(via lazersilberstein)
“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” - Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)
(via senjukannon)
Hottie with an Illuminati body
You just want to kiss me because you saw me eating chips earlier and you love chips.
(via di-sturbia)
should be crawling
or begging
LEAVES US ALONE YAHWEH WE’RE IN AN ARTBAND
Ilya Repin, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581, 1885
Preemptive Regicide. Rightly seen as one of the masterworks of 19th century Russian painting, I’m always glad to see this image making the rounds online. Beyond its rich color and figurative virtuosity, this is consummate political art; simultaneously evocative and reflective, reveling in the ‘true’ artistry of a moment whose power and terror can never be fully understood, and also laying bare the power relations of a scene that might otherwise seem epic, transcendent, ahistoric.
We have the barest hint in the darkness in young Ivan’s downward gaze that their eyes may be the same color. What seems to be a single tear sits on young Ivan’s nose. We cannot know when it was cried; it does not appear to be his father’s. Ivan is dead but his blood is still horribly bright, the brightest thing in the world, and stronger than Ivan Grozny’s hands. We see the thin hair and hollow cheeks of the old Czar. His own face is a memento mori.
Behind his kingdom, his armies, his castle, his court, his hall, his throne, his crown, his robes, he is just weak old flesh. The power is a cruel joke. The czar is only as strong as the arms that can swing, that just killed younger, stronger flesh than its own. And in this moment, no edict can be past or rule can be enforced to change anything. Everything is done. Ivan does not call for his doctor. He stares forward at death, which is the truth, which is himself, as Boris Gudonov will soon, as will Peter, as will Nicholas, as will Nicholas.
No balance of power has been restored. No mutiny has been put down. Like his every choice, this decision is irrevocable, set before the eyes of the whole world and the rest of history. The final and truest horror is that Grozny cannot execute anyone for his son’s murder. He is the murderer and is so sentenced to live, unpunished. And to pathetically await the judgment of the God whose absolute rule justifies his own.
(via senjukannon)
