Holy Icon

"Dostoevsky 2", acrylic on canvas, 2021
"Dostoevsky’s face is the face of a peasant. An ashen hue pervades the hollow cheeks, making them appear almost grimy, emphasizing the furrows caused by many years of suffering; the skin, dry and parched, is stretched tight over the bony framework, and is bereft of blood and color, sucked clean of life by the vampire which has preyed on it for a score of years. To right and left, two huge boulders jut forth, the prominent cheekbones typical of his race; a sparse moustache and a straggling beard veil the sad-looking mouth and delicate chin. Earth, rock, and forest; a tragic and primitive landscape; such are the basic lineaments of Dostoevsky’s countenance. All is dark and preeminently earthly in this unbeautiful face. I have called it a peasant’s, but I might almost term it a beggar’s, so flat and colorless is it, so lacking in brightness: a piece of the Russian steppe cast high and dry upon the stones. Even the deep-set eyes, gleaming from within their sockets, are incapable of imparting a spark of light to the grim visage, for their radiance is directed inward. As soon as the lids close over them, the face becomes a death mask, and the nervous tension which otherwise grips the frail features is relaxed into a lifeless lethargy". (Dostoevsky by Stefan Zweig)