moderndayruth
A creepy rider is waving a sword above the head of a kneeling woman; she is holding a key in her arms that are reaching out to him.
The image is quite surreal, rider's face reminds me of a Chinese opera mask - its angry, but as if its a metaphor ; the horse is beautiful, covered with luxurious robe and it seems ti be dancing.
The accompanying story id Bluebeard.
wiki synopsis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard
Bluebeard is a very wealthy aristocrat, feared because of his "frightfully ugly" blue beard. He had been married several times, but no one knew what had become of his wives. He was therefore avoided by the local girls. When Bluebeard visited one of his neighbours and asked to marry one of her two daughters, the girls were terrified, and each tried to pass him on to the other. Eventually he persuaded the younger daughter (Perrault does not name the woman, but many versions state her name to be Fatima) to marry him, and after the ceremony she went to live with him in his château.
Very shortly after, Bluebeard announces that he must leave the country for a while; he gives all the keys of the chateau to his new wife, including the key to one small room that she was forbidden to enter. He then goes away and leaves the house in her hands. Immediately she is overcome with the desire to see what the forbidden room holds, and despite warnings from her visiting sister, Anne, the girl abandons her guests during a house party, and takes the key to the room.
The wife immediately discovers the room's horrible secret: Its floor is awash with blood, and the dead bodies of her husband's former wives hang from hooks on the walls. Horrified, she locked the door, but blood had come onto the key which would not wash off. Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly and immediately knows what his wife has done. In a blind rage he threatens to behead her on the spot, but she implores that he give her quarter of an hour to say her prayers. He consents, so she locks herself in the highest tower with her sister, Anne. While Bluebeard, sword in hand, tries to break down the door, the sisters wait for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment, as Bluebeard is about to deliver the fatal blow, the brothers break into the castle, and as he attempts to flee, they kill him. He leaves no heirs but his wife, who inherits all his great fortune. She uses part of it for a dowry to marry her sister to the one that loved her, another part for her brothers' captains commissions, and the rest to marry a worthy gentleman who made her forget her ill treatment by Bluebeard.
I was thinking that here a clear link is felt with the Biblical story of the primordial sin and in indeed in the commentaries it says:
"The fatal effects of feminine curiosity have long been the subject of story and legend. Lot's wife, Pandora, and Psyche are all examples of women whose curiosity exacted dire consequences. In an illustrated account of the Bluebeard story by Walter Crane, when the wife is shown making her way towards the forbidden room, there is behind her a tapestry of the Serpent enticing Eve into eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden."
As key words are listed: 'might is right'; imposing your own judgement; shatr intellect combined with ruthless self-confidence etc.
I must say that this is one of the cards (and stories too) that makes the least sense to me.
The image is quite surreal, rider's face reminds me of a Chinese opera mask - its angry, but as if its a metaphor ; the horse is beautiful, covered with luxurious robe and it seems ti be dancing.
The accompanying story id Bluebeard.
wiki synopsis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard
Bluebeard is a very wealthy aristocrat, feared because of his "frightfully ugly" blue beard. He had been married several times, but no one knew what had become of his wives. He was therefore avoided by the local girls. When Bluebeard visited one of his neighbours and asked to marry one of her two daughters, the girls were terrified, and each tried to pass him on to the other. Eventually he persuaded the younger daughter (Perrault does not name the woman, but many versions state her name to be Fatima) to marry him, and after the ceremony she went to live with him in his château.
Very shortly after, Bluebeard announces that he must leave the country for a while; he gives all the keys of the chateau to his new wife, including the key to one small room that she was forbidden to enter. He then goes away and leaves the house in her hands. Immediately she is overcome with the desire to see what the forbidden room holds, and despite warnings from her visiting sister, Anne, the girl abandons her guests during a house party, and takes the key to the room.
The wife immediately discovers the room's horrible secret: Its floor is awash with blood, and the dead bodies of her husband's former wives hang from hooks on the walls. Horrified, she locked the door, but blood had come onto the key which would not wash off. Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly and immediately knows what his wife has done. In a blind rage he threatens to behead her on the spot, but she implores that he give her quarter of an hour to say her prayers. He consents, so she locks herself in the highest tower with her sister, Anne. While Bluebeard, sword in hand, tries to break down the door, the sisters wait for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment, as Bluebeard is about to deliver the fatal blow, the brothers break into the castle, and as he attempts to flee, they kill him. He leaves no heirs but his wife, who inherits all his great fortune. She uses part of it for a dowry to marry her sister to the one that loved her, another part for her brothers' captains commissions, and the rest to marry a worthy gentleman who made her forget her ill treatment by Bluebeard.
I was thinking that here a clear link is felt with the Biblical story of the primordial sin and in indeed in the commentaries it says:
"The fatal effects of feminine curiosity have long been the subject of story and legend. Lot's wife, Pandora, and Psyche are all examples of women whose curiosity exacted dire consequences. In an illustrated account of the Bluebeard story by Walter Crane, when the wife is shown making her way towards the forbidden room, there is behind her a tapestry of the Serpent enticing Eve into eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden."
As key words are listed: 'might is right'; imposing your own judgement; shatr intellect combined with ruthless self-confidence etc.
I must say that this is one of the cards (and stories too) that makes the least sense to me.
