The Metropolitan David

Death of Socrates

Enough has been said on Socrates, but this painting is almost the summary of his life.

Socrates believed in knowledge based on the continuous search for Truth. At the same time of Socrates' life, there was a school of thought called the Sophists. They taught the Art of persuasion. According to Plato, Sophism was based in the Art of deceit.

This is ultimately the reason why Socrates is condemned to Death. His eternal quest for knowledge leads him to doubt the main foundations of his society and to vividly criticize important statesmen of his time. He makes enemy of the Sophists. Socrates didn't have an agenda to push through. He was doing his duty as the main philosopher of his time. On the other hand, the Sophists are a school based on the persuasion. Sophists believed Truth is what you can prove. Socrates was proven guilty. This is probably one of the most ancient and most basic human struggles.

His method - the Socratic method - is the constant questioning of arguments. I saw a philosopher once (can't recall his name) doubting the US court system based on questioning, and judge Scalia upheld the Socratic method in its defense. Judge Scalia answered categorically: "That is the method we have in the Western world. I don't know of a better way. The opposite would be to sit someone on the stand, and asked them to tell you everything. And what is to say what was true or not or even relevant." (more or less).

It was like the philosopher who was supposed to understand Socrates, read about him without really understand or lived his teachings in practice. Philosophy was the first branch of study; then it got specialized into a million different ones. Now, philosophy lives in careers, degrees, methods, and Scalia's mind. It is his bread and butter. Meanwhile Philosophy by itself has become Sophism.

But there is a thin line between argumentation and Truth. The Sophists and Socrates both believed in argumentation. But the difference is like the difference between the Moon and the Sun. Argumentation to convince someone is completely different from arguments to find the Truth.

His last wish was to die next to his disciples. David shows the gesture of the raising of the poison as one last salute. In his last moment, Socrates who always said he knows nothing, tells his followers: now it is I who will know. In this painting, David captures the transcendental of the teacher who becomes immortal just by his gesture in the face of darkness while every other human soul weeps.

Hotel Inglaterra

Opera House & Hotel Inglaterra

At the other side of the Opera House, you can see the white building of the Hotel Inglaterra (England). It is the oldest standing hotel in Cuba. It was named after the major world power of the time. It opened its doors in 1875.

Legend has it, that a new rebellious class of criollos (Spanish born in the New World)  frequented the cafes of the hotel and threw milk on the Spanish guards during colonial times. I believe it is also the place of a historical duel in Cuba's history. Two young men argued about the prestige of weapons of war. Cuban troops fighting for independence from Spain used the Machete as their main weapon of fighting. A Spaniard contended the Machete was not a noble weapon like the sable. Both decided to duel to death to prove their point. The Criollo used the war Machete, and the Spaniard chose the Spanish cavalry sable. None die, but their gesture became legend summing up the temperature of the times foretelling the war to come in 1895.

HavanaBing Homepage of October 18th, 2009

Vintage car, The Capitol, and the Opera House - originally built in 1771; one of my usual spots -

The Evading Presence

La Belle Ferroniere
ca. 1490

One of those trailing teaching from Carl Marx that still haunts me is the lesson of seeing objects of creation and ideas in their historical context.  I tend to look at Art in chronological order. It allows you to see the genius of the past, and lets you comprehend and live the genius of the present. After 3 days of non-stop art, I came across the first real painting, the first one that breaths.

I had never felt anything from this painting before. I always admired Leonardo Da Vinci. It is one of the first biographies I ever read, but for me he was always the inventor with a pencil, not an artist. La Madonna of the rocks is an amazing jump in proportion and study of the human body. It takes a curious person to see and recognize patterns in the human body that nobody had dared for centuries. In a time when the human body was off limits, it takes the simple sincerity of truth enlightening you of your small human consequence for you to focus in the mundane of the human body and make it profound by perfecting it.

I knew La Mona Lisa was ahead overcrowded by a mass of followers of all races and nationalities like the welcoming of the Queen of Earth. Many of the followers were almost as much about the Da Vinci Code as about facing the enigmatic Madonna. I looked along the hall at those amazing quattrocento paintings and everything I had seen previously killing time.

I made myself see the least known works postponing facing the crowds for as long as I could. The Madonnas, the amazing rubbery babies and their postures while the Madonnas gesture to pick them up. But it is not really for me. I have never felt the passion for these paintings, only the admiration of the technical master.

And I come across La Belle Ferroniere. Subtle. Quiet. She is walking away not even interested in my presence. Look deep into her eyes, and you realize she is really not looking at you. The same way La Mona Lisa hides her true feelings, La Belle Ferroniere looks away without telling you. Every other painting so far is immersed in some story, or looks straight into the camera to be admired. She glances over to my right completely ignoring me. Every other painting up to this point is a pose for the observer. This is the master that after giving life to its creation, his piece doesn't need the viewer anymore. This is the first offering of a true dialog with the admirer, and she does it by pushing him away.

I hadn't felt like this in so long. Where has she been all these years. It is the discovery of a new painting that you didn't know or that you knew but you had never actually looked at or understood. Here is a painting I have never paid so much attention to and when I am in front of her, she pays me back by looking away. She pays me back for all those years of disinterest. She ignores me like a teenage love. She knows my presence, and she is not posing for me like every other piece of Art. She doesn't need to. The rest were created to be seen. This one was created to be herself. She is so aware of her own life that she chooses herself again and walks deeper back into her world without hesitation about where she belongs.

