The Christian Church, throughout the Bible, history, and the present, has always been full of metaphors.  As we have sought to understand ourselves and our place in the world as part of God’s will, we have developed images to portray ourselves to the lost, to the next generation, and to ourselves.  These pictures take root in our minds, and what the images we have used to describe ourselves often become the images we use to define ourselves.  It becomes necessary, then, to continually refresh the well of conceptual metaphors from which we draw, so that we may understand what has made us what we are, and so we can choose what will make us as we wish to be.

The Church has had several famous metaphors, some Biblical and some not.  Perhaps the most commonly used metaphor is that of the Body of Christ.  Paul expounds upon this metaphor pretty heavily in his discussion on spiritual gifts, indicating that the whole is made up of parts.  Each of these parts has a distinct function, without which the body cannot fully operate, but each part cannot exist without the rest of the body (1Co 12:12-27).  We are assured that “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1Co 12:18), and therefore we cultivate faith in the Church’s arrangement on the basis of God’s ultimate sovereignty.

There are dozens of other major metaphors the Church has been given and has made for itself—Bride of Christ, People of God, Christian Community, Perfect Society, etc.—and each has its merits and demerits.  But seeing all that a metaphor can do in helping to shape doctrines, cast visions, define missions, evangelize to the lost, and generally define the Church, it behooves us to constructively criticize the metaphors and models we have now, and to generate quality metaphors of our own.  The Bible’s metaphors for the Church, like Jesus’ parables and Isaiah’s prophecies—are rooted in the cultures to which they preached.  For this reason, no metaphor remains effective forever.  Some are universal enough to have incredible longevity, but even these go through ebbs and flows, as the cultures to which they are introduced attempt to understand and incorporate them.

For this reason, we are attempting to introduce a new metaphor of the global Church: Pointillism.  Pointillism is an impressionist art form which involves making an entire portrait out of nothing but tiny dots of varying colors.  You can see an example of this, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte” by Georges-Pierre Seurat, to the right.  In Pointillism, the big picture, the individual shape, and each dot must be considered when forming the piece.  Each dot is important in itself and serves a major function—definition, shading, coloring, etc.—but each dot means nothing without the dots around it.  Groups of differently colored dots make up a shape; different shapes make up a figure; and different figures make up the piece.

This is exactly the view of the Church that we are trying to display here.  The global Church is made up of meta-denominations: Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, etc.  Each meta-denomination has its own supra-denominations: Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.  Each supra-denomination is made up of denominations: Southern Baptist, General Baptist, Free-Will Baptist, etc.  Each denomination has its own divisions.  Each division has its own churches.  Each church has its own families.  And each family has its own members.

With this metaphor, we mean to say something that is both macro-ecclesiological and micro-ecclesiological.  For the big picture, we mean to say that the global church is a gargantuan painting: no church is unimportant, but no church is all-important.  The same thing applies to denominations, divisions, and all other forms of separation.  Our partition, in terms of God’s painting, adds definition to each figure, but no figure is more important than the next.  Even those tiny sailboats in the back left of the painting take enormous time, work, and consideration to make, and the painter loves each one of them.

To make a pointillist painting, the artist must take enormous care with each dot, choosing its color, then mixing that color perfectly, considering the dots around it, the shape it is trying to make, that shape’s relation to the figure, that figure’s relation to its area, and that area as part of the whole.  We believe that God does the same thing with the Church.  God cares for each person enormously, and He places that person in a family.

Sometimes the families are large, sometimes small, and sometimes just a single person, but each family is important to the whole of the global Church.  In the Seurat painting above, on the woman’s skirt on the right, in the middle of her leg is a single yellow dot all by itself.  There are no other yellow dots near it, but that dot’s role is to provide a sense of detail, definition, and contrast to the skirt.  With that in mind in the context of the church, we acknowledge that family means something other than a biological group, and that an added emphasis on family, such as the emphasis we give, does not exclude singles or people without children.  While Lori specializes in children’s and family ministry, she would be the first to tell you that the principles of family ministry apply to singles as much to married couples, and as much to empty nesters as to families with eight children.  Our God is so majestic that the discipleship to become like Him can be obtained in multiple, even fully contrasting environments.  The virtue of patience, for example, may be learned as thoroughly by parents raising adolescents as it may be by a 35 year old single maintaining his sexual purity.  For this reason, we believe that the values of the family mean something more than those which are learned through marriage and child-bearing.  The ‘family’ has been used as a Church metaphor for millennia, and we intend to continue in that tradition with this new metaphor.

The same idea works for local churches.  No two churches are the same, and it is precisely this diversity which allows for such a magnanimous God to be fully worshipped.  Some churches are like the black dog in the Seurat painting, where almost every dot looks the same, and some are like the mat next to him on the ground, requiring scores of hues to make it appear right.  Both kinds of churches have their place, and we should not celebrate too highly either great diversity or great like-mindedness.  What makes a church Godly and Biblical is its preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, its repentance of sins, and its corporate worship the Lord Most High.  To the extent that these are accomplished in their full meaning, a church is in the right.  What works for one church, then, may not work for another, but neither one is necessarily unBiblical or unGodly for using different methods to fulfill this ends.  Each church is like a shape on the painting.  They vary widely, but they all serve the purpose of making up the whole.  The little girl’s white hat floating by itself on the canvas would mean nothing to us, but when it is placed as part of the complete work, we see the majesty, complexity, and precision of the piece.

A similar concept applies to denominations, supra-denominations, and meta-denominations.  The trees in the Seurat painting look very different from the people, but they are no better for being trees.  The people serve one purpose and the trees another.  It is the same with inter-denominational relationships.  The Church of Christ has very little in common with the Eastern Orthodox Church, but neither is better for it.  Both preach Christ’s salvation, and therefore both are part of the painting.  Their doctrinal standings, though extensively different, both earnestly seek to serve and worship God, and thus both are acceptable, each adding its piece to God’s beautiful portrait of His Church.

We have thought and prayed about this for months now, and we are determined that this is the direction the Church must head.  Each individual must consider its personal relationship with God as important, but they must be part of a family.  Each family must take care of its spiritual affairs, but each must be in a local church.  Each local church should perform the best it can for the glory of God, but each church must think about its place and role in the picture.  Each denomination should seek Biblical correctness and righteousness, but each denomination must understand that others will see it differently and trust that God uses diversity—even in considerations of Himself—to serve His purposes.

Every dot is important, but only because it is part of the whole glorious painting which God is making.

Harvemmin on ollut tapana keskustella puhujien tyylistä. Mitä joskus huulenheittoa lähipiirin kesken ohimennen. Mutta kun ollaan monenmoisten arkiaskareittan ja kiireen keskeltä seuroihin päästy, jaksaako ottaa evankeliumia vastaan, jos se tarjoillaan ”liian isoina annoksina”? Henki meinaa joskus salpautua maallisemmasta syystä kuin evankeliumin ilosta, tai ainakin istumalihakset on kovilla.

Pölökky-blogissa jutustelee uskovainen kanttori mukavasti. Tästäkin. En osaisi itse paremmin koota toivomuksia puhujalle.

“Älkää hyvät veljet stressatko puheen mitasta, paitsi silloin kun se venyy yli kolmen vartin! Sitä eivät minun persuukseni ja keskittymiskykyni tahdo oikein kestää.”, toteaa Pölökky.

Kaksi puhetta peräkkäin

“Olipa kerran seurat, arki-iltana ja seuroissa väsyneitä lapsiperheitä. Olipa seuroissa kaksi puhetta peräkkäin ja ensimmäinen puhe piiiitkä ja monotonisella “yhden säveltason” puhetavalla pidetty. Puhujalla oli hyvä hengitystekniikka, ääntä ja puhetta riitti yhdellä hengityksellä monen lauseen verran, kunnes piti vetää keuhkot täyteen ja antaa taas evankeliumin virrata. Asiassa ei sinänsä ollut mitään vikaa, päin vastoin! Mukavia veljiä molemmat ja oikealla asialla!

Silti monen kuulijan vaikutelmaksi saarnasta jäi tämä:
—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—,—-
–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,
—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—
–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.
—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,–
–.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——
,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.—
—,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.
——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-.—-,——
–.——,—-.—–,—–,—-. (huomaa pilkut ja pisteet!)

Itselläni pää oli hieman kipeä toisen puheen ajan, muisto ensimmäisestä puheesta. Niinpä sekin puhe meni hukkaan, vaikka puhuja rupatteli mukavasti tärkeistä asioista. Musikaalisuudella on varjopuolensa. Kuulokeskus on ääni-informaatiolle usein normaalia herkempi, ja niinpä jokin toistuva ääniefekti sopivalla sävyllä, korkeudella ja voimakkuudella saattaa viedä jopa toimintakyvyn. Niin sitten kävi, seurapuheen aikana.

“Tavallisella” kuulollakin varustetut olivat kuulemma tiukilla tuona iltana, päänsärkyä ei toki muille tullut.”

Palautetta puhujarievulle, hop hop

“En välttynyt ajatukselta, että opiskeluaikana läpi viedyt viestinnän kurssit toimisivat mainiosti myöskin kristillisyytemme puhujille. Saattaisihan se vähän vähentää puhujankin paineita, jos tietäisi miten viestinsä saa parhaiten perille.

Olisiko aivan hurja ajatus, että joku asiaan vihkiytynyt tai peräti ammattilainen voisi aivan luvan kanssa antaa puhujille palautetta äänen käytöstä, artikulaatiosta, intonaatiosta ja nyansseista, ehkäpä myös mikrofoniin puhumisesta (on aivan oma lajinsa).

