Yesterday, for some reason, I wanted to post a link to this painting, Carthusian Monk, 1446, by Petrus Christus. Why? Maybe because I've been hanging out with monks lately? (twice a week at a nearby monastery) Because I've finally begun to understand something about it? I just really don't know.
I first came across this work about twelve years ago, in my early years of exploring art on the Web. At that time I was attracted to it, but also slightly repelled. There is something about the young man's eyes. I feel he is both at home in his Carthusian habit and somehow struggling against it. He is not at peace, as I want him to be. His beard is also somewhat unsettling to me. I like a neat beard, not one like his.
Now, all these years later, this painting has risen, suddenly, and unexpectedly, mysteriously, into my mind again. I appreciate it much more than I did formerly. Probably the artist has captured precisely the young man's ambivalence about his life at the monastery. The very thing that once put me off turns out to be the artist's real achievement.
I wonder how this young man's life turned out? I hope it went well and that he died in peace, full of years and goodness.
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