Drive-through Garden

Chapter 3 The Secret Life of Paintings R. Foster & P. Tudor-Craig

La Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

Harmony and love are central to this painting. It was painted just as the early renaissance was interested in neo-platonic thinking. While there is one focus on relearning ancient Greek thought it was also mixed with Christianity that was  prevalent. In this way we have a curious mixture of figures of Venus and Mary.

In a world where Satyrs chase after fleeing figures of beauty we also have a symbol of fertile virginity. And the subject of the painting is the idea of Eros--the drive in us that provides us aesthetic energy while at the same time something that is not represented in actuality.

The figures in the painting are also noted for being parts of a musical scale. The embodiment of Eros is venus and whom is in the center and the domniant not of the scale. The other characters are placed accordingly to the idea of harmony and the characteristic disharmony that some notes sound. What is harmonious is sensuously depicted but directed towards at goal of the soul. The dissonant characters are that who direct their longing towards the physical and away from the soul. However, all the figures are depicted as young beauties and their longing is generative and does not lead to being motionless.

They style of the painting was promoted by the Medici family who were still interested in the aims of Christianity but were at odds with it's puritanism and aversion to the idea of beauty. The idea of blending sensuous beauty with the altruistic notions of virtue. This is the Renaissance that we celebrate and are familiar with but the notion at the time was volatile and not readily accepted. In this case it was nurtured by a wealthy merchant family but even this allegiance was fragile. Which is curious because the underlying theme here is a sensuous idea of beauty and attention to the soul that is generative--contentiously causing motion through harmony and attention to flourishing nature in the midst of it blooming.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

This movie main themes were violence, brash machismo, and inklings of morality that are quickly averted by a distraction. The movie also briefly courts a opposition of tradition and science framing it in regards to purity and the unknown consequences of creating something that has been cultivated slowly in the same fashion but in a new way.

The aggressive male served as the archetype for this movie and all the events seemed to generate from this mind set and obey its rationale. Its central tenant is that all things are in constant transformation and idealizes things that mechanical sources of motion and all this is wedded to violence that relies on impulse.

The idea that a machine is alive seems to form this deep familiarity and suggests a unity. This unity is also in peril from the dubious character played by Kelsey Grammer who see's the mingling of man and car as impure and seeks to divide this curiously by allying with a shadow version of this love--blindly falling in love with the darker version he dislikes.

Architecture also is an important but abused character in the film. Buildings ferociously become bystanders in the fight between moving machines and their lack of movement causes them to bear punches rather than skilfully moving out the way. While the end goal of the fighting is to save the city, it is often neglected in particulars seeming to be vulnerable to bouts of aggression. The city's dependency and abuse is also mirror with the daughter who takes on a role of being in distress and being controlled by an dominating father.

The film seems to emphasize briefly with the daughter. The barn in which her father tinkers is set in relation to the space craft with the collection of heroic robot cars. It is an enclosure that wouldn't nurture life. Although it is othered as some alien space craft it mirrors the psychological reality of her fathers barn which is filled with objects of sentiment and feel familiar but terrify with sentiment and uselessness.