Annunciation

                          Mati Klarwein's Annunciation - 1961

Like many people I was first  introduced to the art-work of  Mati Klarwein via an rock music album-cover. Mati Klarwein's Annunication (1961) on the cover of  Santana's innovative Latin-Rock album Abraxas (1970) typifies the  harmonious relationship between rock music and pop-art during the 60's and 70's. Klarwein's interpretation of the Annunciation is a highly original and theatrical art-work.

Nativity

Mati Klarwein's Nativity -1961

Recently on TV there was a programme on the Netherlands painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450- 1516) which gave specific attention to  his triptych altar-piece, 'The Garden of Delights'. The presenter explained convincingly that Bosch used Van Eyck's Ghent alter-piece 'The Adoration of the Lamb' as an inspirational benchmark to surpass in technical brilliance and imagination when painting 'The Garden of Delights'. The presenter argued that Bosch expanded the whole sphere of artistic dialogue on  the imagination and its contents with his triptych.

The more one studies the symbols  and motifs of the collective movement of Surrealist painters, the more one recognizes and identifies quite specific traits shared with medieval painters such as Bosch. Avian imagery for example frequently features in both Surrealist painters such as Max Ernst (1891- 1976) and the English born Leonora Carrington  (b. 1917 - 2011 ) as well as  in Bosch's paintings.The themes of transformation and metamorphosis  set in bizarre landscapes are also shared  with Bosch and often painted with a trompe l' oeile  brilliance by Surrealists, particularly Salvador Dali.

The paintings of Mati Klarwein (b. 1932 Hamburg, d. 2002 Majorca) seem to take the imaginative language of Dali one step further. Dali's artistic elitism held no interest in pop culture or psychedelia although in later life  he was fond  of associating with such movements often from financial incentive.

Mati Klarwein's paintings display a great interest in eastern spirituality, pop culture and the properties of the psychedelic ( from Gk. Psyche Soul/Mind, deloun to manifest). In his life-time Klarwein studied with the French painter Fernand Léger (1881- 1955) but it is the  visionary Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs b.1930 who's said to have the strongest influence upon his creativity. Klarwein visited Tibet, India, Bali, North Africa, Turkey, Europe and America before eventually settling in New York City during the early 1960's.

 Klarwein  shares with Salvador Dali (1904-89) a certain technical brilliance and exquisite attention to detail, along with a complete indifference  to the viewer's ability  to  easily comprehended his message. They both also seem to share a predilection for a large, sometimes disorientating perspective and landscape, a fondness for almost eye-watering, sharp and vivid tonal arrangements of colour, as well as an irrepressible urge to provoke and even shock the complacent viewer.

The most amazing aspect of Klarwein's 'Nativity'  is its early date, displaying many motifs and paraphernalia associated with pop culture and full-blown psychedelia when in fact it originates from the very cusp of that era, 1961;  Klarwein's 'Nativity' anticipates many of  the hall-marks and common-places associated with psychedelia and pop-art, notably in the artistic excesses of that most ubiquitous of art-formats during the 1960's and  early '70's, the rock music album-cover.

The word 'iconic' is frequently over-used and abused by many uninspired writers and media journalists these days but the figure of Jackie Onassis, depicted in  'Nativity' wearing sun-glasses upon a fan  is a deserving contender for the status  of  1960's iconic figure.

I confess to having lived with a large poster reproduction of  Klarwein's 'Nativity'  much to my visitors fascination and perplexity, during the  heady, heat-wave summers of  '76 and '77.

           A detail from the centre panel of Bosch's 'The Garden of Delights'.

Labor

The statuette named Labor  in the Layer monument has the most expressive portraiture of all four statuettes. With his care-worn features, gray hair and beard, engaged in digging, he is utterly Saturnine in character. One can only speculate upon the nationality of the craftsman, but I am inclined to think it's the work of a commissioned and travelling sculptor of the Northern Mannerist school, perhaps from a city based in close trading with Norwich, from Flanders or North Germany. It's only when  close-up that one gets a true sense of the expressiveness of this portrait. Compare how different his face  appears from a  lower view-point  in the photo below to this sharp angle close-up shot.

The Layer Quaternity

Almost hidden from view in the church of Saint John Maddermarket Norwich there's a highly theatrical and dramatic Monument - the Layer monument, a large slab of sculptured marble in polychrome is an early seventeenth century funerary momento mori. The symbolism of its fascinating, yet enigmatic quartet of statuettes  is  complex, but well worth analysis.

The strictly literal-mindedness of our age, combined with the Layer monument's relative obscurity has prevented  it from being identified as an art-work which  utilizes esoteric symbolism. The narrow belief that the Word, in this case the moral label which accompanies each statuette, is a fully-developed definition has effectively blinded viewers from actually looking closely at each statuette.

Each of the four statuettes of the Layer Monument corresponds to a specific archetypal figure. They are Pax 'the wise ruler' here depicted treading the weapons of war underfoot, Gloria,  'the Great Mother', frequently associated with lunar imagery, Labor, 'the old man' complete with grey hair and beard, and Vanitas, 'the child/trickster' figure, not only a cherub and psychopomp of the  recently deceased but also the messenger of alchemy, Mercurius,  who is often depicted standing upon a Rotundum in alchemical illustrations. 

