Introduction and Welcome

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Thursday, March 17, 2016

Raphael - Self-portrait, Vivaldi - Summer, Robert Louis Stevenson - Summer Sun, Rainer Maria Rilke - Song of the Sea

An inquiry from a reader finally prompted me to remove the Tumblr music player from the blog.  It had been keeping it from loading properly on some computers (including my home computer - though it worked on my Kindle) for some time now.  I'm sorry for not addressing this months ago when I first suspected that it was the music player....  Hope it makes the blog load freely for you now and I'm sorry to any of you that have been finding it difficult to view in your browsers....  Hopefully it's working well now.  Let me know if you have any difficulties.  

Our last two paintings by Raphael for this season are both portraits.  This one is presumed to be a painting of the artist himself.   

Presumed Painting of Raphael

This note came in today with a recommendation for a book:
Hello Patti!
I wanted to let you know there is a biography of the St George and the Dragon painting titled The Dragon's Trail by Joanna Pitman.
I found it through my library system while searching for a children's book about Raphael. ( I like Raphael by Venezia for the kids.). While the Trail book is not for children, it is interesting.  I have only read the first chapter so far, which details Raphael's life and times.  I believe the rest of the book will follow the trail of the painting through history.  
Have a great day!
Jennifer


Next week being our last week with this artist, I've prepared a picture album with our new artist in case you want to print the paintings ahead of time - Picasa Web Album of Fitz Henry Lane Paintings.  Thanks to A Few of My Favorite Things - Hearth Ridge Reflections (Feb 17) where she posted a picture by Fitz Henry Lane they are studying and I knew he would be a good artist for this next season. 

Having listened to Vivaldi's Spring last week, we'll listen to Summer this week and Autumn next week.
Summer by Vivaldi I've come to love this piece of music.  I hope you enjoy it, too....  

Continuing with our summer theme, even though it is only beginning Spring where I live, our Robert Louis Stevenson poem this week is 

           Summer Sun


Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
 
And this poem by Rainer Maria Rilke 
 
       Song of the Sea
 
 Timeless sea breezes,
sea-wind of the night:
you come for no one;
if someone should wake,
he must be prepared
how to survive you.

Timeless sea breezes,
that for aeons have
blown ancient rocks,
you are purest space
coming from afar...

Oh, how a fruit-bearing
fig tree feels your coming
high up in the moonlight.

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