Martin Kemp's expertise shines a light onto the true life of one of my heroes, Leonardo da Vinci

 Leonardo – Martin Kemp (2004)

  

            If there is a single human being that exemplifies my definition of an artist it is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the greatest of the “Big 3” of Renaissance art.  The other two being Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, otherwise known as Raphael and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. The omnipresence of Leonardo in our collective human consciousness is unrivalled by any other artist.  From his amazing engineering genius, his deep inquisitiveness about the natural world around us, and his unceasing desire to expand the wisdom of humanity, he drew forth art so timeless as to feel inevitable. His two most famous works, the Last Supper fresco and the small oil painting on poplar universally loved as the Mona Lisa, are the two most recognizable pieces of art the world over, with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco and his massive statue of David coming in a very close second.  I studied Art and Art History and considered myself well-versed on Leonardo, his life, and his achievements, but nothing could have prepared me for the journey taken with this wonderful book by Martin Kemp.

            I should have been prepared, seeing as how Martin Kemp, the Emeritus Professor of Art History at Oxford University, is the world’s most-renowned scholar and expert on Leonardo Da Vinci, his works, and his life story.  As an art lover, I felt Mr. Kemp’s awe and admiration for the old master on every page.  I share this with him.  Mr. Kemp’s prose is detailed, informative, and full of original ideas.  While there exist many biographies of Leonardo, this concise volume focuses on how we, modern human beings, can truly understand him, and the world he adored, analyzed, and portrayed in his writing and art.  A superlative individual such as Leonardo suffers from the cult of personality that arises around such august personages.  Stories turn into myths and myths turn into legends.  The world accepts the legend as truth, until everyone forgets the true facts.  Martin Kemp has created a magnificent resource for anyone seeking to learn the actual details of Leonardo’s life, patronages, and art-making processes. 

            One of the intriguing details in the story of Leonardo’s life is the tale of his death, and what became of the art he left behind in his studio.  Leonardo, like all great artists and craftsmen of the time, ran a studio of painters and sculptors who helped him prepare materials, prime surfaces, and finish “unimportant” details of paintings so the master could focus on the main subjects portrayed within.  One of these men, a rascally character named Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno who painted under the name “Andrea Salai,” apprenticed under Leonardo and held an unsavory reputation, even though he was one of the main apprentices given the responsibility of running Leonardo’s workshop.  Upon the master’s death, Salai took it upon himself to swipe a good number of completed paintings from the studio, keeping them hidden in his home until his untimely death by bow and arrow.  It was in the accounting of Salai’s belongings that a list of the purloined Leonardo’s was found.  This included the famous Giaconda painting currently hanging in the Louvre.  King Francis I of France purchased the lot soon after, which is why the Mona Lisa is a treasured piece of art in France and not Italy.  If it wasn’t for a shady apprentice, the world may never have heard of the Mona Lisa! 

This book is full of details that flesh out the true life of Leonardo, while also explaining exactly why the grandiose and superlative legends arose about the great man.  Martin Kemp includes dozens of color plates showing beautiful reproductions of the master’s art, along with many black and white drawings exploring the ways in which Leonardo used the act of drawing itself as a form of thinking about, and inquiry into, the natural world around us.  He prized sight above all other senses, and the act of focused looking as the main source of inspiration for any visual artist.  In this he influenced everyone that followed, even if only in rebelling against this idea.  In Leonardo’s assessment, visual art is more valuable than any poem, song, or theatrical art.  These types of art require time to pass for the audience to fully grasp the intent and beauty within.  Visual art, such as sculpture, paintings, and drawings, slams the viewer with everything all at once.  It takes very little time for communication to happen through the eye.  The horror of war illustrated in Picasso’s Guernica, or the viciousness of the old gods as portrayed by Goya in his Saturn Devouring His Son slam into us without any need for exposition.  Truth, beauty, and wisdom are transmitted without the need for sloppy words.  Perhaps it is this quality that touches us centuries later as we admire and explore Leonardo’s art.  I know that he touched my life in unimaginable ways.  I hope many people read Martin Kemp’s book and grow in their love and admiration for the great master.

