Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers (c. 1589 – c. 1638) was a Dutch painter and printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age. Segers is in fact the more common form in contemporary documents, and was used by the painter himself (modern use is about equally divided between the two).[1] He was "the most inspired, experimental and original landscapist" of his period and an even more innovative printmaker.[2]

Hercules was born in Haarlem, as the son of a Mennonite cloth merchant, originally from Flanders, who moved to Amsterdam in 1596. There Hercules was apprenticed to the leading Dutch landscapist of the day Gillis van Coninxloo, but his apprenticeship was presumably cut short by Coninxloo's death in 1606. Seghers and his father bought a number of his works at the auction of the studio contents, as Pieter Lastman did. Seghers' father died in 1612, after which he returned to Haarlem, joining the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. He returned to Amsterdam in 1614 to obtain custody of an illegitimate daughter, and the following year married Anneke van der Brugghen from Antwerp, who was sixteen years older than he was. In 1620 he bought a large house in the Jordaan on the Lindengracht for about 4,000 guilders, but by the late 1620s he was in debt, and in 1631 had to sell it. From his studio at the top of the house, which was pulled down in 1912, he had a view on the recently finished Noorderkerk which is on one of his etchings.[4] In the same year he moved to Utrecht and started to sell art. In 1633 he moved to the Hague. He appears to have died by 1638, when a Cornelia de Witte is mentioned as widow of a "Hercules Pieterz.". Like much of the detailed documentation of Segher's life, this link depends on the assumed rarity of his first name. Some later sources said that Segers took to drink towards the end of his life and died after falling down the stairs.[5]
His posthumous reputation was boosted by the Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst (Introduction to the High School of Painting) of Samuel van Hoogstraten which presented him rather as a Romantic genius avant la lettre, lonely, poor and misunderstood, based mostly on his etchings.

[edit]Prints

Landscape with Fir Etching on painted paper, Rijksmuseum
He is mainly known for his highly innovative etchings, mostly of landscapes, which were often printed on coloured paper or cloth, and with coloured ink, and hand-coloured and often hand-cropped to different sizes. He also made use ofdrypoint and a form of aquatint as well as other effects, such as running coarse cloth through the press with the print, for a mottled effect.
Altogether only 183 known impressions survive from all his fifty-four plates and most are now in museums; the Rijksmuseum print room has easily the best collection. Rembrandt collected both paintings (he had eight) and prints by Seghers, and acquired one of his original plates, Tobias and the Angel (HB 1),[6] which he reworked into his own Flight into Egypt (B 56), keeping much of the landscape. Rembrandt also reworked the Seghers painting Mountain Landscape, now in theUffizi, and his landscape style shows some influence from Seghers.
Although the dating of his prints remains unclear, his Town with four towers (HB 29) is believed both to be one of the later prints and, by comparison with paintings, to date from around 1631. Given the small number of surviving impressions, it is unlikely that prints were a major source of income for him. His Pile of books (see Rijksmuseum link) is an unusual still-life subject for a 17th century print.
He seems to have invented the "sugar-bite" aquatint technique, which was rediscovered in England over a century later by Alexander Cozens (it is also called lift-ground etching).

[edit]Paintings

Landscape, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, only attributed to Seghers since 1951.[7]
He was probably best known to his contemporaries for his paintings of landscapes and still-life subjects; his paintings are also rare, with perhaps only fifteen surviving (one was destroyed in a fire in October 2007 [8]). The Stadholder,Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange bought landscapes in 1632. Many of his painted landscapes are fantastic mountainous compositions, whereas in his prints it is often the technical approach rather than the subject which is extreme. His painted landscapes tend to show a wide horizontal view, with emphasis on earth rather than sky; two in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin had strips of sky added at the top later in the century to meet a changed taste. Apart from Coninxloo, Seghers drew from the Flemish landscape tradition, perhaps especially Joos de Momper and Roelandt Savery, but also the "fantastic and visionary aspects of Mannerist" landscape painting.[9] The 1680 inventory of the collection of the marine painter Jan van de Cappelle, who owned five paintings by Seghers, describes one as a view of Brussels, which if correct would presumably mean Seghers travelled there, probably when young, when his style shows most Flemish influence (in so far as the chronology of his work is clear).[1]




Pepper's ghost is an illusionary technique used in theatre and in some magic tricks. Using a plate glass and special lighting techniques, it can make objects seem to appear or disappear, to become transparent, or to make one object morph into another. It is named after John Henry Pepper, who attempted to popularize the effect.


Technique

In order for the illusion to work, the viewer must be able to see into the main room, but not into the hidden room. The edge of the glass may be hidden by a cleverly designed pattern in the floor.
The hidden room may be an identical mirror-image of the main room, so that its reflected image matches the main room's; this approach is useful in making objects seem to appear or disappear. This effect can also be used to make an actor reflected in the mirror appear to turn into an actor behind the mirror (or vice versa). This is the principle behind the Girl-to-Gorilla trick found in many haunted houses and in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever.
The hidden room may instead be painted black, with only light-coloured objects in it. When light is cast on the room, only the objects reflect the light and appear in the glass, making them seem as ghostly images superimposed in the visible room. The reflections in the glass, which is vertical rather than angled, create the appearance of three-dimensional, translucent ghosts. In the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland/Disney World, this is used to make "ghosts" appear to be dancing through the ballroom, seeming to interact with props in the physical ballroom, disappearing when the lights on the animatronics are turned off.