The psychologist C.G. Jung who wrote at great length and depth upon alchemy and its symbols noted,

'the statue plays a mysterious role in ancient alchemy'. (CW14:559)  and that, 'The statue stands for the inert materiality of Adam, who still needs an animating soul; it is thus a symbol for one of the main preoccupations of alchemy . (CW 14 Para 569)

One is encouraged in interpreting the Layer Quaternio as a work which utilizes esoteric symbolism when reading C.G.Jung's observation-

Graybeard and boy belong together. The pair of them play a considerable role in alchemy as symbols of Mercurius. (CW 9 i:39)

Number, along with colour, is embedded deep in the human psyche as  primordial of  all symbols. The number four and its geometric arrangement in the form of four corners or points upon the figure X  was of especial significance to C.G.Jung . He  defined the  quaternio thus-

The quaternity is an organizing schema par excellence, something like the crossed threads in a telescope. It is a system of coordinates that is used almost instinctively for diving up the visible surface of the earth, the course of the year, or the collection of individuals into groups, the phases of the moon, the temperaments, elements, alchemical colours, and so on.  (CW 9ii. 381)

As if with the Layer Monument in view, Jung states of the quaternio -

We have then, two contrasting pairs, forming by mutual attraction a quaternio, the fourfold basis of wholeness. As the symbolism show, the pairs signify the same thing: a complexio oppositorum or uniting symbol  (CW Vol 9i: 245)

Reinforcing the Layer Monument's significance as an example of a complexio oppositorum that is, a complex of opposites, Jung once more as if  having the Layer monument quaternio in view remarks- 

 Like all archetypes, the self has a paradoxical, antinomial character. It is male and female, old man and child, powerful and helpless, large and small. The self is a true complexio oppositorum. (CW  9 i: 355)

Polarity and the union of opposites along  with its resultant synergy was an essential  tool of alchemical symbolism. There are numerous opposites within the Later Quaternio - Young/Old -Heaven/Earth -Male/Female, Time/Space and Pleasure/Suffering are discernable.

Just as the upper pair of Pax and Gloria  represent the eternal 'heavenly' realms, so to in contradistinction the figures of Labor and Vanitas represent the temporal dimension of time in earthly existence, thus  the essential co-ordinates of Time and Space may be attributed to the Quaternio. Jung explains this essential component  of the quaternity thus-

From the lapis, i.e. from alchemy, the line leads direct to the quaternio of alchemical states of aggregation, which, as we have seen, is ultimately based upon the space-time quaternio. The latter comes into the category of archetypal quaternities and proves to be an indispensable  principle  for organizing the sense-impressions from which the psyche receives from bodies in motion. Space and time form a psychological  a priori, an aspect of the archetypal quaternity which is altogether indispensable for acquiring knowledge of physical processes.  (CW Vol 9 ii: 40)

It can also be  discerned  that together the four statuettes of the Layer Monument  correspond to  a commonplace  template of antiquity, the four elements.  The crescent moon which Gloria stands upon is often associated with the element of Water.  Pax, a Christ-like figure who closely corresponds to Sol Invinctus  represents the element of Fire. It follows from the  activities which the lower case pair  Vanitas and Labor are engaged upon, namely blowing bubbles and digging earth,  that they symbolize the two elements of Air and Earth.

In essence  the four statuettes upon the two pilasters of the Layer Monument  represent  a highly original,  profound and intriguing religious symbol. They are none other than a quaternio or four-fold whole of archetypes which represents the Self. Plexiformed in their  relationship and ostensibly a product  of Christian  iconography, the Layer quaternio are in fact a syncretic fusion of both Christian and  esoteric symbolism, a rare and important  example of how  the  symbolism of Hermetic philosophy occasionally infiltrated and integrated with  Christian iconography.

An essay upon the symbolism of   the Layer Monument and the intellectual history of its era can be found here.

Postscript 23rd Oct: The lavish production  of Ken Follett's 'The Pillars of the Earth' set in Medieval England  now on Channel 4, states for  the synopsis of episode 2  - 'Jack's statue of the cathedral's saint has a shocking effect on the King'. One couldn't make up the timing if one tried!
 

Stag

19th century stag (damaged with only one antler)  a heraldic device found at floor level in the church of Saint John Maddermarket.

Gloria

Gloria, a detail from the Layer Monument, Saint John Maddermarket, Norwich.

Carl Jung makes an apt observation upon the symbolism of the moon in religious iconography.

According to the ancient view, the moon stands on the borderline between the eternal, ethereal things and the ephemeral phenomena of the earthly, sublunar realm. Macrobius says: 'The realm of the perishable begins with the moon and goes downward. Souls coming into this region begin to be subject to the numbering of days and to time... there is no doubt that the moon is the author and contriver of mortal bodies.' Because of her moist nature, the moon is also the cause of decay. The loveliness of the new moon, hymned by the poets and Church Fathers, veils her dark side, which however, could not remain hidden from the fact-finding of the empiricist. The moon, as the star nearest to the earth, partakes of the earth and its sufferings, and her analogy with the Church and the Virgin Mary as mediators has the same meaning. She partakes not only of the earth's sufferings but of its daemonic darkness as well.         

CW 14: 173

Woodlands Sunset # 1

Golden October evening light  in Woodlands Park.

Sotherton Coat-of-arms

A detail from the early 17th century Sotherton memorial. 
The Sotherton coat-of-arms.

Norwich Heraldry

A detail from the early 17th century Sotherton memorial

 Norwich City's coat of arms, the Lion and Castle.

Andromeda and Perseus

            Joachim Wtewael - Andromeda and Perseus (1611)

Recently, while looking at  late 1500's / early 1600's art-work of  illustrations relating to alchemy, I  discovered Joachim Wtewael's painting of Perseus and Andromeda. Wtewael's Perseus and Andromeda  is strong evidence that throughout the centuries, the myths of ancient Greece, with their many tales of transformation of mortal to immortal, love-intrigues between goddesses and heroes, and inter-action between gods and man, were a potent force upon the Western artistic imagination.

Joachim Wtewael of Utrecht (1566-1638) was a Northern Mannerist painter who stylistically adopted formal devices such as brilliant and decorative colour, contrived spatial design and contorted poses to great effect, as in his Perseus and Andromeda. Wtewael is also known for combining artifice with naturalism in his paintings and an ability to integrate two contrary aesthetics of Dutch 16th and 17th century painting, uyt den geest (from the imagination) and naer t leven (after life). He painted contrasting works such as Momento Mori,  a naturalistic domestic Kitchen scene, as well as a highly-formalised treatment of the myth of Vulcan surprising the lovers Venus and Mars, a popular myth throughout the Renaissance.

