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Douglas Halpert's avatar

A fascinating read

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Did he ever paint anything like that on the back of any other picture? What an extraordinary story!

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Brooks Riley's avatar

Three years later he painted a celestial event on the back of a painting of St. Jerome in the Wilderness. I've actually been trying to research this. Wikipedia says it could be a comet (there were two around that time) but more likely a meteorite that fell in the eastern part of Alsace. The visibility range was about 150 km, which puts Nuremberg right on the edge, as the crow flies. What I find mysterious is the red he uses, and the burst-like quality, as though there had been a mid-air collision. . .

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Philip Graham's avatar

What better way to write an essay on art, than to offer us new eyes to see?

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Brooks Riley's avatar

That is a singularly beautiful comment. Thank you so much.

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Rafaël Newman's avatar

Thanks for this wonderful curio, Brooks! Have you seen the windows in our Grossmünster, speaking of agate?

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Brooks Riley's avatar

No I hadn't seen those windows, but I just looked them up. Spectacular! I Sigmar Polke's work was so marvelously inventive. It's a simple idea that becomes breathtaking in its execution. Thanks for letting me know about them.

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Lucian K. Truscott IV's avatar

Marvelous.

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Brooks Riley's avatar

Thank you, Lucian.

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