.

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Friday, May 18, 2018

Celestina

Picasso's "La Celestine" (1904)

from Wikipedia:
While chasing his falcon through the fields, a rich young bachelor named Calisto enters a garden where he meets Melibea, the daughter of the house, and is immediately taken with her. Unable to see her again privately, he broods until his servant Sempronio suggests using the old procuress Celestina. She is the owner of a brothel and in charge of her two young employees, Elicia and Areúsa.

When Calisto agrees, Sempronio plots with Celestina to make as much money out of his master as they can. She rewards him with Elicia. Another servant of Calisto's, Pármeno, mistrusts Celestina because he used to work for her when he was a child. Pármeno warns his master not to use her. However Celestina convinces Pármeno to join her and Sempronio in taking advantage of Calisto. His reward is Areúsa.

As a seller of feminine knick-knacks and quack medicines, Celestina is permitted entrance into the home of Alisa and Melibea by pretending to sell thread. Upon being left alone with Melibea, Celestina tells her of a man in pain who could be cured by the touch of her girdle. When she mentions Calisto’s name, Melibea becomes angry and tells her to go. But the crafty Celestina manages to get the girdle off her and to fix another meeting.

On her second visit, Celestina persuades the now willing Melibea to a rendezvous with Calisto. Upon hearing of the meeting set by Celestina, Calisto rewards the procuress with a valuable gold chain. The two lovers spend the night together in Melibea's garden, while Sempronio and Pármeno keep watch.

When the weary Calisto returns home at dawn to sleep, his two servants go round to Celestina’s house to get their share of the gold. She tries to cheat them and in rage they kill her in front of Elicia. After jumping out of the window in an attempt to escape the Night Guard, Sempronio and Pármeno are caught and are beheaded later that day in the town square. Elicia, who knows what happened to Celestina, Sempronio, and Pármeno, tells Areúsa of the deaths. Areúsa and Elicia come up with a plan to punish Calisto and Melibea for being the cause of Celestina, Sempronia, and Pármeno's downfall.

After a month of Calisto sneaking around and seeing Melibea at night in her garden, Areúsa and Elicia enact their plan of revenge. Calisto returns to the garden for another night with Melibea; while hastily leaving because of a ruckus he heard in the street, he falls from the ladder used to scale the high garden wall and is killed. After confessing to her father the recent events of her love affair and Calisto's death, Melibea jumps from the tower of the house and dies too.
Picasso, "Self Portrait" (1971)

16 comments:

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Poor guy had no ears.

Joe Conservative said...

A painter doesn't need any, so long as he has his eyes.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Get Picasso some glasses!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

oh wait he has no ears to hold them on...

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Picasso's okay. He's no Pierre Brassau.

Thersites said...

NatGeo's running a Genius series on him. Antonio Banderas should have held out for a Pierre Brassau biopic.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

All of the elite artists like Pierre Brassau that exposed post-modernism as twittery are being written out of history. Their work should be preserved.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

...unlike that of contemporaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

...or Rammellzee

FreeThinke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FreeThinke said...

Morbid, guesome and grotesque.

Picasso may have been a notorious "womanizer," but his deep distrust and loathing for the opposite sex is everywhere present in his work.

The guy may have had a need to fuck women, but that didn't stop him from hating them –– and possibly even hating himself for wanting them in any capacity.

I doubt Picasso ever LOVED anyone –– especially himself. That Self-Portrait is a brilliant study in Self-LOATHING if ever there was one.

FreeThinke said...

I do heartily concur with the postulate expressed in the Rammelisee video that an artist can create his own world and live comfortably within the confines of his own creation. That is precisely what being an "artist" means.

What an artist CANNOT do, however, is create a unique "world" for OTHERS. He can only offer us glimpses into his OWN psyche.

Art is –– and must be ºº intensely "personal." It cannot be political. Once abused for polemical purposes, artistic talent ceases to create "art," and instead descends to the level of propaganda

Thersites said...

Have you ever seen Picasso's early works? He could have painted anything he wanted to. Instead of going "out-of-focus" in competition with cameras like the Impressionists, he stuck to playing with form, colour, and abstraction.

What I like about his self-portrait are the eyes. The eyes of Celestina...

FreeThinke said...

Picasso's Blue Perod? Yes, I have. Since toddlerhood I've been fascinated by Picasso. Frequent trips to New York's MOMA only increased my fascination. But, while I appreciate the uniqeness of Picsso's vision, I could never bring myself to LIVE with his work in any place I'd chose to
call home.

Thersites said...

Me either. My dad used to paint "traditionally" when he was young, but in more "modern" styles as he grew older. The stuff I treasure is the earlier work.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

:P