The Greek myth of Andromeda and Perseus tells of how Andromeda was chained to a rock on the shore as a sacrifice to the sea-monster Cetus. The sea-god Poseidon had sent the monster Cetus as a punishment for Andromeda's mother Cassiopeia's claim that she was more beautiful than the Nereid's. However, as soon as the hero Perseus, on his journey from the Gorgon saw Andromeda, he fell in love with her and petitioned  Cepheus her father that if he could destroy the monster he would give him the rescued girl as a wife. After oaths were sworn, Perseus confronted the monster, killed it and set Andromeda free. The myth is immortalized in the constellations of Draco, Perseus and Andromeda clustered together in the northern quarter of the night sky.

The Greek myth of Andromeda and Perseus, that of the damsel in distress saved by a knight in shining armour is an archetypal  myth which has inspired numerous painters throughout history as a subject worthy of artistic expression. Artists have responded to the myth of Andromeda and Perseus from either a conscious or unconscious need to express the freeing of the feminine, or perhaps in recognition of the repression and suppression of the feminine in their respective society, or even simply as a pliable and exciting love and action  story. It's a true roll-call of the Western artistic tradition how many famous artists have been inspired to devote their creativity to this myth.

Beginning with Italian Renaissance artists Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521) and Varsari (1511-74) to Dutch artists Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Rembrandt (1606-69) to the Neo-classical artists Tiepolo (1696-1770), Ingres (1780-1867) and in the 19th century to Romantic, Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent artists, Delacroix (1798- 1863), Burne-Jones (1833-1898) and Gustav Dore (1832-1883) there seems to have been no artistic era which has not been attracted to this most archetypal of myths; that of entrapped beauty and a hero who comes from the sky and kills the beast and wins her love. 

Greek myths in general have been a constant source of inspiration to artists and thinkers throughout the centuries. It's interesting to note in passing that these include German alchemist Count Michael Maier (1568 -1622) who based  much of his spiritual alchemy upon Greek myth. While  the founder of psychology, Sigismund Freud named his first psychological theory after a hero of Greek mythology, Oedipus.

As Christianity developed it created its own mythology, often borrowed and adapted from ancient myth. The story of  Saint George and the Dragon has many striking similarities in theme to Perseus and Andromeda, and in all probability the Greek myth is the archetypal model for the Christian legend of Saint George. Examples of differing cultures and belief-systems distant in time to each other yet sharing similar myths hint  ultimately of the syncretic nature of myth, and are, as Jung realised in his long study of mythology, fairly frequent coincidences in comparative religion.

Remembering that myths originate from the earliest dawn of memory and consciousness and have been  elaborated upon throughout the generations; the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, essentially that of the hero rescuing the  'fair prize' of  a damsel in distress from the monster is in Jung's study of the archetypes, none other than a recognising of, integration and winning of the lesser known, 'undeveloped' or  'other' half' of the psyche, the anima by the Hero.

Jung argues that throughout western history, the male psyche has often belittled or even ignored, often to his detriment, qualities such as passivity, the skill of listening, empathy, sensitivity of feeling and capacity for intuition. Such mental qualities are often considered as somehow 'lesser' or 'feminine' qualities. However, in Jungian psychology, the feminine, the anima in a man and animus in women, are the very prizes which are 'hard to obtain'. Realization of the anima is the goal of the seeking Hero in his perilous quest of individuation, totality and psychic wholeness. 

What's most notable in Joachim Wtewael's canvas, besides its overt eroticism, is its near hallucinatory luminescence in colouration and unusual perspective; these qualities remind one of other artists who were conjurers of magical, fantastic elements in their paintings.

Wtewael's Perseus and Andromeda  reminds one of  both the Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)  and of the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Though centuries apart both these painters possessed a highly polished technique, as well as an inclination towards mysticism. Indeed, both Bosch and Dali painted The Temptations of Saint Anthony (1946) both contributing to Christian mythology, developing the early Christian legend that Saint Anthony, the early desert Father experienced mystical visions during his long solitary desert sojourns.

In their respective paintings of The Temptations of Saint Anthony  Dali and Bosch share a fantastic imagination and a brush-stroke technique able to make manifest  the creatures from their imagination . Their message is that the real monsters which beleaguer humanity are far more likely to be engendered from an inner spiritual conflict of the individual than from any external reality. 

Hieronymus Bosch - A detail from the left panel of the triptych
- The Temptations of Saint Anthony c.1500

The highly spiritual landscape of the desert, a place of solitude, meeting of God, temptation and devilry has become in both Bosch's and Dali's  Temptations of Saint Anthony  crowded  and  populated  with bizarre creatures of fantasy, many  of a flying or air-borne nature.  The monsters in Bosch and Dali are far more numerous and scary than anything in Greek myth,  perhaps because the temptations of  the Christian Saint Anthony involves temptations  of sexuality. Both works are heightened  by an intensity of religious fervour. In Bosch's work one's eye is drawn to the close proximity of  optical tricks and the grotesques which surround the suffering Saint. Above him the sky is teeming with flying demon creatures. In a detail from the triptych  the Desert Father is praying while seemingly helpless in flight astride a flying creature.

In  Dali's painting  the eye is drawn away from the tormented Saint into a deep, seemingly infinite background  in which a procession of  improbably spindle-legged, almost floating elephants emerge to totter through the desert.  Carried upon the back of one elephant is a closet-like Ark enclosing the bare breasted torso of  a female nude. An extremely tortured  image, quite esoteric in its symbolism and almost revelling in its sexual neurosis. The fantastic landscape and drama of Wtewael's Andromeda, with its untroubled and unashamedly sexual  female nude is  no less surreal in perspective and imagery.

Workforce

Workforce (Ryan Moore up) winning the English Derby June 6th 2010

The Prix de' l' Arc de Triomphe is the richest prize horse race in Europe. Well established as a mile and a half race, its open for horses of all ages and is staged in the last days of the Flat racing season on the first Sunday in October; the first Arc was  on Sunday October 3rd, 1920 at Longchamp outside Paris as a celebration of the newly-established era of peace following the First World War. The Arc is as much a monument  to French victory as a show-case for French horse-racing in its reputation. Top horse trainers from Ireland, France and Great Britain dream of winning this prestigious Group One race of international status.