(This wonderful book can be purchased from Oxford University Press here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/leonardo-9780199583355?cc=us&lang=en& )

C.F. Volney Shared the Truth With Us Over Two Centuries Ago

 

The Ruins: Or, Meditation on the Revolution of Empires and the Law of Nature – C.F. Volney (1890)

SUN RA Reading List

            Every once in a while I come across a book that not only explores specific topics I am very interested in, but whose author has already processed the information available and reached conclusions that mirror my very own, even if it is an author writing almost a century before I was born.  I love the magic of literature!  Such is the case with Constantin-Francois Chassebeuf De Volney’s The Ruins, a dense and insightful work.

            Count Volney was a lifelong learner, seeking to find the truth.  He spent his youth learning classic languages, reading, and studying.  Once he entered adulthood, he learned Arabic and proceeded to travel to the parts of the world which, at the time, were forgotten and ignored.  He gazed upon the ancient marvels, mostly covered by desert sands, and thought hard about the cultures and people that created such wonders.  It led him to insights that are as valuable today as ever.

            Volney’s journey began in the Ottoman Empire, through areas that are now Syria and Egypt.  Everywhere he went he saw desolation, ruin, and human suffering.  He noted people living barely better than ancient tribal man did.  Upon exploring the ancient sepulchers of Egypt, a revelation occurred, and he asked himself questions that led to the creation of this work. 

“How has so much glory been eclipsed?” 

“How have so many labors been annihilated?”

            Volney asked himself how the works of man perish, empires vanish, and cultures and empires become lost into the mists of time.  Every ancient kingdom and culture he had studied was gone, with many of them forgotten by the world at large.  One large thought that occurred to him, living in the time of Christian nations, was that every one of these ancient and magnificent empires were peopled with what his contemporaries would describe as heretics, infidels, heathens of the worst type.  None of them followed the tenets of Christianity, yet their splendor outshone modern Christian nations.  It made little sense to him that, in the same lands that heathens created high culture and architecture, modern Muslims, Christians and Hebrews barely eked a subsistence. 

            Volney then spends time remembering his France, and Europe, which at the time considered themselves the heights of culture and sophistication.  He remembered the beauty of Parisian streets, and then thought about the far future, where the wonders of his age would be but dust-filled ruins, and all the beauty would be lost forever.  This is a sobering thought, and something that most people never consider.  Most people live their lives as if the present world will remain unchanging for all time, and are then shocked when the changes come.

            The bulk of The Ruins proceeds like a conversation between Volney himself, and an apparition that speaks to him, which Volney calls the Genius, as he gazes on the destroyed temples and buildings of ancient cultures.  This Genius hears Volney’s anguish about humanity’s past and proceeds to explain exactly how man has fallen low and the reasons why.   The Genius patiently explains the ancient history of humanity, the rise from base animal nature to consciousness.   He talks about how humanity first understood the world, Nature, as a thing external to himself.  He then proceeds to detail how this leads to every single theological idea we are all still fighting and killing each other over.

            Each chapter title describes the contents therein, such as The Primitive State of Man, The Sources of Evil in Society, The Origin of Government and Laws, The General Causes of the Revolutions and Ruins of Ancient States, to The Lessons of Times Past Repeated on The Present.  These topics are explored as the Genius describes the development of humanity.

            The second half of The Ruins is even more mind-blowing, as the Genius lifts Volney up and away, to heights where he can see the whole Earth both past and future.  He describes the various religious groups and sects gathering from all the world to listen to the Genius.  The Genius proceeds to question each group as to their beliefs.  It points out the many ways that the core beliefs of each religion get quickly buried under dogma, priesthoods, and the endless bickering of mortal man.  Each religion ends up in actuality directly opposite of the tenets they claim to preach.  One example, which applies to most religions, is this – God is unknowable, and all encompassing.  Instead of acting upon this Truth, every single Religion constantly seeks to tell their followers exactly what “god” is thinking, what “god” likes, what “god” does not like, etc., all in an effort to control the people.  They seek to diminish their “all-knowing” god with every proclamation and decree of dogma their followers must subscribe to, or else the “god” will send them to hell for eternal punishment.

