[scroll down to Thursday,
June 30 for notes re:
*The Soft Voice
of Philosophy* and
*Community of Ideas*
by Ludwig Wittgenstein
and a link to a reading by
Frank Kuenstler, Wednesday, June 29 for
Bookmarks, New and Notable
including: Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell's lovely
*A Walk in Shenzhen* with
recent photos from The People's
Republic of China; also a link
to Bernstein's exciting *Close Listening*
series and Monday, June 27
for a preview of Vanitas #1, edited
by Vincent Katz]
Bits and Pieces; Filippo Lippi
notebook: 1/7/05
I'm not sure exactly when it was that I
discovered that everything, no matter
what, comes together bit by bit. In itself,
this might not have been such a meaningful
discovery, if it weren't for the connected
insight that if you save these bits, eventually
sorting them and putting them together into
a whole, you might have something.
I was never much interested in jig-saw
puzzles, only if you don't put the pieces
together, if you give up, you don't just give
up on a child's box of fun and suffer a
mild defeat and a few moments of
boredom. If you don't see the big picture,
you know you're missing out on something
but you can't quite figure out what that
might be.
In real life that jig-saw puzzle is more like
a map- and without a good map and
good instruments you're going to spend
a lot of time wandering around, feeling
pretty much lost. To a certain extent, of
course, this is inevitable.
*
Sudden change of syncopation in the
Beatles tune - Live and Let Die. I
think also of Strauss' *Don Juan*.
The same for fiction- otherwise
flat and uninteresting.
Then weave the pieces together with
transitional parts- or leave the sudden
changes alone.
........................................
Fillipo Lippi (1406-1469)
The Annunciation {click here}
and {click here}
The gospel according to St. Luke
"And the Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee."
Depiction of the miraculous by means
of the luminous. Time transcending
powers of the tempera medium.
*
Idealization of the miraculous.
*
The Christ child as the birth
of grandiosity.
Immortality implies superhuman
miraculous powers.
In the face of the utterly tyrannical
forces of nature, Fillipo Lippi
restores faith by means of references
to the miraculous in his art. Some of
these miraculous powers are
experienced subliminally, employing
uncannily dreamlike details
that may only by achieved by
"second" sight. The angel child is
also idealized as are all the
feminine forces, magical,
maternal, restorative powers
of nature (again, the tempera).
An infinity of details achieves the
miraculous by means of second
sight. Lucidity in the presence
of so many details. These details
are partly occluded (submerged)
by means of their overwhelming
number. Endless depths are also
elicited by means of numerous
receding colonnades. With
the miraculous, the background
"shimmer" - the way the wings
of the angel shimmer. The color
of the robes is very stressed
(the mystery underlying the
material reality is "clothed.")
Curtains open to other curtains.
Twilight is coming on (the
emergence of dreams again).
There are an infinite number
of other worlds hidden
behind the screens and
curtains of this world (also
Christo's gates- reference
to the miraculous by means
of color)
Filippo Lippi {click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
Fra Carnevale -The
Annunciation. Also, a
curtained stairway that
leads to an upstairs not
depicted, In the far
foreground a gate is
depicted behind the
angel. Behind this are
leaved and unleaved
Cypress trees.
[this image is available
but cannot be linked:
search Google images
for Fra Carnevale and
find it in the second
row, second to the right]
.................................
Schwitters' collages
as arial photographs
.................................
German, born 1955
Andreas Gursky
99 c. 1999
the immense power
of reproducibility
*
I'm sent a paranoid,
depressed robot
for treatment.