Workforce, a 3 year-old horse which won the Derby by 7 lengths has today won the Prix de l' Arc de Triomphe. Owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah, trained by Sir Michael Stoute (his first Arc win) and ridden by Ryan Moore, Workforce is only the 6th horse to win both the English Derby and the French  Prix De l'Arc Triomphe in the same season. No horse however will ever beat the achievement of  last years Arc winner in 2009, the truly unique equestrian star, Sea the Stars.

Since the opportunity of air-travel for horses has developed horse-racing is rapidly becoming a world sport. The next big international race is the  Australian Melbourne Cup in November.

A Hero's Daughter

Andreï Makine's  novel 'A Hero's Daughter' was first published in 1990. Written in French it was translated into English in 2004 by Geoffrey Strachan. Andreï Makine was born in Siberia in 1957. Granted asylum in France in 1987, he wrote his first novel,  A Hero's Daughter in French but was unable to find a publisher, no-one believing that a Russian could write a publishable novel in French. He has since won  two of France's most prestigious literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt and Prix Medicis.

'A Hero's Daughter' is the story of the young Ivan Demisdov who fights bravely as a soldier during World War II, defending Moscow from the Nazi invasion. He falls in love with a nurse who saves his life on the battle-field, marries her, endures the years of famine and raises their daughter Olya. When years later his wife dies, Ivan begins to drink vodka heavily  and  wanders around Moscow, exploiting his status as an honoured military hero. The main story centres upon the 1980's decade  of Perestroika and Glasnost  initiated by President Gorbachev. Its during this era of  reconstruction and openness that Ivan  discovers his daughter Olya to be working for the KGB as a high-class call-girl. In return for Western-style luxuries and privileges Olya passes onto the KGB trade secrets of visiting business-men extracted during 'pillow-talk' with her clients. The historical events of Glasnost force both  father and daughter, Ivan and Olya, to self-examination and to question their role in society and  their contribution to its moral values.

Although it's is translated from French to English, 'A Hero's Daughter', in essence is a Russian novel in story, theme and insights. As in Olga Grushkin's novel, The Dream Life of Ivan Sukhanov also set in  the era of Glasnost and Perestroika,  Makine selects the 1980's decade, when radical social and political change in Russia occurred, as the setting of his novel.  It's a fertile  era for Russian asylum novelists, offering the opportunity to examine the re-structuring of Russian society from a relatively objective historical distance and to discourse upon the corruption and moral bankruptcy revealed by the new era of  Glasnost. 

Written with poignant moments of self-reflection and realization of individual worth, 'A Hero's Daughter' has been described as nothing less than the moral history of Russia. Its  a thought-provoking novel which displays Russian  themes in its preoccupations and descriptive power; conveying changes in Russian social history through the thoughts and deeds of  fictitious creations.  Another hallmark of Makine's novel and of many Russian writers in general is the seemingly effortless ability to involve the reader in the psychology of its characters, in alliance with an intense understanding of the human condition.

The Green Man

Recently I visited Norwich Cathedral, intrigued by the fact that it possesses more medieval bosses than any other church in Christendom. In total over one thousand sculpted and colourfully painted scenes from the Bible are depicted upon its ceilings, including many examples of  the 'Green Man' in its cloisters.

The Green Man is an elusive figure in Christian iconography. Often portrayed as a man with foliage spouting abundantly from his mouth or peeping from behind vegetable growth,  lurking or hidden from immediate view, there is no real explanation as to why this clearly pagan symbol frequents Christian churches.

Its been proposed that the Green Man  represents the natural cycle of mortal life, birth and death, or perhaps is the spirit or god of the yearly renewal of life; no-one really knows why this pagan symbol can be found in many Christian churches; its mythological meaning has been lost in the mists of  time and  scientific literalism. Equally intriguing is the fact that during the iconoclasm of the Reformation, when images of God, the Saints and the Virgin were gouged, defaced and broken in many Churches,  images of the Green Man remained unscathed. 

Norwich Cathedral did not escape from the iconoclasm of the Reformation. Bishop Joseph Hall (1574-1656)  described the events  which took place in 1643  at  Norwich Cathedral thus-

'Lord, what work was here! What clattering of glasses! What beating down of walls! What tearing up of monuments! What pulling down of seats! What wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves... and what a hideous triumph on the market-day before all the country, when, in a kind of sacrilegious and profane procession, all the organ-pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had been newly sawn down from over the Greenyard pulpit, and the service-books and singing-books... were carried to the fire in the public marketplace; a lewd wretch walking before the train in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the litany used formerly in the church... the cathedral open on all sides ... filled with musketeers.. drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned alehouse.'

Colour along with number is  primordial of all symbols and a vast subject to discourse upon.  The colour green is  associated with naivete in colloquial speech and more importantly, with ecological awareness and  the growing political movement for the responsible care of the planet.

The psychologist C.G. Jung associated the colour green with  life, hope and the sensation function, quoting the alchemical tract Rosarium philosophorum (1550) thus-

O blessed green, which givest birth to all things, whence know that no vegetable  and no fruit appears in the bud but that it hath a green colour. Likewise know that the generation of this thing is green, for which reason the Philosophers have called it a bud.' 

All of which gets one no closer towards understanding why the mysterious symbol of the Green Man can be found in many Churches in England and throughout Europe!  

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

During the week-end I viewed again, 'The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes' (2005) directed by the brothers Quay.

The Pennsylvanian-born twins, Timothy and Stephen Quay (b. 1947 ) are best known for their short-length, highly original animation films. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1969 they have been based mainly in London.

The sources of the brothers Quay's influences and references are diverse and esoteric, including much from East European culture, in particular originating from the art, film-makers, graphic designers and writers of Prague, such as the film-maker Walerian Borowczyk (1923-2006), the authors Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and animator Jan Svankmajer (b.1934).

