From The Story of Painting (1994), by Sister Wendy Beckett.
Re Andrea Mantegna, Death of the Virgin (ca. 1460):
The serene sun bathes
lakes, palaces, priests
and the dead virgin,
in the same quiet light.
~
Re the Erythraean Sibyl, from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel:
pinks glazed to whiteness
by the intensity of the light
~
Re the tunic in Titian’s Ranuccio Farnese (1542):
The rich cloth dazzles and shimmers
in the light falling on the boy’s chest --
the red almost bleached out,
so that bright gold and silver remains,
like the plumage of a bird.
Re the monochrome background in the same painting:
the all-enveloping blackness
in which Ranuccio is like a small, lighted candle
"...so that bright gold and silver remains,
ReplyDeletelike the plumage of a bird."
Silver plumage on a bird? This is actually an extremely rare hue, only documented in a few unfamiliar species like bearded vultures, which are not only the only known birds but even the only known VERTEBRATES whose diet consists mostly of bones, up to 90%. So Sister Wendy contemplates Titian’s Ranuccio Farnese while the horrific screeching and gnashing of the enormous bone-crushing vulture echoes all around the National Gallery, or at least, all around Sister Wendy's brain!
It's a frightening prospect!