Resonant Reading (Saturday)-Adoration of the Magi-Da Vinci
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session:
This Saturday (8/16 at 4PM)
The text is Leonardo Da Vinci’s incomplete painting: The adoration of the Magi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The main lines form a triangle backed by an arc. The right side of the triangle is a relatively straight line from the kneeling King’s foot to St Joseph, and is echoed in the background by the line of the staircases. The left side rises in a series of curves, which are repeated in the arcades of the ruin, and supported by the leading gestures and glances. Round this triangle, an arc of shadowy figures flows like the Stream of Ocean of Ptolemaic geography. To stabilize this restless pattern Leonardo has placed four verticals, the two trees near the centre of the triangle, the two upright figures at its bases.
Even this bare, geometrical analysis of the composition gives a hint of its dramatic meaning. The symbolical homage of wisdom and science to a new faith is firmly expressed by the main figures; but pressing round them, like ghosts from the magical paganism of Apuleius [author of the magical Roman novel The Golden Ass], are those evasive creatures which writers on Leonardo are content to call angels. In the background, agitation of spirit inhabits the half-ruined construction of intelligence. There remain the two figures at the sides, which seem to stand outside the scene, like leaders of a Greek chorus. To the left is the philosopher, whose noble form we saw in evolution. Morally and materially he has the grandeur of [an] apostle. Opposite [him is the] deeply romantic figure of a youth in armour on the right.
He looks out of the picture with complete indifference, and as is usual with such detached figures a tradition has grown up that Leonardo has here portrayed himself. Whether or not this is true in a literal sense we cannot tell but the student of Leonardo may feel that in these two figures of youth and age, moral and physical beauty, active and passive intelligence, he has indeed represented his own spirit, symbolizing his dual nature.
–Kenneth Clark, Leonardo Da Vinci
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.