            After doing so, the Genius then starts to get to basics, asking how the humans determine truth, and how, most of their religious beliefs are not based on truth but on human extrapolation and assumptions, all leading down a path away from the actual truth.  The way that religions warp their initial truths is near universal, especially once a governing power sees how easily religion can be used to control the actions of the populace.  The initial, ancient human “religions” were nothing more than the then-current descriptions of the natural world around them, especially the heavens which were cyclical, and whose close study allowed early humans to understand the coming of the seasons, the path of our Sun through the sky, and the cycles that are created.  These ancient humans did not have telescopes or scientific instruments as we possess today, but their observations alone were invaluable.  These observations, written in the poetic language of their time, were then misinterpreted by later generations who read their symbolism and, like simple-mined folk everywhere, took them literally.  This section of The Ruins is perfect for a student of comparative religion like myself.

            One of the coolest anecdotes about The Ruins is that, as the original is in French, the English translation came from the hand of Thomas Jefferson, that eminent Freethinker and U.S.A. “Founding Father.”  He managed to translate around 4/5 of it, and it must have been truly a dangerous proposition to do so.  In the late 1700’s the Roman Catholic Church still controlled much of the western world’s religious ideas, and to have this book available in English must have been a threat.  Parts of it were left untranslated for this very reason.  For every truth any religion claims, they force upon their followers a thousand lies.  These lies take over, and force the various Christian factions to war against each other, or the various Muslim factions to war against each other.  They especially force one Religion to fight against the others, as all of them claim they are the One True Faith, instead of recognizing that the core tenets and foundations of all religious belief are simple, common to all, and universal in every sense.  I highly recommend this book.

(This book can be read or downloaded for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1397/1397-h/1397-h.htm )

Alfred Bester writes a novel for the ages

The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester (1956)

            After having heard the name Alfred Bester knocked around in the various science fiction worlds I frequent, I dug up and read Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, which was awesome.  Once I find a writer I like, especially in science fiction, I try to dig up anything else from them that I can read.  By using the inter-library loan department at the University of Houston’s M.D. Anderson Library, I picked up the Hugo Award-winning novel, The Stars My Destination.  It is even better than I could have imagined. 

            The frenetic pace of the plot, the twisted and amoral motivations of the characters, the deep exploration of what, at the time, was purely speculative science, and the morality inherent in the story all stand as predecessors to the dark cyberpunk novels of the late 1970’s and 1980’s.  It is amazing to me that this novel was written in 1956.  The top sci-fi/fantasy writers of the last 40 years all claim it as a primal source, as one of the best science fiction novels ever written.   It is as good as promised and deserves to be read more widely.

            The story concerns a man in the 25^th century named Gully Foyle, who has been left for dead on a decrepit spaceship drifting through our Solar System.  He survives for 6 months, until he sees a ship named VORGA, which sees his calls for help but does not stop to rescue him.  His desire for vengeance against the VORGA, its crew, and the people who made the decision to not respond to his mayday overshadows everything else in his life.  I do not want to describe too much because at every turn this book upends my expectations and proceeds to gain momentum, depth, and wonderment.  It explores so much, from the strata of such a futuristic society to the machinations of the powerful against the powerless, to the possibilities, both good and bad, inherent in the human colonization of the Solar System.  I do not want to ruin any of that for a future reader of The Stars My Destination.

            Alfred Bester was a visionary genius right up there with the likes of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Jules Verne when it came to extrapolating the possibilities scientific progress can bring.  He was also a genius in the vein of Philip K. Dick, and William Gibson, able to show the human need to use technology and to own it, oftentimes to our very own detriment.  I hope more people read Bester’s work, and keep it alive for future generations.  Stories like these are what made me love the genre of science fiction.  They keep me hopeful that originality and beauty and intelligence can be found in old writing as well as in new writing.  This is an awesome thing indeed.

