At the End of the World

[sdi]

Consider Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl's painting Ahasuerus at the End of the World:

It depicts Ahasuerus, cursed to wander the world until Judgement Day, in the dark wastes at Time's End. He is guided by the twin angels of Hope and Fear. Fallen Humanity lies at his feet, and ravens—harbingers of Death, of course, but also hard-won Wisdom—look on. Perhaps he has finally learned the lesson for which he was cursed.

Like all fine art, there is much to unpack in the painting, but the thing that caught me first is the figure of Humanity. She is depicted beautifully, despite being dead in a frozen world: she is neither frozen nor desiccated nor even pallid! So emphasizing the beauty of Humanity—while it lasted, anyway: beauty never lasts!—was a particular goal of the artist's.

This is also true, I note, of the wise minds that composed geomancy. Puella, the figure of beauty, is also one of only two figures that generally depict a flesh-and-blood human being in a reading.

What a surprise this is to me! I have been taking it as an axiom that human beings are the very thing that snuff out the light of beauty from the world, rather than shine themselves. Clearly I got turned around, somewhere, and if I am to properly master geomancy, it is worth unpacking where...

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[sdi]

As a tangential aside, I was reminded recently of An Apology for Roger Ebert, on the topic of what constitutes "fine art" or not.