Sunday 27 October 2013

As a piece of pomegranate (are thy temples)

The colour of autumn.


Wine, flowers in Cornwall and now the same shade again - the violet crimson of this pomegranate bought on Uxbridge Road... Still very much on the Elektra theme.... viscous red liquid dripping from it stains the kitchen table.

It looks so extraordinary - little wonder people read meanings into it. It's a symbol of fertility naturally - all those seeds - and of what else?

Remember once looking at the symbolism of the pomegranate in embroidery : pomegranate trees grow in Paradise according to Islamic tradition. It was the heraldic symbol of Catherine of Aragon, entwined with the Tudor rose on her ill fated wedding to Henry V111. There are a host of Virgins with Pomegranates - by Botticelli and by Leonardo to name a few.  It's not a fruit for the faint hearted.
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Virgin with Pomegranate/Sandro Botticelli

Virgin with Pomegranate/Leonardo da Vinci


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