Beginning of article  Michael Ann Holly  Melancholy betrays the
world for the sake of knowledge. But in its tenacious self-
absorption it embraces dead objects in its contemplation, in
order to redeem them. . . . The persistence which is expressed
in the intention of mourning is born of its loyalty to the world
of things.  -Walter Benjamin, The Ongr'n of German Tragic Drama1
Some thoughts by allusion, quotation, mood, and metaphor on
mourning, writing, and the history of art  Writing about visual
art, like looking at it, can on occasion console, captivate, and
enrapture. The act of trying to put into words, spoken or
written, something that never promised the possibility of a
translation can at rare moments blur the boundaries between
author and work, enveloping the writer in a greater world of
mutual understanding.2 Usually language gets in the way. The
enchantment that transpires between beholder and work of art has
no name because it resists linguistic appropriation. Try as
philosophers might, we resignedl