What are you reading Anna
It is a book about Caravaggio
Do you like his work or does the man fascinate you
Both
He was a complex artist and man and I believe he once killed someone
Rather like Outlaw
Outlaw has never killed anyone
I agree but he tells me that he kills people in his thoughts each day
Don’t we all
Speak for yourself
I think that people such as Caravaggio and maybe Outlaw have a strong life drive that is what creates them and without that they would go stale
Do they realise that
Very much and I believe that they are rather terrified of losing it
I like this painting what is it called
The Martyrdom of St Ursula it was his final work and maybe one of his most haunting
Why is that
If you look at the figure directly behind Ursula the chap who is staring upwards that is the artist himself
To me there is a look of resignation on his face
He is facing death
How did he die
From a fever rather like Byron
But he had been weakened by a severe beating the year beforehand outside of a restaurant after getting into an argument
This forced him to stay in Naples to convalesce I believe
This book notes that the figures around Ursula are totally shocked at her senseless slaughter and yes they are but Caravaggio is different as he appears to staring into a void
It is a haunting painting
What is the story of Ursula
It is the usual story of blood and gore
It seems that she was an English princess who sailed from this island along with eleven thousand virginal handmaidens
Well to cut a long story short Ursula decides to go on a pilgrimage but she runs into the Huns who were besieging Cologne which is not good news as Ursula is quite beautiful and the fairest of them all
The Huns were a warlike race were they not
Very much
You are aware of my thoughts about race Anna some races are more warlike than others
I believe in the natural order of things
Not everybody is equal
This is so obvious to anybody who opens their eyes
Even to this very day one can see this
Sometimes the savages conquer but they are always crushed in the long run
That is the way God works
Eleven thousand virgins seems to be rather fantastic
It is there were most likely only eleven
It just makes the tale seem larger and more striking
Well going back to the story all the virgins are slaughtered by the Huns but their leader was very attracted to fair Ursula and her modesty and beauty and begs for forgiveness
He asks her to marry him but she refuses and like any savage he kills her
What I love about the work is the look of mild astonishment on Ursula face as she looks at the shaft sticking out of her chest
Caravaggio captures this so well
In a way it reminds me of a scene from Aguirre Wrath of God when Aguirre’s daughter is wounded by an arrow
She denies that the arrow has mortally wounded her
She denies its existence as she dies
She knows that this is the beginning and not the end
This scene always brings tears to my eyes
I would say that along with Kaos this one of the most dreamlike movies ever made
It is an absolute masterpiece
Aguirre always reminds me of the line from Shakespeare’s Richard the Third
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity
But I know none and therefore am no beast
Anna do you realise that there is only one church dedicated to Saint Ursula in the UK
It is located in Wales at Llangwyryfon
The name of the village is derived from the tale
Llan is Welsh for church and the gwyrddon are the eleven thousand virgins who were slaughtered alongside Ursula
How did you know this
My father was born in the village
He told me the story when I was very young
And what of Caravaggio
Well as I told you he is reported to have died of fever and had probably been weakened by the savage beating he received as in the July of 1610 he set off by boat to receive a pardon from the Pope as he had been involved in the death of a young man in a duel
But he never received that pardon as he died at Porto Ercole on the coast north of Rome
How do you know all of this Anna
That’s easy
Explain
It is all here in the book