[edit]History

[edit]Giambattista della Porta

Giambattista della Porta was a 16th century Neapolitan scientist and scholar who is credited with a number of scientific innovations, including the camera obscura. His 1584 work Magia Naturalis (Natural Magic) includes a description of an illusion, titled "How we may see in a Chamber things that are not" that is believed to be the first known description of the Pepper's Ghost effect.[1]
Porta's description, from the 1658 English language translation, is as follows.
Let there be a chamber wherein no other light comes, unless by the door or window where the spectator looks in. Let the whole window or part of it be of glass, as we used to do to keep out the cold. But let one part be polished, that there may be a Looking-glass on bothe sides, whence the spectator must look in. For the rest do nothing. Let pictures be set over against this window, marble statues and suchlike. For what is without will seem to be within, and what is behind the spectator's back, he will think to be in the middle of the house, as far from the glass inward, as they stand from it outwardly, and clearly and certainly, that he will think he sees nothing but truth. But lest the skill should be known, let the part be made so where the ornament is, that the spectator may not see it, as above his head, that a pavement may come between above his head. An if an ingenious man do this, it is impossible that he should suppose that he is deceived.[2]

[edit]John Pepper and Henry Dircks

The Royal Polytechnic Institute London was a permanent science-related institution, first opened in 1838. With a degree in chemistry, John Henry Pepper joined the institution as a lecturer in 1848. The Polytechnic awarded him the title of Professor. In 1854, he became the director and sole lessee of the Royal Polytechnic.
In 1862, inventor Henry Dircks developed the Dircksian Phantasmagoria, his version of the long-established phantasmagoria performances. This technique was used to make a ghost appear on-stage. He tried unsuccessfully to sell his idea to theatres; it required them to be completely rebuilt just to support the effect, which proved too costly for them to consider. Later in the year, Dircks set up a booth at the Royal Polytechnic, where it was seen by John Pepper.[3]
Pepper realized that the method could be modified to make it easy to incorporate into existing theatres. Pepper first showed the effect during a scene of Charles Dickens's The Haunted Man, to great success. Pepper's implementation of the effect tied his name to it permanently. Though he tried many times to give credit to Dircks, the title "Pepper's ghost" endured.

[edit]Modern examples


An example of the Pepper's ghost effect used on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The mirror line can be seen on the floor

[edit]Theme parks

The world's largest implementation of this illusion can be found at the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor attractions at several Walt Disney Parks and Resorts theme parks. Here, a 90-foot (27 m)-long scene features multiple Pepper's ghost effect, brought together in one scene. Guests travel along an elevated mezzanine, looking through a 30-foot (9.1 m)-tall pane of glass into an empty ballroomAnimatronic ghosts move in hidden black rooms beneath and above the mezzanine.
The walk-through attraction Turbidite Manor employs variations of the classic technique, enabling guests to see various spirits that also interact with the physical environment, but that are viewable at a much closer proximity. The House at Haunted Hill, a halloween attraction in Woodland Hills, CA, employs a similar variation in their front window to display characters from their storyline.
An example which combines the Pepper's ghost effect with a live actor and film projection can be seen in the Mystery Lodge exhibit at the Knott's Berry Farm theme park in Buena ParkCalifornia and the Ghosts of the Library exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois (both created by the company BRC Imagination Arts using the patented technique known as "Holavision"), as well as the depiction of Maori legends called A Millennium Ago at theMuseum of Wellington City & Sea.[4][5]

[edit]Museums

Pepper's ghost exhibits are beginning to be more widely used in museums, as they attempt to create livelier attractions that will appeal to visitors. In the mid-70s James Gardener designed the Changing Office installation in the London Science Museum, consisting of a 1970s-style office that transforms into an 1870s-style office as the audience watches. It was designed and built by Will Wilson and Simon Beer of Integrated Circles. Another particularly intricate Pepper's ghost display is the Eight Stage Ghost built for the British Telecom Showcase Exhibition in London in 1978. This display follows the history of electronics in a number of discrete transitions.
More modern examples of Pepper's ghost effects can be found in various museums in the United Kingdom and Europe and use a video variation on the illusion known as the Musion Eyeliner and Arena3D's XSTAGE. Examples of these in the United Kingdom are a ghost of John McEnroe at theWimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, which reopened in new premises in 2006, and one of Sir Alex Ferguson, which opened at the Manchester United Museum in 2007.[6] Other examples include the ghost of Sarah (who picks up a candle and walks through the wall) and also the ghost of the Eighth Duke at Blenheim Palace.
In October 2008 a life-sized Pepper's ghost of Shane Warne was opened at the National Sports Museum in Melbourne, Australia.[7] produced by The Shirley Spectra.[8] The effect is also used at the Dickens World attraction at Chatham Maritime, Kent, United Kingdom.
The latest example can be found at Our Planet Centre in Castries, St Lucia which opened in May 2011, where a life size Prince Charles, and Governor general of the island appear on stage talking about climate change. [1] The exhibit was designed by LCI from London.[2]

[edit]Television and video

Teleprompters are a modern implementation of Pepper's ghost used by the television industry. They reflect a speech or script and are commonly used for live broadcasts such as news programmes.
Two companies produce versions of this effect using a video as the source. Shirley Spectra Australia's product, "SpectraVision", is aimed at the exhibition market. A recent production is a life-size Shane Warne at the National Sports Museum in Melbourne.[9] Musion's product Musion Eyeliner is aimed at use on stage, a recent production being Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
The South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town uses elaborate Pepper's ghost video technology in their permanent exhibit. The Artist Group PXNG.LI is showing evolutionary processes in a Pepper's ghost box at the Natural Science Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany.[10]

[edit]Concerts

At the 2006 Grammy Awards the Pepper's ghost technique was used to project Madonna with the virtual members of the band Gorillaz onto the stage in a "live" performance. The effect was accomplished using the Musion Eyeliner system, which is composed of a video projector(usually DLP) or LED screen, with a minimum native resolution of 1280×1024 and a brightness of 5,000+ lumens, a hard disc player with 1920×1080i HD graphics card, Musion's patented Eyeliner foil, a 3D set/drawing that encloses three sides, plus lighting, audio, and show control."[11]
In 2012, a commercial version of Pepper's ghost was used to project an image of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur onto the stage at Coachella.[12][13][14][15]

