Cryptography

James Gaffarel (1601-1681) was a French scholar of Hebrew and astrology who was appointed as librarian to Cardinal Richlieu. He proposed in his Unheard-of Curiosities (English translation 1650) that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet could be read in the night-sky. Using the stars as a form of geomatria and an alternative to the Babylonian-Greek circle of animals or Zodiac, Gaffarel's cryptography was of sufficient interest to Sir Thomas Browne to not only introduced the word 'cryptography' into the English language in Pseudodoxia Epidemica but also alluded to Gaffarel in The Garden of Cyrus -

Could we satisfie ourselves in the position of the lights above, or discover the wisdom of that order so invariably maintained in the fixed Stars of heaven; Could we have any light, why the stellary part of the first mass, separated into this order, that the Girdle of Orion should ever maintain its line, and the two Starres in Charles's Wain never leave pointing at the Pole-Star, we might abate the Pythagoricall Musick of the Spheres, the sevenfold Pipe of Pan; and the strange Cryptography of Gaffarell in his Starrie Booke of Heaven.

Cabalistical heads, who from that expression in Esay (Isaiah 34:4) do make a book of heaven, and read therein the great concernments of earth, do literally play on this, and from its semicircular figure, resembling the Hebrew letter כ Caph, whereby is signified the uncomfortable number of twenty, at which years Joseph was sold, which Jacob lived under Laban, and at which men were to go to war: do note a propriety in its signification; as thereby declaring the dismal Time of the Deluge. (Bk 1 chap.4)

Nebuchadnezzar

I was first introduced to William Blake's visionary art-works via an album cover by the 1970's progressive rock band Atomic Rooster! Somehow Blake's visionary art has not been embraced whole-heartedly as much as, say, his poem Jerusalem ('And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's..') annoyingly bleated at the jingoistic Last Night of the Proms every September. Anyway, as ever there's a Sir T.B. connection, this time from his 1658 work of 'active imagination', The Garden of Cyrus. But first, the Bible verses that inspired Blake -

The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. Daniel 4:33

and here's Browne's take on the scene-

Nebuchodnosor whom some will have to be the famous Syrian king of Diodorus' beautifully repaired that City; and so magnificently built his hanging gardens; that from succeeding Writers he had the honour of the first. From whence over-looking Babylon and all the region about it, he found no circumscription to the eye of his ambition, till over-delighted with the bravery of this Paradise; in his melancholy metamorphosis, he found the folly of that delight, and a proper punishment, in the contrary habitation, in wilde plantations and wanderings of the fields.

Kingfisher

At last some decent weather for boating. Went out to Thorpe, Norwich, and when  turning off the river Yare, rowing down the Tas river  I saw the zippy flight of a kingfisher, twice!

I just love getting onto the water by whatever craft available, to slow down to the river's pace, hear that plopping of oar in water; there's nothing, just nothing, like messing about in boats, Ratty! We even had a "Wind in the Willows" "Pan" moment", hearing the sound of a flute from a shady bank!

The photo of a Kingfisher (not taken by me) reminds one how much the combination of patience, luck, skill and good equipment are needed to take the truly jaw-dropping photo. Below is a snap taken today. Note how straight the bank is, that's because its an artificial Cutting, dug to enable large vessels to negotiate a sharpish bend in the river Yare at Thorpe, thus allowing easier access to the port of Norwich.

River Yare at 'New Cut' April 2010

10,000 soldiers

This work was recently on display at the Forum, Norwich where it won first prize. I really like the way the artist Jamie Andrews has made an anti-war statement in the shape of thousands of toy soldiers, the beginning of acclimatization and acceptance of war to children, all shaped into one giant tombstone or bullet. Very few people however seemed aware of this connection between the 10,000 soldiers of Nursery rhyme fame (The grand old Duke of York/ he had ten thousand men/ he marched them up to the top of the hill, and he marched them back down again) and the combined shape they formed, but maybe my interpretation goes beyond the artist's  intentions.

Sir Thomas Browne as ever comes to the rescue with an admirable observation upon the cause of war, the single-most remaining factor threatening humanity's survival.

The cause of this war was that of all wars, excess of prosperity. As wealth arises spirits rise, and lust and greed of power appear; thence men lose their sense of moderation, look with distaste on the prosperity of others, revolve disquiet in their mind, and throw over all settlement, for fear lest their enemies’ wealth be firmly established, they put their own to risk; and finally (as happens in human affairs) fall into slavery when they seek to impose it, and earnestly courting good fortune, experience disaster.


