This painting depicts one of the most heartbreaking farewells in art history...
It's called Ein lieber Besuch, "A Dear Visitor," and it was made by the Austrian artist Max Kurzweil in 1894. A mortally wounded officer lies in bed, and a fellow soldier lifts him gently so he can reach up one last time and touch the face of the horse that carried him through war.
The animal is right up to the bed. No one is holding it. It came on its own. It lowers its head toward the frail hand reaching for it, and the way it stands, uncertain, careful, tells you it senses that something is wrong. Its master, who was once strong and full of courage in the saddle, is now a shadow of the man it knew, and the horse seems to be trying to understand why. Why he does not rise. Why he does not come. Why the hand that reaches up is so weak...
It’s something anyone who has shared a deep bond with an animal can understand: two old friends who went through everything life brought their way together, a man and a horse who trusted each other with their lives, given one final moment before the end.
We often think the deepest bonds are the ones we can put into words, but Kurzweil painted the opposite: a farewell where not a single word is spoken, because none is needed. Everything they mean to each other passes between them in silence. And for one brief moment, before they part, that silence says everything...
Me compré un mix de frutos secos para hacerme el sano, casi muero ahogado con la piel de una almendra que se me pegó en la garganta.
Un helado jamás me haría eso