Page 52

Botticelli

Due to the difference in age of native Australians to the Europeans and more recently Asian arrivals, you feel that not only is there a vast difference in religious beliefs, there is also the incredible difference in age. Native Australians have been there for some sixty thousand years whereas the more recent arrivals have only been there from the late 1880's onwards. There are such enormous cultural and spiritual differences in belief systems or thinking with the native Australians to Europeans and Asians, as well as a notion of the native god, more closely related to an earth god rather than a Christian God or Buddha. So, one would expect a far more ancient contemplation or deep understanding of ascension through the stars. The ascension through an artistic journey is something of a similar notion via a deep philosophical contemplation of the human being. Thinking and creating is an ascension service graced by God and whereas we try to ascend ourselves to the Godhead, the native Australians ascended themselves so far there was no division. You feel the first fleet of white Europeans to Australia would have been something they felt was from Heaven because the white sails would have been a welcoming sight but would also have given them the equation of hell needed to take them to God.

Page 51

Botticelli

This equation of heat verses cold is something like the equation of Heaven and Hades or good and evil. The Sun and the other planets would have had different lives to earth for different reasons. For example, the planet Jupiter would have green coverage and different cloud coverage. So, the idea of the solar system would be something some people would know about and others would only learn. This would be a misinterpretation if you could not judge what was in the solar system from earth. For example, the native Australians would have a very well developed understanding of the solar system by looking at the stars from various central locations and would have communicated this to their local community with tribal dancing and also with musical instruments but would have not been able to communicate through the usage of a verbal language because of the many numbered dialects spoken. Even their connection to the earthly place would have been through hot and cold, judged by the temperature of the earth with bare feet, to make them nomads and find a warmer climate when the temperature plummeted. In comparison to the white community of Australia, who would just grumble about the weather. There seems such a difference to the way in which the Europeans from where their bloodlines would have originated from, deal with the cold. It is almost as if they have progressed whereas the Asia Pacific Europeans have been left sadly behind through lack of feeling warmth. They never have seemed to adapt to the climate or idea that Australia and New Zealand are not part of Europe or really have any similarity so, the housing is completely wrong for the environment and even the architecture seems not for the climate where they are built or even vaguely appropriate for sustainability. So, this is like how you may feel the Italian Renaissance would have been perceived with an incredible equation of God next to the other people living in the community of Italy.

   

Page 50

C. Fabritius, Het putterje, 1654

Why we have illuminatory ideas from God is to piece together the history of the human race and to be aware of the message of love to our hearts. This idea of brightness or of the spirit of man is a journey long considered that has included several millions of years of the planets existence and is not something one could ever realize without a future. There seems little point often in communicating why we started making art or sculpting other than to make an observation of who we were and who we are at any given moment in time. From the beginning we needed to express ourselves this way from early cave paintings and underground tomb design, often feeling a need for the soul to transcend to a higher place than earth could provide, after death. Often one feels the Sun expired several million years ago but because it was so many light years away we still see the illumination but are thriving on a memory of the light produced by this heat of the stars. This capacity would suggest we are nothing further than a memory in cosmic dust, only able to re-evaluate something we have been. The Sun is something that you could feel the heat from but if we lived on this planet in direct Sun light we would have to live underground several meters to cope with the heat. The planet would have been covered with clouds rather than the protective layering that currently exists. We would want to protect this also with more tree coverage and this would protect us from the winds. This would be of benefit for small species of birds and bees.  One imagines that the same would have been the case with the Florentines who would have needed these useful little creatures of Gods divine domain to propagate the fruit trees.

Giotto

   

Page 49

Botticelli

The equation of God verse man is not one that many people seem to realize as being a query. However, those who do pursue this are of a far more special equation to what the human message was about. This idea of an idea is not something God would presume every person to pursue however, those with a more advanced comprehension of God would be more alert to what was necessary. With the Virgin Mary, one has to be very vigilant about who her child was as few people seem to realize that the baby Jesus was her baby. And there should really not be any other kind of babies allowed to be born who are not this divine and connected to God. This would have been something that Saint John would have realized by blessing Christ. So this is why we have Easter to remind us all of where God tried to reveal to us where you are to journey to Heaven.

Page 48

Botticelli

The equation of God is not something you can easily get to via a sheep's back but should be considered with deep philosophical principals even for those who are not engaged in this kind of enquiry. This is of a solid ascension to God with a heaven on earth to be acknowledged with the observation of nature and to understand why we are given to the earth. Thinking is something of a gift it seems and those blessed with gorgeous ideas try and transform them into something of a glorious experience to encourage the knowledge to be accessed by those influenced by similar kinds of endeavour. One can see the white light of the sun in a sheep fleece that feels like the Holy Spirit or the connection of the earthly domain to God. These creatures should be allowed to roam freely in the hills to help them entertain themselves during the day. Shepherds feel like they have a love of the earthly sphere and are part of Gods earthly presence. You can imagine shepherds in and around the orchards in the small towns around Florence and to have more of life closer to God.

