Blog-break and a painting...

I'm afraid that it does not seem that I'll be able to blog for the next week or so. Many and varied duties take me away from Rome and internet access.

As a parting Easter gift I leave you this link to a painting that I only discovered very recently. It's the 1791 Invention of the Art of Drawing by Joseph B. Suvée. It shows the daughter of the Greek potter Butades whose lover has been called away to fight in the war. At their last meeting she is siezed by inspiration and draws his silhouette on the wall as a memento. It's a wonderfully rich painting - the expressions of the protagonists are very engaging and subject to numerous interpretations. It can be read as a commentary on the Platonic doctrine of forms or his aesthetic theories about the inadequacy of art. It can also be viewed as a very human piece of drama. The daughter herself seems lost in capturing something of her lover - almost to the neglect of the man himself. He supports her but there's something in his upward gaze and the way he holds his arms about her that suggests that he's not entirely satisfied - that he resents the attention paid to his shadow and longs for the girl to concern herself with him in the 'here and now'.