Toivottavasti tämä kaino toive ei tunnu liikaa arvostelulta! On vain niin, että lapsiperhekeskeinen toiminta iloisenkirjavine hälyäänineen, monin paikoin suuret toimitilat, sekä vanhentuneet tai muuten heikkotasoiset äänentoistolaitteet asettavat puhujien ulosannille niin suuret vaatimukset, että koulutettukin puhuja voisi olla ajoittain helisemässä.”

Lyhyt puhe toimii

“Sitten arka aihe.

Nuoret puhujat, usein teologit, saavat välillä selän takana jopa vähän väheksyviä kommentteja “niistä nuorien puhujien lyhyistä puheista.” Onko puheen mitta pituus? Uskallan olla sitä mieltä, että joskus aivan yhtä tärkeä ja yhtä oikea asia virtaa puhujan suusta ulos 15 minuutissa, joskus 45 minuutissa. Hyvä niin, miksi jatkaa väkisin toiset 15 minuuttia että saisi “edes suviseuramittaisen” kasaan?

Jos näen lautasen tyhjenneen ja lapsen maha on täysi, en kai silti mätä hänelle suuhun toista lautasellista väkisin vain siksi, että naapurin isäntäkin syöttää kaksi lautasellista…

Olen itkenut hiljaa syvällä itsessäni itseni jälleen terveeksi sekä varttitunnin että kolmen vartin saarnan aikana. Älkää hyvät veljet stressatko puheen mitasta, paitsi silloin kun se venyy yli kolmen vartin! Sitä eivät minun persuukseni ja keskittymiskykyni tahdo oikein kestää.”

Toinen näkökulma:  fraasit

Siitä on jo yli kymmenen vuotta kun lähdin liikkeestä.  Pari vuotta sitten kuuntelin suviseuraradiota, eka kerran aikoihin.

Järkytyin todella. Siellä oli täsmälleen ne samat vanhat fraasit, joita itse kuuntelin viikonlopusta toiseen puisella seurapenkillä ry:llä. Itse asiassa se oli henkilökohtaisesti minulle pääosin myönteistä aikaa, silloin kun vielä uskoin kaiken, mitä kuulin. Silloin oli helppo olla siellä meikäläisten keskellä. Kunnes heräsi kysymyksiä ja tuli kriisi omakohtaisen kristillisen vakaumuksen osalta ja seurusteluasiassa, mutta se on toinen juttu.

Mutta juuri se, että itselleni oli jäänyt niin positiivinen kuva itse saarnoista, sai minut varmaan sittemmin järkyttymään. Nimittäin, niiden fraasien ohella puhujilla ei nyt tuntunut olevan enää mitään asiaa niiden takana. Ja tuntui, että he olivat välillä suorastaan vaivautuneita, kun piti vain saada saarna-aika kulumaan. Fraaseja toistelemalla sitä pituutta voi kasvattaa, mistä taas Pölökky-blogisti kertoi kiusaantuneensa. Minä kiusaannuin puheesta joka oli vailla muuta sisältöä kuin fraasien toistelu.

Heräsi vaikutelma, että vl-uskon systeemi on pahasti kriisiytymässä. Jokin romahdus tai murtuma saattaa kohta tulla, sillä eihän kukaan jaksa kannatella tyhjää täynnä olevaa järjestelmää loputtomiin. Itse toivon ihmisten kuolemattomien sielujen vuoksi, että jokin uskonuudistus tai uusi herätys tulisi pian.

(Puheet & teot)

Lue myös:

Vanhoillislestadiolaisen saarnakielen piirteitä (Topi Linjama)

Emmehän me halua meititellä? (Topi Linjama)

Ennustus: ajaudumme umpikujaan

Kesä oli nupullaan, ruoho tuoksui varovasti, ilma oli heleä ja kevyt kosketella. Rauhanyhdistyksen portaiden eteen oli tuotu tuomia, joiden lehdet ja kukat olivat lurpahtaneet, roikkuivat velttoina oksien alla. Lapsista neljä vanhinta oli päässyt isän mukana Nivalaan seuroihin.

Ne olivat kesäseurat ja kestivät kaksi päivää. Pojat hävisivät heti omille teilleen, juoksemaan sinne tänne, ampumaan ritsalla kissoja, töllistelemään läheltä kiikutuksiin tulevia, norkoilemaan tädeiltä karamelliä.

Isosisko ja minä pysyttelimme tiiviisti isän kintereillä, kuuntelimme kärsivällisesti pitkät puheet, vaikka selkää väsytti ja täyden salin raskas ilma nukutti. Joskus tuli saarnasta paha olo, ihan kirveli, piti panna kädet korville ettei kuulisi. Niin kuin silloin, kun saarnattiin tyhmistä ja viisaista neitsyistä. Sitä oli vaikea ymmärtää, se tuntui väärältä ja kohtuuttomalta. Mutta jos saarnattiin Daavidista ja Goljatista kuuntelin iloisin mielin joka sanan.

Väliajalla söimme päivällistä saarnamiesten kanssa talon pienessä ruokasalissa. Maallikkoveljiä oli useita, pappeja vain kaksi, kovaääninen mutta huonokuuloinen rovasti ja meidän isä. Pöytä oli peitetty valkealla liinalla, muoviliina. Istuimme isän molemmin puolin, saarnamiesten välissä, pieninä ja laihoina, hihattomat kesämekot päällä, kovaääninen rovasti aivan vastapäätä.

Silmälasipäinen Veli oli aamupäivällä saarnannut, että paljaat käsivarret ovat syntiä, uskovainen nainen ei saisi pitää hihatonta kesäleninkiä, miesten himot heräävät, sanoi. Katselin luisia olkapäitäni, kananlihalla olevia käsivarsiani, kummeksuen, mikähän se näissäkin…

Tiesimme isän toivovan ettei meitä tässä pöydässä edes huomattaisi. Rovasti oli se, joka puhui koko ajan. Äiti kerran sanoi, että se puhuu siksi niin paljon, ettei muut pääse puhumaan, silloinhan se ei itse kuulisi.

Vitsejä kai ne olivat, rovasti puhui ruoka suussa, ehkä niissä oli jotain tuhmaakin, sillä rovasti hiljensi aina ääntään jutun ratkaisukohdassa, kaikki miehet kurkottivat kaulaansa kuullakseen, sillä puhetta ei ollut tarkoitettu hellan ääressä häärivien uskonsisarten kuultavaksi; sitten rämähti naurunremakka, rovasti ylimpänä. Hän läimäytti nutturapäistä lihavaa tarjoilijaa kevyesti takamuksille ja aloitti heti uuden jutun. Minun oli vaikea saada ruokaa alas, kun ylhäällä edessäni pieksi avonainen suu, jossa aladobi jauhautui, jos nyt pysyi suussa naurun ajan.

Katselin kukallisia tennareitani, toivoin, että olisin ollut muualla. Söin perunat, mutta aladobin pala tutisi lautasellani. Minä en voinut koskea siihen.

Yötä oltiin uskovaisen kansakoulunopettajan kotona. Pojat nukkuivat isän kanssa olohuoneen aukivedetyllä sohvalla ja me tytöt talon aikuiseksi kasvaneen ja kotoa pois muuttaneen tyttären huoneessa. Olohuoneen kirjahyllyssä oli pullossa käärme joka killui kellertävässä nesteessä ja näytti aivan elävältä, vaikka opettaja sanoikin, että se on kuollut.

Unen päästä oli vaikea saada kiinni. Mielessä kiemurteli kirjahyllyn käärme, sydämessä kaiversi päivällä kuultu saarna. Tylliverhojen tuolla puolen näytti olevan vaaleaa kuin päivällä, lehtikään ei puussa liikkunut, tuuli oli mennyt jo nukkumaan. Meillä oli mukana uudet paperilakanat, jotka tuntuivat kylmiltä ja kovilta, melkein rapisivat kun kylkeä käänsi.
   – Etkö sä saa unta, kysyi isosisko.
   – En…
   – Älä sinä siitä saarnasta huoli, kyllä minäkin olisin varmasti ollut tyhmä neitsyt, ei olisi lamppu palanut Yljän tullessa…

Seuroista sai paljon miettimisen aihetta. En oikein ymmärtänyt miksi elämä, maallinen vaellus piti olla ankaraa kilvoittelua, ristin kantamista: jos vain hetken vielä jaksamme taivaltaa, niin ihanan taivaan ranta odottaa, ikuinen autuus koittaa, aukeaa eteen.

Sanankuulijat nyökyttelivät vakavina, miehet kumarassa, naiset alistuneen näköisinä, jupisivat ja huokailivat hiljaa.

Taivasikävä. Vaikka kuinka sitä ikävää yritettiin paisutella minä en osannut elää taivasta varten, halata taivaaseen. Minusta maan päälläkin oli ihan mukavaa. Ja armon lasinen meri. Se tuntui kolkolta ja karmealta ajatukselta. Lasinen meri. Armon meri on lasinen ja kirkas, se ei liiku, vaikka maailman synnin laineet loiskivat yli laidan. Jotkut saarnamiehet niin mielellään kuvailivat maailman pahuutta. Isä jätti sen yleensä vähemmälle.

Ote Anna-Maija Ylimaulan romaanista Papintyttö, s. 26-28.

Rakas vanhoillislestadiolainen ystävä, on iloinen asia, että olet eksynyt tänne etnisten vanhoillislestadiolaisten blogiin. Haluan sanoa sinulle
samalla tavalla kuin sanotaan apostolien teoissa: “Sinä teit hyvin, ettäs tulit.” (Ap.t. 10:33.)

