Alex

15 theme answers STACKED DIRECTLY AGAINST EACH OTHER is insanity-level crossword construction. Genuinely awed that such a feat was possible.

Really tough for me compared to previous Saturdays. JUDITH at 54a was about the very first thing I could confidently enter in the entire grid so I was reluctant to slowly pry her out when she clearly wasn't fitting later. What are the odds that Klimt has two oil paintings depicting classical figures with 6-letter names from approx. the same time? I guess classical =/= biblical. NE was nearly impossible. ORAJEL with a J? 7/ to JUL was inscrutable until I looked it up afterwards. No background with SCYLLA or POUSSIN and the clue-to-answer connection for HOLLA was very vague. The rest of the puzzle was played pretty nicely (even AESOPICA filled in fine on crosses) but that section in the NE was... oof.