This whole chapter was amazing. Volume I, Part Three, Chapter XIX. I follow Lynn here with some intense imagery. At some point I found a book with the catholic mass so used it extensively on this piece. (When did I get so interested in working with the story line??) I thought that Prince Andrei was a goner.
"Though five minutes earlier Prince Andrei had been able to say a few words to the soldiers transporting him, now, with his eyes fixed directly on Napoleon, he was silent... To him at that moment all the interests that occupied Napoleon seemed so insignificant, his hero himself seemed so petty to him, with his petty vanity and joy in victory, compared with that lofty, just and kindly sky, which he had seen and understood, that he was unable to answer him."
a little later, "Looking into Napoleon's eyes, Prince Andrei thought about the insignificance of grandeur, about the insignificance of life, the meaning of which no one could understand, and about the still greater insignificance of death, the meaning of which no one among the living could understand or explain."
He fingers the icon that his sister had given him before he left for war and wishes that he could see the world as she does, so clearly and simply.
No wonder I was a Russian major in college -- I loved the intensity of all this. -- Lola
Lola Baltzell
from page 371-372 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 7/30/10
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