What is wrong with...

[verbminx]

...this picture?

It's a picture of Lady Venetia Digby, with whom I am mildly fascinated.


But she's dead in it. Look at her eye. This was painted by VanDyck (a family friend) the day after her husband, who mourned her for many years after, found that she'd died in her sleep. After it was painted, Sir Kenelm Digby said that it was an exact representation of what she looked like. The artist added her favorite pearl necklace and the rose, which was meant as a metaphor. It's a beautiful portrait, but the more I look at it, the creepier it is.

"More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise."

Comments

[tropiquena.livejournal.com]

At first, I didn't even notice - then I read what you wrote.

[shudder] Pictures of dead people with rolly-eyes...

[becomingyou.livejournal.com]

i know the answer! ;)
but don't worry... i won't tell...

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

yeah, but that's because I made you look at it before! :)

I have this bad habit of doing this. Years ago, there was a magazine (which I don't think is around anymore - or if it is, nobody around here carries it) called FAD Fashion-Art-Design. It was mostly dedicated to fetish and clubwear and the issues I had were designed somewhat like Raygun. In one issue they did a feature on this Italian cemetery where a lot of the bodies are buried sitting up and dressed in their best, with a full-page closeup of one guy's rotting face. I used to play a practical joke on friends where I would get them to close their eyes, and then put the scary picture about 4" from their face, and tell them to open their eyes. Predictability: they'd jump a foot in the air. When I was younger and had a theater obsession, I would take my "Ultimate Phantom of the Opera" book that had a full-page closeup of the makeup under the mask, and I would do the same damn thing. This one is pretty tame... and aside from the creepiness, a really nice painting. So I don't feel too guilty. (you know, someone who constantly does practical jokes actually has a kind of hostile personality...)

[tropiquena.livejournal.com]

wait, i must be missing something. help?

[tropiquena.livejournal.com]

ahhhhh, never mind, i had it figured out the first time. i just used an, ummmm, unscientific term. ;D

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

The flowers (now with all the colour faded out) are inverted. A sign for death.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

yes, the metaphor i mentioned. also for "ephemeral beauty".

[verthandi.livejournal.com]

I do not see what is wrong with her eyes.

This is probably why I am not in med school.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

one is closed, the other is half-open and, if you look closely, sort of lolling at a weird angle that doesn't have much to do with the direction her head is turned.

dead, dead, dead. =/

i think i am doing my venetia digby story for nanowrimo. not sure yet though.