In their short animated film 'The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer' (1984) homage is made to the Czech pioneer of stop-start film animation. It also features a re-construction of a fantasy character by the illusionist painter, Archimboldo (1530-93) entitled 'The Librarian'. Archimboldo was a favoured Court painter of Rudolph II (1552-1612) the Holy Roman Emperor who was fascinated with alchemy and whose Imperial court attracted talents such as the English occultist John Dee.

The curious artifacts in museums such as Rudolph II's 'Wunderkammer', along with medical collections and psychiatric art-work as well as obsolete mechanical contraptions also feature as inspiration at the court of the Quays. Lesser esoteric artistic projects have involved their creativity in the world of television advertising in which their distinctive animation is instantly recognizable.

The brothers Quay second full-length film incorporates all the strangeness of their peculiar and bizarre automaton with a fine supporting cast and a near surreal plot. The film opens with a quote by the Roman historian Sallust: "These things never happen, but are always." Its an enigmatic and multi-layered story which concerns the fate of a famous opera singer Malvina van Stille (Amira Casar). On the evening before her wedding to Adolfo, (Cesar Sarachu) whilst singing an aria from Vivaldi's Nisi Dominus entitled, 'For so he gives his beloved dreams',  she seemingly dies and is abducted by Doctor Droz to his remote Mediterranean villa, cum sanatorium, where she is revivified. Near-mute, veiled and hypnotized, she remains under Dr. Droz's spell. The mysterious character of Dr. Droz has echoes of Prospero, Svengali, Caligari, Mabuse and Frankenstein all rolled into one. Acted by Gottfried John, a German actor who frequently appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, the mad genius of Dr. Droz is portrayed with a droll, dry sophistication. Dr Droz is also the sinister master of a small gang of robotic odd-job men at his villa who at turns are gardeners, henchmen and stage-performers. Droz invites a piano tuner named Filberto (Cesar Sarachu in a dual role) to his Villa, to inspect his seven hydraulically operated automata, while also preparing to stage a 'diabolical opera' unlike any other with Malvina performing.

Early in the film there is an allusion to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, a force of nature which rumbles ominously in the back-ground to the disturbing automata Filberto is challenged to maintain. The piano tuner is distracted from his task by the seductive attentions of the beautiful maid, Assumptia (Assumptia Serna). It is however Filberto's fatal attraction towards Dr. Droz's silent, veiled patient, Malvina which proves to be the nemesis of his eventual, astounding fate.

As ever with the brothers Quays rich pot-pourri of sources and references are involved. The plot of Adolfo Bioy's novella, 'The Invention of Morel' and Jules Verne's story, 'The Carpathian Castle' are both cited as literary influences upon the plot. However, like the Surrealists before them, the brothers Quay exploration of the workings of the unconscious psyche, along with show-casing their highly-original creativity is foremost among their artistic preoccupations. The crowning artistic glory of 'The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes' is that the clockwork, cogs and strings of the Quay's strange automata and puppets feature as an integral part of the film's story.

In a short scene featuring one of the brothers Quay marvellous automata, the grinding teeth and writhing tongue of a grotesque figure occurs in Filberto's dream, a highly suggestive allusion to the distorted and unconscious perspective of the senses whilst asleep. In fact 'The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes', like several of the Quay's animation shorts, contains a succession of dream-like images which can react upon and disturb the complacency of the viewer's unconscious psyche.

Described as 'a hermetic vision which is as beautifully seductive as it is chillingly inaccessible, with mise-en-scene like a baroque painting by an Old Master', by one film critic, don't expect to see a film with lots of action, dialogue and a simple plot to follow. Do however expect an exquisitely photographed, rich in tonal palate, well-acted film in which fascinating animation is featured, all conjured by the brothers Quay. It's a film which may well leave you wondering about the nature of illusion and dreams and which may engender a fascination, not unlike one of Dr.Droz's automata which compels one to return to view its surrealistic tale again! In brief, as time will surely demonstrate, a 21st century master-piece of cinema!

The City of Lost Children

'The City of Lost Children' (1995) is a highly imaginative blend of fantasy, science-fiction and fairy-story by the French film-makers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Set in a dystopian world of steel-grey docklands and a phosphorescent green sea, the action involves a semi-robotic gang of one-eyed henchmen called Cyclops who kidnap children for the evil Doctor Krank (Daniel Emilfork) to 'feed' upon their dreams. The crazy doctor Krank is the resident of a sea-rig laboratory along with Uncle Irvin, a disembodied brain who floats in an aquarium and six identical cloned brothers, amazingly filmed and acted by Dominique Pinon.

When Krank's hench-men the Cyclops, kidnap the young brother of circus strong-man One (Ron Perlman), he unites with Miette (Judith Vittet), the ring-leader of a gang of children who are the enforced subjects of sadistic and conjoined school-mistresses, to rescue him. The blossoming romance between the adult strong-man One and the nine-year old orphan heroine Miette is particularly touching, challenging and transcending taboo notions of relationships between child and adult.

Together Jeunet and Caro conjure up an imaginative and claustrophobic landscape in which sets, special effects, photography, fast narrative pace and performances equally contribute to a brilliant film. It's a self-contained world in which lugubrious fog-horns, low-tech mechanisms and humorous sequences of cause and effect occur. Among the many inventive special effects throughout the film the sight of a Titanic-sized ocean-liner crashing through dock-lands, is particularly stunning.

Not unlike Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' (1985) and their earlier collaboration, also set in a dystopia, 'Delicatessen' (1990) Jenet and Caro's artistic agenda is in essence a discourse upon the world of appearances and the loss of soul in the modern world. As the credits roll the sound-track features the distinctive voice of Marianne Faithfull singing, 'Who will take your dreams away?'

Plums

Plums are just about ripe now. They are another fond memory of childhood summers spent with my Grandmother.

My garden still has the statutory two fruit trees planted by a progressive City Council for every tenancy almost nearly 60 years ago. The pear-tree is a bit decrepit now, but one can't imagine social-housing planning planting fruit-trees for tenants anymore. However the Norwich Labour Party's fruit-tree scheme was more of a remedial measure to ease the malnutrition and poverty of the working population. For although the City of Norwich can boast of being England's second City circa 1400-1700, historically it has also for centuries been recorded as one of the lowest paid regions of the UK.

