Dorcas and Fechin

thalassocrat at nym.hush.com · 16 Jun 2008, 10:55 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: thalassocrat at nym.hush.com (thalassocrat at nym.hush.com)
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:55:10 +1000
Subject: (urth) Dorcas and Fechin
Message-ID: <20080616105512.220112003E at mailserver7.hushmail.com>

While trying to think up a devasting rejoinder to Roy's cogent 
critique of my cosmic theory I took a break to wander through the 
quagmire of Sev's parentage. 

If his Sev-mojo was bred into him, can we find any trace of the 
breeding? 

I think Dorcas does display some signs. Her husband says that her 
eyes opened as her corpse was being lowered into the water. When 
Sev resurrects her, it seems he isn't doing all the work: she seems 
to rise to meet him, with his sword in one hand and clasping his 
with the other. In Hildegrin's skiff it is as if she has brought 
forth a flower on the water, where there are no others. 

So it's possible to see her as possessing some Sev-mojo, kind of 
latent, brought out more strongly in the presence of Sev himself.

Moving forward a generation, Ouen seems like a total loss as far as 
this goes. But his cloisonne enamel locket of Dorcas reminds us 
that making these was the trade of Dorcas' father (and brother). 

And I think there's at least a few hints that Dorcas' father was 
actually Fechin. She's a good painter (with the backdrops of Dr 
Talos' play); she is quiet and beautiful like the girlfriend of 
Fechin described by Becan's father (Dorcas' mother?). 

As far I can recall we are told of four Fechin works: a portrait of 
Casdoe's father, a portrait of the girlfriend, a portrait of 
Rudesind and a group scene with girls decking another girl with 
flowers (conceivably, Dorcas on her wedding day?)

And maybe five if Ouen's locket is by Fechin too. Maybe Fechin did 
other work as well, but he was definitely a portrait artist. 

>From that to cloisonne enamel miniatures is maybe not a huge step. 
Such miniatures often use a substrate of copper. Casdoe's father 
says that Fechin stole his family's copper pan ...

And we have the scene quoted by Dave earlier, where Casdoe's father 
recalls the old sick sun as briefly re-invigorated, when "the light 
of it on Fechin's face was more than I could stand."

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