History Of The Painting

The painting titled "Ophelia" was painted by Sir John Everett Millais sometime between 1851 and 1852. He was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. The group believed that mimesis or the imitation of nature is the central purpose of art. Hence, they sought a return to a "pre-raphaelian" age of art before the mannerist style of painting took over from Raphael and Michelangelo.

The painting "Ophelia" was completed in two stages. First, the background landscape was composed and then the figure of Ophelia was painted on the foreground.

Ophelia herself was modelled by Elizabeth Siddall, who was 19 years of age at the time of the painting. In order to portray the painting, Siddall had to float in a bathtub full of water to depict the drowning Ophelia. As the painting was done through winter, Millais had put oil lamps below the tub to keep the water warm. Once, the lamps went out and the water became icy cold. Millais was engrossed in his work and Siddall did not complain. As a result of her prolonged exposure to the cold water, she eventually became ill with severe pneumonia. Her father held Millais responsible for Siddall's predicament and had Millais cover the costs of her treatment under the threat of legal action.

Flow Of Time

The painting depicts the character Ophelia from Shakespeare's play Hamlet singing a lament as she drowns in a river. The pose and the upward gaze resembles the traditional depiction of martyrs and saints in classical Christian iconography.

The painting is wrought with a detailed depiction of flora from the English countryside. The flowers highlighted in the painting corresponded with the Victorian concept of the "language of flowers" where the depiction of a flower in art signified a specific meaning. In the painting, the disheveled garland highlighting the red poppy flower denotes sleep or death. In this case, the poppy flower seems to communicate the symbolism of death to the viewer as this painting depicts Ophelia's final moments.

But, the most striking feature of the painting is the portrayal of the flow of time which might not be initially apparent to the viewer.

The painting flows from right to left (from Ophelia's toe towards her head) as per the viewer's eyes. The hues of green on the right side of the painting (towards Ophelia's toe) are deeper and the flora on the right side seems greener and more "alive". Wildflowers, bushes and shrubs dominate the right side of the painting.

As the viewer's eye follows the movement from Ophelia's toe towards her head, the background flora on the left stands in stark contrast to the right. Greener hues give way to more muted shades of brown and grey. Broken branches and rougher edges of the flora juxtapose the more tender and milder geometry of the vegetation on the right side. The left side of the painting is more flooded compared to the right side suggestive of the lower ground on the left side. Hence, the stream depicted in the painting flows from right to the left, from the direction of Ophelia's toe towards the direction of her head.

The viewer can let his/her imagination trace the path of Ophelia as she flows with the stream towards the left side of the painting. We might assume that Millais portrays Ophelia on the verge of her death and she dies as her body drowns out of the frame on the left side of the painting. This concept of the flow of time from life towards death is wonderfully illustrated by Millais through the symbolism of the pastures and the flora of the English countryside.

The flora on the right side is more alive than those on the left (as mentioned earlier) and the broken branches on the left side symbolizes an impending catastrophe. The red poppy is the most overt symbol of death within the frame but this temporal framing of the subject matter moving from right to left, essentially moving toward death highlights the nuanced approach of Millais towards his art.

The symbolism of flower might be the accepted practice of conveying meaning through art back in the Victorian era, but the flow of time from life towards death depicted in the painting by contrasting the pastoral hues on right and left sides of the painting seems to be the more elemental and cerebral choice for symbolism in the painting, particularly for modern viewers who are not familiar with the antiquated Victorian concept of "language of flowers".

Read the original article: https://abhijitchatterjee.substack.com/p/reading-a-painting-flow-of-time-millais

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HOSTING THE OLYMPICS HAS BECOME A FINANCIALLY UNTENABLE UNDERTAKING

The Olympic Games, a celebration of athletic prowess and international unity, have grown into one of the most prestigious and widely watched events in the world. Since their modern inception in 1896, the Olympics have transformed from a modest sporting event into a massive spectacle that commands the attention of billions. However, this transformation has come at a significant cost. The financial burden of hosting the Olympics has escalated to unsustainable levels, raising concerns about the long-term viability of the Games. This essay explores how hosting the Olympics has become a financially untenable undertaking, leading to severe economic, social, and environmental repercussions for host cities and countries.

A Night At The Autumn Festival

Whipped cream clouds rain down from high,through velvet winds in vanilla sky,through crimson dawn and orange dusk,the mind wanders for the soul to lusk.Perfumed smiles beneath street lamps.fairgrounds full of kids and tramps,the lights and sounds engulf and dazeas feet tumble through the human haze.The air is thick with bells that peal,devotees throng the streets in zeal,midst electric warmth and incensed breezethe cutpurse operates with fluent ease.The lucent faces come and go,some from slums, some homes highbrow.life saunters home, those faces yawnas radiant night gives way to dawn.

