July 6 Already a huge group looking at the paintings when I arrive. Nuns in gray habits, fanning themselves. A confusion of tourists standing in the afternoon gloom. I pay two euro for us all. The paintings spring into light. A sense that they leap out of the walls, feline, pouncing. I go to the left to study Paul/Saul, though I’m quite sure again that he is neither Paul nor Saul. I think he’s no one. We’re seeing him in between, hence the name of the painting, CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL, which is confusing. St. Paul was not the one who was converted. Saul was. So what we’re seeing is the moment when a man has let fall one identity and is about to take up another.
The Cerasi Chapel (July 6)
The Cerasi Chapel (July 6)
The Cerasi Chapel (July 6)
July 6 Already a huge group looking at the paintings when I arrive. Nuns in gray habits, fanning themselves. A confusion of tourists standing in the afternoon gloom. I pay two euro for us all. The paintings spring into light. A sense that they leap out of the walls, feline, pouncing. I go to the left to study Paul/Saul, though I’m quite sure again that he is neither Paul nor Saul. I think he’s no one. We’re seeing him in between, hence the name of the painting, CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL, which is confusing. St. Paul was not the one who was converted. Saul was. So what we’re seeing is the moment when a man has let fall one identity and is about to take up another.