MALLORCA SERIES
THESE TWO PAINTINGS ARE DEDICATED TO THE PEOPLES OF MALLORCA
‘NUREDDUNA’ and ‘SONG of MELISIGEN’
My inspiration to create these works came from the classic poem ‘Legacy of Greek Genius’ and of course the beautiful countryside of Mallorca
This epic poem, written by cleric’ Miquel costa i Llobera’ (Pollenca, -1854 Palma-1922)
Sets most of the verse in the Talaiotic settlement of ‘Ses Paisses’ near Arta, Mallorca.
SUMMARY OF THE PLOT.
The tribe of the Holm Oak wish to make a sacrifice to their gods of some travellers who have dared to leave their Greek ship anchored on the coastline, and to explore the island. Melisigen, assisted by his lyre, sings his final mortal farewell.
His rhapsodic voice stills the ritual cries of the tribe and fills the heart of Nuredduna- the virgin oracle-with light. She reclaims this prisoner as a sacred victim of the god of the cave. Melisigen is abandoned in the depths of the Arta Caves, but at night Nuredduna frees him, because she has received a message of love from him that only she has seen and which means that he deserves to go on living.
When the cruelest members of the tribe, who have mistrusted the oracle’s sudden change of mind, ask her to show them the prisoner, she dismisses them as bloodthirsty and reveals to them this is what she has learnt from the song of Melisigen. Furious, they stone Nuredduna, who takes refuge in the cave and finds the lyre that the poet has left there and embraces it so as to die comforted by the poetry, which had stirred her so.
This moving poem helped me see deep within soul of this Magnificent country and gave as a ‘gift’, the outlines to both of my paintings.
Commissioned in Mallorca
by
Steve Sharp
2002/3
‘SONG OF MELISIGEN’
4 ft by 4 ft: PAINT PIGMENT, TILE PAINT, ACRILIC PAINT, BITUMEN PAINT, MARBEL DUST, OGANIC MATERIAL, LEAD, PLASTER, STRING, ADDESIVE,
‘THE NUREDDUNA’
Triptych
9ft by 6ft 8 inch: PAINT PIGMENT, TILE PAINT, ACRILIC PAINT, BITUMEN PAINT, MARBEL DUST, OGANIC MATERIAL, LEAD, PLASTER, STRING, ADDESIVE
