The motif
In Ovid, young Narcissus falls in love with his reflection in the water – and can never tear himself away.
Narciso takes the story further. An older man kneels at the edge of a dark pool in a ruined temple. He has turned to stone: cracks run across his neck, shoulders, arms and knees, and rock crumbles from his hand into the water. He himself is nothing but stone and grey. In the water, though, lies his reflection – the young man he once was, unbroken, glowing in brilliant blue, quinacridone magenta and cadmium yellow. The colour runs in long streams through the black water. Apart from three streaks of colour on one column, the temple stays black, grey and white. The colour names come from the pigments David paints his originals with.
