Footnotes of Interest :
"Prometheus", Peter Paul Rubens, 1636 - 1637, Oil on panel, 10” x 6.3”, Museo Nacional del Prado.
(Wikicommons)
Prometheus was also the ultimate "trickster" by way of his "dual nature".
Although a god, he was also the creator and caretaker of mankind, seeing to their knowledge and well being.
As such, he defied the gods, raided the workshop of Hephaistos and Athena on Mt. Olympus,
-- stealing fire --
and by hiding it in a hollow fennel-stalk,
gave the valuable gift to man and instructed them in metalwork.
He thus became, whilst still a God, a champion of man.
Prometheus was punished by Zeus for this theft, being chained to a rock, an eagle feeding on his liver daily.
Prometheus also represented "thinking ahead", and then "reaching too far".
Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" was in fact based on Prometheus - and an attempt too far -
and was subtitled "The Modern Prometheus"
The "light" in reference to Desdemona's life is also an allusion to Prometheus' fire and "light of life".
“Do Not Go Gentle Into The Good Night”, Dylan Thomas,his most famous work, written in 1947 in Florence.
It is suggested that is was written for his dying father.
The Nun, from Danse Macabre (Dance of Death), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543),
wherein a young nun kneels before an alter, whilst the skeleton of death extinguishes a candle flame .
Danse is a Late Middle Ages artistic allegory on the universality of death :
no matter one's station in life, the Dance Macabre unites all.
The designs were drawn in 1526 while Holbein was in Basel,
and cut in wood by the accomplished block cutter Hans Lützelburger.
It is said that the originals are “technically the most marvelous woodcuts ever made.
The first book edition, containing forty-one woodcuts, was published at Lyons, 1538.
"The pictures and the Bible quotations above them were the main attractions ...
Both Catholics and Protestants wished, through the pictures,
to turn men's thoughts to a Christian preparation for death.".
(Wikicommons)
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The above : a Whimsical 17th Century Carved Walnut Version of
a "Witch's (Bellarmine) Jug" |
