San Domenico, Siena 1923

Hermann Lismann made this drawing of San Domenico in Siena using ink, and you can almost feel the sun beating down. The image is built up with these confident strokes of dark ink—the lines aren't fussy or tentative. I can imagine Lismann standing there, squinting, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. He's not trying to trick us into thinking this *is* the church; he's showing us how he *sees* the church. I wonder if he was thinking about the Futurists? Those upward thrusting lines certainly have a kind of energy. The way the light and shadow dapple the buildings, almost makes the whole city seem to breathe. It's like Lismann is having a conversation with the building, with the light, with the ink, with us, across time. And that's what painting is, isn't it? One big, ongoing chat.