Vielä uudelleen minä haluan sanoa, että teit hyvin, kun tulit. Pyydän sinulta, että viivähtäisit hetken sen kirjoitetun sanan ääressä, joka tähän kirjoitettu.

Minä tiedän, että siellä seuroissa näistä tällaisista palstoista varoitetaan. Voidaan jopa sanoa, että on synti lukea tällaista palstaa. Siellä halutaan, että ainoa paikka, josta saisit tietoa Raamatusta ja kristinopista, elämästä ja uskomisesta, olisi seurapenkki ja SRK:n julkaisut.

Mutta minä haluan sinulle olla sanomassa ensimmäisen Tessalonikalaiskirjeen sanoin: Koetelkaa kaikkea ja pitäkää se mikä on hyvää.  (1. Tess. 4:21)

Oletko sinä, rakas ystävä, koetellut kaikkea ja pitänyt sen, mikä on hyvää?  Oletko sinä koetellut, onko se hyvää, mitä sinulla nyt on?

Kyllä me, jotka olemme ennen olleet tuossa lestadiolaisten joukossa, olemme sen kokeneet hyväksi ja siunaukselliseksi, että olemme koetelleet myös niitä isien perinnäissääntöjä, joita siinä joukossa opetetaan. Ja olemme saaneet niitä olla toteamassa ihmiselle pahoiksi ja Raamattuun perustumattomiksi.

Tuo mainitsemani Tessalonikaiskirjeen kohta jatkuu: Pysykää erossa kaikesta pahasta (1. Tess. 4:22).

Sinulle on ehkä opetettu, että kaikki, mitä siinä lestadiolaisten joukossa tapahtuu, on hyvää, ja se, mitä sen ulkopuolella, on pahaa. Rakas ystävä, sinä varmaan ymmärrät sen, ettei asia näin mustavalkoinen ole, vaikka siinä lestadiolaisten joukossa niin opetetaankin.

Minä uskallan niin olla ajattelemassa, että nyt, kun sinä tänne olet eksynyt, sinä olet jo ottanut tärkeän askeleen. Sanotaanhan sananlaskussakin, että tuhannenkin kilometrin matka alkaa ensimmäisellä askeleella. Ja kun ensimmäinen askel on otettu, yleensä jo tiedetään suunta, johon ollaan matkalla. Hyvä ystävä, tervetuloa tälle tielle, sinä olet ottanut hyvän suunnan.

Kun olet tälle tielle lähtenyt, sinulla on ehkä ollut epäilyksiä siitä, onko se sen joukon opetus oikeaa. Sinulla on voinut olla ongelmia jonkin
henkilökohtaisesti kipeän asian vuoksi, jota tuossa joukossa ei lainkaan tunnisteta. Ehkä tunnet, ettet voi tuossa joukossa olla vapaa. Joudut
vaikenemaan monista asioista, sillä jos ajatuksiasi toisit esiin, sinua vaadittaisiin tekemään niistä parannusta. Näin toimii tuo “Jumalan valtakunnaksi” itseään kutsuva joukko.

Jos jonkun asian olet tuonut esille, joka ei vastaa yleistä käsitystä, olet voinut kokea rankkaakin syyllistämistä ja sinua on voitu alkaa jopa karttaa. Pahimmassa tapauksessa tälläinen lestadiolaisten mukaan “väärää henkeä” edustava ihminen voidaan täysin sulkea ulos tuon joukon sosiaalisesta ja henkisestä yhteydestä.

Ja entä jos olet uskaltanut puhua siitä, että jättäisit kokonaan tuon lauman, jossa olet ehkä lapsuudesta saakka tottunut kulkemaan? Seurauksena on voinut olla helvetillä pelottelua. Viimeisen tuomion kuvaileminenhan on tuossa joukossa hyvin yleistä, eikä silloin yleensä jätetä mainitsematta sitä, että kaikki, jotka eivät tuossa lestadiolaisten joukossa kulje, joutuvat iänkaikkiseen kadotukseen, jossa on oleva itku ja hammasten kiristys.

Nujertamista rakkauden kaavussa

Kansankirkkomme jakaman tiedon mukaan hengellinen väkivalta on henkistä väkivaltaa, johon liittyy uskonnollinen ulottuvuus. Sen ilmenemismuotoja ovat pelottelu, käännyttäminen, syyllistäminen, eristäminen ja kontrollointi. Tarkoituksena on nujertaa toisen ihmisen elämänkatsomus, elämäntapa tai mielipide.

Mitä muuta tuo lestadiolaisten julkeasti rakkaudeksi veljeä tai sisarta kohtaan kutsuma toiminta on kuin hengellistä väkivaltaa? Ei siinä sellaiselle näkemykselle, joka poikkeaa siitä perinteisestä opetuksesta, anneta minkäänlaista arvoa. Eikä sitä arvoa anneta myöskään sille ihmisille, joka sen ajatuksen uskaltaa ääneen sanoa. Se mielipide nujerretaan hengellisen väkivallan keinoin.

Ilo elää omana itsenään 

Minä haluan olla sinulle sitä ilosanomaa kertomassa, että siitä lestadiolaisten orjuudesta on mahdollisuus vapautua. Sen ilon olen minä ja monet muut entiset lestadiolaiset saaneet kokea. Sinullakin on mahdollisuus kieltää uskosi ja jättää tuo lauma, jossa joudut kieltämään itsesi. Vai tunnetko, että pystyt tuossa joukossa, sen sosiaalisen kontrollin alla olemaan oma itsesi? Voitko toimia niin kuin hyväksi näet, pystytkö vapaasti näyttämään tunteesi - ilman, että niitä pitää olla syntinä uskomassa anteeksi. Pystytkö sanomaan, että olisit onnellinen ja ylpeä siitä, että kuulut tuohon joukkoon? Yleensä lestadiolaiset tuntuvat uskoaan häpeävän. Niitä Paavalin sanoja, että “minä en häpeä evankeliumia” (Room. 1:16) ei tässä merkityksessä juurikaan niissä rauhanyhdistyksen saarnoissa julisteta.

Lähihistorian taakka

Sinullekin luultavasti varsin tutussa Psalmin kohdassa (Ps. 1:1) neuvotaan, että ei ole hyvä istua siellä, missä pilkkaajat istuvat. Lestadiolaisten
joukon ulkopuolelta varmasti jonkin verran kohdistuu pilkkaa siinä joukossa matkaa tekeviin, eikä se ole ihme, sillä niin kummallista on tuon joukon opetus ja elämä.

Mutta haluan sinulle pilkkaamisesta kertoa yhden esimerkin. Kuuntelin Oripään suviseurojen lauantai-illan puheenvuoroa, jota joku lestadiolainen pappi piti. Tämä pappi syyllistyi mielestäni vakavaan pilkkaan puheenvuorossaan. Hän tuntui avoimesti pilkkaavan ihmisiä, jotka
ovat tuossa lestadiolaisten joukossa kokeneet kovia, ja näitä asioita yrittävät jopa mielenterveytensä säilyttämisen vuoksi käsitellä toisten
samanlaisia kokemuksia kokeneiden kanssa. Tuo pappi ylimielisen oloisesti – ei puuttunut kuin pilkallinen nauru! – totesi, että viimeisellä tuomiolla niistä vertaisryhmistä ei ole hyötyä.

Miltä tämä mahtoi tuntua sellaisesta kuulijasta, joka noissa surullisissa 70-luvun hoitokokouksissa on ilman mitään asiallista syytä sidottu
synteihinsäja jätetty tuon niinsanotun jumalan valtakunnan ulkopuolelle ja nyt yrittää käsitellä kokemaansa vääryyttä yhdessä muiden kanssa?

Sinä et näistä hoitokokouksista mahdollisesti nuoruutesi vuoksi juuri mitään tiedä, koska tuossa lestadiolaisten joukossa niistä ei ole lupa puhua. Se järjetön hengellinen väkivalta pitäisi vain unohtaa. Tai uskon kautta jopa ymmärtää, että ne hoitokokoukset olivat siunauksellisia, niin kuin siitä opetetaan.

Huoli läheisistämme

Meillä täällä tuon valtakunnan ulkopuolella on suuri huoli läheisistämme, jotka ovat tuon valtakunnan sisällä. Tämä huoli on jo aivan pienistä
lapsista: saavatko he mahdollisuuden kasvaa tasapainoisiksi aikuisiksi, kun vanhemmilla ei välttämättä ole voimia heitä riittävästi hoitaa ja kasvattaa, koska vastuu lapsiasiassa täytyy ulkoistaa Jumalalle. Tämä huoli on myös niistä perheenisistä ja äideistä: niin moni väsyy sen taakan alle, joka heille tuon lapsilauman myötä on annettu, että se seuroissa usein saarnattava neuvo, että “niinkuin on päiväs, niin on voimas” tuntuu lähinnä vitsiltä. Ja huoli on myös niistä lukuisista nuorista, jotka etsivät kipeästi itseään murrosiässä ja kipuilevat oman kehonsa ja psyykkeensä
kanssa: lestadiolainen opetus opettaa noita nuoria vain kieltämään itsensä ja heräävän seksuaalisuutensa.

Yleisesti on suuri huoli siitä, että nuo meille läheiset ihmiset elävät elämänsä aivan kuin jonkun toisen ohjaamana ilman, että voisivat itse tehdä elämällään sitä, mitä haluavat. Vanhaa sanontaa lainatakseni “aivot on jätetty rauhanyhdistyksen naulakkoon”.

