s ‘Ascent of the Blessed’
“People Ruin Beautiful Things”: On Gibran, Secrecy, and the Sacred Art of Keeping Quiet
“Travel and tell no one, Live a true love story and tell no one, Live happily and tell no one - People ruin beautiful things.” They say Kahlil Gibran wrote that, and perhaps he did. Then again, the internet says many things: that Einstein married Marilyn Monroe, that Churchill coined every popular meme, and that … Continue reading “People Ruin Beautiful Things”: On Gibran, Secrecy, and the Sacred Art of Keeping Quiet
Wording 