Page 47 - Si non rogas intelligo

Botticelli

The sculpting of Settignano and Donatello was of an ascension theory that was being paralleled elsewhere differently. Saint Anthony is the parallel of nature to God here for Donatello and you feel like Settignano's understanding of Saint John had a similar residency in the hearts of men. For example, the temptation to experience God with an equation of good and evil was something tenanted with Saint Anthony and Saint John with the feeling of a blessing being needed of Christ and an understanding of God by comparison. The divine creatures of earth are often confused with human sin so people seem to emulate the behaviour of animals through evil rather than deal with their own duty to God and are often not realizing their decent to Hades in doing so or why God wont allow them in heaven. God should be seen in a sheep's back.

Malenotti, Gino, 

Padova, 

Donatello, 

Monumento al Gattamelata

Page 46

Donatello

This place felt very sacred and you would imagine that this was a chosen site via God for a very divine occupation. The equation of God for this place feels as though this was the case that Saint John lived here, at least in spirit, and feels like it was a different equation for the Italians who occupied this city during the Italian Renaissance and was something different for the other visitors who did not have Italian bloodlines. Saint John would have been someone like a saint to the Italians, and an apostle to the English, a shepherd of divine ascension to the French and not someone the Germans would have thought very highly of under Lutheranism. The equation of Mars would be something of a religious figure to the Italians and French but especially to the Germans. Mars would have been something of a warrior like figure who would have protected the city and would have disappeared in theory by about the eleventh century. This is when the Christians started building the churches in Florence and you feel the place would have still had divine places of worship, perhaps for sacred feast days and for the celebration of the fields but also there must have been something like an astrological calendar to celebrate the blessing of foods for the local produce available.

Page 45

Paolo Uccello, Musee du Louvre, Paris

What should have been something of discernable quality was often misplaced in the history of art. Often those with a very special equation of God are left to make an equation on their own before bringing this before a public gaze. And you feel Settignano was of such a special nature that not only did he mainly work in silence but also would not have had much interaction with his contemporaries. He would have had incredible energy, even though he was of a very gentle energy and made very styled art works of incredible strength. Donatello on the other hand was of a very different nature and appeared far more social even with allowing students and professionals to use his workshop with or without him being there. So, the love of Christ would have been re-evaluated by the combination of an understanding of Saint John with Saint Anthony. And both would have been reached with an extremely different communication with God. This would have been something of a very delicate equation of God and will be remembered as such by the sculpting they left behind.

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Andrea del Sarto, Pieta with Saints, c. 1523-1524

God's divine will is something Settignano was occupied with from that start, it seems, so therefore special gifts were on offer to him. He was someone in the public domain and his sculptures although they would not have been exhibited in a public museum would have been commissioned by private collectors. Settignano was someone special to God's divine house obviously, otherwise we would not have these gorgeous gifts for our view and would be unaware of his activities. You would not normally know about an artists life so most of the people who do write about artists would only be speculating about what they did know or could find out. The garden theme is something you feel like you could reach out and touch, smell or feel and even Settignano's shepherd ideas were of this nature. And with the idea of God being somewhere on your path you feel he is observing empathy with the human race and trying to make us oblige his divine will.

Correggio, Noli me Tangere, c. 1525

Fra Angelico, St. Peter Consacrates, 

St. Lawrence as Deacon, c. 1447-1449,

Cappella Niccolina, Palazzi Pontifici, 

Vatican

Pisanello, The Virgin and Child with Saints, c. 1435-1441

Page 43

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 

c. 1520-1523, 

The National Gallery, London

Settignano feels like he was graced by God's divine house in making these beautiful sculptures and the garden of his heart would have been communicated through his work. The stone sculptures were far more interesting than any bronze sculpting so, perhaps this was a medium given to him via God's divine house to experiment with in a different way to his predecessors. Unlike the art of current generations that appears influenced by other artists, the artists from the Italian Renaissance were very original thinkers. You can tell this especially from their painting and for anyone interested in sculpting the sculpture has a similar variety of equation.