Ei itse osata eikä uskalleta miettiä, minkälainen elämä olisi juuri minulle hyvää ja arvokasta.

Minulla ei koskaan sinä aikana, kun vielä lestadiolaisten joukossa itse kuljin, ollut sellaista tunnetta, että olisin toivonut kaikkien tuntemieni
“epäuskoisten” tulevan tuohon joukkoon mukaan.

Mutta nykyisin minulla, rakas ystävä, on sellainen tunne, ja se on voimakas tunne, että kunpa läheiseni ymmärtäisivät tuosta joukosta lähteä. Että he saisivat jostain voimaa luopua tuon joukon opetuksista ja lähteä omaa järkeään ja sydäntään kuuntelemaan  ja seuraamaan. Jotta ihmiset koettelisivat kaiken ja pitäisivät sen, mikä juuri heille on hyvä.

Löydä oma polkusi kaikessa rauhassa

Näillä sanoilla minä haluan sinua herätellä huomaamaan sen, että se paljon puhuttu taivaspaikka ei tuossa joukossa ole yhtään sen varmempi kuin missään muussakaan joukossa, jos sitä koko taivasta ja jumalaa edes on olemassa. Älä hyvä ystävä sen takia pilaa tätä ainoaa elämääsi sillä, että noudatat neuvoja, joita sinulle antavat ihmiset, jotka eivät sinun elämäntilannettasi tiedä. Sinulla on mahdollisuus tuntea todellista rauhaa, vapautta ja iloa nimenomaan tuon lestadiolaisjoukon ulkopuolella, ei sen sisällä.

Lestadiolaiset opettavat ja pelottelevat usein, että joka parannuksentekonsa huomiseen siirtää, se huoneensa helvettiin rakentaa. Minä en vastaavalla tavalla halua olla sinua hoputtamassa yhdessä elämäsi suurimmassa päätöksessä.

Tutustu asioihin, perehdy lestadiolaisuuden historiaan, perehdy myös ajatuksiin kristinuskon ulkopuolelta. Mieti, mitä sinä elämältäsi haluat.

Varaudu painostamiseen

Sen neuvon minä haluan antaa, että mieti tarkasti, kenelle lestadiolaiselle pohdinnoistasi puhut. Väärälle ihmisille puhuessasi voit joutua aikamoisen painostuksen kohteeksi. Niin moni on sen hengellisen painostuksen alla luopunut lähtöaikeista, kun ei ole löytynytkään rohkeutta seistä omien ajatusten takana, vaan on taipunut takaisin sen holhouksen alle, jonka alta lestadiolaiset luulevat muita korkeammalle nousevansa.

Rakas ystävä, minä toivon, että sinä pohdinnoissasi päädyt tulokseen, jonka kanssa sinä voit elää. Ja että voit rehellisesti sanoa, että pohdinnat omat sinun omiasi, sillä tuo jo lapsesta asti saatu aivopesu helposti kasvattaa näennäiseen ajatteluun ja lievään itsepetokseen.

Minä toivon, että heräisit siitä unesta jossa olet. Jotkut siinä unessa matkaavat läpi elämänsä kuolemaan saakka koskaan heräämättä: syntyvät,
menevät naimisiin, kasvattavat lapsensa ilman että heille koskaan valkenee ihmiselämän kauneus.

Lähde matkalle, jossa tutkit oman elämäsi ja uskonnollisuutesi perusteita. Uskallan olla niin sanomassa, että vaikka se matka ei ole helppo, sillä matkalla on siunaus. Herää unestasi ja lähde matkalle.

(Juhani)

Lue myös:

Minä lähdin pois

Kuka ja mikä minä oikeasti olen?

Askeleet irti SRK-lestadiolaisuudesta (Hakomaja)

Vanhoillislestadiolaisuus eronneen näkökulmasta (Uskontojen Uhrien Tuki ry.)

Minun tarinani

Nettikeskustelusta ja stooristani

Raja tuli vastaan

Uskon kieltäminen – mikä neuvoksi?

Kadotettu hengellisyys

Etniset vanhoillislestadiolaiset

Las obras de arte que encontrará ahí son admirables. Se denominan “La Colección” (The Collection).  La historia de su adquisición es bastante curiosa si se toma en cuenta que la oferta para su compra se realizó por una suma irriosiria. Se dice que se pagó por la obra la cantidad de $22,000 aunque oitras versiones aseguran que se compró en únicamente $6,000 

Las Modelos

 George’s Seurat - Las Modelos

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  Los 12 diputados rebeldes de ARENA ¿profetas o jinetes de apocalipsis?

En El Salvador te quedas perplejo con todas las cosas que ahí suceden. No por el hecho que dichas cosas pasen, tal como pasan en otros muchos lugares del mundo, sino que pasen de forma tal y con una concatenación tan milimétrica que hasta el más osado de los quasi Nostradamus, llámesele analistas político/económico/sociales y entrevistadores de programas de opinión primerísimo nivel que predicen el curso y acontecer de los hechos e historia salvadoreña, o al menos una versión alienada desde su propia vitrina de valores, principios y primordialmente intereses, con conceptos bastantes sui generis por cierto, decantados de antemano por fórmulas e intereses que no solo distan de la razón y de la dignidad, mucho menos pensar que hubiera un cupo para la decencia, sino que atropellan y arremeten contra todo aquello que signifique el más mínimo intento o hálito de recomposición social y recuperación de valores y libertades, te llevan a pensar que la Divina Comedia de Dante Aliguierhi no es algo que tengas que ir a leer en un libro sino que su entorno ha sido trasladado a la mismísima tierra y nos toca vivir consuetudinariamente con dichos horrores y vergüenzas en una sociedad putrefacta y podrida, inmersos en una decadencia de valores y formas de vida tan deshonesta que hasta el mismísimo infierno parecería un manso y apacible oasis en toda esta vorágine de vergüenza y corrupción social.

A los gobernantes y partidos políticos solo les alcanza la gasolina para pedirte el voto y una vez entronados en sus curules se olvidan de sus promesas y plataformas y se dedican tratar con el más vil de los desprecios a sus votantes, porque cuando dse trata de aquello de “hacer obra“ solo se podría mencionar la trillada frase de un conductor de programas deportivos, bastante alienado también por cierto, que dice “vaya usted a saber”, porque nadie sabe lo que hacen, si es que algo llegasen ha hacer alguna vez.

El FMLN, una vez en el poder únicamente se ha dedicado a hacer lo que decían que Saca y ARENA no deberían haber hecho en sus períodos al frente del ejecutivo: hacer campaña política y prevalecerse de sus cargos.

El FMLN ha perdido la brújula y se han olvidado que su universos de votantes de “hueso duro”, llámeseles afiliados al partido, no son los que hicieron ganar a Mauricio Funes la presidencia sino que adicionalmente a ellos, que por cierto son una minoría superlativa (para utilizar un oximoron gringo en la figura literaria empleada) en el universo del más de millón y medio de personas que se decantaron a apoyar a Mauricio Funes y en especial al “cambio”.

Pero el FMLN no quiere cambiar, ellos viven en un pasado sombrío en el que aún siendo partido en el gobierno se sienten y actúan como “oposición”. El FMLN es como el alacrán que le pidió a la rana que le ayudara  a cruzar el río, una vez sobre la rana y a medio lago no pudo contener su veneno y se condeno a si mismo ya su victima a una muerte segura.

El FMLN cree que logrará frutos y réditos políticos de la grave descomposición de ARENA más no saben que los tentáculos y la rueca de la que se hebra ese hilo ya tiene dueño.

Los famosos “doce” disidentes no obedecen más que al fundamental principio capitalista de que “hay que forjar la demanda”. Ojo!, no se vaya a creer que el diputado Gallegos lo hace por su gran pundonor y corazón patrio, no hombre!, lo hace simple y llanamente porque se ha dado cuenta que cada mano levantada, bien maiziada al estilo Ciro Cruz Zepeda, genera muchísimos billetiyos, tusas, lucas, rupias, bolas, biyices, lana, papa, comisiones, incentivos, gratificaciones, dádivas, contribuciones y un sin fin de otros nombres masque se le podría dar al “cochino dinero y mordidas que reciben por levantar la mano en las plenarias”

Gallegos, en su paupérrima capacidad deductiva, ha logrado establecer que si es “él” quien cobra los emolumentos por levantar la mano en la plenaria pues le está quitando un buen hueso al ex gobernante Cristiani (nótese que efusiva y tácitamente he evitado referirme a él como el Presidente Cristiani, primero porque ya no lo es y segundo porque cuando ostentó dicho cargo no se dedicó sino a saquear las arcas de la nación). Así que según la “lógica Gallegos” es más prolijo mamar de la teta directamente que ir al super a comprar un bote de leche cuando resulta que se tiene una vaca en el corral.

¡A mamar diputado Gallegos porque hoy ya le toco fiesta! Hasta debería pedirle una clasesitas a Parker y a Ciro, porque esos dos tipos si que se las saben todas y han mamado la teta por años. Preguntele a Chico Merino y a Glorita Salguero Grosss.

¡Y el FMLN cree que lo van a invitar a esta fiestecita …!

¡Jamás!

Mejor vayan preparando la chequera si es que quieren que el diputado Gallegos les de los votos.

