Father Ignatius
You would be forgiven for not remembering me since I left the Salvatorian College in 1965, and you will no doubt be surprised that I should write to you after all this time. The reason is, however, simple. Often, when I visit galleries I am reminded of your lessons in the History of Art, but never have I thought of you so vividly than when I recently visited the Alte Pinakothek here in Munich. Their magnificent collection of Flemish masters really brought home to me the profound influence that you had on my taste in art. My only regret is that we had only two years in the 6th form, which naturally severely restricted the scope of our lessons. I can truly say that, although my taste has broadened in many directions, I come back time and time again to various books on the work of the Brueghels and Bosch, and remember with pleasure the slides that he would show of details from their paintings. (I became very frustrated when these details are lost because of poor presentation.) In Wien, for instance, Bosch's "Last Judgement" is so abysmally hung - one can see only the bottom half since it is so high - and poorly lit that they might as well keep it in their Archives!
The reason for my writing to you is therefore to express my sincere gratitude to you for the
influence you had on forming my interest in the visual arts. There are, of course, many other
teachers to whom I could write to say that they provided me with a basic knowledge in, for
instance, Mathematics. But that was in a sense "in the course of duty". What I attained from
you is more personal. It has less to do with mere survival in the modern world and the pursuit
of a career, but provided the ground on which to build a certain degree of intellectual and
aesthetic sensitivity, not to mention the highly emotional relationship which I have with
several paintings! I shall certainly never be able to look at Flemish paintings without
thinking of you.
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A short word about myself, since you might wonder what I am doing in Germany. After leaving
school I obtained my B Sc and Ph D in biochemistry and am now pursuing research into brain
function at the Max Planck Institute fur Psychiatrie in Munich. I have been here now for nearly
18 months and would, for many reasons, like to stay for some years. The employment scene in
science is unfortunately none too good and I may have to leave sooner than I wish. We shall
see. |
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