Tuas Mãos
Quando tuas mãos saem,
amada, para as minhas,
o que me trazem voando?
Por que se detiveram
em minha boca, súbitas,
e por que as reconheço
como se outrora então
as tivesse tocado,
como se antes de ser
houvessem percorrido
minha fronte e a cintura?
Sua maciez chegava
voando por sobre o tempo,
sobre o mar, sobre o fumo,
e sobre a primavera,
e quando colocaste
tuas mãos em meu peito,
reconheci essas asas
de paloma dourada,
reconheci essa argila
e a cor suave do trigo.
A minha vida toda
eu andei procurando-as.
Subi muitas escadas,
cruzei os recifes,
os trens me transportaram,
as águas me trouxeram,
e na pele das uvas
achei que te tocava.
De repente a madeira
me trouxe o teu contacto,
a amêndoa me anunciava
suavidades secretas,
até que as tuas mãos
envolveram meu peito
e ali como duas asas
repousaram da viagem.
*
Se cada dia cai
Se cada dia cai, dentro de cada noite,
há um poço
onde a claridade está presa.
há que sentar-se na beira
do poço da sombra
e pescar luz caída
com paciência.
*
Esperemos
Há outros dias que não têm chegado ainda,
que estão fazendo-se
como o pão ou as cadeiras ou o produto
das farmácias ou das oficinas
- há fábricas de dias que virão -
existem artesãos da alma
que levantam e pesam e preparam
certos dias amargos ou preciosos
que de repente chegam à porta
para premiar-nos
com uma laranja
ou assassinar-nos de imediato.
*
Acontece
Bateram à minha porta em 6 de agosto,
aí não havia ninguém
e ninguém entrou, sentou-se numa cadeira
e transcorreu comigo, ninguém.
Nunca me esquecerei daquela ausência
que entrava como Pedro por sua causa
e me satisfazia com o não ser,
com um vazio aberto a tudo.
Ninguém me interrogou sem dizer nada
e contestei sem ver e sem falar.
Que entrevista espaçosa e especial!
*
Quero Saber
Quero saber se você vem comigo
a não andar e não falar,
quero saber se ao fim alcançaremos
a incomunicação; por fim
ir com alguém a ver o ar puro,
a luz listrada do mar de cada dia
ou um objeto terrestre
e não ter nada que trocar
por fim, não introduzir mercadorias
como o faziam os colonizadores
trocando baralhinhos por silêncio.
Pago eu aqui por teu silêncio.
De acordo, eu te dou o meu
com u te dou o meu
com uma condição: não nos compreender
*
Amor, quantos caminhos até chegar a um beijo,
que solidão errante até tua companhia!
Seguem os trens sozinhos rodando com a chuva.
Em taltal não amanhece ainda a primavera.
Mas tu e eu, amor meu, estamos juntos,
juntos desde a roupa às raízes,
juntos de outono, de água, de quadris,
até ser só tu, só eu juntos.
Pensar que custou tantas pedras que leva o rio,
a desembocadura da água de Boroa,
pensar que separados por trens e nações
tu e eu tínhamos que simplesmente amar-nos
com todos confundidos, com homens e mulheres,
com a terra que implanta e educa cravos.
*
A Noite na Ilha
Dormi contigo a noite inteira junto do mar, na ilha.
Selvagem e doce eras entre o prazer e o sono,
entre o fogo e a água.
Talvez bem tarde nossos
sonos se uniram na altura e no fundo,
em cima como ramos que um mesmo vento move,
embaixo como raízes vermelhas que se tocam.
Talvez teu sono se separou do meu e pelo mar escuro
me procurava como antes, quando nem existias,
quando sem te enxergar naveguei a teu lado
e teus olhos buscavam o que agora – pão,
vinho, amor e cólera – te dou, cheias as mãos,
porque tu és a taça que só esperava
os dons da minha vida.
Dormi junto contigo a noite inteira,
enquanto a escura terra gira com vivos e com mortos,
de repente desperto e no meio da sombra meu braço
rodeava tua cintura.
Nem a noite nem o sonho puderam separar-nos.
Dormi contigo, amor, despertei, e tua boca
saída de teu sono me deu o sabor da terra,
de água-marinha, de algas, de tua íntima vida,
e recebi teu beijo molhado pela aurora
como se me chegasse do mar que nos rodeia.
*
Antes de amar-te, amor, nada era meu
Vacilei pelas ruas e as coisas:
Nada contava nem tinha nome:
O mundo era do ar que esperava.
E conheci salões cinzentos,
Túneis habitados pela lua,
Hangares cruéis que se despediam,
Perguntas que insistiam na areia.
Tudo estava vazio, morto e mudo,
Caído, abandonado e decaído,
Tudo era inalienavelmente alheio,
Tudo era dos outros e de ninguém,
Até que tua beleza e tua pobreza
De dádivas encheram o outono.
*
Aqui eu te amo.
Nos escuros pinheiros se desenlaça o vento.
Fosforece a lua sobre as águas errantes.
Andam dias iguais a perseguir-se.
Descinge-se a névoa em dançantes figuras.
Uma gaivota de prata se desprende do ocaso.
As vezes uma vela. Altas, altas, estrelas.
Ou a cruz negra de um barco.
Só.
As vezes amanheço, e minha alma está úmida.
Soa, ressoa o mar distante.
Isto é um porto.
Aqui eu te amo.
Aqui eu te amo e em vão te oculta o horizonte.
Estou a amar-te ainda entre estas frias coisas.
As vezes vão meus beijos nesses barcos solenes,
que correm pelo mar rumo a onde não chegam.
Já me creio esquecido como estas velha âncoras.
São mais tristes os portos ao atracar da tarde.
Cansa-se minha vida inutilmente faminta..
Eu amo o que não tenho. E tu estás tão distante.
Meu tédio mede forças com os lentos crepúsculos.
Mas a noite enche e começa a cantar-me.
A lua faz girar sua arruela de sonho.
Olham-me com teus olhos as estrelas maiores.
E como eu te amo, os pinheiros no vento,
