GOING TO THE MUSEUM

            I went to The Met to see this painting by Valdes Leal because in THE VIA VENETO PAPERS by Ennio Flaiano (Marlboro Press)--- who was one of the script writers for LA DOLCE VITA--- is writing that he had seen rushes of the movie and the people depicted reminded him of the putrifying preachers depicted in Leal's paintings that are in a hospital in Seville...
             
         I had never looked at the picture as it is in the same gallery as the El Grecos...but upon inspection the depiction of the wounds and the very ordinariness of the mortal corpse of the Christ...

     Long ago Eugene Lambe who shows up in my ST PATRICK'S DAY another day in Dublin and who had a book and poem dedicated to him by Derek Mahon told me that when going to an art museum you should look at as few paintings as possible... I try to follow this suggestion...and taking advantage of the proximity of the Met as Eugene too advantage of the National Gallery in London as he lived in Long Acre...

          I have the habit of always looking at the Poussin's "Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun"--- a painting that is mostly passed by in favor of "The Abduction of the Sabine Women"--- 

           Today, I noticed the posture of the guy standing in the clouds... some time ago I was pleased to see that Claude Simon had also noticed this painting and it appears in one of his late novels...

             And in keeping with only a few I looked before leaving at the small display of Fairfield Porter painting, tucked away in the far modern country of The Met... Union Square once upon a time...

and this moment:    
        

        So, as in the serenity of the picture of these windows:  it was a successful visit... and allowed me to even remember Julian Green who also made very brief visits to the Louvre where he learned also by looking... the going to an art museum should be very easy and disciplined in what one looks at...

        Lastly, near the Leal painting was a very large complex painting...  

 suggesting the sort of novel I would hope to write but I will save it for another visit--- I am taken by the fellow who has his arm thrown out as if to say: look... but to return to another quiet moment provided by Fragonard...similar to the one provided by Porter:

           Of course none of this would be tolerated by students going to art school... as students are encouraged to avoid going to museums... and instead are supposed to be spending their time understanding the market, understanding their careers...