28-09-2008, 07:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 28-09-2008, 09:12 PM by David Guyatt.)
(apologies -- the thread title should read "due to my interest"... - and not "die to my interest..." Even I wouldn't expect or ask for that sort of commitment to my foibles.
***
Both paintings are by Juan de Valdes Real, he Spanish painter of the Baroque period.
The first painting is called "Finis Gloriae Mundi (the end of the glory of the world):
![[Image: VALDES_LEAL_Juan_de_Finis_Gloriae_Mundi.jpg]](http://img.artrenewal.org/images/artists/V/Valdes_Leal_Juan_de/large/VALDES_LEAL_Juan_de_Finis_Gloriae_Mundi.jpg)
Note that in the foreground lays rotting the corpse of a Roman Pope. Behind him lays the uncorrupted body of a Portuguese Knights Templar. The painting therefore appears to allegorically suggest that 'eternal life' was at the root of the Templar "secret" and that this secret moreover, was not shared with the Roman church.
The second painting is entitled "In Ictu Oculi" (in the blink of an eye):
![[Image: VALDES_LEAL_Juan_de_In_Ictu_Oculi.jpg]](http://img.artrenewal.org/images/artists/V/Valdes_Leal_Juan_de/large/VALDES_LEAL_Juan_de_In_Ictu_Oculi.jpg)
Whenever I think of death brandishing a scythe, I always then think of Monty Python's film "The Meaning of Life" and the sketch towards the end of the film of a posh "county" dinner party. There is a knock at the door. The hostess opens the door to a 7 foot tall "Mr. Death" swaddled in a large black hooded cloak who is gripping his scythe. She turns to her husband and says:
"Darling, there's a little man from the village come about the hedge".
***
Both paintings are by Juan de Valdes Real, he Spanish painter of the Baroque period.
The first painting is called "Finis Gloriae Mundi (the end of the glory of the world):
Note that in the foreground lays rotting the corpse of a Roman Pope. Behind him lays the uncorrupted body of a Portuguese Knights Templar. The painting therefore appears to allegorically suggest that 'eternal life' was at the root of the Templar "secret" and that this secret moreover, was not shared with the Roman church.
The second painting is entitled "In Ictu Oculi" (in the blink of an eye):
Whenever I think of death brandishing a scythe, I always then think of Monty Python's film "The Meaning of Life" and the sketch towards the end of the film of a posh "county" dinner party. There is a knock at the door. The hostess opens the door to a 7 foot tall "Mr. Death" swaddled in a large black hooded cloak who is gripping his scythe. She turns to her husband and says:
"Darling, there's a little man from the village come about the hedge".
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14