Tintoretto's 'Scuola Grande' and 'Stillhetens åndedrag'

John Bjarne Grover

The article discusses Tintoretto's 'Scuola Grande' in Venice in relation to my own 'Stillhetens åndedrag' in such a way that a tentative matrix of 6 binary-valued features can be postulated. It follows from the discussion that the theory arising therefrom is hard to prove - but it is absolutely not impossible to make it plausible by empirical studies.

I had earlier been into the church of the Scuola Grande in Venice and seen Tintoretto's works there, but for getting into the Scuola Grande itself one has to pay a ticket and it is a bigger work to go through the whole thing so I had not been there before 'Rosens triangel' was completed in 2018. I think it was in the autumn 2018 or the spring 2019 that I went through the building and looked at the many artworks.

This could have been the background of the story told in Transfiguration of Venice - the brief passage of piano music that emerged in the air when I passed behind the building of the Scuola Grande in october 2020 - plus the xylophone sounds in the air near Guglie and San Trovaso.

It was on 26 january 2021 that I bought the book 'Jacopo Tintoretto e la Scuola Grande di San Rocco' (1983-2015) by Francesco Valcanover, apparently a standard exposition of the series of works of Tintoretto. I use his enumeration of the artworks here and I use his italian titles. Valcanover's book is allegedly on archive.org but it comes not up on my machine. However, it seems that this link contains most or all of the works.

Alas, it seems that the Scuola Grande is shrouded in powerful mysteries and it may be difficult to find good reproductions of the works on the internet.

I sat leafing in this book when I came to the 'Battesimo di Cristo' (baptism of Christ) on page 62 and recognized my own poem #39 from 'Stillhetens åndedrag' as highly relevant, here the three first stanzas in literal word-by-word translation:

39.

To answer

The two hayballs lay not tight
but it looked like that at some distance.
Then the train moved, one by one,
and the balls split by low water.

It could have been due to the raincover
that surrounded the dry hay.
The great ocean of signcover
was due to the galaxy's bow.

With such arithmetic co-axial
is very good pretime the same.
It crumbles inbetween, the big ocean,
from the acts in a frame.

The hayballs are the clouds, the train is the series of people in the background, the 'raincover' is the females apparently dressed in plastic ponchos. Most impressive is the 'crumbling ocean' seen in the knots of thread-ends at the margins of the carpet (under the woman and nursed child) in the lower part. I immediately understood that the roughly 64 Tintoretto artworks of the Scuola Grande could be a variant of my own 'white metre' contained in my 64-poem book - and the correlation with Nono's quartet could find its explanation there. On a closer inspection, there seem to be very good reasons for that conclusion.

As an example of another very impressive correlation I point to Tintoretto's 'Tentazione di Cristo (edited reproduction, though)' on Valcanover page 86 against my own poem #33, and here reproduce the two stanzas 2 and 5 in translation - concerning the two 'screens' of apparent 'formal thought' near the heads of the two characters on the artwork (it seems that these essential 'screens' (quasi 'plexiglass'?) are difficult to find on the web - a detail shows a little of one of them, coud be they are simply censored off the web?):

I cannot have had Kant's Messer in it.
In the sacristy lies it now.
It partitions the thought and the speech and the time.
It measures what it must.

A waterdrop falls against the sleeve
put up on a frame of iron,
wandering up along the screen.
But heaven's certainty is distant.

For a study of the relation between my book and Tintoretto's Scuola Grande I have to refer the reader to a published and legal edition of my book, which I hope will be made available by publication within reasonable time. There exist some copies of it made by myself in some libraries and it is also reproduced in my Volume 4 which likewise exists in some libraries.

