Saturday, 6 March 2010
Part 3: The Pope's column
To the left side of the picture there is a square column which is part of the same building as the pillar of truth. I first thought of it as the Pope's column because in the chip on the column some have seen a face with a crooked triple tiara.
The Pope's column therefore has a role with regard to the pillar of truth. In contemporary language he exercises the Magisterium of the Church. It is his duty to see that revealed truth is preserved and proclaimed and that error is suppressed. In Christendom heresy was not only condemned but penalised by death exercised by the State, the temporal arm of Christendom. The Pope was also a temporal ruler who sometimes led armies into the field of battle. His task then while essentially concerned with "the pillar of truth", was full of distortions which is why perhaps his column is physically distinct from the Column of the Truth.
I am going beyond architectonics to the area of secrets when I confess to not having seen the cooked triple tiara but to have discerned a wolf above the face.
As Christendom is in danger of splitting, the Papacy is perhaps being presented as essential to things, yet in need of reform. This would square with the year 1537.
The Pope's column therefore has a role with regard to the pillar of truth. In contemporary language he exercises the Magisterium of the Church. It is his duty to see that revealed truth is preserved and proclaimed and that error is suppressed. In Christendom heresy was not only condemned but penalised by death exercised by the State, the temporal arm of Christendom. The Pope was also a temporal ruler who sometimes led armies into the field of battle. His task then while essentially concerned with "the pillar of truth", was full of distortions which is why perhaps his column is physically distinct from the Column of the Truth.
I am going beyond architectonics to the area of secrets when I confess to not having seen the cooked triple tiara but to have discerned a wolf above the face.
As Christendom is in danger of splitting, the Papacy is perhaps being presented as essential to things, yet in need of reform. This would square with the year 1537.
Part 11: The shade and the light
The background of the picture is full of full daylight, which I am assuming represents the light of intellect and what it can attain. I see the far right column as representing this attainment, but I have just noticed that it has a shadow side which turns away, as it were, from the pillar of truth. So the pillar if truth is confronted, as it were, by the best of rational attainment.
Meantime, the pillar of truth falls into near blackness as it faces the pillar of rational attainment. This contrast accentuates the problem facing Christendom. I do not know whether this is just a happy accident or whether intended by the artist. It does though remind me of dear Pio Nono, a nineteenth century Pope, who said "L'Eglise - c'est moi". There is loveableness here for those on his side but a decided darkness, an incapacity to communicate for anyone who is not in communication.
Meantime, the pillar of truth falls into near blackness as it faces the pillar of rational attainment. This contrast accentuates the problem facing Christendom. I do not know whether this is just a happy accident or whether intended by the artist. It does though remind me of dear Pio Nono, a nineteenth century Pope, who said "L'Eglise - c'est moi". There is loveableness here for those on his side but a decided darkness, an incapacity to communicate for anyone who is not in communication.
Part 10: Allegory - A summary
level.
The clear concept of allegory had to wait to the nineteenth century but its usage goes back at least to the Gospels. In an allegory everything means something else.
Moving from left to right, the first column represents the teaching of the Pope; the darkness represents the mystery of God; the clear light means man's capacity to apprehend truth; the red brick wall represents man's destructive capacity, and the last column represents clearly apprehended truth. The great, decorated column represents the pillar of truth and the grey bridge from that column to the column of clearly apprehended truth represents the working world of theology whereby one truth is related to another. The clear light represents the light of intellect meeting proportionate being and the shaded light represents the light of intellect meeting mystery. The chips indicate the passage of time. The laces around the lady's neck may indicate embryonic or future man, the gold button royalty and so power and the dented clock may indicate the prospect of truth shaped time. The floor pattern combines with the laces to echo Leonardo's geometric picture of man.
The only overall feature we have found to be not allegoric is what appears to be a self portrait of the artist in the architectural object emerging from the main column.
The question occurs, may the lady in black not be an historical figure at all? Might she be simply an allegory of truth?
The clear concept of allegory had to wait to the nineteenth century but its usage goes back at least to the Gospels. In an allegory everything means something else.
Moving from left to right, the first column represents the teaching of the Pope; the darkness represents the mystery of God; the clear light means man's capacity to apprehend truth; the red brick wall represents man's destructive capacity, and the last column represents clearly apprehended truth. The great, decorated column represents the pillar of truth and the grey bridge from that column to the column of clearly apprehended truth represents the working world of theology whereby one truth is related to another. The clear light represents the light of intellect meeting proportionate being and the shaded light represents the light of intellect meeting mystery. The chips indicate the passage of time. The laces around the lady's neck may indicate embryonic or future man, the gold button royalty and so power and the dented clock may indicate the prospect of truth shaped time. The floor pattern combines with the laces to echo Leonardo's geometric picture of man.
The only overall feature we have found to be not allegoric is what appears to be a self portrait of the artist in the architectural object emerging from the main column.
The question occurs, may the lady in black not be an historical figure at all? Might she be simply an allegory of truth?
Part 9: A Strange Addition
square.
At the base of the pillar of truth there is a strange extension which would appear to be an ornarr.entation on the pillar. I suspect this is not allegoric, but, at the first level, a sort of signature or self portrait of the artist. There is a huge mouth at the base level capable of a grin but going the other way. In 1536 or so, Michelangelo did a self portrait in his picture of the last judgement (in much the same position relative to the whole) and in Holbein's picture of Christina of Denmark (1539) he has discernibly presented himself (again on the lower right hand side) in the folds of her dress. We may have here a clue to the painter, but if this is what is going on, we have left behind the allegorical meaning of things and come to a literal level.
