Yesterday and Today: same place, same time

Unblemished: tender youth

Lovers Reuniting

Genesis: Let the Earth bring forth grass

Genesis: Earth and Seas

God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas

Human Craft

line and volume made sensuous by light and shadow

Imagination Animates Nature

Nature's Pen writing the Book of Nature

Creation: The divison of Light and Darkness

Know Thyself: illusion and fact

Purification

The Moon: the boundary between the perfect and the imperfect

reflected light
a trick of nature
but how splendid the orb is

Ice on Ice: opaque and translucent

Descartes Triumphs over Aristotle, 1650

A print of ca 1650, after a painting ascribed to Cornelis Holstein, portrays the philosopher René Descartes (1569--1650) in a well-appointed study, a study suited to a gentleman. He turns to face the viewer. Interrupted, he holds his pen above a manuscript, ready to resume writing, once his visitor has exited. To indicate Descartes' philosophical position, the artist shows him firmly placing his right foot on a hefty tome inscribed witht he author's name--Aristotle. Victors are often depicted performing a similar act, with the vanguished opponent stretched prone or bending over beneath the conqueror's foot or his horse's hoof.
Why have I chosen this image for the blog today? Quite simple. I am writing an essay about Rembrandt's 1653 painting of Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (MMA, NYC) and Cartesian philosophy is included in my historical narrative.

Is this Water Potable?

Beautiful but Deadly: a fluid abstraction

Ties That Bind

Bob Dylan, of course

The Skull in a Mushroom: a reminder of death

Reading Nature

The Eyes of Aristotle

Aristotle?

Boundaries: water and earth

April 2, 1963: Looking Back

Susan Joan Rosen and Richard Brignoli were married on this day in 1963, a day of great joy and happiness.

The Fool: from the collection of Professor Julius Held

An Allegory of Folly painted by the Flemish painter Quentin Massys (1466-1530) around 1510, depicts the deformed person with a "wen" on his forehead, that is a tumor believed to be the cause of the person's disability. He places one finger to his lips, a gesture explained by the text "keep your mouth shut" (Mondeken toe); with the other hand he holds a staff whose top has a puppet "fool". His obscene posture relates to derisive insults fools made or which were directed at them. The wise fool, the joker, is one topos; the mentally disabled another. For further information see auction catalog The Scholar's Eye: Property from the Julius Held Collection, Christie's, New York, Part I, Tuesday 27, January 2009, 99-100 (Lot 66).

April 1, 2009: Fool's Day