Quote:
Originally posted by Michael Cantor:
-
Yes, Caravaggio might have painted ordinary people - but in an extraordinary, stylized manner that focused on the play of light and dark (chiaroscuro - and I hope I spelled that correctly), and the faces were often extraordinarily delicate and sensitive. My problems are that (a) he is so identified with Italy and the Renaissance in my mind that it seems the wrong reference for a poem on Barcelona, and (b) there is nothing "Spanish" about his painting, nothing that emulates the relative in-your-face boldness and simplicity that I think of with Spanish art. As I mentioned, it's a great depiction of a face, and a terrific rhyme - but not for a poem about Spain.
|
I would agree with Michael here except this isn't really a poem about Spain. It's a poem about a mood. There are no giraffes in Spain either. I still remember a magic frosty morning in a small gallery in London's Bond street when
Lara's Theme from "Zhivago" on an accordion wafted through an open window as I looked at an exhibition of Munch. The poem to me is about a bombardment of images that induce a state of mind.
Janet