Peacock and Speckled Wood

After a month of overcast, rainy weather, summer and butterflies return! The gaudy and gorgeous peacock Inachis io loves to feed on buddleia.

In contrast to the peacock's bold markings the camouflage of the speckled wood Parage aegeria tircis, snapped in my garden today.

Browne miscellanea

In addition to the major works of Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), namely Religio Medici, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, the 1658 two-in-one Discourses, 'Urn-Burial' and 'The Garden of Cyrus' and the posthumously published 'Christian Morals', there are a number of minor and miscellaneous writings by Browne.

Foremost amongst his minor writings are the 12 miscellaneous tracts. Topics as diverse as botany in the Bible, the Saxon language, ancient earthworks, a Nostradamus-like prophecy on the world's future as well as an inventory of lost and imaginary books, pictures and objects, constitute the bulk of the 12 miscellaneous tracts available on-line.

The collected miscellaneous writings of Sir Thomas Browne are a detailed portrait of the learned physician and his many hobbies and interests; they also give a unique insight into life in 17th century Norwich and Norfolk. Browne's notes on the Natural History of Norfolk in particular remains a valuable and fascinating record. Reprinted as a separate volume in 1905, it was considered worthy of study by the renowned Naturalist Ted Ellis. Browne's descriptions of rural Norfolk in the 17th century read as a much wilder habitat, densely populated with all manner of bird-life. His occasional usage of the phrase 'Broad waters', from where the very term 'Norfolk Broads' originates is of particular note.

Browne describes Norfolk bird-life and his witnessing of bird behaviour against a predator thus-

Teale, Querquedula, wherein scarce any place more abounding. The condition of the country & the very many decoys, especially between Norwich and the sea, making this place very much to abound in wilde fowle..........Divers sorts of Eagles come over & are seen in the winter, & especially such as pray upon fowle in broad waters & marshes.......Fulicae cottae, cootes, in very great flocks upon the broad waters. Upon the appearance of a Kite or buzzard I have seen them unite from all parts of the shoare in strange numbers, when if the Kite stoopes neare them they will fling up and spread such a flash of water up with their wings that they will endanger the Kite, & so keepe him of agayne & agayne in open opposition;

Falconry terms are not only alluded to in Religio Medici (Part 1 :10)  as well as  a short tract on Falconry among the miscellaneous tracts (tract 5), the question as to how much Browne was a keen bird-fancier and a participant in the gentleman's sport of hawking is made clearer through a perusal of the miscellaneous writings.

Some fenne Eagles shott in the wing, I have known kept a year or 2 after & fed with guts, fish herrings, or any offell; very tame and inoffensive. An Aquila Gesneri, or of the great sort, was given me in this countrie which I kept 2 years feeding it only with cats, puppes, and rats, without any water all that time. I offered it a gentleman to make a flight at the Bustard, butt it succeeded not. It was presented at last to the College of Physitians at London, where it perished in the common fire.

Far from a puritan in his tastes, Browne was  perhaps an epicure in his dining habits. In an age of few pleasures its amusing to read in his Notes on the cookery of the Ancients

I wish we knew more clearly the aids of the ancients, their sauces, flavours, digestives, tasties, slices, cold meats, and all kinds of pickles. Yet I do not in dining know whether they would have surpassed salted sturgeons’ eggs, anchovy sauce, or our royal pickles.

Browne's gourmet tendencies are confirmed in this commonplace notebook entry -

Take a Legge of mutton, roast it gently & slash it that the gravie may come out & so agayne till it will runne: then take the gravie & lett it seperate the fat by cooling, then put thereto a quarter of a nuttmegge, a small sprigge of Rosmarie, & a little Thmye: set it upon a gentle fire and add unto it 2 spoonfulls of claret & a little salt. You may if you please beat up the yelke of an egge therewith & take x or xii spoonfulls. 2 neat pickles may bee contrived, the one of oysters stewed in their owne liquor with Thyme, Lemon pill... olive, onyon, mace, pepper; adding Rhenish wine, elder vinegar, 3 or 4 pickle cowcumbers. Another with equall parts of the liquor of oysters & the liquor that runs from herings newly salted, with the former Ingredients, adding upon occasion, dissolving anchovie therein, or pickling therin a few smelts, or Garlick, especially the seeds thereof. High esteem was made of Garum by the ancients, & was used in sawces, puddings, &c. If simply made with Aromatic mixture, as is delivered, it cannot butt have an ungrateful smell, however a haut goust & appetisant tange, for it was the liquore or the resolution of the gutts of fishes, salt and insolated. This way may bee tried by us yeerly, & is still continued in Turkey. And may bee made out of the entralls of mackarel, the liquor that runs from the herings, wh. may dissolve Anchovies other Apnia's, & with mixture of oysters & Limpetts & testaceous fishes,....whereof every one makes his one pickle varieth the taste of sea water. The neatest way is to have pickles always readie, wherein wee may make additions at pleasure, or use them simply in sawces. The ancients loaded their pickles with cummin seed & the like, distasteful unto our senses.

Meticulous attention to detailed description in Browne's cookery notes is equally evident in his 'elaboratory' operations. Indeed some alchemists even likened the art of alchemy to cookery. Not only is alchemy discussed in Religio Medici, but many esoteric authors are listed as once in his library. There's also the fact that the 1658 Discourses are constructed upon esoteric schemata, employing highly-original symbolism of considerable psychological depth; as well as his recording of many experiments in his 'elaboratory' such as -

Take 2 ounces of purified sylver and with twice or thrice as much of the best aqua fortis dissolve it in a boltshead. Then poure your solution into a glassse body covered with his Alembick, and so upon sand drawe of about half the humidity of the Aq. fortis. Let your vessells coole, and you will find you have obtained a substance somewhat like salt, which putt into as good a crucible as you can gett, lett your fire bee gentle at the beginning least your matter boyle over; and so encrease it by degrees till it commeth to bubble, and looke like an oyle at the bottome of your cruicible. Then you may pour it out into such a pot as is used for Regulus antimonii or any other as you shall thinck more convienient. This is the sylver caustick.