Once a Night’s Dream

Of ancient lands and mythical streams,Sweeping pastures where starlight gleams.The vibrant green and marine blue,Between them a thousand wondrous hue.This is the glorious world we lost,Our present on future has rendered a cost.A world now only in dreams entrapped,The pastures, the streams and lands unmapped.Marvels only the night can unlock,Of lives beyond time and ticking clock.A splendid genesis of quaint mystery,Fables and lores forged in prehistory.Beyond the distant pelagic climes,Far where the wedgebill chimes,Deep forests where tigers prowl,On moonlit nights the grey wolves howl.Of sublime design this dream I dared,In chains of pedantry is ensnared.The strict straight lines of daily reality,Perpendicular lanes in perfect symmetry,Harsh street lights and electric wires,Astray cynics in dull attires.Air thick with doubt, fear and smog,And noxious vocables of the demagogue.Away from this daily strife and brawl,And sights that invoke thoughts banal,Lies the silver land of visions eternal,Where breezes blow melodies of songs vernal.There, hopes germinate into abundant flora,With method shrouded in obscure anaphora.But the trees turn ashen and the sky grows dark,The land once resplendent is now stark.As grey morning dawns the alarm clock sounds,The dream breaks and the vision drowns.I wake up drowsy on my austere wooden bed,And start to plan my dreary day ahead.

Inception and The Dream of Descartes

The Matrix has always been hailed as one the most accurate celluloid adaptation of the “Dream Argument” of Descartes, but people mostly overlook the Cartesian parallels in Nolan's Inception (2010). Nolan is a storyteller. He engrosses us so much with the plot at hand that the audience forgets to engage with the philosophy of the film while enjoying the film. It was only later after I finished watching the film that I began to understand how Descartes might have influenced Nolan's philosophy. The film begins in a dream and slowly rises up to the level of reality on-board the Shinkansen in Japan.

Haider and The Common Man: A Reading of Vishal Bhardwaj's Film in Arthur Miller's Light

There can be little doubt in the fact the Vishal Bhardwaj has established himself in the last few years as one of the foremost imaginative and nuanced film-maker in India. Much of his success can be attributed to his adaptations of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The Indian-ness of Mr Bhardwaj's adaptations is what makes the movies so critically and commercially successful in the Indian milieu. This points to the fact that something is universal with Shakespeare's tragedies and with tragedies in general.

The Branson and Bezos Adventure

It's a bird!...No, it's a plane!...No, it's Bezos and Branson in their game of one-upmanship of who would become the world's first bonafide private astronaut (sounds a lot like private pilots). And, guess what? It is still not clear even after their respective successful flights. A lot of the controversy depends on definitions and technicalities and who's defining them. One of the technical terms that are doing the rounds after their flights is "Karman Line". Named after Hungarian-American engineer Theodore von Karman, it is defined as the boundary between atmosphere and space. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale sets it at roughly 100 kilometres above mean sea level. Now, some aeronautical agencies often do not recognize the Karman Line as the valid definition for 'edge of space' and many have their own respective boundaries set for defining the edge of space. NASA, for example, sets it at 50 miles (80 kilometres) above mean sea level. Any flight above 80 kilometres is considered by NASA to be a spaceflight. However, even within NASA, this metric has often stayed inconsistent and sometimes its definition was motivated by Soviet and American achievements during the space race in the early 1960s. But, most of the world followed (and still follows) the Karman Line as the defined boundary between space and atmosphere.

Using Google Earth to Study Ecological Imbalance caused by Urbanization

I do not necessarily devote time to writing articles on the effects of urbanization on ecology because it would take a lot of painstaking research and consume a lot of time without any prospect of attracting the attention of the concerned authorities who bear the responsibility of sustaining the environment. Scores of research papers have been written on the topic with no effect. But a Prime Time report aired on NDTV on 20th June 2019 about the water crisis last year got me thinking. The report is available on youtube. In that report, anchor Ravish Kumar alleges that in Bihar water reservoirs and public ponds are being taken over by land-mafias for illegal construction. Now, 'illegal' in this case might be considered a relative term since Ravish Kumar reports that proper documentation of those wetlands and ponds are being altered in government land registry offices by the land-mafia (obviously working in cahoots with the local political system) to remove any evidence of a wetland being present at the site of the development project and thus the property is legally acquired by the land-mafia. Hence, if some concerned citizen files a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against the 'developers' or 'promoters', it is virtually impossible to prove a pond being present at the site prior to the construction (as the records have been altered).

History Of The Painting

Flow Of Time

Abhijit Chatterjee

Lazy armchair philosopher and the occassional poet.

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