querem cantar o teu nome, com suas folhas de cobre.
*
Áspero amor, violeta coroada de espinhos,
cipoal entre tantas paixões eriçado, lanãa das dores,
corola da colera, por que caminhos
e como te dirigiste a minha alma?
Por que precipitaste teu fogo doloroso, de repente,
entre as folhas frias do meu caminho?
Quem te ensinou os passos que até mim te levaram?
que flor, que pedra, que fumaãa
mostraram minha morada?
O certo é que tremeu noite pavorosa,
a aurora encheu todas as taãas com teu vinho
e o sol estabeleceu sua presenãa celeste,
enquanto o cruel amor sem trégua me cercava,
até que lacerando-me com espadas
e espinhos abriu no coração um caminho queimante.
*
De noite, amada, amarra teu coração ao meu
e que eles no sonho derrotem
as trevas como um duplo tambor
combatendo no bosque
contra o espesso muro das folhas molhadas.
Noturna travessia, brasa negra do sonho.
Interceptando o fio das uvas terrestres
com pontualidade de um trem descabelado
que sombra e pedras frias sem cessar arrastasse.
Por isso, amor, amarra-me ao movimento puro,
à tenacidade que em teu peito bate.
Com as asas de um cisne submergido,
para que as perguntas estreladas do céu
responda nosso sonho com uma só chave,
com uma só porta fechada pela sombra.
*
O Vento na Ilha
O vento é um cavalo
Ouça como ele corre
Pelo mar, pelo céu.
Quer me levar: escuta
como recorre ao mundo
para me levar para longe.
Me esconde em teus braços
por somente esta noite,
enquanto a chuva rompe
contra o mar e a terra
sua boca inumerável.
Escuta como o vento
me chama calopando
para me levar para longe.
Com tua frente a minha frente,
com tua boca em minha boca,
atados nossos corpos
ao amor que nos queima,
deixa que o vento passe
sem que possa me levar.
Deixa que o vento corra
coroado de espuma,
que me chame e me busque
galopando eu, emergido
debaixo teus grandes olhos,
por somente esta noite
descansarei, amor meu.
*
Já és minha. Repousa com teu sonho em meu sonho.
Amor, dor, trabalho, devem dormir agora.
Gira a noite sobre suas invisíveis rodas
e junto a mim és pura como âmbar dormido…
Nenhuma mais, amor, dormira com meus sonhos…
Irás, iremos juntos pelas águas do tempo.
Nenhuma viajará pela sombra comigo, só tu.
sempre viva. sempre sol… sempre lua…
Já tuas mãos abriram os punhos delicados
e deixaram cair suaves sinais sem rumo…
teus olhos se fecharam como
duas asas cinzas, enquanto eu sigo a água
que levas e me leva.
A noite… o mundo… o vento enovelam seu destino,
e já não sou sem ti senão apenas teu sonho…
*
Gosto quando te calas
Gosto quando te calas porque estás como ausente,
e me ouves de longe, minha voz não te toca.
Parece que os olhos tivessem de ti voado
e parece que um beijo te fechara a boca.
Como todas as coisas estão cheias da minha alma
emerge das coisas, cheia da minha alma.
Borboleta de sonho, pareces com minha alma,
e te pareces com a palavra melancolia.
Gosto de ti quando calas e estás como distante.
E estás como que te queixando, borboleta em arrulho.
E me ouves de longe, e a minha voz não te alcança:
Deixa-me que me cale com o silêncio teu.
Deixa-me que te fale também com o teu silêncio
claro como uma lâmpada, simples como um anel.
És como a noite, calada e constelada.
Teu silêncio é de estrela, tão longinqüo e singelo.
Gosto de ti quando calas porque estás como ausente.
Distante e dolorosa como se tivesses morrido.
Uma palavra então, um sorriso bastam.
E eu estou alegre, alegre de que não seja verdade.
*
Para meu coração basta teu peito
para tua liberdade bastam minhas asas.
Desde minha boca chegará até o céu
o que estava dormindo sobre tua alma.
E em ti a ilusão de cada dia.
Chegas como o sereno às corolas.
Escavas o horizonte com tua ausência
Eternamente em fuga como a onda.
Eu disse que cantavas no vento
como os pinheiros e como os hastes.
Como eles és alta e taciturna.
e intristeces prontamente, como uma viagem.
Acolhedora como um velho caminho.
Te povoa ecos e vozes nostálgicas.
eu despertei e as vezes emigram e fogem
pássaros que dormiam em tua alma.
*
Plena mulher, maçã carnal, lua quente,
espesso aroma de algas, lodo e luz pisados,
que obscura claridade se abre entre tuas pernas?
que antiga noite o homem toca com seus sentidos?
Ai, amar é uma viagem com água e com estrelas,
com ar opresso e bruscas tempestades de farinha:
amar é um combate de relâmpagos e dois corpos
por um so mel derrotados.
Beijo a beijo percorro teu pequeno infinito,
tuas margens, teus rios, teus povoados pequenos,
e o fogo genital transformado em delícia
corre pelos tênues caminhos do sangue
até precipitar-se como um cravo noturno,
até ser e não ser senão na sombra de um raio.
*
Talvez
Talvez não ser,
é ser sem que tu sejas,
sem que vás cortando
o meio dia com uma
flor azul,
sem que caminhes mais tarde
pela névoa e pelos tijolos,
sem essa luz que levas na mão
que, talvez, outros não verão dourada,
que talvez ninguém
soube que crescia
como a origem vermelha da rosa,
sem que sejas, enfim,
sem que viesses brusca, incitante
conhecer a minha vida,
rajada de roseira,
trigo do vento,
E desde então, sou porque tu és
E desde então és
sou e somos…
E por amor
Serei… Serás… Seremos…
*
Vês estas mãos?
Mediram a terra, separaram os minerais e os cereais,
fizeram a paz e a guerra, derrubaram as distâncias
de todos os mares e rios,
