bLOGOS/HA HA: 9/11

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

11 September 2011

9/11

Oddly, perhaps; subconsciously, intuitively... the first image that comes to mind is by El Greco. In the beginning was the Word (LOGOS)

The Adoration of the Name of Jesus

The subject is based on a text in the gospel of St Paul, but it can also be read as an allegory of the victory of the Holy League over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The figure dressed in black in the foreground is identifiable as King Philip; the man in the yellow robe as a doge of Venice; the old man opposite him as the pope; and the figure on the left as Don John of Austria, the commander of the Christian fleet at the battle. In the heavens is a monogram formed from IHS–the first three letters of the name Jesus in Greek, also In Hoc Signo and Jesus Hominum Salvator.

from Wikipedia

El Greco_The Adoration of the Name of Jesus_sRGB_400

The Third of May, 1808
by Goya (1814)

26 April 1937
Guernica (1937) by Pablo Picasso.

It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. (Wikipedia)

a detail of Guernica :

20-2-1919
Date of a postcard correspondence, send from St Philbert, France,
addressed to Chere petite Marie et Luciess
L' Aéroplane (1909)
The postcard image