Wednesday 15 October 2014

A Walkers' Chapel at St Levan Church

A Walkers' Chapel at St Levan Church, near Land's End, offering water, biscuits and silence.
Gorse on the altar cloth.... and a bench end of a pilgrim heading to Santiago de Compostela (you can tell by the scallop shell on his hat, the sign of St James). A call to action?





Wednesday 8 October 2014

I went to a marvellous party

'I went to a marvellous party'. By Diarmuid Kelley. 2010. Major Chris Palmer of the Light Dragoons.


Ruskin on Tintoretto: notes from Stones of Venice

Christ before Pilate/ Tintoretto










































Christ before Pilate: best seen on a dark day. White figures looks almost like a spirit. Note the meagreness of the other minor figures.
The horizontal clouds shine through the banner.
Pilate looks very mean, intentionally. In the 13th and 14th centuries the figures of Herod and Pilate were always made contemptible.
Christ bearing his Cross/Tintoretto 

Christ bearing his Cross:  troops and attendants are climbing a winding path. There are two turns with figures on the uppermost ledge. Christ is central among them.
The head of the white horse highlights the bright horizon.
The effect is very powerful. The figure of Christ is too far off to be very interesting - the malefactors on the near path are somehow more important. It's 'as if one had been truly present at the scene, though not exactly in the right place to see it."








Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy