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Friday 30 January 2015

Winter Sunshine - Yorkshire

 The bank of the River Aire - Early morning light
Jake Attree   Oil pastel


River Aire, Hirst Wood
Jake Attree  Oil pastel

Images © Jake Attree and David Messum Fine Art, London

Saturday 24 January 2015

A Winter Interval


 INTERMISSION

 Design by Eugene Grasset 1899 (courtesy of AbeBooks)


"The sage left nothing in his ink-horn."   Don Quixote  Miguel Cervantes

                                                  ~  A winter Interval follows ~ 

Monday 19 January 2015

Impresa della Pause

Maiolica  plate from the dinner service of Isabella D'Este, Nicola da Urbino c.1525

The story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, with the central arms of Gonzaga-D'Este
© Victoria & Albert Museum

[The musical scroll below the coat of arms, with its moment of silence, is Isabella D'Este's personal device.]  



Friday 16 January 2015

Departure of St. John the Baptist


St. John the Baptist returning to the Desert


Egg tempera on wood, Giovanni di Paolo, 1454  © National Gallery, London

[I fell in love with this painting on my first visit to the National Gallery and always try to see it when I am there.]

Wednesday 14 January 2015

The Departure of Merlin



Cover illustration by Edmund Dulac, 1933*

"And then, soon after, the Lady of the Lake [Nimue] and Merlin departed; and by the way as they went Merlin showed her many wonders, and came into Cornwall.

…And so, upon a time, it happened that Merlin showed to her a rock where there was a great wonder, and wrought by enchantment, which went under a stone.   So, by her subtle craft and working, she made Merlin to go under the stone to let her wit of the marvels there; but she wrought so there for him, that he came out never, for all the craft that he could do: and so she departed, and left Merlin."

The Noble and Joyous History of King Arthur:  the Book of Morgan le Fay  Sir Thomas Malory

* Dulac returned to this theme for The American Weekly in March 1940 (see Colin White)