(This awesome book is available for download as a PDF file here: http://americandigest.org/Bester,%20Alfred%20-%20The%20Stars%20My%20Destination.pdf )

(This book is also available for purchase here:  AMAZON  )

I have always wanted to know everything

The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius – Andrew Robinson (2006)

            A Polymath is a person who through experience, study, and thought becomes highly educated in a wide and seemingly disparate variety of subjects.  The common term “Renaissance Man” implies polymathy, such as in the case of Leonardo DaVinci, who became a master painter, engineer, sculptor, and draughtsman, as well as being a very competent mathematician, botanist, anatomist, geologist, and astronomer, among countless other subjects.  His personal notebooks, held mainly by the Vatican in Rome, contain the basic fruits of a deeply fertile mind, one that was curious, flexible, and obsessive when it came to gathering knowledge.  The British physician, physicist, mathematician, linguist, and Egyptologist Thomas Young is another such genius.  He is not as famous as DaVinci, but that may be due to the fact that much of DaVinci’s well-known work is in the form of art, capable of being seen and understood by the whole of humanity.  Thomas Young’s work was more esoteric than DaVinci’s, and more critical to the future development of the various sciences affected by his genius.

            This book is an awesome exploration of Thomas Young’s life, and of the way he went about his intellectual explorations.  It describes the manner by which he became a physician, and first explaining the method by which our eye adjusts the light entering it to project a focused image on our retina, something no one had been able to understand before.  It talks about how Thomas Young’s explorations into light and it’s properties helped explain what we now call “polarization” and finally proved conclusively that light/energy behaved as wave function, something which corrected a misconception by Isaac Newton.  Thomas Young learned to read and write in many ancient languages, and it was because of this interest that he was able to definitely prove that the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians was not just symbolic, but also sometimes phonetic, reaching a climax when he was first able to translate the writing on the Rosetta Stone, something that had stumped scientists and linguists since the stone was brought back to Europe by Napoleon several decades earlier. 

When the Encyclopedia Britannica was first being put together, Thomas Young was asked to write some articles for it.  He penned over 66 different, highly researched and informative articles on subjects as varied as “Egypt”, “Bridges”, “Chromatics”, “Carpentry”, “Tides”, “Languages”, “Herculaneum”, and “Weights & Measures”, many of which are still standard texts studied by University students.  These were major surveys of the then-current state of knowledge in these fields, and in many of these articles Thomas Young actually contributed his own original ideas and work.  He wrote over 40 biographies for the encyclopedia, on men of science mainly.  As the author states, “Very few specialists nowadays would dare to attempt more than one, or at the most two, such major surveys for the Encyclopedia Britannica, even with the help of a co-author.”  Thomas Young did the research, and wrote the articles, all; while doing his other scientific explorations and lecturing at a University.  For the biographies of the scientists he would actually read (or re-read) all of their published work, so as to better aggregate the information for the encyclopedia.  This is a man who truly loved to learn, and whose mind could not only absorb the widest range of knowledge, but could re-arrange it and see new worlds and ideas to explore in that knowledge.

I am personally attracted to anyone whose willpower leads them to explore the different corners of their intellectual curiosity. These types of humans are usually derided by their contemporaries, mainly by denigrating their contributions to any specific field as being those of a “dilettante,” someone who is not serious enough to spend all their time focused solely on one field.  Thomas Young’s harshest critics were people who had labored for years on a subject, only to have Thomas Young come by and, with his deep learning and uncommon insight, propose correct and groundbreaking solutions to problems they had yet to even understand.  He made the so-called experts appear ignorant, or just second-rate.  This bias still exists.  Many experts will dismiss the ideas of someone who does not possess the exact same level of educational “achievement” as them, as if someone without an advanced degree could never possibly hope to contribute anything of value.  Fucking assholes all.  It takes the waters of time to wash away the prejudices and the biases and show the true geniuses for what they are.   The lowly minds, the second-rate intellects, are left in the dust along with their second-rate work.  The existence of men like Thomas Young only serves to shine a light on the vacuity of the “experts” and encourages any of us to explore what piques our curiosity, wherever that may lead.

(This book can be purchased here:  The Last Man Who Knew Everything  )