the ancient sacred flame

When I am finishing a picture I hold some God-made object up to it—a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand—as a kind of final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there’s a clash between the two, it is bad art.
Marc Chagall, 1962

The sacred flame, behind a glass case, has been burning since 470AD. Priests feed the flames with apricot and almond wood.

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