FINE ART FOR NUMPTIES

Just came across this site when looking for an online image of Max Ernst's The Angel of Hearth and Home. It's probably incredibly well-known among surfing cognoscenti, but for what it's worth, I pass it on. It has two of the great virtues of the internet - instant cross-referencing, and an absence of intellectual snobbery. Of course, it may well suffer from the great vice - the frequent absence of editorial or peer review to ensure factual accuracy (I refuse to support Wikipedia for this reason - only one of Kidnapped's main characters is fictional - a real howler) but I know practically nothing about art, so can't say.

Recall a thrilling moment from movies - Tarkovsky's Solaris. The crew of the space station are meeting to discuss what to do about the dreadful hauntings they are suffering from. And for no apparent reason the camera picks up on a reproduction of The Hunters in the Snow, and lingers on it, focussing on details in the picture. Just that, and music - but it's a long moment of humanity. It really is a case of the image being able to express what words fall short of.