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Some down-off future, there were seven sisters who piloted their home, the star-rig Prince Galehaut(1), through the cosmos. While passing the star HR 2061(2), they found a derelict vessel, drifting in a wide orbit. With no markings or insignia, and finding the vessel relatively intact, they claimed it and any cargo on board for themselves. Cal, the youngest sister, was given the arduous task of scouring the derelict’s lower hold for anything of value. Making her way through the hold, Cal suddenly found herself in a large, strangely empty chamber, made even more odd by a large image across the rear wall. Although she had never seen something like this before, the words “painting(3)” and “fresco(4)” were given to her brain and defined. Although the fresco depicted many different things, one scene in particular caught her eye(5).
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1. Galehaut is a half-giant knight in Arthurian legend. Galehaut was a close friend of Lancelot and an enemy of King Arthur. When Galehaut learned that Lancelot loved Arthur's wife, Guinevere, he set aside his own ardor for Lancelot in order to arrange a meeting between his friend(1) and Guinevere. At this meeting the Queen first kisses Lancelot, and so begins their love affair. In Canto V of Inferno, it is Dante's description of Galehaut's munificence and savoir-faire amidst this intrigue which impressed Giovanni Boccaccio, causing him to invoke Galehaut in the alternative title to the Decameron. This alludes to a sentiment Boccaccio expresses in the text: his compassion for women deprived of free speech and social liberty.
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1. This friendship is interpreted by some as homosexuality. See Roberts, Anna Klosowska (2016). Queer Love in the Middle Ages. Springer. ISBN 9781137088109.
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2. This star is colloquially known as Betelgeuse.
3. Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. The final work is also called a painting.
4. Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
5. This scene bears a striking resemblance to a fresco by Buanomico Buffalmacco, an Italian painter who worked in Florence, Bologna and Pisa between 1315 and 1336. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Buonamico in his Lives, in which he tells several anecdotes about his comic escapades(2).
3. Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. The final work is also called a painting.
4. Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
5. This scene bears a striking resemblance to a fresco by Buanomico Buffalmacco, an Italian painter who worked in Florence, Bologna and Pisa between 1315 and 1336. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Buonamico in his Lives, in which he tells several anecdotes about his comic escapades(2).
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2. From Lives(1): “When Buffalmacco was still a boy, his master Andrea had the habit, when the nights were long, of getting up before day to work, and calling his boys. This was displeasing to Buffalmacco, who had to rise in the middle of his best sleep, and he considered how he might prevent Andrea from getting up before day to work, and this is what occurred to him. Having found thirty great beetles in an ill-kept cellar, he fastened on each of their backs a little candle, and at the hour when Andrea was used to rise, he put them one by one through a hole in the door into Andrea’s chamber, having first lighted the candles. His master awaking, the time being come to call Buffalmacco, and seeing the lights, was seized with terror and began to tremble, like a fearful old man as he was, and to recommend his soul to heaven, and say his prayers, and repeat his psalms, and at least, putting his head under the clothes, he thought no more that night of calling Buffalmacco, but lay trembling with fear until daybreak. The morning being come, he asked Buffalmacco if, like him, he had seen more than a thousand demons.”
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1. Reviewer: flavorite - ✭✭✭✭ - April 16, 2010
Subject: Giorgio Vasari - Lives of the Italian Artists from Vasari Published around 1550, Vasari wrote some of the first biographies of many famous Italian artists. This is from the 1913 English translation by E. L. Seeley. Vasari is an important resource because he knew some of the artists personally, and at least lived during the same era as many of the others. He is particularly proud of his friendship with Michelangelo. Still, his writing smells hagiographic. He never met many of the artists and is content to tell legends about them that he heard second-hand. It is an important work for any student of Renaissance art, however, it must always be taken with a grain of salt and in light of contrary evidence. I rate it 4 stars because of its historical significance and only 4 because he seems a bit star-struck. |
The scene depicted a group of presumably wealthy young men and women riding animals, surrounded by several smaller animals(6). Their path, somewhere amongst columns of brown and green(7), appeared barred by three rectangular shapes with bodies inside, undergoing different degrees of decomposition. The men, women, and animals all appeared to be horrified by the terrible and palpable presence of Death(8). For an instant, Cal found herself unable to look away, locked in place staring at the fresco, but whatever spell had transfixed her was broken by the call of one of her sisters, inquiring what, if anything, she had found. Cal blinked. She reported back nothing, and headed home.
6. Cal’s brain was given the word horses(3) and then hunting dogs(4).
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3. A horse is an extinct species of domesticated, hoofed mammal, once used for transportation of people and goods.
4. A dog is an extinct species of domesticated mammal, used at times for protection, tracking down other animals for consumption, and for companionship, amongst other things. |
7. Cal’s brain was given the words trees and woods(5).
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5. A tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber, or plants above a specified height. Many trees together can be referred to as “woods,” amongst other terms.
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8. As Cal carefully studied the fresco, the most desiccated of the bodies rose out of its rectangular box, it's skeletal head turning to face her. Cal was fairly sure the definition of painting and fresco given to her previously implied that the image was stationary. Its maw opened and a creaking, wheezing voice escaped from it’s crepuscular interior(6).
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6. It has been some time since I have had a visitor, let alone such a beautiful one...please, I must thank you, young Cal. In its hand was a gleaming bloodstone(2). Although Cal was hesitant, she didn’t share the fear present within the men and women in the painting. She gave an appreciative nod and took the bloodstone from its hand(3).
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2. A bloodstone, or heliotrope, is known for granting numerous magical powers, including invisibility, the power to make it rain, and the ability to restore youth and slow bleeding.
3. The instant Cal touched the stone, she fell into a deep and peaceful sleep, dreaming of a time and place she knew not, but one unmistakably still hers. |