Friday 25 October 2013

Caravaggio and dark things of the night

A very long day at the office but thought I should - even if tired - walk through the National Gallery on the way to the bus stop. It was Friday late night opening and unusually quiet.
It takes a while after staring for hours at a screen to see the depths of paintings.
Stopped, to try and focus my thoughts, by a group looking at Caravaggio Supper at Emmaus.

This was Caravaggio's last work, painted in 1601, before he went on the run after allegedly murdering a pimp. Perhaps he was himself a pimp, said the guide, we don't know. He certainly liked the night.
"Do we all know about the supper at Emmaus?" she asked.
I thought I did but of course I do not. Make so many assumptions - that all the Bible stories are lodged very firmly in the mind because they were taught at such an early age. They're not.
I had completely forgotten that this was the moment when Christ appeared to his friends after his crucifixion.
He had been walking with them and they had not recognised him.

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