"the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled".
Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhyakanda
विशालान्
कोसलान् रम्यान् यात्वा लक्ष्मणपूर्वजः।
अयोध्याभिमुखो धीमान् प्राञ्जलिर्वाक्यमब्रवीत्।।2.50.1।।
Having crossed the vast, beautiful kingdom of Kosala, the sagacious elder brother of Lakshmana stood facing Ayodhya with folded palms and said:
आपृच्छे
त्वां पुरीश्रेष्ठे काकुत्स्थपरिपालिते।
दैवतानि च यानि त्वां
पालयन्ति वसन्ति च।।2.50.2।।
O Ayodhya, the best of cities ruled by those born in the Kakutstha race I take leave of you and of all those gods inhabiting and guarding you.
निवृत्तवनवासस्त्वामनृणो
जगतीपतेः।
पुनर्द्रक्ष्यामि मात्रा च पित्रा च
सह सङ्गतः।।2.50.3।।
On completion of exile and my filial obligations to king Dasaratha, lord of the world, discharged, I shall, reunited with my parents, see you again.
तो रुधिरताम्राक्षो भुजमुद्यम्य दक्षिणम्।
अश्रुपूर्णमुखो दीनोऽब्रवीज्जानपदं जनम्।।2.50.4।।
WALTER DE LA MARE, 1925
"....No, no. Why further
should we roam,
Since every road man
journeys by
Ends on a hillside far
from home
Under an alien
sky;..."
John Berger, 'Rembrandt', Oct 15, 2015:
"...Nobody
today knows precisely who or what the painting represented for the painter. The
rider’s coat is typically Polish—a kontusz. Likewise the rider’s
headgear. This is probably why the painting was bought by a Polish nobleman in
Amsterdam, and taken to Poland at the end of the 18th century.
When I first saw the painting in the Frick Collection in New York, where it ended up, I felt it might be a portrait of Rembrandt’s beloved son, Titus. It seemed to me—and it still does—a painting about leaving home.
A more scholarly theory suggests that the painting may have been inspired by a Pole, Jonaz Szlichtyng, who, during Rembrandt’s time in Amsterdam, was something of a rebel-hero in dissident circles. Szlichtyng belonged to a sect that followed the 16th-century Sienese theologian Lebo Sozznisi, who denied that Christ was the son of God—for, if he were, the religion would cease to be monotheistic. If the painting was inspired by Jonaz Szlichtyng it offers an image of a Christlike figure, who is a man, only a man, setting out, mounted on a horse, to meet his destiny..."
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Rembrandt, The Polish Rider (c. 1655). Oil on canvas
