Finished Barnes' "Parrot," Moved on to Zbigniew Herbert's Prose

No real surprise in the final chapter: Braithwaite/Barnes determines there's more than one parrot and that he'll never know exactly which parrot was Flaubert's. The museum where Flaubert borrowed the parrot had, at one time, roughly fifty parrots. Also, it's suggested that writers like Flaubert often took liberties with the facts: i.e., he may have changed the coloring to suit his artistic sensibilities.

Anyway . . .

*

Started reading Herbert's prose (downloaded his posthumous "collection" from Kindle--I've read many of these pieces in book form, but it's been years).

A few lines which I've highlighted:

In art I am interested in the timeless value of a work (Piero della Francesca's eternity), its technical structure (how stone is laid upon stone in a Gothic cathedral) and its connection to history. 
(Herbert quoted in the Introduction by Alissa Valles)

I came to a halt most frequently at Mantegna's portrait of young Francesco Gonzaga.

(Herbert in "Among the Dorians")
*


Portrait of Francesco Gonzaga
by Andrea Mantegna
[From Wikigallery.org]

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