An anniversary…

Posted in Life, Precious Blood by Jonathan on November 12th, 2009

I’ve been so busy with life and the U.K. release of A HARD DEATH that I hadn’t noticed that the anniversary of the US edition of PRECIOUS BLOOD was upon me.

By way of commemoration, here is a series of relevant images:

Altdorfer, “The Martyrdom of St. Florian” (1515)

Caravaggio, “St. Katherine” (1599) – I’m fascinated by the whole “spoked wheel” thing. In Raphael’s portrait of St. Katherine from the early 1500′s, the spoked wheel has the smooth, mall-ready finish of something from Pottery Barn. We know she was tortured with a “spoked wheel”, but what the hell is a “spoked wheel”? I don’t believe either Raphael or Caravaggio have a clearer sense of it then than we do today. Notice that the wheel is broken…

Caravaggio, “The Martyrdom of St. Andrew” (1610)

Francesco del Cossa, “St. Lucy” (1470)

I love the demure way Lucy holds her eyeballs on that little lorgnette thing…