Luego de este pequeño ataque de verborrea me doy cuenta que ni siquiera he podido empezar a dilucidar los temas a que me gustaría en realidad tratar: la miseria, el hambre, el desamparo, el caos social, la indigencia, la falta de oportunidades, el fenómeno de la migración, el bandalismo, el pillaje, el desorden vial, la debacle de infraestructura y colapso del sistema sanitario, de la mala calidad del agua, de los altos precios de la gasolina, del elevado costo de la vida, de las aberraciones que se cometen en nombre de la institucionalidad para nombrar magistrados, jueces y legisladores más corruptos que el propio crimen, de los grupos a margen de la ley, de las estadísticas de criminalidad, de la corrupción, de los despidos injustificados, de la falta de visión en materia de estado del actual gobierno, de las covachas, de la falta de abastecimientos, de los elevados precios de la canasta básica, de la usura, y del pillaje de las empresa s emisoras de créditos y tarjetas de crédito, de las aberraciones en los contratos de sitios vacacionales tipo Decameron, de los hermanos lejanos y las remesas, del voto residencial y en el exterior, de la contaminación ambiental, del caos y anarquía en la ejecución presupuestaria, de la explotación del oro y plata, de la falta de control en la Corte de Cuentas, de los atrasos de sentencia sde la Corte Suprema de Justicia, del traslado y trato a los reos en las prisiones, de las explotaciones en las maquilas, de las extorsiones, de los medios de comunicación que exacerban y coadyuvan al caos, de las cárcavas, y … …. …. como chorrocientos mil más etcéteras por todo lo que debería abordarse.

Some say they see poetry in my paintings; I see only science.

~Georges-Pierre Seurat

Bathing At Asnierest, 1883

Painting is the art of hollowing a surface.

~Georges-Pierre Seurat

I have posted new version video on the art works of Georges-Pierre Seurat with YouTube on the Channel: A PRONK STUDIO VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/user/raymondpronk

Seurat

Harmony is the analogy of contrary and similar elements of tone, of color, and of line, conditioned by the dominant key, and under the influence of a particular light, in gay, calm, or sad combinations.

~Georges-Pierre Seurat

La Maria Honfleur, 1886

Port of Gravelines, 1890

“Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.”

~Georges-Pierre Seurat

Background Articles and Videos

The Impressionists BBC (Part 1)

The Impressionists BBC (Part 2)

The Impressionists BBC (Part 3)

Related Posts on Pronk Palisades 

Mary Cassatt–Videos 

Paul Cezanne–Videos

Edgar Degas–Videos

Paul Gauguin–Videos

Winslow Homer–Videos

Edouard Manet–Videos

Claude Monet–Videos

Berthe Morisot–Videos

Camille Pissarro–Videos

Frederick Remington–Videos

Pierre-Auguste Renoir–Videos

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec–Videos

Vincent Van Gogh–Videos

Johannes Vermeer–Videos

Art Videos on youtube.com Channel: A PRONK STUDIO VIDEO–Videos

“I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.

~Vincent Van Gogh

“No friend have I. I must live by myself alone; but I know well that God is nearer to me than others in my art, so I will walk fearlessly with Him.”

~Ludwig van Beethoven

I have posted four videos on the art works of Vincent Van Gogh with YouTube on the Channel: A PRONK STUDIO VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/user/raymondpronk

The music is from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Choral).

Thank you for your comments and ratings.

Van Gogh Part 1 of 4

Van Gogh Part 2 of 4

Van Gogh Part 3 of 4

Van Gogh Part 4 of 4

Dr. Gachet, 1890

Self-Portrait

“Recommend virtue to your children, that alone – not wealth – can give happiness. It upholds in adversity and the thought of it and my art prevents me from putting an end to my life.”

~Ludwig van Beethoven

“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”

~Vincent Van Gogh

Background Articles and Videos

The Impressionists BBC (Part 1)

The Impressionists BBC (Part 2)

The Impressionists BBC (Part 3)

Related Posts On Pronk Paintings

Mary Cassatt–Videos 

Paul Cezanne–Videos

Edgar Degas–Videos

Paul Gauguin–Videos

Winslow Homer–Videos

Edouard Manet–Videos

Claude Monet–Videos

Berthe Morisot–Videos

Camille Pissarro–Videos

Frederick Remington–Videos

Pierre-Auguste Renoir–Videos

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec–Videos

Georges-Pierre Seurat–Videos

Vincent Van Gogh–Videos

Johannes Vermeer–Videos

Art Videos on youtube.com Channel: A PRONK STUDIO VIDEO–Videos

Como su propio nombre lo indica, esta técnica consiste en pintar a base de pequeños puntos de color puro.

El iniciador fue Seurat a principios de la década de 1880. Esta técnica nace dentro del impresionismo siendo sus máximos representantes Georges Seurat (1859-1891) el primero en utilizar esta técnica en una obra de arte y  Paul Signac (1863-1935) quien quedó impresionado por los métodos de trabajo sistemáticos de Seurat y por su teoría de los colores convirtiéndose en su fiel seguidor.

Bajo su influencia abandonó las cortas pinceladas del impresionismo para experimentar con los puntos de color puro, científicamente yuxtapuestos, que pretendían combinarse entre sí -no mezclarse sobre el lienzo- sino en el ojo del espectador.

Este tipo de pintura se caracteriza por la fragmentación de la línea en puntos de color. 

Para comenzar.

Salpicado de marisco sobre espuma lila. Aromas de tormenta y brisa marina. (“Anochecer en Grandcamp” de Seurat, 1885)

Gajos de higos, limas y naranjas sobre fondo de sémola caramelizada y queso a las finas hierbas. (“Paisaje de Collioure” de Matisse, 1905)

Las verduras.

Profusión de brotes tiernos sobre lecho de compota de castañas, con repollo y coles de Bruselas. (“El parque” de Klimt,1910)

Revuelto de espárragos en aceite de oliva virgen extra aromatizado con romero y hierbas del bosque. (“L’Estaque” de Braque, 1908)

La pasta.

Lunas y estrellas de pasta en salsa de naranja y pimientos rojos aderezada con ciruelas y pasas. (“Contrastes simultáneos” de R. Delauny, 1913)

Raviolis cocidos en agua de rosas con un toque de basílico sobre pluma de ave del paraíso. Homenaje a las fuentes de Picasso. (“Composición oval con colores planos” de Piet Mondrian. 1914).

Los postres.

Manzanas al vino blanco rebajado con agua de roca. Aromas de corolas y sombras. (“Bodegón con frutero” de Cèzanne. 1880)

Tableta de chocolate puro montada en yema de avestruz sobre pan de oro. Ralladura de tomate. (“Círculo amarillo” de Moholy-Nagy, 1921)

Permanezco en la silla de The Modern enfrentada al patio ajardinado tras los cristales. Mis manos trasladan pedazos de verdura y pasta a la garganta que se abre y cierra mecánicamente. Al alcanzar el paladar las texturas se transforman en líneas, círculos y pinceladas que inundan mi mente desde la mañana. La planta quinta del MoMA. Un universo de obras perfectas. Imágenes que me acompañan en la vigilia y el sueño.

“Contrastes simultáneos: sol y luna” de R. Delauny, 1913

MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. Nueva York. Exposición permanente de pintura y escultura. Plantas 4 y 5.

Cristian Faur nos presenta así su trabajo,  lienzos construidos con ceras de colores que imitan la antigua técnica del puntillismo y que  nada  envidian a los liezos de Seurat o Signac.

8th graders created landscapes in the style of pointillists like Seurat using tempera paint and qtips:

See slideshow of Seurat’s drawings with lecture by Roberta Smith, New York Times art critic.
Also see scene with La Grande Jatte from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (The Art Institute of Chicago)

A new campaign for The National Gallery has been created by Sumo to run in the London Underground and at mainland stations to promote its permanent collection.

I’m pretty sure this is a staged shot but it’s cool nonetheless.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges-Pierre Seurat

1884-1886, The Art Institute of Chicago

The specs are not back yet. Georges Seurat was perhaps responsible for inventing, and certainly a principal practitioner of, Pointillism – painting using dots of colour. My favourite overheard gallery conversation was between a middle aged waspy American man and wife, she a keen art lover, him being dragged around.

Woman (peering at artwork): This is Seurat, George. Pointillism.
Man: Pointilism? What in hell is that, Maude?
Woman: Little dots, George. It’s all made up of little dots. It’s really quite fascinating.
Man (lifting varifocals as Maude moves on): I just don’t see it, Maude; I just don’t see it.

No wonder George was struggling: they were looking at a pencil sketch, which was by Seurat, but which was not made up of little dots. Still Maude had heard that dots was what Seurat did, so the drawing must have been made up of them even if, to the naked eye, it looked remarkably like lines of HB..

Une Baignade, Asnières, 1883-84

Three take-offs, three landings and an hour long drive on Sunday completed 1322 miles back from Chicago. Long day, to say the least. And the title is definitely appropriate. While we were in the windy city, John Hughes, famed director of your favorite teen movies before teen movies were crap, died at the age of 59. (Ironically, Planes, Trains and Automobiles was one of his non-teen angst flicks.) Pretty young, but he did a lot with his talent. What talent? Well, he was probably the first director to really capture the emotions we all went through as teenagers. He was able to make us see that, even though our problems weren’t the end of the world, they really felt that way as a teen.

