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Tuesday 19 July 2011

Lorna and Caravaggio

I love the arts, but I'm not as comfortable with visual art as I am with other disciplines, so when I went to the National Gallery today with my friend it was to sit in the beautiful atrium, drink wine and have a ladies' lunch.


That done, and done beautifully, just as we'd anticipated, we headed off to the exhibit of Caravaggio and his peers, neither of us knowledgeable but willing to do the tour before we hit the Gift Shop.

It was a breathtaking exhibit, glowing with light, depicting sly card players and fortune tellers alongside Mary Magdalene (in her previous role as, if not prostitute, at least languorous courtesan) and St Cecilia watched by her guardian angel while a young man turned her into a martyr.   I still know very little about the peers in the exhibit as there were way too many people to get to read the accompanying notes, but, strangely, I don't feel the loss.  Just seeing this exhibit was magical.


Of course, being me, being her, my friend and I did hit the Gift Shop, but where years ago we would have been looking at Caravaggio-inspired scarves and jewellery, now in our granniness we spent all our time looking at toys and books for kids.  And buying toys and books for kids.

It was a fine day.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a beautiful day!

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  2. I love art!!! I especially like Caravaggio!!!!

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  3. When we go downtown, we park at the gallery and usually browse the gift shop. Maybe we should try to see this exhibit.

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  4. The National Gallery is likely a place I will never visit, so thank you for the peek!

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  5. How I wish I could have gone with you and your friend to this exhibit. By the way, I watched a film this week made in Canada that I just love. In fact, it was filmed in your town. It's Sabah. Have you seen it? It's about a strict Muslim family and the eldest daughter 40+ somehow or other ends up dating a non-Muslim. I was so impressed! Then I watched another Canadian film -- Barney's Version which I was also impressed with. Did you see that?

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