Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Beaching the Boat (study) painting

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Beaching the Boat (study) paintingJoseph Mallord William Turner Dido Building Carthage paintingJoseph Mallord William Turner Chichester Canal painting
eyes firmly closed, the boos and catcalls die away and a silence falls. Mahound does not open his eyes for an instant, but his steps are sure, and he reaches the stage without stumblings or collisions. He climbs the few steps up into the light; still his eyes stay shut. The assembled lyric poets, composers of assassination eulogies, narrative versifiers and satirists -- Baal is here, of course -- gaze with amusement, but also with a little unease, at the sleepwalking Mahound. In the crowd his disciples jostle for room. The scribes fight to be near him, to take down whatever he might say.
The Grandee Abu Simbel rests against bolsters on a silken carpet positioned beside the stage. With him, resplendent in golden Egyptian neckwear, is his wife Hind, that famous Grecian profile with the black hair that is as long as her body. Abu Simbel rises and calls to Mahound, "Welcome." He is all urbanity. "Welcome, Mahound, the seer, the kahin." It's a public declaration of respect, and it impresses the assembled crowd. The Prophet's disciples are