My favorite movie of his was probably Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s a shame what’s happened to Matthew Broderick since then, but we’ll leave that alone for now. The movie takes place in Chicago and it was one of those movies I used to watch repeatedly, because I never quite got all that was intended. I mean, I enjoyed it for the comedy, but there was something deeper I couldn’t really grasp at a younger age. One scene that comes to mind is when Bueller’s best friend Cameron is staring, with an intense sadness, at the painting by Seurat at the Art Institute of Chicago. It’s the montage with a Smiths song playing. He’s staring while the camera cuts closer, alternating between Cameron’s intense stare and the agape mouth of one of the children in the painting. The zoom is so close you can barely make out what the image is.

It’s kind of funny, and probably really silly, but I stood in front of that painting at the same Art Institute of Chicago. I wasn’t staring with the same intense sadness as Cameron, but looking with a curious anticipation. I wondered if I’d be moved in a similar way. I found the opened mouth of the child in the painting. I stared. I’m still not sure what to make of it. Part of me wants to say the child was Cameron on the inside, but that seems stupid. Or maybe not. Maybe he was just identifying with the child in some way. The child seemed lost, as if she wasn’t even holding her mother’s hand. Cameron shared the same loss, aimlessness and fear of the unknown as the child. Again, I could be wrong. I’m fine with not really knowing.

But if I’m right about that scene, then it’s rather appropriate that Hughes had so many people of that generation identify with his own art, his movies. He was able to accurately portray that transitional stage, from adolescent to adult, better than anyone. And what highlights the transition to adulthood better than a sense of loss (of innocence), aimlessness and fear of the unknown?

My trip home wasn’t nearly as daunting as the one shared by John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. I should be a little firmer in my arms from carrying our bags around in four different airports. And my legs were a little sore on Monday from all the walking from the weekend. I got nauseated on the last flight, but all that is pretty much forgotten. All I remember now is the fun we had, and the inspirational works of art I got to see with my own eyes, the work of John Hughes included.

Perhaps you heard that we had an unusual flash flooding incident in Louisville on Tuesday, August 4?  It made the national news.  It’s not everyday that parts of the city receive 6 1/2 inches of rain in an hour!  This storm just hung over the city and wouldn’t budge.  The dark clouds poured it on and we experienced serious flooding damage.  I haven’t been to the Falls this week, but I’m really curious to see what’s different.  Is my studio under the willows still there?  Are there new materials washed up?  I had water come into my house via the basement and roof and so I have been busy with that.  My problems have been minor compared to some and so for that I’m thankful.  It’s just another meteorological moment in what continues to be the oddest of years.  For now,  I’m treading water ” blog-ilogically” and rather than offer you a brief interlude of pre-recorded music will submit these images instead.  I always have more photos than I can post.  This occasion gives me the chance to show the ever changing landscape around the Falls of the Ohio.  These are images from July 2009.

Looking east, I like the way the railing on this handicap accessible ramp echos the hard lines in the bridge beyond.  A visitor contemplates the exposed fossil beds below the Interpretive Center.

Looking at this trio of images reminds me of the 19Th century painter Georges Seurat.  Perhaps it’s the frieze-like quality of the trees and the people absorbed in their own forms of river recreation?  So far this year, this was the most extensive exposure of the fossil beds.  I heard the other day that we have had a ridiculous 20 inches of rain over the past couple of months.  I wonder if our annual precipitation record is at risk this year?

These logs have been rolled against other downed trees in the water.  It’s the grinding action of water and wave that peels the bark and knocks off the branches.  In this way, trees are reduced to being straight logs.  I’ll end with another view of the Ohio River flowing westward.  Several hundred miles to go before entering the Mississippi River.

Catherine gets to walk on Beechen Cliff with her friends, Henry and Eleanor Tilney (‘07 Northanger Abbey)

Dear Friends,

As I’ve told the people at Reveries under the Sign of Austen, I’ve been asked to write a short piece for an online magazine about Austen in translation and I’ve been reading Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, then Pride and Prejudice in a couple of different translations, and finally turned my attention to a true poetic one from Northanger Abbey, sometimes called the best translation of Austen not just into French, but altogether (probably though by people who have not read enough to pronounce): Felix Feneon’s 1890s Catherine Morland.

I want tonight to try to make some sense of the thoughts I’ve had and information garnered.

So first, on Feneon: I find it amusing and ironic to consider that we owe the existence of what is arguably the best translation of Austen into French because at one time she was considered so utterly oblivious to anything political that it was safe to allow someone who people inclined to terminology would call a terrorist to read and translate her. Felix Feneon translated Northanger Abbey into delightful witty and deeply felt French while he was in prison for the crime of blowing a Paris restaurant up wth a bomb where a number of people were either killed or seriously maimed. A friend bought him a good dictionary and he was allowed to work undisturbed though. During this time he also read George Sand. The reason: women writers like this were considered innocuous; the fact that Austen was seen as knowing nothing about politics and less about sex, and Sand’s political career was repressed in favor of presenting her as all about sex and her books as grandmotherly or not readable, favored this enterprize.

He was otherwise not treated very well — as people were not in prison in the 1890s (think Oscar Wilde), especially the crime of anarchism. He was acquitted because a number of respected friends declared that they were sure he had not done and provided alibis. However, he did do it. From a biography that took 25 years to write so difficult is it today to find hard information about Feneon, Joan Ungersma Halperin’s Felix Feneon, Aesthete and Anarchist in Fin-de-siecle Paris, I learnt that he grew up in the provinces of France and witnessed the severe repression and massacres of people in the 1870s (more people were summarily executed than in that and the following year than from 1792-95). He was sent to board at a Catholic school as a boy and hated it, and like many in the (for most people) abysmally poor 1880s and 90s became a political radical, really fighting and writing for revolutionary causes.

J. Maximilien Luce (1858-1941), Une rue de Paris, 1871 the corpses left to rot until someone picks them up

Now that he was drawn to Austen — and translating a book such as hers adequately is no small task — is fodder for those who would consider her book political. There is evidence he was attracted to writing as a woman, as it were in drag — men do, as when they write books like Clarissa or Diderot’s La Religieuse (or any one of a number of 18th century and more recent texts. He was also a superb stylist like RLStevenson and that would be part of the challenge.

He was also a continual writer who founded a couple of reviews that became centrally important at the time and he wrote in many others. Except for his art criticism (of which he was proud and which he wanted to gain respect for artists with), most of the time he wrote anonymously. Interestingly, many of his pseudonyms were women’s names; he liked to write as a woman even though he shared the anti-feminist (Ungerman calls them misogynistic) attitudes of his fellow male radicals (I deliberately use that noun). Women were for sex, baby-making, being a wife, mistress, ministering to men. He himself married a woman out of pity for her, an arranged marriage of an old-fashioned type and apparently was good to her and lived his life out with her — at the same time as he had a life-long mistress who was in effect his second wife; she was the literary partner. He also got the one job he had all his life through a merit exam in the civil service, ironically as a clerk in the war office; he was never promoted, but he didn’t want to be.

It’s not clear why he used women’s names for pseudonyms. It could be a recurrent wish to be female; it could equally be a way of belittling himself. He was a very private man and although had many friendships with the most gifted, never give his intimate lifeaway. I suppose it makes sense then that he tried to write novels but couldn’t, didn’t have the gift or urge (novels are highly autobiographical most of the time) for it. However, given his penchant for self-erasure, writing in drag as a woman, and inability to write novels on his hand, it fits he should turn to a woman’s gem, Austen’s NA.

What he had a gift for was criticism, and art criticism (like Diderot a predecessor) was a strong suit.

Luce again, Paris Streets (again, but this time) 1905, an artist Feneon supported

He was also (reminding me of RLStevenson) a supreme stylist, and did much translation work. I thought this statement by him about the critic’s art important in understanding the success of Catherine Morland:

The critic must be a discriminating and inclusive intellect, penetrating the soul of the artist, seizing his aesthetic personality, considering the work fo art both from the point of view of the author and the point of view of the public, a channel for one and for the other.

The art critic (and translator) must be naive as well as sophisticated in front of his author:

Anyone can err, especially a critic. But to express without frivolity or insincerity what one feels — I admire that!

Translators and film-makers are both artists in their own right and critics. As Poggioli says in an important article on translation, they look into a pool of art to make their statements while the original first text maker looked to the natural world around him to her (he did not think about intertexualities). He also did a lot of editions.

1926 edition by Chapman, reprinted (from 1990 Metropolitan)

Feneon showed strong admiration for Diderot, who if not an atheist was anti-clerical and a strong materialist. He particularly admired Diderot’s salons (brief brilliant meditations on paintings). He studied Diderot’s philosophical and dramatic texts intensely and also the novels. On the centenary of Diderot’s death, he quoted Goncourt brothers:

Voltaire is immortal. Diderot is only famous. Why? Voltaire buried the epic poem the short story incidental verse and tragedy. diderot inaugurated the modern novel, modern drama and art criticism. One is the last thinker of old France, the other the first genius of new France.

Feneon said: “when we say that Diderot is our contemporary, we are giving undue praise to the 19th century.” Diderot’s La Religieuse, of central importance to women and all who are held hostage and driven to trauma by powerful pressures that are cruel; and Rameau’s Nephew, a meditation on the artist’s responsibility, the price of his or her gifts to others and the necessity of somehow fulfilling them indespite of all that surrounds you. I’ve not read the more scientific ones. They are hard and not available in English all of them.

Tellingly, in his later years Feneon published nothing or very little. He lived long and died in 1944 — a most dismaying year for someone with idealisms like his. When young he wrote against nationalism especially.

So, it makes sense to me that he should turn to Austen on many counts, and seems both amusing (to me at any rate) he was allowed to because she was seen as non-political. That Sand was too shows the dullness of this. A more overtly political novelist (she was also active in politics) you cannot find. Just couldn’t be! People ignore what is inconvenient to them to see.

