Saturday 13 August 2011

'Velázquez’s Riddle' by Lyn Moir

Lyn Moir, Velázquez’s Riddle Calderwood Press 2011 (http://www.calderwoodpress.co.uk/)

Take two artists (Velazquez and Picasso) and a subject, the painting Las Meninas by Velazquez. You now have two worlds; two histories heaving with seething characters and multiple landscapes (Picasso did over 50 of his variations). Pit them one against the other in the arena to explode like firework displays and you have Velázquez’s Riddle by Lyn Moir. Moir’s understanding of Spain and of art is pointed up by Penelope Shuttle in her review, quoted on the back cover… Seldom have poet and subject been so perfectly matched... she observes.                                           

Velázquez’s Riddle is the movies, it is theatre …note the solid dwarf whose open stare demands we join them on the crowded stage… (p.25 ‘Setting The Scene’). The ‘Cast of characters in Las Meninas’ on the opening page is Shakespearean, each character’s voice is clear. Moir is mistress of; creates indeed  a finely-wrought tapestry of dramatic  monologue…. (John Greening) quoted from the back cover) and as the poems unfold you see the scenes, the circumstances of the characters and the physical spaces they inhabit, both figuratively and, as you refer to the paintings, actually. I studied the paintings over and over, drawn by the irresistible pull that Moir builds, learning more and more.
Up to now, the things I had particularly noticed in Las Meninas by Velazquez were the dog and the Infanta. The female dwarf also demanded attention. Moir, the movie director strides in however and you see not only the luminous princess… (p.8 ‘Velázquez’s Las Meninas: an Inventory’),  …this gold and silver girl… (p.13 ‘Velázquez on the King and Queen)
but also that she … is a baby adult with a gaze of steel… who already understands her own worth … I’m being groomed, I know my studbook status… (p. 12 ‘When I am Queen’).

You are shown that the top half of the painting, which Velazquez draws your eyes away from, is in fact a space which: … not empty, balances the scene below   And you will either be made giddy by or understand that; …we have some effect upon the scene, that if we breathe too hard, too short, we might disturb the balance of the court.
Balance is key in this volume. The poems exhibits balance in the economy of their expression; the precision of the language. Moir achieves balance in her composition; half Velazquez, half Picasso; and the character of Velazquez balances in the book, a colossus foot in each half, a …looming figure, in whose hands the whole illusion rests… (p.9 'Velázquez on Velázquez'). He observes us, he observes Picasso working on his series of variations; he is the …  Ringmaster with the power to position unwitting performers at the point of maximum tension… he is described as both a hero and a star … the bill-topper …who makes us gasp at his audacity and skill in wire-walking… (p.9 'Velázquez on Velázquez').
                    
With the transition from one half of the book to the next the … world constructed on a symbol… where … stability and order are the key  (p.21 The Outsider)   becomes a world where we must … identify the structural geometry… ( p.24 ‘Picasso Lays Claim to Velázquez’s Las Meninas’).  It becomes ever more a world of trick and illusion, Picasso is a wizard who creates… A dialogue as permanent as words inscribed on water blown by wind… (p.25 ‘Setting the Scene’).  It sparkles with mischief and humour. Picasso vows to …transmogrify the dog The Princess wails: …I’ve turned into a royal dwarf – can this be me?... (p.27 ‘The Green Infanta’), and endures ‘Bad Hair Day' (p.37). Both Wonderland and Neverland appear, coming memorably together in ‘Neverland’ (p.39) where the Queen, a white dot in the slate grey mirror, wishes that she and the king could … leave behind the cares of state and palace, walk together, talk alone, fuck unencumbered by maids of honour, by the court

Geometry rules (‘Geometry’ p.38) and people get upset. … Válgame Dios! … exclaims Velázquez, …The princess is blurred, her dwarves Halloween nightmares… (p. 44 ‘First Viewing’).  But in a grim soliloquy he tells us in the next poem that Picasso is doomed; because he paints … knowing he can never escape the talons of my shadow… (p.45 ‘In the Shadow’).
I enjoyed the sensation of being part of the drama; of finding out where I, (the viewer - the reader?) was seen by the key players in the paintings. I enjoyed the feeling of skewed gravity - Velazquez as a planet around which we all, including Picasso, orbit; and I enjoyed the truly weird sensation of finding out that all this time I have been standing close to the king and queen.

Order the book from Calder Press (scroll down three books to reach it) read it and be transported.

                                                                                                                                     

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