Although he heartily recommended William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood to his disciple Henry Power, and is credited in the OED for introducing words such as 'medical' 'pathology' and 'hallucination' into the English language, Browne also entertained some ideas on medicine which are nowadays considered bizarre by modern sensibilities. His medical credentials, like his scientific credentials are Janus-like and float between the rational, modern world and the older, esoteric tradition of correspondences. His medical recommendation for gout, a common consequence for members of the English gentry who lived a leisurely life with a rich diet.

If you have a mind to proceed farther, you may trie amulets & transplantation: may trie the magnified amulet in Muffetus of spiders leggs worne in a peece of deeres skinne, or tortoyses or froggs leggs cutt of alive and wrapt up in the skinne of a kid: may give pultisses taken from the affected part of a dogge & lett a whelp lay in the bed with you. And may also consider the Sigill of Paracelsus.

A great deal of original eye-witness material upon the social life of Norwich can be found in Browne's miscellaneous writings, especially in his letters and note-books. Always interested in the human aspect, in particular the unusual element, a short note exists on a 'binge-drinking' session in seventeenth century Norwich. With the preciseness of a reporter and without any moralizing on the matter, doctor Browne writes with evident interest -

Rob. Hutchinson at the Wheatsheaf in St. Peters in Norwich dranck a gallon of Brandie burnt & sweetend in the month of June 1675 in the space of 14 howers. Hee drank it hot, fell into a fever & complained of an extra-ordinarie burning in his stomack, butt recovered in 7 dayes, with a great loathing for Brandie after. He is aged 56. Another man who drank with him dranck also a gallon of burnt brandie for his share & road home into the countrie after it, and seemed not to suffer any more then a burning heat in his stomack for some days. Hee dranck a good quantitie of beere after hee made an end of his gallon of brandie.

And finally, just occasionally, whenever the demands of his profession abated, his duties as head of a large household eased and upon completion of religious worship and prayer, Browne somehow found time to jot down the odd philosophical aphorism, some of which were later used into his literary works. These little-known aphorisms are an assortment of curious psychological self-portraits, occasional prophetic remarks, witty aesthetic judgments and tiny gems of wisdom. Such examples include-

* I attained my purpose and came to reach this port by a bare wind, much labour, great paynes and little assistance.

* I cannot fancy unto myself a more acceptable representation or state of things then if I could see all my best friends, and worthy acquaintance of fourtie yearres last past, upon the stage of the world at one time.

* Hee that found out the line of the middle motion of the planets holds an higher mansion in my thoughts then hee that discovered the Indies, and Ptolomie that sawe no farther then the feet of the Centaur, then hee that hath beheld the snake of the southern pole.

* The rationall discoverie of things transcends their simple detections whose inventions are often casuall & secondaries unto intention. Many things are casually or frequently superadded unto the best authors & the lines of many made to contain that advantageous sense which they never intended.

* In a peece of myne published long ago the learned Annotator/commentator hath paralleled many passages with other of Mountaignes essays, whereas to deale clearly, when I penned that peece I had never read 3 leaves of that Author & scarce more ever since.

* If the substantial subject be well forged out, we need not examine the sparks, which irregularly fly from it.

The Magic Christian

Last night I watched Joseph MacGrath's adaption of Terry Southern's 1960 novel 'The Magic Christian' (1969). Call me culturally biased but it seems to me that this British production of a Southern novel is a slightly more sympathetic adaption than 'Candy'. Nevertheless like 'Candy' it was creaky and badly-outdated viewing in places, even with the author writing the screen-play. The film has a song written especially for it by Paul MacCartney, with the band Badfinger performing 'Come and get it', as well as a number of cameo appearances, including British comedians, Graham Garden, Spike Milligan and John Cleese.

By far the highlight of the film and the funniest sequences occur aboard S.S. Magic Christian, a luxury cruiser including Yul Brynner in glamorous drag and boa-feathers crooning 'Mad about the Boy' to a shy Roman Polanski, a rampaging escaped King Kong gorilla, Dracula in the form of Christopher Lee frightening passengers, a genial but drunken Captain at the helm of S.S Magic Christian (Wilfred Hyde White) which is motored by galley-mistress Raquel Welch wearing a fur bikini and cracking a whip on topless female rowers; I lost count of how many celebrities make a fleeting cameo appearance in this film.

The message that, 'Everyone has their price' by the multi-millionaire Sir Guy Grand, acted by Peter Sellers, to his adopted son Ringo Starr, is demonstrated throughout the film, sometimes with funny consequences. The film's conclusion which highlights Sir Guy Grand's message, is a scene which shows that people will do anything, no matter how degrading to acquire money, even climbing into a large vat of vile fluids to collect bank-notes scattered in it. In essence, Terry Southern's black satire is an acerbic indictment  which satirizes the effects of amoral consumer capitalism upon ethics and morality.

Sunflower

I'm not a very green-fingered person so I was well pleased that at least one seed from the packet flowered! 

Poets have often been inspired by Sunflowers, William Blake for example -

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the Sun:

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the travellers journey is done. 

Where the Youth pined away with desire,

And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow: 

Arise from their graves and aspire, 

Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

The American poet Allen Ginsburg (1926-97) in his 'Sunflower Sutra' (195) was inspired by the Sunflower to write-

Look up at the Sunflower, he said, there was a dead gray shadow against the sky, big as a man, sitting dry on top of a pile of ancient sawdust....

A perfect beauty of a sunflower! A perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence!

The British Liverpudlian poet Brian Patten (b.1946) in a first-line entitled poem from the collection 'Vanishing Trick' (1976) wrote of sunflowers-

You missed the sunflowers at their height
Came back when they were bent and worn
And the gnats, half-froze, fell one by one...

Sir Thomas Browne in his Discourse 'The Garden of Cyrus' noted-

A like ordination there is in the favaginous Sockets, and Lozenge seeds of the noble flower of the Sunne. Wherein in Lozenge figured boxes nature shuts up the seeds, and balsame which is about them. 

