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

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 ~ 

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.]  

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.]

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)