Monday, October 09, 2006

I need to get back to the Frick ...

... someday, inshallah. Robert Imbelli has a short but fascinating reflection on the Pope's homily to the International Theological Comission, and the Frick museum. Def. go read it!

The Frick is of course where Holbein's famous portrait of Sir Thomas More is housed. I visited it a couple of years back, and yes, the museum is designed for "chaste reflection" ... I didn't have much time, so I just spent ended up spending thirty minutes in contemplation in front of the (surprisingly small) portrait.

Most delightfully, on the other side of the fireplace was another Holbein, that of Thomas Cromwell, More's rival. And above the mantle, glowering at them both was St. Jerome by el Greco! Oh what a juxtaposition! (And many thanks to St. Izzy for having given me a heads up to look out for this!)

[Link to a page with thumbnails of both portraits at the Frick's website]

1 comment:

St. Izzy said...

When I walked into that room of the Frick for the first time, I cackled so loudly that they almost threw me out. Tommy & Tommy staring at each other across the flames while St. Jerome looks on from above with his elongated digits plonked down into the Word. Whoever grouped these three around that giant fireplace had a great sense of history and of humor.

The scale is all off, and there's no active link to the Cromwell, but you can get a slight sense of the thing by looking at the virtual tour of the room. (You'll need the iPix plugin.)

mwbdw,
Izzy