"In Ictu Oculi (In the Blink of an Eye)," Juan de Valdés Leal, 1670-72.
I find this brutally macabre work endlessly fascinating. Death itself treads on a celestial sphere, and is surrounded by markers of worldly wealth and power, while snuffing out a candle. Death levels all; it doesn't care about your achievements, and it looks out at you as if warning that your turn will come.
This is viewed as Leal's finest work, and is part of a diptych; the other part shows the corpses of a knight and bishop. What's weird is that these were commissioned for a charity hospital...quite a thing to see when you go in! But in those days a hospital was likely the last stop anyway...
This still hangs at the hospital, along with a number of other works.
ART MACABRE ☠️ En septembre, j’ai participé au XXe congrès international de Danses Macabres d’Europe, association de recherche sur l’art macabre européen que j’ai rejointe en début d’année.
J’ai aussi publié une analyse comparative des boîtes à crâne en #Bretagne et en #Lorraine dans leur bulletin, et donné une conférence sur les boîtes à crâne bretonnes depuis le cimetière de Saint-Fiacre. 🥰
Anyone else love the look of SH1? The PS1 style is so charming. It added so much to the atmosphere and feel of the game. Things being a bit unclear made your imagination fill the gaps. It's beautiful.
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