Titiaan ‘Diana en Actaeon’ 1556-9
Actaeon
Hugo Williams
I thought of all my girlfriends
gathered together on a stage,
each of them holding up her year
and smiling attractively.
I lifted on corner of the curtain
and there they all were,
but shy and resentful now,
covering themselves from my sight.
‘I didn’t know you girls all
knew one another,’ I said,
seeing only a tumble of looks and limbs.
‘What are you doing here?’
They answered that they might as well
ask me the same question.
What was the matter?
Couldn’t I make up my mind?
If I had stood my ground
and said nothing, or claimed
to be just passing through,
I might have escaped their mockery,
I might have been forgiven.
Alas, I fled the scene,
dogged by indecision and regret,
torn apart by my imaginings.
Titiaan ‘Diana en Actaeon’ 1556-9 detail
Ter gelegenheid van de Olympische spelen toont de National Gallery in Londen drie schilderijen van Titiaan uit zijn reeks ‘metamorfosen’.
Het betreft de volgende schilderijen:
· Diana en Actaeon 1556-9
Olieverf op canvas 184 x 202 cm
· De dood van Actaeon 1565-76
Olieverf op canvas 178 x 198 cm
· Diana en Callisto 1556-9
Olieverf op canvas 187 x 204 cm
Ter gelegenheid van deze expositie zijn veertien dichters verzocht te reflecteren op deze schilderijen. Het bovenstaande gedicht is een van deze veertien gedichten, de anderen zijn:
Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney, Frances Leviston, Sinéad Morressey, Don Paterson, Christopher Reid, Jo Shapcott, George Szirtes, Hugo Williams.
In mijn KunstKolom over de doorwerking van de metamorfosen in de beeldende kunst kunt u meer lezen over deze expositie, de metamorfosen, Titiaan e.v.a..