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Sunday, June 11, 2017

Story Might Be More Important Than Many Realize???

Glenda A. Bixler blogs about Books, Reviews, Authors, Publicity, Tips, short stories, essays...a little poetry, a cat story or two, thoughts on music, movies and products selections. Her blog is Book Readers Heaven. I am thrilled to find her review of my art book, Inspired by Art: The Edge of Revolt:


on June 11, 2017
Consider as you open this latest book that you have entered an art gallery with various rooms based upon topic, as opposed to artist... We have seen David and Goliath in the first room, Then the next room is what happened after the fall of the giant...

David became King and we move into his daily life... and are immediately faced with David's Triumph by Raffaello Sanzio, with a somewhat daunting prophecy. And certainly what follows seems to support the statement that the sword would never depart his house...

And it began in the cruelest way... by his son, Amnon attempting to seduce his sister, Tamar, in the painting by Guercino. Graphic accounts thereafter depicts Amnon's attempts continuing until he rapes Tamar and then demands she leave home... portrayed in Desolation of Tamar by James Tissot

It is Absalom who consoles Tamar who has become pregnant by her brother and begins to talk...of revenge... and death... as we study the painting by Mattia Preti, entitled Absalom's Feast. For me, Study for 'The Assassination of Amnon at the feast of Absalom' by Guercino proved to be the most dramatic, and I believe, included the main characters involved.... Unfortunately, and with sorrow, I deplore that this is history not a fictional novel being illustrated...

So how was this murder handled? Page after page tells the story as it is written as well as envisioned by multiple painters, but I wondered, how would it also end in today's world, for in the end King David was left with neither of his sons... And his advisors said to get over mourning... and the result of that demand is poignantly presented... which included the potential response by David... "Oh that I had the wings of a dove! For then I would fly away and be at rest" painted by Frederic Lord Leighton.

As the book ends, we see The Prophet David by Camillo Boccaccio where we find the older David placing his foot on the head of Goliath...

Was he, perhaps, lamenting that he had ever picked up the sword to kill Goliath... Was he, I wondered, really meant to walk up to the Giant, offer his hand in friendship, and speak of love and not hate? Had he listened to man with their fears rather than to God? Would things be different today if that was really what was to happen? I wondered and thought that this book just might be more important than many will realize... Like David, looking back to what his life had been, and then began to wonder how God could still love him when he may not have listened of God's commands to love on another? For me, it felt right...it felt true...

Needless to say, I believe and highly recommend that you check out not only this book, but the entire series...as the visual stories speak to us of King David's life...

GABixlerReviews

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