Titian, Perseus and Andromeda, 

c. 1554-1556,

The Wallace Collection, London

Settignano

Settignano

Page 42

Titian

Other artists who frequented the Renaissance were also doing some really refined work. Mainly with painting, for example, Verrocchio was also a painter, philosopher and geometer. This was a time of extreme thinking and they came to a very mathematical equation of God through painting. There were people who contributed an enormous understanding of perspective through the vanishing point on a horizon line equalling the exit point to heaven. And the vanishing point would always have been to the right of the central plain. A point on the horizon to take all images to a narrower view or to diminish in size and disappear. Something similar to the very strange understanding of ascension by Giacometti in sculpting whereby if you cannot see the facing side of somebody then they appear like they have disappeared. This was communicated in almost Etruscan like tall, lengthy figures who seemed to have parts missing or gained more flesh from a side long view and this was something only really explored by the Italian Renaissance artists. The mathematical equation for the Renaissance painters was well worked out in advance and applied on the canvas in grid form to give a platform for the understanding necessary for perspective. They used an understanding of the Golden Section that had previously not been tested on canvas and also a study in science that was revolutionary for its day. This gorgeous understanding of God was something that has not since been explored by any one group of people. Although every place has several artists on offer at any given time there has not been anything this close to God since. Perhaps, you may feel they went too far but would have been working to try and make an equation about Christ, this has to be re-evaluated every ten years or so. Christ is the earthly equation of God for man via the Holy Ghost and is somewhere where the human race can try and find God through an earthly activity such as making artworks or music and one feels graced to be given this opportunity to communicate something from your heart for God's divine will. So, this is a beautiful idea from God's divine house, to keep ideas flowing along and the idea of a re-evaluation is a very special idea to participate in and to work with. 

Page 41

Donatello

One wonders how Settignano managed to reach his understanding of Saint John. Donatello must have been a huge influence upon his ideas but had a very different group of sculptures behind him; all religious themes made for either private patrons or churches, more than likely royal families and the Papal court. Their workshop and production was far smaller than some of their contemporaries, however of a far more delicate ascension. The town was going through a change in the kind of literature and philosophy being written so, perhaps a feeling of intellectual freedom existed to enable the art of Florence to become so refined and reflective of all the Christian and scientific knowledge circulating the city. Other workshops from Florence around this time also provided some very special work, for example, della Robbia and Verrocchio. The delicacy and sensitivity of the sculpture from this place has never been matched and is almost the pinnacle of sculptural achievement. Communicating this level of reflection must have been one of those moments in time when certain information and people appear to gather in one place to make for a very different combination of ideas and talent and leave behind something so profoundly deep that few people could ever reach this level.

Verrocchio

Parmigianino

Luca della Robbia

Page 40

Gustave Dore

One feels like you are descending down into Hades on Geryon's back talking about Dante next to Settignano but I am sure Settignano would have felt the same about the heaven and hell equation on the streets. There would have been the stench of sulphur from burning fires with copper pots for hot water to do the washing for private houses. The women would have gathered in churchyard squares not realizing they were sacred places and the fumes would not have effected them but would have caused something like sulphuric acid or acid rain from over polluted cities. This would have caused the plague in London because of the deterioration of white blood cells or your immune system and would have affected the French rather than the Italian bloodlines and still would be the same in Rome as it has too many cars and is very polluted. So, I could imagine some people would still not like Florence because it is dirty on the streets and the national treasures are not cared for. There would have been far less dirt on the streets and better cleanliness with washing having been done here rather than on the riverbank. A river that would be a torrent in winter and a stagnant pool for the rest of the year. The family homes would have been quite close to the city or central business district and would have been very spacious new homes so, perhaps there are still some of this age in the CBD but very few would have survived the damp conditions caused by the river. And many of the inhabitants would have tended to wander down to the river for a late afternoon stroll, mainly the middle classes or those doing business trading for the evening. People would have thought that Settignano would have been something close to heaven. His work is from a heavenly domain and does speak about Saint John. However, this would not necessarily have been welcome in his time as those closest to God seem those hardest to bring down to earth. He did however, provide one of the most secular productions on earth for the people of Florence and did communicate the cities patron Saint with as much feeling and sensitivity as any artist could. This has been acknowledged by his contribution to some of the biggest museums but still little is known about his life. There seems to have been almost a confusion about Christianity and the underworld gods of ancient Rome, coming from ancient Greece originally so maybe something of a combination of the Greek Orthodox Church with Holy Roman Empire Catholicism. So, something of a combination with the earth gods and God, with the Virgin Mary and Daphne, the graces with the Holy Spirit and Mars with Saint John. Almost as if Mars and Saint John were both nomads or shepherds. The city does not feel like a place for anything else other than trade these days but perhaps in the time of Augustus there were many wars carried out on the plains. There were many wars in the vicinity for many centuries, each country losing its borders for another country or kingdom. The royal gardens of the Renaissance are an indication of the kind of wealth in the city and are still well looked after to this day.

  

Gustave Dore

Page 39

Gustave Dore

The hellfire Dante saw in the human race often caused by seemingly emotional states or the abyss of human relations to those who are not connected to God's divine love and the retelling of sinners unaware or unable to deal with their own purging to Hades makes for a profoundly deep ascension message; the heart being a metaphor for the experience. Saint John became the patron saint of Florence during Christian times. Prior to this, a knight believed to be the god Mars was worshiped. One feels therefore, Settignano's work was in homage to Saint John or to a city who blessed Christ. There are several monuments, churches and temples dedicated to the experience, for example, the Baptistry of Saint John (Battistero di San Giovanni). Dante was apparently baptised here and his journey through Hades is like Christ descending through hell, to find God's divine love.

   

Gustave Dore