Link to more of  Jamie Andrews Art

Black and White

A scene from Jiří Kylián DVD 'Black and White'

I thought I was onto something with the idea that the music of Mozart embodied the 'spirit of the dance', but a quick rummage through the old DVD library reveals that choreographers have long ago hit upon the same idea that the music of Mozart is eminently danceable. Never underestimate the power of cryptoamnesia!

While the music of J.S.Bach may be satisfyingly geometric and full of deep emotion upon the dignity of man and his relationship with God, it is in Mozart's music, a man who himself enjoyed dancing that 'the spirit of the dance' comes alive best. I wish I still possessed a videotape copy of Maurice Bejart's Tangomozart in which the music of Mozart alternates with Argentinian Tango's, but I do still have, albeit a bit blurry, a recording of Bejart's choreographing the music of Mahler and Ravel with great effect.

Far more rewarding however is the choreography of the Czech Jiří Kylián, ballet-master of the Netherlands Dance Theater. Using music from a set of German dances K571 by Mozart and for Petit Mort, slow movements from two of his piano concerto's namely number 21 in C major K467 and number 23 in A major K488, Jiří demonstrates the potential of Mozart's music in terms of choreographic expression. The German dances in particular are hilarious as Kylián picks up on Mozart's own dramatic sensibility in his music to illustrate the differences and misunderstandings between the sexes; here's what the sleeve notes state-

The piece of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Six German Dances, K 571, (14:00) like all the others , is new and witty. Many of the eight dancers' actions are coarse and speedy, full of threats, unrest and absurdity. the men wear powdered periwigs above their naked torsi; the ladies are clothed in drastic skirts. And in the illumination of the spotlights, scintillating soap bubbles fall from the rigging loft in cascades down upon the dancers. The equally witty and bizarre scene is a winking paen to the Baroque and Rococo ages and their decades of infatuation with splendour and pomp, ending in clouds of wig powder and soap bubbles. Images full of humour and comedy prove once more what an imaginative, charismatic power Jiří Kylián possesses. The delicious humour of the piece moved numerous viewers and reviewers to remark that the Salzburg composer would have enjoyed it. Even if Six Dances appears to be no more than a sparkling witty assembly of nonsense carried out in costumes designed by the choreographer himself, who calls them "Mozartian underwear", there is still a dark, ominous undertone.

The sleeve-notes of the 1996 DVD say it so much better than I ever could-

For the piece Petit Mort, (18:00) Jiří Kylián chose the slowest movements from two of Mozart's most beautiful and best-loved piano concerto's. Although suffused with some humour, the ballet is driven forward with a kind of aesthetic brutality. Aggression, sexual tension, energy, but equally stillness and vulnerability plat the determining roles here. along with the six male dancers and six female dancers, six rapiers are also equal "partners" in the game, as are already the familiar Rococo costumes, which are moved across the stage on tailor's dummies. ..In this "little death" , the six men provide an astonishing performance of sword-play, but not like in the usual kind of cloak-and-dagger film. the blows and parries proceed almost as if in a kind of military discipline. Only after the ladies join them do the couples celebrate Mozart's sensual music. (Above photo)

Labyrinth of Crete

During the seventeenth century many English gentlemen studied antiquities, that is historical artefacts. One of the easiest forms of access for the antiquarian to the ancient world was through the study of numismatics, that is coins from Classical antiquity or early modern Europe. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) was an antiquarian and an avid collector, of books, bird-eggs, curio's and of coins and medals. Indeed the diarist John Evelyn on a visit to Browne's home observed-

'[the whole house & Garden [is] a Paradise & Cabinet of rarities, & that of the best collection, especially Medails, books, Plants, natural things...

