John Everett Millais: Lorenzo and Isabella (detail), 1849

John Everett Millais' painting Lorenzo and Isabella (National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery) was inspired by John Keats poem Isabella.

The reproduction displayed above shows a detail from the depiction of one of Lorenzo's brothers. Here young Millais left quite visible traces when he re-positioned the elbow of that thug.

In November 2012 the Liverpool museums page said (but doesn't say ist anymore): "[...] On the table there is spilled salt, symbolic of the blood which will later be spilled. The shadow of the arm of the foremost brother is cast across this salt, thus linking him directly with the future bloodshed. [...]"

In June 2013 I noticed that the "shadow of the arm" and all that is gone. Another page says: "[...] salt, symbol of life, is spilt on the table; [...]"

By the way, did you notice that the white salt partially covers the "shadow of the arm"? What a miraculous shadow that is! Has this already been discussed in the past 164 years?



See also: www.academia.edu/10907558/More_salt_To_see_or_not_to_see



Some quotes, which may be related to this image:

“peindre n’est pas affirmer"
Michel Foucault. This is Not a Pipe, Chapter 6 (excerpt), 1968

"An anti-subject painting might effectly conceal its subject, hiding it from everyone except the painter; or it might tease viewers with clues; or it might be so arcane that few people can see its subject: What counts is the retreat from the obvious, unambiguous primary meaning."
James Elkins (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago): Why are our Pictures Puzzles?, p. 129, 1999 (see also book review)

"To say it fully, a cryptomorph is an image that is hidden at its making, remains invisible for some period, and then is revealed so that it becomes an image that once was hidden (and the can no longer be hidden again)."
James Elkins ..., p. 184

"The act of revealing fully hidden cryptomorphs is an act of terrorism against pictorial sense."
James Elkins ..., p. 203

"Only those questions that are in principle undecidable, we can decide."
Heinz von Foerster: Ethics and Second-Order Cybernetics, 1990-10-04 (Système et thérapie familiale, Paris)

Honi soit qui mal y pense