Transience. Democritus by Moreelse; and wilting Tulips, The Hague, The Netherlands
Yes, in the inset is a nice painting by Johannes Moreelse (1603-1634), a Dutch Caravaggist, of the ancient Greek thinker Democritus (c.460-370 BCE). In the tradition of western philosophy Democritus is known as the 'laughing philosopher' in opposition to ancient Heraclitus as the weeping thinker. Those are two very different visions of the transience of the world, the so-called 'vanitas mundi'. Heraclitus shedding tears about it; Democritus smiling at the ways people seek without success to hold back inevitable change. The painting is stuck away in a dark corner above a doorway in the marvelous Mauritshuis Museum, I think it should be given more prominence with something of an explanation.
I've used it as an inset because on my way to a concert of music by Brahms I ambled past a garden full of Tulips in their last throes, their 'transience' as it were. Whether to weep or to smile...? I suppose Democritus, first atomist thinker, would say that the atoms of these flowers once 'set free' will reconfigure into another perhaps as beautiful world.
Transience. Democritus by Moreelse; and wilting Tulips, The Hague, The Netherlands
Yes, in the inset is a nice painting by Johannes Moreelse (1603-1634), a Dutch Caravaggist, of the ancient Greek thinker Democritus (c.460-370 BCE). In the tradition of western philosophy Democritus is known as the 'laughing philosopher' in opposition to ancient Heraclitus as the weeping thinker. Those are two very different visions of the transience of the world, the so-called 'vanitas mundi'. Heraclitus shedding tears about it; Democritus smiling at the ways people seek without success to hold back inevitable change. The painting is stuck away in a dark corner above a doorway in the marvelous Mauritshuis Museum, I think it should be given more prominence with something of an explanation.
I've used it as an inset because on my way to a concert of music by Brahms I ambled past a garden full of Tulips in their last throes, their 'transience' as it were. Whether to weep or to smile...? I suppose Democritus, first atomist thinker, would say that the atoms of these flowers once 'set free' will reconfigure into another perhaps as beautiful world.