Doctor Who - Short Trips (Big Finish) - 15 - The History of Christmas by Simon Guerrier

Author:Simon Guerrier
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ibm, Science Fiction, General, Fiction, Fantasy, Collections & Anthologies, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9781844351497
Publisher: Big Finish
Published: 2005-10-15T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

119

'Ladies and gentlemen, the National Gallery will be closing in 15 minutes. Please make your way to the exits.'

'What do I see? I, Leonardo di Niente, see images and styles of paintings I do not understand. I go from room to room seeing painted figures and faces, royalty and peasants, who have lived long after my time. And now they are long dead too. The whole future of my art opens before me and it is already in the past. What have I missed? What wars and battles? Why am I permitted to see such things? Paintings are the deathless children that survive the people who made them. Living on in this new and dark age.

'Who are these artists? I cannot take them all in. Who are Georges Seurat and Claude Monet and Joseph Turner? Their languages are different. They transcend reality with colour and shape to create new truths and impressions of truths. I'm not sure if I understand them or even like them. When was a sky ever that colour?

Whoever wore a hat like that one? I think I wish I'd thought of that.

'And here is Sandro Botticelli. My friend on many a drunken night. Here are his works, some created after I was gone from Florence. Mars and Venus — Venus triumphant and wanton, and Mars just plain exhausted as teasing fauns steal away his weapons. And here it is: that Virgin and Child that I once held in the sunlit workshop. It is darkened by the years. Some of its bloom is lost to the centuries, but its skill and tenderness are preserved for the ages, stored in egg and oils.

'And beside it a label, like a plaque in a family tomb: "Sandro Botticelli (1444-151o)."

'I just want to touch the painting again.'

And he reached for it.

'Don't touch please, sir.'

Leonardo turned and stared at the cold-eyed steward, unable to speak.

'Do... you... understand... English?' said the guard loudly and slowly.

Leonardo thought to say that these days he spoke in many tongues. You wouldn't believe how many. But all he could muster was 'Leonardo...' yet he smiled with his best good grace that always charmed the ladies and many a youth as well.

The steward studied him and his sodden clothes for a moment. 'Room two,' he said with a veiled smile and pointed. 'But the gallery is closing soon. You only have a few minutes.'

Room after room. The Doctor ignored the dead whose pictures adorned the walls.

He was searching among the living. Time was thinning out like the crowds in the gallery. Early closing for Christmas Eve.

'Young man, I am looking for Leonardo.'

'I' m afraid the gallery is closing, sir.'

'I have to find him.'

The steward sighed. 'Room two, sir. That way. But you only have...'

'That will be quite sufficient,' called the Doctor from halfway out of the room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.