Hoofd en hart, ziel en lichaam

The Economist schrijft over de verbondenheid tussen hoofd en hart in de portretkunst tijdens de Renaissance:

In the final room Raphael’s revered portrait of Pope Julius II has been hung alongside Titian’s “Pope Paul III Bare-headed” (pictured above), which has been lent by the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. Pope Julius, wearing crimson velvet and heavy rings, looks old and weary; living evidence that high office and its trappings cannot stop age from doing its worst. Pope Paul, too, is dressed in crimson velvet and also sits looking old and bent. Yet, here, Paul shows a humanity that seems to transcend the depredations of old age, and this Titian outshines every other picture in the room.

Intellectuele bedriegers

Michel Houellebecq en Bernard-Henri Lévy positioneren zich in hun recent verschenen brievenboek Ennemis publicsals slachtoffers en rebellen. Laurant Dandrieu laat zien dat het tegenovergestelde waar is. Niemand heeft de tijd zozeer mee en hoeft zich zo weinig in te spannen om in het intellectuele debat mee te praten als deze heren. Tegelijkertijd hebben ze zo weinig te melden en zijn ze vooral met zichzelf bezig. BHL zit zichzelf de hele dag te googlen! Lees het artikel.

Decadence, Christianity, and Oscar Wilde's conversion to Catholicism

Oscar Wilde died in 1900, as he had predicted he would. “Somehow I don’t think I shall survive to see the new century,” he told his friend Robert Ross. “If another century began and I was still alive, it would really be more than the English could stand.” According to W. B. Yeats, the Decadent movement came to an end that same year: “In 1900, everybody got down off his stilts; henceforth nobody drank absinthe with his black coffee; nobody went mad; nobody committed suicide; nobody joined the Catholic church; or if they did, I have forgotten.”

Filmtip: Waterloo [1970]

Zaterdag 18 oktober van 15:20 tot 17:30 uur op BBC 2.



Meer info over deze verfilming vind je hier.

Lees het boek van Alessandro Barbero over de slag.