_____
Deborah Friedell writes on the right to abortion.
What, really, was Roe vs. Wade? Who brought the suit? How and why? It was not as simple as it appears.
_______
Why this is my favorite painting.
Everything I could say about Diego Velasquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja at The Met in New York—my single favorite of all the art I’ve ever seen—falls away before the painter’s obvious regard for his subject, and his soulful treatment of the man’s unhappiness. But there is a real, and very ironic, reason for that unhappiness. Juan de Pareja was Velasquez’s slave, and Velasquez’s understanding of what that means shows in Juan’s barely disguised hatred of the man who is painting him. How can a “master” so understand the truth of his slave’s' feelings, and so present it? Eventually, Velásquez did give de Pareja, himself a notable painter trained by his “master,” his freedom.
Interested? Read Jonathan Brown’s fine, beautifully illustrated Velásquez.
_____
Bari Weiss and Nellie Bowles are two of of my favorite journalists of politics and culture. You can find Bari’s most recent must-read Substack piece here. “The New Founders America Needs.” It’s a bit long, as she admits in her intro, but contains much welcome thought and advice. It truly is a must-read if you find yourself caught in the dictatorial, provocative, destructive pablum so often being spooned up for you by the alt-left, the far-right, and the stony politically correct.
© Copyright 2022. Terence Clarke. All rights reserved.
“Terence Clarke: Recovering The Arts” columns are free of charge. You can subscribe to them here, or if you would like to help the effort financially, you can also do it here. It’s your call.