Philosophers Ponder
“Philosophers ponder
the idea of identity:
what it is to give
something a name
on Monday
and have it respond
to that name
on Friday….”
the idea of identity:
what it is to give
something a name
on Monday
and have it respond
to that name
on Friday….”
— Bernard Holland in
The New York Times
Monday, May 20, 1996
In 1564,
artist Michelangelo
died in Rome.
Non ha l’ottimo artista in se alcun concetto,
Ch’un marmo solo in se non circoscriva
Col suo soverchio; e solo a quello arriva
La man che ubbidisce all’intelletto.
(The best artist has in himself no concept
in a single block of marble not contained;
only the hand obeying mind will find it.)
— Michelangelo, as quoted
by Erwin Panofsky in
Idea: A Concept
in Art Theory
Idea: A Concept
in Art Theory
… Todo lo sé por el lucero puro
que brilla en la diadema de la Muerte
— Rubén Darío
Related material:
Yesterday’s entry
and Anthony Lane
in this week’s
New Yorker:
“… the whole of ‘Jumper’ comes across as vastly incurious about the cultures at its command. When David takes Millie (Rachel Bilson), a school friend from Michigan, for a dirty day out in Rome, she stands in awe before the Colosseum. ‘This place is amazing,’ she declares. ‘It’s so cool.’ I wasn’t expecting Ernst Gombrich….”