From Leapfire to Lightfast

Wishing all of you joy at the Solstice.

I celebrated high summer by puzzling The Allegory of Sight. Working on it was like being let to play with a mage's babyhouse. Of all the fabulous riches in that princely room, I would ask only for this cabinet, with the armillary sphere and the blue-and-white jar on it. And permission to walk in this idyllic garden.




I wonder what's in the drawers?

Dear heavens, how I love these celestial toys, above all the astrolabe and the armillary sphere:





The terrestrial globe, too, is brilliantly cut:




As are the coins with their inset portraits:



And the busts inlaid within the shelves of statuary:



The desk toys, of course, are enchanting:



And the painter, slashed with sky, and his daubed palette:



And Cupid, holding up a mirror to a nymph: look how her profile is matched.



And the floral dancers, like woodwos turned courtly for a prince's May games:




The achievement of arms is a tour-de-force:



In all the maze of paintings in this painting, I hadn't ever really paid attention to the family picnic of satyrs, like a particularly louche SCA camping event:



Nine