At the base of the pillar of truth there is a strange extension which would appear to be an ornarr.entation on the pillar. I suspect this is not allegoric, but, at the first level, a sort of signature or self portrait of the artist. There is a huge mouth at the base level capable of a grin but going the other way. In 1536 or so, Michelangelo did a self portrait in his picture of the last judgement (in much the same position relative to the whole) and in Holbein's picture of Christina of Denmark (1539) he has discernibly presented himself (again on the lower right hand side) in the folds of her dress. We may have here a clue to the painter, but if this is what is going on, we have left behind the allegorical meaning of things and come to a literal level.
Part 8: Architectonics of dress
There are three items of dress which may join the allegorical nature of things in the painting. There is first the gold' button which in a discreet way may indicate royalty. If we are dealing with Mary Tudor in 1537, she has just agreed that she is illegitimate and so not royal, so discretion is the order of the day.
She carries what I assume is a watch (which is dented). If truth is the daughter of time, then truth is also the mother of a time, an order, a civilisation that lives in truth. The watch may be a sort of small globe representing a gathering of man in time living by truth in Christendom amended and restored.
The third item worth noting is the slightly strange arrangement around the lady's neck. There appear to be four laces whereas I suspect there should be only two. One lace terminating more exactly than one would expect appears to make two buttocks out of Mary's flesh. One other, also terminating exactly, may indicate an arm. Two others in synchronisation not to be expected may make another arm. An embryonic head is created by the lady's ruff. We are dealing perhaps with man in embryo.
Several people looking at the picture have noted this. It was Leonardo who set a complete man in a geometric pattern. The lady stands on a floor with a geometric pattern .. If this is the same pattern Leonardo used, this would be confirmatory that the work with the laces and with the clock is envisaging a new age. The golden button indicates power, maybe.
The circumference of the watch equals the side of the square, so that if you put the shape of the watch in the square you get Leonardo's shape in which he portrayed the perfection of the human form, a circle in a square.
She carries what I assume is a watch (which is dented). If truth is the daughter of time, then truth is also the mother of a time, an order, a civilisation that lives in truth. The watch may be a sort of small globe representing a gathering of man in time living by truth in Christendom amended and restored.
The third item worth noting is the slightly strange arrangement around the lady's neck. There appear to be four laces whereas I suspect there should be only two. One lace terminating more exactly than one would expect appears to make two buttocks out of Mary's flesh. One other, also terminating exactly, may indicate an arm. Two others in synchronisation not to be expected may make another arm. An embryonic head is created by the lady's ruff. We are dealing perhaps with man in embryo.
Several people looking at the picture have noted this. It was Leonardo who set a complete man in a geometric pattern. The lady stands on a floor with a geometric pattern .. If this is the same pattern Leonardo used, this would be confirmatory that the work with the laces and with the clock is envisaging a new age. The golden button indicates power, maybe.
The circumference of the watch equals the side of the square, so that if you put the shape of the watch in the square you get Leonardo's shape in which he portrayed the perfection of the human form, a circle in a square.
Part 7 Archtectonics: The Darkness
is lost.
The Lady in Black is in the shade and surrounded by darkness. This is a remarkable artistic feat but if the darkness is symbolic what is it a symbol of? If light is a symbol of truth one might expect darkness to be a symbol of evil. Could the darkness though be a symbol of God, whose ways are not our ways, who is shrouded in mystery and who strangely allows evil, even the evil signified by the red wall? Christian theology sees God as allowing evil so that a greater good may come, but this is quite an alarming feature of the ways of Providence. As with Job, he might allow countless evils destructive of one's natural happiness. Together with the tolerance of evil, God is Himself mysterious. Theology which making use of analogy reaches positive conclusions - "God is good" - moves to an apophatic realisation of His transcendence. To the darkness of God's providence as it touches mortal life there is apophatic darkness which waits upon the beatific vision. There is further the truth that man's understanding is in personal and historical development.
The human subject then has to cope with the darkness of God's providence allowing physical and moral evil, the darkness of His transcendent nature, the darkness arising from a limited personal development and the darkness arising from a limited historical development - a darkness being experienced in Europe with the emergence of the reformation.
A symbol may of course, combine opposites but I sense in this picture that the darkness surrounding the lady is ultimately benign.
The Lady in Black is in the shade and surrounded by darkness. This is a remarkable artistic feat but if the darkness is symbolic what is it a symbol of? If light is a symbol of truth one might expect darkness to be a symbol of evil. Could the darkness though be a symbol of God, whose ways are not our ways, who is shrouded in mystery and who strangely allows evil, even the evil signified by the red wall? Christian theology sees God as allowing evil so that a greater good may come, but this is quite an alarming feature of the ways of Providence. As with Job, he might allow countless evils destructive of one's natural happiness. Together with the tolerance of evil, God is Himself mysterious. Theology which making use of analogy reaches positive conclusions - "God is good" - moves to an apophatic realisation of His transcendence. To the darkness of God's providence as it touches mortal life there is apophatic darkness which waits upon the beatific vision. There is further the truth that man's understanding is in personal and historical development.
The human subject then has to cope with the darkness of God's providence allowing physical and moral evil, the darkness of His transcendent nature, the darkness arising from a limited personal development and the darkness arising from a limited historical development - a darkness being experienced in Europe with the emergence of the reformation.
A symbol may of course, combine opposites but I sense in this picture that the darkness surrounding the lady is ultimately benign.
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