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Within a single volume, bounded by
love
I saw the scattered leaves of all the
universe—
Substance and accidents, and their
relations,
As though together fused in such a
way
That what I speak of is a single
light.
The universal form of this
commingling
I think I saw, for when I tell of it
My heart rejoice so much the more...
How powerless is speech— how weak,
compared
To my conception, which itself is
trifling
Beside the mighty vision that I saw!
O Light Eternal, in Thyself
contained!
Thou only know Thyself, and in
Thyself
Both known and knowing, smile on
Thyself!
That very circle which appeared in
Thee,
Conceived as but reflection of a
light,
When I had gazed on it awhile, now
seemed
To bear the image of a human face
Within itself, of its own coloring—
Wherefore my sight was wholly fixed on
it.
Like a geometer, who will attempt
With all his power and mind to square the
circle
Yet cannot find the principle he
needs:
Just so was I, at that phenomenon.
I wished to see how image joined to
ring,
And how the one found place within the
other.
Too feeble for such flights were my own
wings;
But by a lightning flash my mind was
struck—
And thus came the fulfilment of my
wish.
My power now failed that phantasy
sublime;
My will and my desire were both
revolved,
As in a wheel in even motion driven,
By Love, which moves the sun and other
stars.
— Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Paradiso, XXXIII(1321)
| "... the
struggle to efface the boundaries between earthly and heavenly
love, to blend them into each other imperceptibly."
Dantis Amor by
DGRossetti, 1860.
"L'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle"
Oil on panel, Tate Gallery, London
click to enlarge
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"Muther (Geschichte der
Malerei II) says, in his chapter on "The First Spanish Classics": "Tieck
(Johann Ludwig Tieck
1773-1853)
once wrote : 'Sexuality
is the great mystery of our being,
sensuality the first cog in our machinery. It stirs our whole
being and makes it alive and joyful. All our dreams of beauty and
nobility have their source here. Sensuality and sexuality
constitute the essence of music, of painting, and of all the arts.
All the desires of mankind revolve around this centre like moths round a
flame. The sense of beauty and artistic feeling are only the other
dialects, other expressions. They signify nothing more than
the urge of mankind. I regard even piety
as a diverted channel for the sexual impulse.' This clearly
expresses what one should never forget when judging the old
ecclesiastical art, ... the struggle to efface the boundaries between
earthly and heavenly love, to blend them into each other imperceptibly."
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