I
in the Tate Gallery we find as we go in the left wing a series of walls along which parade, dressed in the fashion of the period, (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), a series of gentlemen and ladies
here we have
the portrait of a noblewoman, slim, erect, shapely airily dignified like some celestial swan
clad in light blue satin lace collar and cuffs her face turned slightly to the right
hand lightly resting on a book towards the left further on
landscapes Italian ruins (then
just recently discovered) a goat standing in a cave
framed by a marble arch
in Hadrian's villa the arch is overgrown by grass
and crowned
by some peasant's hut rural scenes avalanches castles rivers
off in one of the side rooms we find
a picture of a village fair
where we can see fall after fall
from Adam's
to the final fall
of the very stage
which collapses before our eyes
taking the actors with it
II
along the Tate Gallery building runs a freeway
parallel to the Thames where cars and trucks pelt by like meteors
on the opposite river bank an horizon of buildings rises
square masses of concrete drilled by gray holes
the yellowish-gray water of the Thames laps in a muddy stream
dividing two contrasting worlds
III
but Turner
worked with light after he finished painting the usual scenes
landscapes avalanches allegories
(in his sea-scapes the waves swayed heavily back and forth as if a body was settling in a bathtub full of water)
light and waves
began to merge
producing a rhythmic, agitated
brilliance
or the walls began to vibrate giving off a single radiance that blurred the figures
little by little
light
invaded his scenes taking over sharp edges erasing faces filling every drop of water
at the end of his life every sharp edge
hardness
opposition lost importance his world transformed into a single luminous reverberation