Monday 10 November 2008

Leo


Time for a picture - and a change of shape. That's a Raphael, from the Raphael rooms in the Vatican, and it shows Pope Leo the Great meeting Attila the Hun outside Rome in 452 and persuading him not to advance and sack the city. Attila withdrew, impressed by - here's the multiple choice bit: either (a) Leo's evident moral stature, or (b) the apparitions of armed men in the sky above Leo, or (c) the large quantity of gold Leo had with him and the fact that Attila's army was overstretched. Anyway, it's Leo's saint's day today.

2 comments:

  1. Good old Attila, always did like his bung, and the offer of appearing in a masterpiece.
    You are lucky down there in the bottom right hand corner Nige, we only have two of Raphael's paintings up here in the middle right hand, although one of them is the Bridgewater Madonna, the most perfectly composed picture I have ever seen.
    Things may be looking up, we may be sharing another Titian shortly, more big botties to gape at.

    It looks like John Sergeant is rapidly becoming a latter day Hissing Sid.

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  2. Attila the Hun??

    One suspects PC has peaked at Nige Corps. Your credibility is on the line, matey. What will it be next: chinks, wops, dagos, Krauts and Limeys? At all events, I denounce it as scandalously provocative. That should be Attila the Equestrian Reformer...

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