e, no entanto, quando te percorrem a ti,
pequena, grão de trigo, andorinha,
não chegam para abarcar-te,
esforçadas alcançam as palomas gêmeas
que repousam ou voam no teu peito,
percorrem as distâncias de tuas pernas,
enrolam-se na luz de tua cintura.
Para mim és tesouro mais intenso de imensidão
que o mar e seus racimos
e és branca, és azul e extensa como a terra na vindima.
Nesse território, de teus pés à tua fronte,
andando, andando, andando, eu passarei a vida.
*
É assim que te quero, amor,
assim, amor, é que eu gosto de ti,
tal como te vestes
e como arranjas
os cabelos e como
a tua boca sorri,
ágil como a água
da fonte sobre as pedras puras,
é assim que te quero, amada,
Ao pão não peço que me ensine,
mas antes que não me falte
em cada dia que passa.
Da luz nada sei, nem donde
vem nem para onde vai,
apenas quero que a luz alumie,
e também não peço à noite explicações,
espero-a e envolve-me,
e assim tu pão e luz
e sombra és.
Chegastes à minha vida
com o que trazias,
feita
de luz e pão e sombra, eu te esperava,
e é assim que preciso de ti,
assim que te amo,
e os que amanhã quiserem ouvir
o que não lhes direi, que o leiam aqui
e retrocedam hoje porque é cedo
para tais argumentos.
Amanhã dar-lhes-emos apenas
uma folha da árvore do nosso amor, uma folha
que há de cair sobre a terra
como se a tivessem produzido os nosso lábios,
como um beijo caído
das nossas alturas invencíveis
para mostrar o fogo e a ternura
de um amor verdadeiro.
*
Tu eras também uma pequena folha
que tremia no meu peito.
O vento da vida pôs-te ali.
A princípio não te vi: não soube
que ias comigo,
até que as tuas raízes
atravessaram o meu peito,
se uniram aos fios do meu sangue,
falaram pela minha boca,
floresceram comigo.
*
É assim que te quero, amor,
assim, amor, é que eu gosto de ti,
tal como te vestes
e como arranjas
os cabelos e como
a tua boca sorri,
ágil como a água
da fonte sobre as pedras puras,
é assim que te quero, amada,
Ao pão não peço que me ensine,
mas antes que não me falte
em cada dia que passa.
Da luz nada sei, nem donde
vem nem para onde vai,
apenas quero que a luz alumie,
e também não peço à noite explicações,
espero-a e envolve-me,
e assim tu pão e luz
e sombra és.
Chegastes à minha vida
com o que trazias,
feita
de luz e pão e sombra, eu te esperava,
e é assim que preciso de ti,
assim que te amo,
e os que amanhã quiserem ouvir
o que não lhes direi, que o leiam aqui
e retrocedam hoje porque é cedo
para tais argumentos.
Amanhã dar-lhes-emos apenas
uma folha da árvore do nosso amor, uma folha
que há de cair sobre a terra
como se a tivessem produzido os nosso lábios,
como um beijo caído
das nossas alturas invencíveis
para mostrar o fogo e a ternura
de um amor verdadeiro.
*
Não te quero senão porque te quero,
e de querer-te a não te querer chego,
e de esperar-te quando não te espero,
passa o meu coração do frio ao fogo.
Quero-te só porque a ti te quero,
Odeio-te sem fim e odiando te rogo,
e a medida do meu amor viajante,
é não te ver e amar-te,
como um cego.
Tal vez consumirá a luz de Janeiro,
seu raio cruel meu coração inteiro,
roubando-me a chave do sossego,
nesta história só eu me morro,
e morrerei de amor porque te quero,
porque te quero amor,
a sangue e fogo.
*
Walking Around
Acontece que me canso de meus pés e de minhas unhas,
do meu cabelo e até da minha sombra.
Acontece que me canso de ser homem.
Todavia, seria delicioso
assustar um notário com um lírio cortado
ou matar uma freira com um soco na orelha.
Seria belo
ir pelas ruas com uma faca verde
e aos gritos até morrer de frio.
Passeio calmamente, com olhos, com sapatos,
com fúria e esquecimento,
passo, atravesso escritórios e lojas ortopédicas,
e pátios onde há roupa pendurada num arame:
cuecas, toalhas e camisas que choram
lentas lágrimas sórdidas.
*
Os Teus Pés
Quando não te posso contemplar
Contemplo os teus pés.
Teus pés de osso arqueado,
Teus pequenos pés duros,
Eu sei que te sustentam
E que teu doce peso
Sobre eles se ergue.
Tua cintura e teus seios,
A duplicada purpura
Dos teus mamilos,
A caixa dos teus olhos
Que há pouco levantaram voo,
A larga boca de fruta,
Tua rubra cabeleira,
Pequena torre minha.
Mas se amo os teus pés
É só porque andaram
Sobre a terra e sobre
O vento e sobre a água,
Até me encontrarem.
*
Angela Adonica
Hoje deitei-me junto a uma jovem pura
como se na margem de um oceano branco,
como se no centro de uma ardente estrela
de lento espaço.
Do seu olhar largamente verde
a luz caía como uma água seca,
em transparentes e profundos círculos
de fresca força.
Seu peito como um fogo de duas chamas
ardía em duas regiões levantado,
e num duplo rio chegava a seus pés,
grandes e claros.
Um clima de ouro madrugava apenas
as diurnas longitudes do seu corpo
enchendo-o de frutas extendidas
e oculto fogo..
*
Poema XLIV
Saberás que não te amo e que te amo
posto que de dois modos é a vida,
a palavra é uma asa do silêncio,
o fogo tem uma metade de frio.
Eu te amo para começar a amar-te,
para recomeçar o infinito
e para não deixar de amar-te nunca:
por isso não te amo ainda.
Te amo e não te amo como se tivesse
em minhas mãos as chaves da fortuna
e um incerto destino desafortunado.
Meu amor tem duas vidas para amar-te.
Por isso te amo quando não te amo
e por isso te amo quando te amo.


Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [feðeˈɾiko ɣarˈθi.a ˈlorka]; 5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He may have been shot by anti-communist forces during the Spanish Civil War.[2][3][4] In 2008, a Spanish judge opened an investigation into Lorca's death. The Garcia Lorca family eventually dropped objections to the excavation of a potential gravesite near Alfacar. However, no human remains were found.[5][6]


Early years

García Lorca was born on 5 June 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles west of Granada, southern Spain.[7]His father, Federico García Rodríguez, was a landowner with a farm in the fertile vega surrounding Granada and a comfortable villa in the heart of the city. García Rodríguez saw his fortunes rise with a boom in the sugar industry. García Lorca's mother, Vicenta Lorca Romero, was a teacher and gifted pianist. In 1909, when the boy was 11, his family moved to the city of Granada. For the rest of his life, he maintained the importance of living close to the natural world, praising his upbringing in the country.[7] In 1915, after graduating from secondary school, García Lorca attended Sacred Heart University. During this time his studies included law, literature and composition. Throughout his adolescence he felt a deeper affinity for theatre and music than literature, training fully as a classical pianist, his first artistic inspirations arising from the scores of DebussyChopin andBeethoven. Later, with his friendship with composer Manuel de Falla Spanish folklore became his muse. García Lorca did not begin a career in writing until his piano teacher died in 1916 and his first prose works such as "Nocturne", "Ballade" and "Sonata" drew on musical forms.[8] His milieu of young artists gathered in El Rinconcillo at the cafe Alameda in Granada. During 1916 and 1917, García Lorca traveled throughout CastileLéon, and Galicia, in northern Spain, with a professor of his university, who also encouraged him to write his first book, Impresiones y Paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes – published 1918). Don Fernando de los Rios persuaded García Lorca's parents to allow the boy to enrol at the progressive, Oxbridge-inspired Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid in 1919.[8]

As a young writer

Huerta de San Vicente, Lorca's summer home in Granada, Spain, now a museum
At the Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid García Lorca befriended Manuel de FallaLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí and many other creative artists who were, or would become, influential across Spain.[8] He was taken under the wing of the poetJuan Ramon Jimenez, becoming close to playwright Eduardo Marquina and Gregorio Martínez Sierra, the Director of Madrid's Teatro Eslava.[8]In 1919–20, at Sierra's invitation, he wrote and staged his first play, El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell). It was a verse play dramatising the impossible love between a cockroach and a butterfly, with a supporting cast of other insects; it was laughed off stage by an unappreciative public after only four performances and influenced García Lorca's attitude to the theatre-going public for the rest of his career. He would later claim that Mariana Pineda, written in 1927, was, in fact, his first play. During the time at the Residencia de estudiantes he pursued degrees in law and philosophy, though he had more interest in writing than study.[8]
García Lorca's first book of poems was published in 1921, collecting work written from 1918 and selected with the help of his brother Francisco. They concern the themes of religious faith, isolation and nature that had filled his prose reflections.[9]Early in 1922 at Granada García Lorca joined the composer Manuel de Falla in order to promote the Concurso de Cante Jondo, a festival dedicated to enhance flamenco performance. The year before Lorca had begun to write his Poema del cante jondo ("Poem of the deep song", not published until 1931), so he naturally composed an essay on the art of flamenco,[10] and began to speak publicly in support of the Concurso. At the music festival in June he met the celebrated Manuel Torre, a flamenco cantaor. The next year in Granada he also collaborated with Falla and others on the musical production of a play for children, adapted by Lorca from an Andalucian story.[11][12] Inspired by the same structural form of sequence as "Deep song", his collection Suites (1923) was never finished and not published until 1983.[9]
Lorca, 1934
Over the next few years García Lorca became increasingly involved in Spain's avant-garde. He published poetry collections including Canciones (Songs) and Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads, 1928), which became his best known book of poetry.[13]It was a highly stylised imitation of the ballads and poems that were still being told throughout the Spanish countryside. Philologists such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal worked with him to collect versions from the south, many in existence since the Middle Ages. García Lorca describes the work as a "carved altar piece" of Andalusia with "gypsies, horses, archangels, planets, its Jewish and Roman breezes, rivers, crimes, the everyday touch of the smuggler and the celestial note of the naked children of Córdoba. A book that hardly expresses visible Andalusia at all, but where the hidden Andalusia trembles".[13] In 1928, the book brought him fame across Spain and the Hispanic world, and he only gained notability as a playwright much later. For the rest of his life, the writer would search for the elements of Andaluce culture, trying to find its essence without resorting to the "picturesque" or the cliched use of "local colour".[14]
His second play, Mariana Pineda, with stage settings by Salvador Dalí, opened to great acclaim in Barcelona in 1927.[8] In 1926, García Lorca wrote the play The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife, which would not be shown until the early 1930s. It was a farce about fantasy, based on the relationship between a flirtatious, petulant wife and a hen-pecked shoemaker.
From 1925 to 1928 he was passionately involved with Dalí.[15] The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion,[16] but Dalí (decades later) rejected the erotic advances of the poet.[17] With the success of "Gypsy Ballads", came an estrangement from Dali and the breakdown of a love affair with sculptor Emilio Soriano Aladrén. These brought on an increasing depression, a situation exacerbated by his anguish over his homosexuality. He felt he was trapped between the persona of the successful author, which he was forced to maintain in public, and the tortured, authentic self, which he could only acknowledge in private. He also had the sense that he was being pigeon-holed as a "gypsy poet". He wrote: "The gypsies are a theme. And nothing more. I could just as well be a poet of sewing needles or hydraulic landscapes. Besides, this gypsyism gives me the appearance of an uncultured, ignorant and primitive poet that you know very well I’m not. I don't want to be typecast".[14] Growing estrangement between García Lorca and his closest friends reached its climax when surrealists Dalí and Luis Buñuel collaborated on their 1929 film Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). García Lorca interpreted it, perhaps erroneously, as a vicious attack upon himself.[18] At this time Dalí also met his future wife Gala. Aware of these problems (though not perhaps of their causes), García Lorca's family arranged for him to take a lengthy visit to the United States in 1929–30.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea
and the horse on the mountain.
With the shadow at the waist
she dreams on her balcony,
green flesh, green hair,
with eyes of cold silver.
"Romance Sonámbulo" ("Ballad of the Sleepwalker)"
In June 1929, García Lorca travelled to America with Fernando de los Rios on the SS Olympic, a sister liner to the Titanic.[19]They stayed mostly in New York City, where Rios started a lecture tour and García Lorca enrolled at Columbia University School of General Studies, funded by his parents. He studied English but, as before, was more absorbed by writing than study. He also spent time in Vermont and later in Havana, Cuba. His collection Poeta en Nueva York (A poet in New York, published posthumously in 1942) explores alienation and isolation through some graphically experimental poetic techniques and was influenced by the Wall Street crash which he personally witnessed. This condemnation of urban capitalist society and materialistic modernity was a sharp departure from his earlier work and label as a folklorist.[19] His play of this time, El Público (The Public), was not published until the late 1970s and has never been published in its entirety, the manuscript lost. However, the Hispanic Society of America in New York City retains several of his personal letters.

