Legends from our own lunchtimes

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Silence

It's amazing how after a week of four people aboard, a small boat can seem completely empty after the departure of two, the silence almost echoes from one end to another and suddenly what seemed a few hours ago like a tiny space has ballooned once again to a more than adequate sufficency.

Tonight we sat in silence except of course for the bit when Malcolm and Janet were here and the silence disappeared for the whole evening.

Silence of course gives one time to reflect on what one has seen in the course of one's day, including Mr Richier's extraordinary "Death as a Skeleton" which is quite deservedly held as a brilliant example of Renaissance sculpture. A memorial to one Rene de Chalon, it presents him as he would appear three years after his death.

"It is sculpted in a deeply moving and radically new way" says the popular literature, "The figure is resolute and heroic, its right arm holding a shield and the other hand resting on the heart of the decaying human carcass which stands proudly, its hope clearly coming from heaven."

It is brilliant as indeed was he.

Five hundred years ago Richier captured the state of our Superannuation fund perfectly, as if to confirm that the ATO doesn't have a mortgage on retrospective interpretation!

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1 comment

cara said...

Stunning piece of art

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