I kind of felt like asking where has she been hiding. Why? How could she? How can someone top this feeling of awe?

But Da Vinci is not done. I realize I am 3 feet away from the original. Given it is not that famous, it doesn't have the heavy security and the long corridors protecting her. I look to the sides looking if someone is witnessing the same thing, but I am alone...with her, and I feel I have just become another of her guardians. This makes my discovery more overwhelming. Nobody signaled me she was special. She found me. It is a woman brought to life by her master and only to him she belongs. I am standing in the same position Leonardo Da Vinci would have stood while painting on the canvas over 500 years ago. I can see his age, his beard, his brushes almost interlinked with his long hair, the mess of his mind invading my surroundings. I can see the curse of not being able to complete his works finding excuses to move on to something else. It all disappears, and all is left are her eyes containing what only she has seen. Five hundred years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci stood where I was in front of her and blew his final stroke breathing life and she went on to live walking away from me.

The Master of "the Presence" is Vermeer. You can step into the scene. His paintings are in a constant dialog with the viewer from the moment his eyes fall upon the canvas. It is not a discovery; it is a mutual recognition from both sides.  Vermeer produced this masterpiece on 1665.

Da Vinci painted La Belle Ferroniere in 1490 almost 200 years before Vermeer. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Da Vinci ends to be science. He is simpler. He is creation itself.

Havana's Maidens

La Santisima Trinidad, The largest ship of its time

After major defeats of the Spanish Armada, Spain had lost its indisputable supremacy across the seas.

During the 1700s, the beginings of the industrial revolution in England propels England into an  almost unbeatable industrial and ship making power.

In comparison, Spain's armada suffered a recession in ship production specially into the 1700s. For the first 3 quarters of the XVIII century, Spain doesn't really replenish or improves on its ships' designs or on its production processes. The Real Felipe and its design remained the most powerful galleon in the Spanish Armada. Given Havana's access to strong tropical wood and its exposure to ideas as one of the capitals of the world, Havana's shipyard is the main shipyard that continues to accommodate the best Spanish Ships but are not rivals to England's new economical power.

By mid 1700s, Havana was the biggest port and the third largest city in the New World following Lima, and Mexico City. It was bigger than New York and Boston.

In 1762, England sends 53 warships to the Island. Generally accepted numbers state the strength of the British army and navy with over 11,000 soldiers. However, there were thousands of other non-enlisted personnel that were added as the fleet headed to the city of Havana. Adding up all non-regular and colonies' militia, the rough numbers add up to around 25,000 men. The 13 colonies offered between 2,500 and 4,000 men, and even Jamaica and Martinique added over 2,000 men for the siege of Havana. Total number of vessels counting hospital, cargo, ammunition, and food enough for a siege added to a total of 200 vessels.

To put it into context, the Spanish Armada sent against Queen Elizabeth had a total of 22 warships, and a total of 102-120 vessels.

What a need the modern world has for invented mythology when our human history is more glorious. No movie scene matches the magnitude of actual historical events.

Havana is surrendered to the British 3 months later. During the British occupation, Havana suffered a radical shift in its history from rich city of the Spanish empire to center of commerce and manufacturing with British technologies. New processes, construction methods were introduced so quickly that most were forgotten afterwards.

A year and half later, the British exchanged Havana for Florida after the 7 year War ended. By this time, England had built on top of Havana's shipyard with their new industrial processes and technologies. I believe England was able to produce only a hand full of ships 4 to 5. I have tried for years to track down what they were.

After England's retreat from Havana, the British burned the shipyard. But it was too late. the high number of slaves imported during this time and workers had already learned the latest technology. From its ashes, Havana's shipyard, El Arsenal rose to become one of the greatest shipyards in the world producing the largest ships including la Santisima Trinidad, the largest ship of its time. The shipyard end up producing around 100 ships. Probably some of the best last ships before steam and its metal sheet based vessels came to be.

This brief British influence in an unexpected place allowed the Spanish fleet to flourish again rebuilding its numbers with some of the most powerful ships in the world. Once again, Espana returned to be a power to be reckon with in the high seas.

Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra
Senora del Buen Fin

Delacroix

Delacroix. The breaker of the neo-classicism. The house where he was born. He lost himself in exotic themes of sultans, slaves, and passion. The Red lives in his paintings like a character of its own. Bright Red against the balance of tones of Napoleonic perfection.

Even in his least known works, the Red permeates the canvas sometimes becoming the main object of adoration. the Red makes the saddle heavier and important. It balances the scene by a subtle counter weight to the movement when establishing the ground where the sword rests. He doesn't spend time over defining the figures even when living under the influence and among the greatest classical painters. The scene hasn't ended compared to Napoleon portraits which are applauded and loved, but they also carry the confining task of capturing the instance of the climax of glory.


Not overly known by popular culture, but here is the precursor of the next 100 years. Impressionism surged on his rush stroke and from his diminished attention to the content in contrast to the emphasis on mastery to deliver a simpler message. The changing of the topic from the subject to the whole. His irreverent escape from classicism inspired others to inmerse themselves in other subjects. This is the touch of a genius, an unrecognized game changer of his time.

Versailles



The garden of the Sun King at sunrise.