麻豆约拍

I don鈥檛 know much about art, but I know what I like.Alas, in my case, that 鈥榰nscholarly鈥� statement is true! 聽At least part of it is. 聽I really don鈥檛 know a huge amount about art.So I鈥檓 regularly surprised and delighted in art galleries 鈥� paintings that better educated art-lovers would have known from childhood come into my view with no preconceptions 鈥� and often no warning.Which is why you might have found me, just before Easter, in the Birmingham City Art Gallery, standing transfixed in front of a painting called 鈥淭he Star of Bethlehem鈥� by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. It鈥檚 a huge painting of the three Magi bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus, sitting on his mother鈥檚 lap.But instead of the serene Blessed Virgin Mary of most religious paintings, here is pale woman with haunted, deep-set eyes that stare into the far distance, into the future. 聽A woman who is aware of the fate of the baby she is holding 鈥� as if she鈥檚 already heard the words, 鈥渙ne day a sword will pierce your own heart, too鈥�.This week, two place-names have echoed from the darkest days of the last century 鈥� the massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica and the horrors of Bergen-Belsen. 聽For me, the eyes of Burne-Jones鈥檚 Mary are seeing the death of her son, and the cruelty in the world that continues to this day. 聽And they鈥檙e also seeing the presence of God in the darkest places of human history.Father, forgive us when we forget things too painful to remember day by day.Father, be with all those who suffer at the hands of their neighbours.Father, forgive all who hate.Amen鈥