Francisco de Goya, Time and the Old Women, c. 1810–1820. Public domain. Francisco de Goya painted this nightmare somewhere between 1810 and 1820, during those black years when he’d gone deaf, half-mad, and wholly honest. The result is Time and the Old Women - a canvas in which social comedy collapses into a danse macabre. … Continue reading Time and the Old Women: Vanity with a Skeleton’s Smile
Tag: Writing
The Misery: Whispering Ghosts and the Pistol on the Table
Adolf Werner (1862–1916), The Misery, c. 1900. Public domain. Some paintings merely decorate a wall, and some paintings accuse you from the other side of the room. Adolf Werner’s The Misery (c. 1900) is firmly in the second category. It doesn't flatter the parlour, nor charm the eye with pastoral pleasantries. It leans forward, ghost on shoulder, and … Continue reading The Misery: Whispering Ghosts and the Pistol on the Table
The Vatican Cellars: Or, How to Build a Cathedral on Quick Sand
André Gide, that sly archbishop of paradox, published The Vatican Cellars in 1914 - the very year Europe began dismantling its cathedrals with artillery fire. It’s a book that calls itself a ‘sotie’ - a medieval farce performed by jesters in cap and bells - which is Gide’s way of saying, ‘This is a joke, … Continue reading The Vatican Cellars: Or, How to Build a Cathedral on Quick Sand
Down Below: Leonora Carrington’s Descent into the Furnace of the Mind
Leonora Carrington didn’t so much write a memoir as vomit out an apocalypse. Down Below isn’t autobiography in the polite sense, with polite sentences arranged like cutlery for an afternoon tea. It is, rather, the table turned over, the crockery smashed, and the cutlery embedded in the wallpaper. This slim, feverish account of her psychotic … Continue reading Down Below: Leonora Carrington’s Descent into the Furnace of the Mind
Autumn’s Witness
Blackthorn Berries The hedgerows flame with fruit of sombre hue, Each berry set like embers in the thorn; The summer’s green has faded into rue, And autumn wakes to sing the day forlorn. Yet in the hush a robin strikes his chord, A steadfast hymn against the mist and chill; No choir of men, no … Continue reading Autumn’s Witness
Wording 