- Chapter 3

It cannot be coincidental that the Sunflower is featured in the Discourse, 'The Garden of Cyrus',  symbolically it's the Solar half of the 1658 literary diptych. 

The pattern enclosed within the seed-structure of the Sunflower-head is a fine example of 'how nature geometrizeth' and exemplary of the 'Quincunciall Lozenge' pattern as illustrated in the Discourse's frontispiece.

1658 Frontispiece to The Garden of Cyrus

The pattern of seeds in the Sunflower are also a good example of the Fibonacci sequence of numbers in Nature. The Fibonacci number sequence, a mathematical progression can be detected in many works of nature. The spiral structure of the Pineapple and Pine-cone also have the Fibonacci numbers in their structure. They too are noted in 'Cyrus'. Browne's own highly symbolic number, the number five is included as part of the Fibonacci sequence -  1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8- 13 - 21 - 34 - 55

Fibonacci pattern in Sunflower head

There's a big difference between the top and bottom photo's posted. Taken withi minutes of each other, one is against a background of sky, the other in a dark corner, revealing the strong effect that bright light and shade has upon colours.

Ginseng

It's often imagined that the use of the root plant Ginseng in 'complementary' or 'alternative' medicine is a relatively new phenomenon, but in fact the trade and medical use of Ginseng has a long history.

There are several claims surrounding the discovery and trade of Ginseng in North America. One source states that it was found growing in Quebec in 1716 by Father Lofitau, a Jesuit Missionary to the Iroquois Indians. Another source claims that American settlers discovered Ginseng in New England in the mid 1700’s. It is known for certain however that by the late 1700's the trade in the shipment of Ginseng from America to China made considerable profit.

Perhaps because the fleshy Ginseng root is shaped resembling the body and limbs of a human, all manner of medical and 'all-healing' properties have been attributed to it. It is scientifically recognised for its anti-carcinogenic and antioxidant properties. Widely cultivated in China for centuries Ginseng is used in Chinese medicine as a muscle relaxant. As early as the 17th century one English doctor noted of Ginseng -

Deare Sonne, - You did well to observe Ginseng. All exotick rarities, especially of the east, the East India trade having encreased, are brought in England, and the profitt made therof. Of this plant Kircherus writeth in his China illustrata, pag. 178, cap. "De Exoticis China plantis".

This extremely early reference to Ginseng, highlights the deep similarity of mind shared by both seventeenth century scholars. Sir Thomas Browne established a European reputation for himself as a scientist, botanist, archaeologist and commentator upon comparative religion with the publication of his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-76); a work which also frequently cites, 'that eminent example of industrious Learning, Kircherus'.

The various scholastic commendations applied to Kircher as "the last Renaissance man" (Edward W. Schmidt), "a giant among seventeenth-century scholars", "one of the last thinkers who could rightfully claim all knowledge as his domain" (Alan Cutler); and perhaps most aptly of all, 'the supreme representative of Hermeticism within post-Reformation Europe' are equally applicable of Kircher's follower, Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich. As to whether either Kircher or Browne actually ever acquired or ingested Ginseng, it is not known, perhaps not!

Candy

These days I often purchase books from Charity shops enjoying finding random literature to read. Terry Southern's 'Candy' (1958) was one such book. Hailed as the 'first and best of our new wave of American writers, defining the cutting edge of black comedy' (Joseph Heller), Terry Southern's 'Candy' is a parody of Voltaire's 'Candide'. It's a satirical story of a big-hearted blonde who finds her affectionate nature invariably exploited. Candy's adventure to find the meaning of life discovers that American society is obsessed with sex and that every man she so innocently encounters only wants to have sex with her!

Well-written snappy dialogue, quite funny and playful in its depiction of sex, it's hard to believe that in England a book as tame as D.H.Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' with its occasional vulgar word was the test-case for the Obscene publications Act of 1959, while in America, 'Candy' a non-stop erotic comedy which borders on pornography at times, could be published with little public concern. It does get a little tiresome to read the phrase 'clitoral stimulation' over and over again, as if a naughty school-boy is writing, but then for 1958 that is quite a daring phrase. Ten years after its publication a film of the book was made which quite frankly must be one of the biggest turkey's of all time. Luckily a friend's phone-call interrupted my viewing a hammy performance by Richard Burton, a mere 17 minutes into the film. I simply could not return to watch further cringe-worthy performances by the likes of Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr.

Early in his career Southern seems to have met and been revered by nearly everyone associated with the 'Counter-Culture'. In Greenwich Village he associated with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Living in Paris he heard musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis perform. He also met leading French intellectuals Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. In London he befriended the painter Francis Bacon, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, appearing on the cover of 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club' album in sun-glasses.

Interspersed in Terry Southern's life (1924-1995) one of promise, disappointment, unsuccessful projects and an increasing reliance upon amphetamine pills, are several note-worthy screen-plays for 'cult' films. His career as a screen-writer developed when the maverick actor Peter Seller's gave a copy of his favourite book, Southern's 'The Magic Christian' to the film-director Stanley Kubrick to read. Terry Southern's screen-plays includes the films Doctor Strangelove (1964), Barbarella (1967), Easy Rider (1968) and the film of his novel 'The Magic Christian' (1969) which like Candy was written ten years earlier.

'The Magic Christian' is the vehicle for some of Southern's blackest humour in which he demonstrates that people will do anything, absolutely anything to acquire money. The writer Hunter S. Thompson said of the novel , 'I started reading The Magic Christian and I thought I was going to go insane... it was an incredible influence on me.' The film of 'The Magic Christian' (1969) is not a complete turkey but episodic and uneven with many cameo appearances including Roman Polanski, Yul Brynner, Raquel Welch as well as British comedians, John Cleese, Grahame Chapman and Spike Milligan.

Terry Southern's life, like so many artists associated with the 'Counter-culture' was cut short prematurely through his heavy drinking and drug-abuse. His black humour and sly surreal perspective upon American society and its values has many imitators but he was one of the first American 'counter-culture' writers to gain fame and notoriety. His influence endures.