Liberty and Power

Chantler's April 2014 Shakespeare Challenge - Julius Caesar

The themes of Julius Caesar are about liberty and power. In many ways, its quite a political play, asking questions about trust and friendship in power situations.

Today, some friends and I did a tour of some local artist studios, as part of an Open Studio day. Of course we didn't manage to get round all of them, but it was fascinating. There are some seriously good artists round here!

The picture is of a bronze statue by Jon Vogler, who is a sculptor. We've seen his work before in his garden, as part of an Open Gardens day. This particular piece depicts a lady leaping over a bull. This was the practice in Knossos, during the period of the Minoans, a civilisation which predated Julius Caesar by several thousand years. The palace complex is enormous - but in the centre is a huge open area, where this bull leaping took place. And it was always young women who took part - its thought it was part of a political / entertainment event, a bit like the Gladiator contests in Rome - a way of keeping the populus happy, while celebrating a festival.