The Republic

Statue of Lorca in the Plaza de Santa Ana, Madrid
García Lorca's return to Spain in 1930 coincided with the fall of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the re-establishment of the Spanish Republic.[19] In 1931, García Lorca was appointed as director of a university student theatre company, Teatro Universitario la Barraca (The Shack). This was funded by the Second Republic's Ministry of Education, and it was charged with touring Spain's remotest rural areas in order to introduce audiences to radically modern interpretations of classic Spanish theatre free of charge. With a portable stage, and little equipment, they sought to bring theatre to people who had never seen any, with García Lorca directing as well as acting. He commented: "Outside of Madrid, the theatre, which is in its very essence a part of the life of the people, is almost dead, and the people suffer accordingly, as they would if they had lost their two eyes, or ears, or a sense of taste. We [La Barraca] are going to give it back to them".[19] His experiences of travelling through impoverished rural Spain and New York, (particularly amongst the disenfranchised African American population), transformed him into a passionate advocate of the theatre of social action.[19] He wrote "The theatre is a school of weeping and of laughter, a free forum, where men can question norms that are outmoded or mistaken and explain with living example the eternal norms of the human heart".[19]
While touring with La Barraca, García Lorca wrote his now best-known plays, the Rural Trilogy of Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba), which all rebelled against the norms of bourgeois Spanish society.[19] He called for a rediscovery of the roots of European theatre and the questioning of comfortable conventions such as the popular drawing room comedies of the time. His work challenged the accepted role of women in society and explored taboo issues of homoeroticism and class. García Lorca wrote little poetry in this last period of his life, declaring in 1936, “theatre is poetry that rises from the book and becomes human enough to talk and shout, weep and despair.” [20]
Bust of Federico García Lorca inSantoñaCantabria
Travelling to Buenos Aires in 1933 to give lectures and direct the Argentine premiere of Blood Wedding, García Lorca spoke of his distilled theories on artistic creation and performance in the famous lecture Play and Theory of the Duende. This attempted to define a schema of artistic inspiration, arguing that great art depends upon a vivid awareness of death, connection with a nation's soil, and an acknowledgment of the limitations of reason.[20] [21]
As well as returning to the classical roots of theatre, García Lorca also turned to traditional forms in poetry. His last poetic work Sonnets to his dark love (1936) was inspired by a passion for Rafael Rodriguez Rapun, secretary of La Barraca. The love sonnets are inspired by the 16th century poet San Juan de la Cruz.[22] La Barraca's subsidy was cut in half by the new government in 1934, and its last performance was given in April 1936.
Lorca kept Huerta de San Vicente as his summer house in Granada from 1926 to 1936. Here he wrote, totally or in part, some of his major works, among them When Five Years Pass (Así que pasen cinco años) (1931), Blood Wedding (Bodas de sangre)(1932), Yerma (1934) and Diván del Tamarit (1931–1936). The poet lived in the Huerta de San Vicente in the days just before his arrest and assassination in August 1936.[23]
Although García Lorca's artwork doesn't often receive attention he was also a keen artist.[24][25]

Death

García Lorca left Madrid for his family home in Granada only three days before the Spanish Civil War broke out (July 1936).[22]The Spanish political and social climate had greatly intensified after the murder of prominent monarchist and anti-Popular Frontspokesman José Calvo Sotelo by Republican Assault Guards (Guardia de Asalto).[26] García Lorca knew that he would be suspect to the rising right wing for his outspoken liberal views.[22] On 18 August, his brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, the leftist mayor of Granada, was shot. Lorca was arrested that same afternoon.[27]
It is thought that García Lorca was shot and killed by Nationalist militia[28][29] on 19 August 1936.[30] The author Ian Gibson in his book The Assassination of García Lorca alleges that he was shot with three others (Joaquin Arcollas Cabezas, Francisco Galadi Mergal and Dioscoro Galindo Gonzalez) at a place known as the Fuente Grande, or Great Fountain in Spanish, which is on the road between Viznar and Alfacar.[31]


