THE PAINTING AS A STORY : FRANZISKO GOYA AND GUSTAW HERLING-GRUDZIŃSKI”S „THE DEAD NUN”

Abstract

The text analyzes Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski’s short story „Monologue of a Dead Nun”, inspired by a painting of Franzisco Goya which conquered the writer and left him no peace until he „confessed” the image from the painting. The sinful love of sister Wirginia Maria (who is the prototype of the character with the same name from „The Nun of Monza” by Manzoni), convicted and walled up alive, was rewritten and represented by Herling-Grudzinski through the reflection of the image from the picture painted by the writer himself in his imagination. He calls her a „sleeping lover of Death” and is captured by the mystery of her haunting presence. Some moments from the biography and psychography of HerlingGrudzinski give extra light on the image of the living dead.