The source of the Greek myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth noted in chapter two of The Garden of Cyrus is from a publication by Leonardo Agostini (1593–1669) an Italian antiquary appointed by Pope Alexander VII as superintendent of antiquities in the Papal States. In 1649 Agostini issued a new edition of Sicilian Medals, with engravings of 400 specimens. He also published a work on antique engraved gems. The book listed in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne is entitled - Ant. Agostini Dialoghi intorno alle Medaglie, Inscrissioni & altre Antichita Romanze tradotti di Lingua Spagnola in Italiana da D Ottav. Sada, e dal Medisimo accresciuti, con Annot. & illustrati con disegni di molte Medaglie &c. Rome 1650 .But I think Browne just enjoyed looking at the engravings in this book rather than improving his Italian! He describes the 'elegant medall of Agostino' thus-

And, though none of the seven wonders, yet a noble piece of Antiquity, and made by a Copy exceeding all the rest, had its principal parts disposed after this manner, that is, the Labyrinth of Crete, built upon a long quadrate, containing five large squares, communicating by right inflections, terminating in the centre of the middle square, and lodging of the Minotaur, if we conform unto the description of the elegant medal thereof in Agostino.

The most famous maze in Classical antiquity was the labyrinth, the Cretan palace in which King Minos stabled the minotaur and from which, according to Greek myth, Theseus was able to escape from, because of the thread which Ariadne gives him. The Cretan labyrinth may well have a solar significance because of the double axe, of which it may have been the palace which is carved on many Minoan remains. The bull shut in the labyrinth is also a solar symbol. Indeed the very name labyrinth which means palace of the axe, reminds us that in the palace at Knossos, the mythical stall of the minotaur was pre-eminently the shrine of the double axe.

The symbol of the Labyrinth occurs once more at the apotheosis of The Garden of Cyrus in which Browne names the combined forces of Reason and Empiricism as the essential tools to aid a successful weaving through the 'Labyrinth of Truth'.

affording delightful Truths, confirmable by sense and ocular Observation, which seems to me the surest path, to trace the Labyrinth of Truth

But is in his companion Discourse of 1658 Discourse Urn-Burial, that great hymn to antiquity and the unknowing of the human condition, that Browne displays his numismatic knowledge most. In particular , his description of an Iceni coin which he describes thus-

Besides, the Norman, Saxon, and Danish pieces of Cuthred, Canutus, William, Matida, and others, some British Coynes of gold have been dispersively found; And no small number of silver pieces near Norwich; with a rude head upon the obverse, and an ill formed horse on the reverse, with Inscriptions Ic. Duro. T. whether implying Iceni, Dutotriges, Tascia, or Tribobantes, we leave to higher conjecture.




Clearly Sir Thomas Browne knew his coins. He's off again a page later-

Nor is it strange to finde Romane Coynes of Copper and Silver among us; of Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, Commodus, Antonius, Severus, &c. But the greater number of Dioclesian, Constantine, Constans, Valens, ...

Browne acted as a magnet for any curio's or object of antiquity which surfaced throughout the county. In a revealing foot-note to Urn-Burial he acknowledged the source of his numismatic finds thus-

'most at Caster by Yarmouth, found in a place called East-bloudy-burgh furlong, belonging to Mr Thomas Wood, a person of civility, industry and knowledge in this way, who hath made observation of remarkable things about him, and from whom we have received divers Silver and Copper Coynes'.

Click on link for an excellent site on numismatics

Daffodils

Now it's British Summer Time with longer light in the day and very slowly getting warmer, its great to just get outdoors with a camera. I thought I'd better snap these dafs soon before they disappear for another year. And yes that is a grave-stone in the background, quite appropriately as regards the myth and poetry associated with the daffodil.

The symbolism and stories behind flowers is quite interesting. The Persians named the daffodil "the Golden" and the Turks "the golden bowl". But its in Greek mythology that the symbolism of the flower is most developed. In Greek mythology it was the flower that Venus recommended to Pluto to drop from his chariot to entice Prosperine to the infernal regions. The Daffodil is thus symbolic of unrequited love. Chaucer alludes to the Greek myth of Prosperine and the daffodil in his poem 'The Winter's Tale'.

O Prosperina,
For the flowers now that, frighted, thou lettest fall
From Dis's wagon: daffodils
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.

The Elizabethan poet Robert Herrick waxed lyrical in his address to daffodils, the flowers themselves replying in the second verse.

Fair daffodils, we weep to see
Ye haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon:
Stay, stay,
Until the hastening day has run
But to the even-song,
Will go with ye along.

We have short time to stay as ye,
We have as fleet a Spring,
As quick a growth to meet decay
As you or anything:
We die
As your hours do, and dry away,
Like to the Summer's rain.
Or as the pearl of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.