Several years ago (at Drax/Great Ayton) I wanted to read a part of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. This is the point when I was taught and came to understand that it's the reason why something is personally important that makes the citation all the more interesting.
Quite often, a material object tends to be more involving when you have a connection—knowing where is it from, who owned it, how old—between yourself and the other characters in history with which that the piece as been associated with.
For Girl with a Pearl-earing, I think I first saw [the film of] this with the local link-group at Nottingham's independent Broadway Cinema. I loved the painting, again not initially owing to the beauty of the painting, but because of the [admittedly fictional] story surrounding how the artist created the picture.
Of course, the hinted romantic overtones to the film/book make the drama all the more enrapturing. That last shot right at the end of the film where the camera slowly tracks into the centre of the painting brought a tear to my eye.
The painting itself lives in The Netherlands and is on my list to visit ...when I'm in the right place at the right time.
I saw this lady in the Hague when I was 14 years old on a school art trip. Since then she has probably been a back drop to every major event in my life. Every significant person has sought a piece of me through trying to get me to associate my love of her with my love for them. Yet still I love her not through who & what she reminds me of but for herself. She is still there. They are not.
I have not seen the film. Nore would I ever intend to. I have no interest in conspiracy stories surrounding her. Sometimes beauty is enough & should be appreciated for its own sake.
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Why is it important?
Several years ago (at Drax/Great Ayton) I wanted to read a part of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. This is the point when I was taught and came to understand that it's the reason why something is personally important that makes the citation all the more interesting.
Quite often, a material object tends to be more involving when you have a connection—knowing where is it from, who owned it, how old—between yourself and the other characters in history with which that the piece as been associated with.
For Girl with a Pearl-earing, I think I first saw [the film of] this with the local link-group at Nottingham's independent Broadway Cinema. I loved the painting, again not initially owing to the beauty of the painting, but because of the [admittedly fictional] story surrounding how the artist created the picture.
Of course, the hinted romantic overtones to the film/book make the drama all the more enrapturing. That last shot right at the end of the film where the camera slowly tracks into the centre of the painting brought a tear to my eye.
The painting itself lives in The Netherlands and is on my list to visit ...when I'm in the right place at the right time.
I saw this lady in the Hague when I was 14 years old on a school art trip. Since then she has probably been a back drop to every major event in my life. Every significant person has sought a piece of me through trying to get me to associate my love of her with my love for them. Yet still I love her not through who & what she reminds me of but for herself. She is still there. They are not.
I have not seen the film. Nore would I ever intend to. I have no interest in conspiracy stories surrounding her. Sometimes beauty is enough & should be appreciated for its own sake.
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