A Sacrifice. Four Figures. Design with an Arched Top 

Editor: Here we have Thomas Stothard's "A Sacrifice. Four Figures. Design with an Arched Top," a small watercolor piece. It feels... tentative, almost like a fleeting thought captured on paper. What do you make of it? Curator: Fleeting is a great word. To me, it’s a ghost of an idea, shimmering with the possibilities of myth. See how the arched top frames the scene like a half-remembered dream, the figures sketched with a light hand? Do you feel that classical echo, like a stage set for a Greek tragedy? Editor: I see what you mean. A tragedy, though? The blue wash at the top makes me think of hope, like the gods might be watching over them. Curator: Perhaps a tragedy tinged with hope, which is the most potent kind, isn’t it? Stothard gives us just enough to spark our own stories. It’s a collaboration across centuries. Editor: That's beautiful, a collaboration across centuries! I'll remember that.