10/20/2025 Monday
DYI on sequencing your own DNA for $1,100.
10/19/2025 Sunday
Art of the day: The Unjust Judge and the Importunate Widow (The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ),
Engraving after Sir John Everett Millais (1829–1896), Engraved and printed by Dalziel Brothers (1839–93)
Issued in 1864, Wood engraving on paper
© Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Parable from Luke 18:1-8.
By Fr. Patrick van der Vorst:
Our engraving, issued in 1864, is part of a larger series, illustrating The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It took Millais seven years to design twenty images inspired by New Testament Parables for the Dalziel Brothers who would publish them. The resulting prints are considered pinnacles of wood engraved illustration. The artist wrote to his publishers, "I can do ordinary drawings as quickly as most men, but these designs can scarcely be regarded in the same light—each Parable I illustrate perhaps a dozen times before I fix [the image]." Millais worked and reworked the designs for each parable over and over again. In our engraving we see the widow pleading before the judge, who turns his face aside with an expression of cold rejection, almost of disgust. A guard begins to pull her away, while the judge sits surrounded by an opulent entourage. Their presence only heightens the sense of his pride and self-importance, in stark contrast to woman's humility and need.
These wood engravings, I would like to see the original wooden blocks.