The collar project that started on Monday closes today. In yesterday's post we left the protagonist of my story in the middle of the 1944 Vesuvius eruption so let's move from there.
As soon as shades of lapis lazuli blue appear in front of her eyes, the explosions stop and the earth does not shake anymore. Instead of the box of lapilli in her lap there is now a bowl filled with a fine ground-up powder.
She looks around herself and realises she is standing in front of a wooden table. On top of it there are bowls filled with expensive azure blue lapis lazuli pigments and eggs ready to be mixed in; there are pieces of painted glass and little jewels waiting to be glued onto a painting; gold leaves and thin pieces of gold are set next to a reddish sticky substance - the bole - to be used to apply these rich and decorative elements.
This must be the table of an artist from the mid-1400s. Has a wealthy patron maybe commissioned a new painting to be covered in gold leaf to display the glory of his family.
She hears some scraping sounds behind her, turns and finds a man scratching gold leaf on a painting with fine patterns to make the light reflect more brilliantly off the surface.
The painting shows a religious scene, it's the Annunciation, with Gabriel the Archangel wearing a bright pink and gold embroidered gown studded with precious gems kneeling in front of the Virgin Mary clad in a red tunic and a blue mantle, sitting in a porch characterised by a powerful perspective under a starry ceiling. The bright colours and the light contribute to add up to the mystic and sumptuous scene.
Could this be Fra Angelico, the Blessed One, patron of artists, she wonders, admiring the rich details of the work he is completing.
She looks at the stars blinking on the ceiling of the portico in the painting and the stars suddenly transform into tiny dots that keep on multiplying in front of her eyes. In this new hallucinating vision she understands that she has been the protagonist of a strange and visionary adventure that brought her through time and space and let her discover that, within herself, there was a goldmine of memories of other lives.
While this visionary adventure did not reveal to her the final meaning of her existence, did not unlock any cosmic formulae or the ultimate secret of the universe, it has in part liberated her from the oppressive fears, anxieties and boredom that riddled her existence.
She reopens her eyes and goes back to the reality, to a world gone bland, to a world gone wrong. Yet she feels blessed with a special inner peace, she is like a child about to start on a journey, eager and curious to see where her imagination will take her in future.
"Where shall I go? Who shall I be? What shall I see?" she wonders, looking out her window.
Outside the pale pink clouds set against the blue sky are assuming a subtly orange shade, while the afternoon sun sprinkles gold dust on the tender leaves of Spring.
Want to re-read the story or check once again the collars? Go back to the beginning, or just make up your own story on a collar taken from an old shirt, decorating it with whatever materials you have in the house or with images taken from your favourite postcards.
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