The artist, that is, not the blog. A big tip of the beret to Paul McCain’s Cyberbrethren for alerting me to this story from England about a big Lucas Cranach exhibit at the Royal Academy. The art critic goes on and on about the creativity, the “unruly talent,” and the darting imagination of Luther’s crony at Wittenberg. From “Cranach’s flashes of inspiration” in the London Times Online :

The fantastical religious paintings that surround The Martyrdom of St Catherine in the first outburst of his career confirm the impression that a momentous and unruly talent has been unleashed. Familiar subjects - the Crucifixion, the stigmatisation of St Francis - are reinvented outrageously by an artist determined not to do anything the way others did it. If the religious convolutions in the foregrounds are too complex for you, there are always the backgrounds to enjoy. Cranach was a superb landscapist who always set his biblical duels in recognisable stretches of Upper Franconia, where tottering Harry Potter castles wobble atop mysterious riverside crags.

Because his imagination darted about so much, there wasn’t much he didn’t try. There are portraits, altarpieces, bits of contemporary genre pictures that tug your heartstrings and ones that make you laugh. His woodcuts throb and squirm with events, like an angler’s worm tin. And a gorgeous nocturnal Nativity sets him the tough task of painting candlelit reflections at night. Nowhere does his art settle on a standard look.

Darting from one thing to another, tugging your heart strings, making you laugh, throbbing and squirming with events, religious convolutions, biblical duels. Maybe that DOES describe this blog in his honor!

Who says people today aren’t oriented to liturgies? Consider this article on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s press conference, which observes that all of these press conferences in which a politician caught in wrongdoing follow exactly the same pattern: Ritual of Repentance .

First, we watch the news conference. There’s Spitzer, with his wife by his side. He says, “I want to briefly address a private matter.” Then he expresses remorse (albeit vaguely) and promises to “dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

Then, we call Mark Geragos, the high-profile criminal defense attorney, who — as it happens — has not actually seen the news conference. He proceeds to describe the news conference that he has not seen.

“You’ve got to have the dutiful wife and you have to have the ‘it’s a private matter,’ ” Geragos says. “And remorse for the past and plans for the future.”

Whoa.

“If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all,” Geragos says.

What are some other secular liturgies?

The governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, a democrat who made a name for himself prosecuting white-collar shenanigans, was found to be a client of a high-price prostitution ring. His involvement was discovered when law enforcement officials saw suspicious wire transfers of funds that made them think the governor was laundering bribes!

As a rule, sexual misconduct dooms Republicans, but it usually is forgiven Democrats. This, however, looks to be an exception.

Power seems to blind some people, not only to morality but to common sense. Surely a reasonable governor would know that he is a public figure and so he had better stay away from activities that, if discovered, would ruin him. Perhaps such figures rise so high that they think they are entitled to whatever they want, that rules for lesser beings cannot apply to them. The mystery–and stupidity–of iniquity.

The Clintons are offering to make Barack Obama Hillary’s vice-presidential running mate. See Hillary and Bill push idea of Clinton, Obama ticket. But that is rather presumptuous since Obama is ahead of her! Obama is scorning the idea.