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I turn to add to the essay I read on the paucity and bad quality (abridgements) of Austen in Italian until very recently, a bunch of essays in Jane Austen in Context and Re-Drawing Austen about Austen in translation in different countries and into different languages.

From an essay by Gabriella Imposti in Re-drawing Austen, Austen came to Russia in Russian very late. The first translation was in 1967! While the choice of texts resembles Italy in that again Pride and Prejudice is the overwhelming favorite and was the first book translated, there are striking differences. The Russians (the author says) preferred Scott, and the communist-socialist period looked upon this very genteel bourgeois author as if not dangerous at any rate irrelevant and not good for the moral health of young readers. The book after P&P most liked in Russian has been S&S. Now there is a tradition (as in Italy) for more learned readers and upper class people to read French, but then we are back with Madame de Montolieu and French translations so there is nothing directly coming in.

From Re-Drawing Austen, an essay by Sebnem Toplu, on Austen in Turkish. She was translated earlier (1940s), but she remains someone people who study English literature read; the Anglo-, subjective virtuous heroine is not admired again P&P leads the pack, but the others are liked equally. As with Italy, in Turkey the titles are changed a lot. Perhaps a stronger popular influence on Turkey has been the Austen movies.

Then from Valerie Cossy and Diego Saglia in Jane Austen in Context, Sweden had translations of Austen very early (1836); so too Denmark (1855-56). Swedish and Danish readers had Persuasion and Emma. Europe in general had the advantage of the Tauchnitz English language editions. Cossy and Saglia go over the Montolieu translations and the recent French ones for Pleiade and Christian Bourgeois (which Valerie Cossy also covers in Re-Drawing Austen, though not as well if less misogynistically than Noel J. King (“Jane Austen in France,” Nineteenth Century Fiction, 8:1 [1953]:1-12), the French writer of the 1950s) and then over the German translations. Austen appeared in Germany early: 1822; the translator was W. A. Landau; we are told he simplified, flattened and refashioned; the texts are less qualified, made more domestic.

What interests me again in general is that the kinds of changes the translators made are like Isabelle de Montolieu’s: just the sort of thing one finds in the movies. The movies return us to Montolieu’s intense romance, made Beauty and Beast story out of Brandon; turn Willoughby into a romantic hero. In Montolieu’s Persuasion, Montolieu had Wentworth buy a house for Anne Elliot in the neighborhood of Kellynch. In the 2007 ITV Persuasion he buys Kellynch itself. In Austen she has to live with him at sea in perpetual alarm all the while she is happy in his love and with his family and friends.

It’s a sign that Austen is not appreciated or understood when what’s emphasized is Pride and Prejudice to the near exclusion of her other books. When we see that even that text (and the scarce versions of the others) is published in an abridgement (which is more than shortening a text, it’s hollowing it out), we can see that what’s wanted is the archetype beneath the text. Now that’s what some of the popular money-making sociological event movies have done: they take the archetype and misshape it in accordance with a cultural moment that reaches the lowest and so widest popular denominator.

The irony is the archetype is what Austen began by radically brashly mocking. The raucous laughter of those juvenilia. To say she left this once she started the serious novels is to forget the letters. Did you hear so-and-so or her baby died? Probably looked at her husband … Or in Persuasion, they had had the good fortune to lose him at sea …. Or the Plan of a novel …. or …

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In the film by Andrew Davies some of the finest moments come from invented scenes which are in the spirit of the book, viz.

Eleanor and Catherine gather apples thrown down from a tree by Henry

The last essay from Re-Drawing Austen that I read was for me the most interesting even if the most jargon ridden and theoretical: Marinella Rocca Longo, “Notes on Literary Translation: An Example based on a short analysis of the language of Jane Austen.” Longo shows that the best translations, those that actually get closest to Austen in spirit are those who do not stick close to the language details of the original, do not in other words (to use Dryden’s formulations) do metaphrase or paraphrase, but rather those where the translator was willing to go a little farther off and find in their own language, even if in words with somewhat different terrains and a different grammatical structure for the sentence, a genuine equivalent of the complex ideas and tones of Austen.

Longo knows Italian best and concentrates on one difficult passage from S&S, the one where Elinor thinks about how Edward came to fall in love with Lucy, it begins: “The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally …” and it has complex thoughts delivered abstractly and indirectly. She takes the famous apostrophe about novels from NA: “Yes, novels; — for I will not adopt that ungenerous .. &c&c And then puts different Italian translations next to them.

What emerges is the one which is slightly more free is the best because the author is reliving the thought and feeling, really imagining it in his or her own mind and feelings and writing out of that.

Arriving at the Abbey

Well, I sat down and compared two different chapters of Austen’s NA with Feneon’s Catherine and found him doing this. In fact he is often not that close — he is closest when it comes to dialogue and description (say the passage where Catherine enters the Abbey and then again when she is afraid that first night). What he does do is relive, re-feel, re-imagine and follow Austen’s thought and find words which come naturally to him as a fluent eloquent and simple French stylist and speaker (it seems but it can’t be I know that, it has to be more studied).

As I wrote the other day, this is the period of RLStevenson and I find in Feneon’s Catherine the same kind of flair in French in Feneon if less theatrically flamboyant, cooler, wittier as is appropriate for the different culture.

Paul Signac (1863-1935), The Gas Tanks at Clichy (1886), another of Feneon’s protegees.

Ellen

P.S. I’ve been rightly reminded (see comments) by Bill Everdell that Feneon was very important in furthering the career of Georges Seurat (1859-91) when no one else was paying any attention to Seuerat and that the method of painting Seurat uses has an analogy in Feneon’s style. Bill suggested I should have an image of Seurat’s work on this blog and so I’ve added one from Halperin’s book which is of a painting not that well-known as Seurat’s others:

La Rade de Grandcamp, Bateaux (1885)

Georges Seurat Biography
Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859-29 March 1891) was a French painter and draftsman. His large work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, his most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting.

Read more about Georges Seurat on Wikipedia.org

Georges Seurat Coloring Page
Color George Seurat’s famous pointillist masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884).

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte | Coloring Page from MakingArtFun.com

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Browse the Index for more great “The Art Student” resources

(While I’m learning about art I’m also learning about blogging: this following post contains only a few pictures as my education on blogging is now taking me on a journey around copyright issues and until I know more I won’t use more images, and will remove those so far included if I learn that is the right thing to do).

So onwards to the stuff about art …..

I’m tired, it’s a Friday after work, and I’m making a quick well timed gallery visit in the post professional and pre pinot grigio part of my day.

The National Gallery is a marvellous building that dominates one side of Trafalgar Square, I dodge the regal stone lions and the spraying fountains, the hundreds of tourists most of whom are either sitting on said lions or either being corralled by the street performers into tight circles or ignored by the pavement artists busy at their work. I pass ‘the empty plinth’ and for a moment wonder whether to apply for one of the slots that are available to stand on the top of the plinth for an hour and do whatever you want in that time, as long as it’s legal. It’s the new interactive public art work for the plinth instead of a statue. I think it’s a brilliant idea and it made me giggle when it was reviewed on Radio 4 recently. I could make a speech, thankfully the plinth is very high so the tourists and the lions are spared my garbled Shakespearean prose or my ill remembered Alan Bennett monologues.

The national art collection it not that old actually and it’s not long been in this impressive building. Apparently in the 1700’s the government did not think about providing an art collection even for the nobles maybe because the nobles had their own private collections anyway. Then in the early years of the 1800’s a few paintings began to be collected and eventually their number grew, originally they were simply exhibited in a private house on Pall Mall then in the 1831 the collection moved to it’s new purpose built building in Trafalgar Square. So the collection (so I was told my evening class art tutor) is not as impressive as other capital cities possess because we haven’t been collecting for as long. Today I have come to see just three rooms, that is the paintings of the of impressionists.

Room 46

• Young Spartans Exercising – Degas.

A summers day in a Roman field, in the backdrop there’s mountains and hills and the spread of a town; in the middle ground a small group of gossiping spectators and in the foreground five naked boys are looking somewhat nervously at a group of semi naked girls one of whom is reaching out to the boys, perhaps she’s the reason they are feeling nervous. The boys appear to be stretching and posing, one has arms up stretched, one has his arm raised defensively his weight on his back foot, 2 are posing and the fifth is on his hands and knees like a dog.

The painting is presented as a classical work which allows nakedness as part of it’s classicism. I think it’s certainly a talking point but not very entertaining.

• Portrait of Hermine Gallia – Klimt

• Miss La La at the Circus – Degas

Degas has fabulously captured the complicated perspective of the circus tent dome and Miss La La hanging from a trapeze by her teeth. She was a famous circus performer of mixed race parents which although she was a friend of the artist’s, he went to the circus a lot, still made her unacceptable to those who would buy his paintings, for this reason he paints her dark legs as if she is wearing dark tights. I think the painting is wonderful (aside from hiding his models identity of course), it is so evocative of the time.

• Combing the Hair (La Coiffure) – Degas

He uses vibrant exaggerated reds and in this way he led the way for later artists use of colour, the painting was actually owned at one time by Matisse. In the painting there is a woman having her hair brushed by her maid, she sits on a chair allowing the pull of the brush in her hair to cause her to lean back both maid and mistress are relaxed in this intimate moment. For the viewer of the painting the intimate private moment that this painting depicts is highlighted by the curtain in the foreground that is pulled back to reveal the women.

