Thursday, 26 May 2016

The reading stopped at: “MRS BREEN (screams gaily) 0, you ruck! You ought to see yourself!” (15.431)

Catherine Meyer sends a painting to illustrate this week's blog. She writes:

To start the episode circe, I think we have to enter mabbot street figuratively. This is also the link to my picture. Relatively chilly without too many emotions. There will be more to come…

Having seen so many pictures in museums and art books the descriptive sceneries from Joyce reminded me strongly of the triptych of the temptations of St. Anthony painted by Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516). St. Anthony has always been a popular subject for art. 

At home, I looked up my notes and I was positively surprised to find one relating to Fritz Senn's telling us that Flauber, admired by Joyce, wrote a play called “la tentation de saint Antoine” (1874). According to Fritz,  Flaubert's play was not performed because it was impossible to follow or solve the problems posed by the stage directions.

Joyce probably saw paintings by Bosch and maybe also the famous altar at Colmar painted by Grünewald: one side of the retabel is dedicated to the various temptations of St. Anthony. And like Bosch, he painted ugly, vulgar and voluptuous little details onto the triptych. Other artists, I have found out, were fascinated by this theme, e.g. David Tenier t.y. 1610-1690, Félicien Rops, 1833-1898 and many more.

After we read some lines in the circe episode, a camel appeared (the camel, lifting a foreleg, plucks from a tree a large mango fruit offers it to his mistress…). In the description of St. Anthony's life a camel appears at the very beginning of his life when a hermit bringing him some food. – Nice coincidence.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2016