Motives for assassination

Significant controversy remains about the motives and details of Lorca's murder. Personal, non-political motives have also been suggested. García Lorca's biographer, Stainton, states that his killers made remarks about his sexual orientation, suggesting that it played a role in his death.[32] Ian Gibson suggests that García Lorca's assassination was part of a campaign of mass killings intended to eliminate supporters of the Marxist Popular Front.[27] However, Gibson proposes that rivalry between the anti-communist Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) and the Falange was a major factor in Lorca's death. Former CEDA Parliamentary Deputy Ramon Ruiz Alonso arrested García Lorca at the Rosales' home, and was the one responsible for the original denunciation that led to the arrest warrant being issued.
Then I realized I had been murdered.
They looked for me in cafes, cemeteries and churches
.... but they did not find me.
They never found me?
No. They never found me.
From "The Fable And Round Of The Three Friends",
Poet in New York (1939), Garcia Lorca
It has been argued that García Lorca was apolitical and had many friends in both Republican and Nationalist camps. Gibson disputes this in his 1978 book about the poet's death.[27] He cites, for example, Mundo Obrero's published manifesto, which Lorca later signed, and alleges that Lorca was an active supporter of the Popular Front.[33] Lorca read this manifesto out at a banquet in honour of fellow poet Rafael Alberti on 9 February 1936.
Many anti-communists were sympathetic to Lorca or assisted him. In the days before his arrest he found shelter in the house of the artist and leading Falange member Luis Rosales. Indeed, evidence suggests that Rosales was very nearly shot as well for helping García Lorca by the Civil Governor Valdes.The Basque Communist poet Gabriel Celaya wrote in his memoirs that he once found García Lorca in the company of Falangist José Maria Aizpurua. Celaya further wrote that Lorca dined every Friday with Falangist founder and leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera.[34] On 11 March 1937 an article appeared in the Falangist press denouncing the murder and lionizing García Lorca; the article opened: "The finest poet of Imperial Spain has been assassinated."[35] Jean-Louis Schonberg also put forward the 'homosexual jealousy' theory.[36] The dossier on the murder, compiled at Franco's request and referred to by Gibson and others, has yet to surface. The first published account of an attempt to locate Lorca's grave can be found in British traveller and Hispanist Gerald Brenan's book 'The Face of Spain'.[37] Despite early attempts such as Brenan's in 1949, the site remained undiscovered throughout the Francoist era.


Excavation at Alfácar

The site of the excavation as it was in 1999
In late October 2009, a team of archaeologists and historians from the University of Granada began excavations outside Alfácar.[38] The site was identified three decades ago by a man who claimed to have helped dig Lorca's grave.[39][40] Lorca was thought to be buried with at least three other men beside a winding mountain road that connects the villages of Viznar and Alfácar.[41]
There is a growing desire in Spain to come to terms with the civil war, which for decades was not openly discussed.[42] The judge in the case, Baltasar Garzón, formally requested local government and churches to open their files on the thousands of people who disappeared during the Civil War and under the dictatorship of General Franco until 1975.[43]
The excavations began at the request of another victim's family.[44] Following a long-standing objection, the Lorca family also gave their permission.[44] In October 2009 Francisco Espinola, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry of the Andalusian regional government, said that after years of pressure García Lorca's body would "be exhumed in a matter of weeks".[45] Lorca's relatives, who had initially opposed an exhumation, said they might provide a DNA sample in order to identify his remains.[44]
In late November 2009, after two weeks of excavating the site, organic material believed to be human bones was recovered. The remains were taken to the University of Granada for examination.[46] But in mid December 2009, doubts were raised as to whether the poet's remains would be found.[47] The dig produced "not one bone, item of clothing or bullet shell", said Begoña Álvarez, justice minister of Andalucia. She added, "the soil was only 40cm (16in) deep, making it too shallow for a grave".[48][49]


Censorship

Francisco Franco's Falangist regime placed a general ban on García Lorca's work, which was not rescinded until 1953. That year, a (censored) Obras Completas (Complete works) was released. Following this, Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma andLa casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) were successfully played on the main Spanish stages. Obras Completas did not include his late heavily homoerotic Sonnets of Dark Love, written in November 1935 and shared only with close friends. They were lost until 1983/4 when they were finally published in draft form (no final manuscripts have ever been found.) It was only after Franco's death that García Lorca's life and death could be openly discussed in Spain. This was due not only to political censorship, but also to the reluctance of the García Lorca family to allow publication of unfinished poems and plays prior to the publication of a critical edition of his works.
South African Roman Catholic poet Roy Campbell, who enthusiastically supported the Nationalists both during and after the Civil War, later produced acclaimed translations of Lorca's work. In his poem, The Martyrdom of F. Garcia Lorca, Campbell wrote,
Not only did he lose his life
By shots assassinated:
But with a hammer and a knife
Was after that -- translated.[50]


Memorials

The poem De profundis on the eastern wall of the Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw, at the corner of the Langebrug and the Zonneveldstraat in Leiden,Netherlands.
In Granada, the city of his birth, the Parque Federico Garcia Lorca is dedicated to his memory and includes the Huerta de San Vicente, the Lorca family summer home, opened to the public in 1995 as a museum. The grounds, including nearly two hectares of land, the two adjoining houses, artworks and the original furnishings have been preserved.[51] There is a new statue of Lorca on the Avenida de la Constitución in the city centre, and a new cultural centre bearing his name is currently under construction and will play a major role in preserving and disseminating his works.
The Parque Federico Garcia Lorca, in Alfacar, is situated close to Fuente Grande and was the location of the unsuccessful 2009 excavations that failed to locate Lorca´s resting place. Close to the olive tree indicated by some as marking the location of the grave, there is a stone memorial to Federico Garcia Lorca and all victims of the Civil War, 1936-39. Flowers are laid at the memorial every year on the anniversary of his death, and a commemorative event including music and readings of the poet´s works is held every year in the park to mark the anniversary. On the 17th August 2011, to remember the 75th anniversary of Lorca´s assassination and to celebrate his life and legacy, this event included dance, song, poetry and dramatic readings and attracted hundreds of spectators.
At the Barranco de Viznar, between Viznar and Alfacar, there is a memorial stone bearing the words "Lorca eran todos, 18-8-2002". The Barranco de Viznar is the site of mass graves and was proposed as another possible location of the poet´s remains.
García Lorca is honoured by a statue prominently located in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana. Political philosopher David Crocker reports that "the statue, at least, is still an emblem of the contested past: "each day, the Left puts a red kerchief on the neck of the statue, and someone from the Right comes later to take it off."[52]
The Lorca Foundation, directed by Lorca's niece Laura García Lorca, sponsors the celebration and dissemination of the writer's work and is currently building the Lorca Centre in Madrid. The Lorca family gave all Lorca's documentation to the foundation which holds it on their behalf.[53]