Hammer on Anvil '

Can you smell it? Everywhere the air reeks of motivation and willpower. The gyms are packed. The bakery is slow because diets are just beginning after the holidays. What is that rampant aroma? January!

In ancient times, the Romans had a god called Janus (or Ianus), who was god of doorways, gates, and so the god over beginnings and transitions. When he is depicted, it is always with two heads, one looking forward and one back. (see right). It is for him that the month of January is appropriately named.

After having ushered in a New Year, we look back on the previous with.... regret or contentment? relief or longing? Then we look forward to the year to come with hope possibly. Maybe you feel something else. I will not encourage anyone to make or not make resolutions. If anything I'm looking forward to people breaking their diets so the bakery gets busy again. What I do suggest is to take the time this month, the month of Janus, the month of looking back and forward, to consider your own life.

As I ended last week's post, what do you see when you look at "The Wanderer"?

When it comes to art, I'm pretty much a dunce. So my favorites are landscapes, because of the simplicity. "Huh, it's a painting of a mountain...It looks like a mountain...well done." On the other hand, there is abstract art that I can't make heads or tails of, so I can't tell if it is "good." For other works of art, it helps if I have someone explain or interpret it for me. Even better if they teach me to ask the right questions of it.

The painting that provokes these thoughts is Caspar David Friedrich's The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, painted in 1818, seen here on the left. It is simple enough, a young man standing on a cliff looking out over a landscape, but is that all?

Is he looking over the places he has just traveled or scouting the path ahead? Is he the master of all he surveys or does he feel dwarfed by the vast view? Does he feel daunted or encouraged? Is it ambiguous?

What do you see when you look at the painting? How would you interpret it?

Brett

"From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I."