Van der Weyden’s Portrait of a Lady, circa 1460: the model for the portrait Elisabeth sees in Prima Materia. Nearly 300 years separate it from Elisabeth; nearly 300 more separate Elisabeth from me, now. Through writing I am living beyond my time …
I’ve always appreciated the craft needed for a good portrait, but it took me many years to think about the life represented by the image. Who was the sitter? What happens when they rise and walk away? What were their passions, their tragedies, their hopes? I still shy away from imagining such things, because contemplating the sweep of history makes something ache inside of me. I am not good with death, and after nearly five decades I’m not sure I’ll ever be. Perhaps that’s why I keep writing fiction set in the past, or at least a past: to massage that ache, to try and come to terms with it.