• Woman Seated In Garden – Toulouse Lautrec

The location of the painting is Monmatre, the Bohemian quarter of Paris. The painting is ‘oil on millboard’. Question: what is millboard? I prefer the Lautrec that’s in the Courtauld (see that journey).

My favourite painting from this room is the Portrait of Hermine Galla

Room 45

• Surprised ! – Henri Rousseau

Ooh this is lovely, a vibrant jungle scene with a heavy thunderstorm slashing across a grey sky with a flashes of white lightening. The trees and wild foliage is being blown diagonally across the picture and in the foreground only a little hidden by the leaves is a large crouching tiger complete with menacing growl, bright alert eyes and a very long tail.

Aside: I don’t have an audio guide today cos a) I’m only doing a few rooms and b) I can’t be bothered to carry one, too tired after work.

• Avenue at Chantilly – Cezanne 1888

I like this one, an avenue flanked by tall trees leads away into the distance, light is filtered through the trees and everything is dappled and sunny. Amazing to be able to paint like this.

• An Old Woman with a Rosemary – Cezanne

This is starkly different in style from the ‘Avenue …’ it is full of sadness and despair.

• Hills in Provence – Cezanne

This is very similar to the ‘Route Tourant’ hanging at the Courtauld, which is only to be expected really as they are both paintings of Aix-en-Provence the region in France where Cezanne was born, grew up and returned to later in his life.

• Les Grandes Baigneuses or The Bathers – Cezanne

In this painting there are eleven naked woman lying around

Aside: I take a moment to sit and ease my back and have a look at the other visitors – for fun I treat them in my mind as I do the paintings I ask myself; what am I looking at? What colours and shades and patterns are there – do their clothes ensemble look good to my eye!? What emotions are on their faces? What emotion do I feel looking at them? Do I like them? and lastly cos I’ve worked in health and social care virtually all my working like I also ask, What health issues can I spot? I look around the gallery; there’s a young couple come straight from work neat in their office suits they look like they’re on a date but not an early date as they are holding hands and standing very close. There’s tourists of course, behind me a young English male is chatting a young woman who says she’s from Poland and there’s a skinny old man in baggy shorts who really shouldn’t stand like that, from the back it looks like he’s going to have a pee !

• The Painter’s Father Louis August Cezanne – Cezanne

Now I’ve got a side on look at the old guy in baggy shorts I realise he’s not old or about to have a pee, he’s young man with sketch book in hand, feet planted apart for balance and rest while he does a charcoal sketch of yet another Cezanne painting; The Stove in the Studio.

• Child with Dove – Picasso 1901

I like this a lot it seems pre cubism but just past his naturalistic style of painting. I remember reading that the dove is the bird his father taught him how to paint and soon he able to draw the dove better than his father who recognising a greater talent despite being an artist and teacher gave up his paints to his son. The description on the card tells me the painting is from the transition phase of his career (and I feel good for having recognised this myself).

• Picnic at Pouldu CHECK – Maurice Denis

• The Chair – Vincent Van Gough

This is a famous painting of the yellow straw and wood chair in a cottage room.

• Two Crabs – Vincent Van Gough

This painting is wonderful, it’s very bright and sharp.

Aside: I like forming my own opinion of a painting before reading the description card.

• Sunflowers – Vincent Van Gough 1888

Vincent did four of these paintings, he apparently liked this one particularly and hung it in his spare room which was going to be his friend Paul Gaugin’s room when he came to stay.

• Wheatfield with Cypresses – Vincent Van Gough

I love this, it’s colourful and swirling, full of movement and light yellows, blues and greens. This painting is my favourite in this room.

Room 44

• Bathers at Asniers – Seurat

This room is dominated by this enormous painting. I get up close to look at the very specific brushwork he used and then I retreat to a distance to see it all out once. When it was painted it was shocking to the Parisian official salon and fashionable society because it’s huge size demonstrates an entirely unfashionable attention to the lives of factory workers that the artist must have shown and it also requires the viewer to give attention to them as well.

The factories themselves can quite clearly be seen in sunny misty outline across the horizon and winding down from them comes a river. In the mid section and foreground the river is wide and covers the right side of the painting, on the left side is warm green grass upon which a group of the workers sit or lie about, there’s also a couple of men in standing in the river. The individuals seem seem lost in their own thoughts, sat slightly apart and not giving each other attention, just relaxed on a hot day and pleased to be away from their hard work environment.

All around me are people moving in and moving away from this painting. It’s difficult to imagine what Seurat thought would happen to the painting, it would be very expensive to buy and the fashionable rich were unlikely to want it however maybe it would snapped up by serious art collectors recognising it’s worth as piece of striking modern art, perhaps I’ll research that one day.

Seurat along with another painter whose name escapes me devised a painting style known as pointillism. They were interested in finding ways to depict how light affects colour. The technique was quite scientific in it’s approach using colour theory as a basis, in this they differed in their approach from the impressionists who were using colour to create an emotional impression on the viewer, pointillism was designed to create a physiological response. The human retina sees only four colours red, green, blue, yellow merges colours CHECK and also shades of grey this the brain interprets and creates the huge variety of colours we are aware of. So Seurat’s painting style was to paint vast vast numbers of individual tiny dots of these four colours with the priming white colour of the canvas showing through to a greater or lesser degree depending on the amount of shimmering light he wanted. So when you get close to the painting you can see the dots but when you get some distance away you can just see the shimmering colours that your brain has interpreted out of the four colours used.

Today as I get close to it I see for the first time that he did not use pointillism across the entirety of the canvas some areas appear as smoothly applied painting. – oh well I’ll just have to come back and check this out again and read up a bit on the painting. I particularly love the dog and the boy in the orange hat.

• Akseli – Gallen-Kaileta

A Swedish painter. This is beautiful I’m always attracted to this when I walk into this room, it’s very calming yet I sense a malevolent spirit lurking beneath the waters, so it tingles the senses while it lulls you by it’s still beauty. The setting of a watery ghost story perhaps. In this painting silvery streams of light traverse across a large lake as we look across to the bank on the far side and a small island near the far side. The style is calmly dramatic rather than soft and naturalistic.

• The Boulevard of Montmartre at Night – Pissaro 1897

This painting is wonderfully evocative, it is my favourite painting in this room however all the other Pissaro’s on display bore me.

• There’s some paintings by Gaugin but I’m still not a fan of his.

• The Umbrellas – Renoir

This is a famous painting of Parisians attempting to enjoy an afternoon concert in a park when the sky turns grey it starts to rain and everyone puts up umbrella’s strangely they are all of the same type, a young woman who is without a brolly is turned and looking out at us and young girl child is in front of all dressed richly and holding on to a toy hoop, the woman could be her governess or nanny. No one seems to be getting wet even the woman.

Room 43

The paintings seem to be all florals and pastoral scenes on one side and of people on the other, I prefer the people side. However a couple from the floral side are worth a mention.

• Water Lily Pond – Monet
• Nymph by a Stream – Renoir

She has a round naked voluptuousness and looks directly out at the viewer as if daring you (a member of late 19th century fashionable society) to turn away from her nakedness. She has a small laurel leaf crown on her head which is hint of classicism, an echo that alludes to the rules from the salon of what makes acceptable art. The description on the card says the painting is a strange mixture of classism and realism. This is my favourite in this room.

• Man At His Bath – Caillebotte

This is the painting of the back view of a man drying himself after his bath. It’s not a spectacular painting it’s quite boring really but it’s worth a mention just because for once the naked subject is male.

• Corner of Cafe Concert – Manet

This is so vibrant, the beer in the glass looks so real and delicious, the smock coat and cigar are amazing.

• Execution of Maximillian – Manet

This giant painting is of a firing squad taking aim and firing at Maximillian. There are only fragments left as the painting was cut up after the artists death.

Rooms 41 and 40

I’ve wandered into room 41 but all the paintings in here come from an era earlier than I’m interested in – at the moment.

Room 40 is full of art from Italy 1700 to 1800 which is the Baroque era and it doesn’t take me long to spot a cherub…

• An Allegory With Venus & Time – Battista Tiepolo

Oh my goodness that’s an ugly baby! Venus hands over her new born son to Old Man Time – not sure what Social Services would have to say about giving away your baby, even though it is such an ugly one to a semi naked grizzled old man with wings growing out of his back. Venus is beautiful of course.

Aside: If I can be bothered I’ll research the meaning of the allegory. Now I’m beginning to feel over art-ed, it’s a bit easy to do this here as every long and grand corridor is hung with yet more art. Ok now I need the way out but which is the right corridor and it looks as if I’m not going to get there without seeing another hundred cherubs.

Room 30

• Peasant Boy Leaning On A Sill – Bartolome Esteban Murillo

This is lovely a little portrait.

• Kitchen Scene With Christ In The House Of Martha & Mary – Diego Velazques

We talked about this painting when my art evening class came on a group trip to The National Gallery. We looked at how beautifully it was painted combining portraiture and still life, the eggs and fish look so real and is that a window or a painting on the wall.

• The Toilet of Venus (The Rockeby Venus) – Diego Velasquez

My grandparents had a framed copy of this on their bedroom wall, on his side of the room actually so I always thought of it as his and although it’s obviously got that classical construction which would presumably have made it acceptable to the Salon judges I used to wonder what my sheltered grandmother really thought of this painting hanging next to her husbands bed. When I was a child I think I found this painting quite sinister for various reasons not least that they had it in a heavy black frame and where it hung it was always in shadow. Today I see it in the light and I see and can appreciate it’s beauty and that dispels the remembered emotions.

sitting zen…