A trawl of the Facebook archives produced this, which provoked an interesting memory and a bit of research.
·
I’m just back from a trip out with Pearl: Shipley Art Gallery, Baltic, Sage lunch then a walk around Jesmond Cemetary.
Mrs Yarnfray
Blimmin' hell
- Isn't that as much as a marathon - was this all walking? I know I'm supposed
to be green an all that but still ....I'm not sure I would do that much by foot
Bentonbag Sorry no - but it
was a very small and efficient diesel car - and we did walk from the Baltic to
the Sage and back again.
(this was in the days when we were told diesel was greener
than petrol)
 |
| Hypatia (1885) by Charles William Mitchell |
The
Shipley Art Gallery had an exhibition of portraits: four remain in my memory.
Jemima
the street fish monger, a Victorian ‘slice of life’ portrait, sadly the painter
had made her look a lot like one of her fish.
A
head and shoulders of a jolly looking muscular young woman, the sort you’d like
to go out for a drink with. When I
looked at the information card it transpires she was a pole dancer.
A
charcoal or pen and ink sketch of a man who had a harrowed and haunted look in his
eyes. He was a refugee from a
concentration camp. How does an artist
capture such a look just with a pen?
Finally,
Hypatia, on loan from the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.
A
blond woman with long locks just covering her differentials (as mother and
trade unionists used to say) standing naked in front of a Christian altar.
As
I said to Pearl “Why is she undressed?
Did she undress before going into Church or when she got there?”
The
image is inspired by a scene in Charles Kingsley's novel Hypatia describing her murder by a Christian mob in Alexandria in 415. As she was Greek or Egyptian it’s highly
unlikely that she was blond or had alabaster skin. But that didn’t stop mid-Victorian gentlemen
from their strange little fantasies.
BBC Radio have done some interesting programmes on Hypatia of Alexandria, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and teacher, which are available through their Sounds app/page
Here
are the links, if you happen to be interested and want to hear more.
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