JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE, ANTOINE ! Some arts and one question

[fatimahcrossin.livejournal.com]

Today is the 241th anniversary since Antoine Saint-Just's birth. All the best to my most beloved Citoyen :x !
It's a perfect day to dedicate to him some drawings. I made them with traditional items (pencils, ink, felter-pens) so they are full of mistakes. But I am lazy and I don't have the suppport of an appropriate pc software, so I leave them just as they are. Here the portraits:

Louis Antoine Saint-Just after me + Prudhon

This is my favourite Antoine's portrait ever.
I am sorry because the sentence at the bottom is written badly. But I decided to leave it as it was. Too lazy to change it. 





Louis Antoine Saint-Just after me & Greuze 1

My second favourite Antoine's portrait ever.
Someone say it's not him in the picture (it would be Talleyrand instead) but I don't believe it. The features of this cinically smart, cooly outrageous feline predator are typically Antoine's. More, I love it to be him 


Ps.: I added those golden earrings and stole over the verses on a yellow background from Rimbaud - thank you, Arthur !






Louis Antoine Saint-Just after me & Greuze 2

Other (and beloved) portrait. I have seen it only on a b/w version so the colour (included that kitsch one of his clothes) is mine too.

(If you want to see the portraits in an enlarged and higher definition version then check my DeviantArt: http://www.fatimahcrossin.deviantart.com)



Saint-Just's portraits raise a question - the well-known one of his physical appearence: how did he really look like ?
We know many portraits, prints, engravings etc. all featuring him but each one of them shows a man who looks completely different from the others (I am sure you know all his portraits - if there is anyone who doesn't here it is a good link with a rather complete list of his iconography: http://www.saint-just.net/arts.html).
 Plus, written accounts aren't of much more help. His contemporaries' witnesses vary one from another and they are often in an open contradiction. So again: how did Antoine really look like ?
Despite what it is often commonly said, I believe physical appearence is (at least in a certain way) "the mirror of personality" - an old Sicilian proverb tells - and physiognomy has its reasons to be, I guess.
Antoine was handsome, yes, this appears to be the most common opinion about its physical appearence - how was he handsome ?

Comments

Re: Saint-Just...Virgo?

[chip-squidley.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that many Europeans love the Pope, but that few of them actually do what he says.

Our media might be a little (just a little) less controlled than yours. Plenty of shows attack from both the left and the right...as long as they get good ratings, that's what matters over here. My understanding is that the government has much more direct control of the media in Italy.

I did get the books. As soon as I finish this other French book I'm reading I will probably start the Saint-Just book. I haven't started the Dante book, but it's title is _Dante, le sue opere, il suo tempo_ by Claudio Redi

Re: Saint-Just...Virgo?

[fatimahcrossin.livejournal.com]

Right ! This is the Catholic Syndrome: millions people go to the Mass at Sunday, but when they are right outside the church forget they are catholic :)

Yes, Italian medias are almost directly controlled by political parties - everyone has his newspaper at least. I know that in US media don't belong to one rather than another (actually in US there are not so many parties as in Italy) but they are financed by big economic oligopolies, so they can't be reliable either...

Curious to hear about your new books !

Re: Saint-Just...Virgo?

[chip-squidley.livejournal.com]

Our media is corporate owned. But if they're ratings are high enough they are sometimes allowed to talk about real issues.

I did start the Saint-Just book!

Re: Saint-Just...Virgo?

[fatimahcrossin.livejournal.com]

In Italy it happens too, rarely. Only rarely...

And you've just finished it :D