The 64-poem 'Stillhetens åndedrag' is the principle of musical harmony which finds its counterpoint in my 64-poem 'Rosens triangel' in mirror sequence. These are listed here against the roughly 64 artworks of Tintoretto in Scuola Grande - in a tentative concordance which calls for a principled explanation in terms of 6 parametres or 'features' which I discuss below:

Col.1: 'Stillhetens åndedrag' enumerated
Col.2: 'Rosens triangel' enumerated
Col.3: Sala (hall) in Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Col.4: Enumeration in each Sala (hall) according to Valcanover (1983-2015)
Col.5: Tintoretto's artworks

1	64	III	8	Assunzione della Vergine
2	63	II	3	Raccolta della manna
3	62	II	1	Erezione del serpente di bronzo
4	61	II	2	Mose fa scaturire l'acqua della roccia
5	60	I	6	Allegoria della Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista
6	59	I	7	Allegoria della Scuola della Misericordia
7	58	I	8	Allegoria della Scuola di San Marco
8	57	II	7	Giona esce dal ventre della balena
9	56	II	8	Visione di Ezechiele
10	55	II	9	Visione di Giacobbe
11	54	II	10	Sacrificio di Isacco
12	53	II	11	Elisio moltiplica i pani
13	52	II	12	Elia nutrito dall'angelo
14	51	II	13	La Pasqua degli Ebrei
15	50	I	15	La Bonta
15	50	I	16	Allegoria della Scuola della Carita
15	50	I	17	La Liberalita
16	49	II	29	Resurrezione di Lazzaro
17	48	II	30	Ascensione
18	47	I	22	Profeta?
19	46	I	23	Profeta?
20	45	I	9	La Verita
21	44	I	10	Allegoria della Scuola di San Teodoro
22	43	I	11	La Fede
23	42	I	12	Figura femminile
24	41	I	13	La Felicita
25	40	I	14	Figura femminile
26	39	II	22	Adorazione dei Pastori
27	38	II	28	Moltiplicazione dei pani e dei pesci
28	37	I	2	La Primavera
29	36	I	4	L'Autunno
30	35	I	5	L'Inverno
31	34	I	3	L'Estate
32	33	II	24	Resurrezione di Cristo
33	32	II	32	Tentazione di Cristo
34	31	II	33	San Rocco
35	30	II	34	San Sebastiano
36	29	II	27	Apparizione di San Rocco
37	28	II	31	Probatica piscina
38	27	II	25	Preghiera nell'Orto
39	26	II	23	Battesimo di Cristo
40	25	II	26	Ultima Cena
41	24	I	18	Salita al calvario
42	23	I	19	Incoronazione di spine
43	22	I	20	Cristo davanti a Pilato
44	21	I	21	Crocifissione
45	20	II	5	L'eterno appare a Mose
46	19	II	6	La colonna di fuoco
47	18	II	4	Il peccato originale
48	17	III	1	Annunciazione
49	16	III	1	Annunciazione
50	15	III	2	Adorazione dei Magi
51	14	III	2	Adorazione dei Magi
52	13	III	3	Fuga in Egitto
53	12	III	3	Fuga in Egitto
54	11	III	4	Strage degli Innocenti
55	10	III	4	Strage degli Innocenti
56	9	III	4	Strage degli Innocenti
57	8	III	4	Strage degli Innocenti
58	7	III	4	Strage degli Innocenti
59	6	III	5	Santa Maria Maddalena
60	5	III	5	Santa Maria Maddalena
61	4	III	5	Santa Maria Maddalena
62	3	III	6	Santa Maria Egiziaca
63	2	III	7	Circonzione
64	1	III	8	Assunzione della Vergine

Sala I    = Sala dell'Albergo (upper floor)
Sala II   = Sala Superiore (upper floor)
Sala III = Sala Terrena (ground floor, entrance)

Enumeration in each 'sala' follows Valcanover

Only one poem takes more than one artwork - that is poem #15 for Sala 1 #15-16-17. Valcanover presents immediately after these on p.21 the socalled 'Tre mele' on p.22.

The works 6-17 in Sala I are uncertain mappings which could be reordered internally.

The first artwork in Scuola Grande - 'San Rocco in Gloria' - is without poem in the correlation.

Parametre 1: HI-LO relevance

There are various levels of relevance. Above I referred to the high relevance in #39 'Battesimo di Cristo' or #33 'Tentazione di Cristo'. Of most impressive kind is the observation in #39 of 'crumbles inbetween' and 'framework', the knots and thread-ends on the carpet (for these, see also the man low left on the 'Cristo davanti a Pilato') under the nursing woman and child, or, say, the 'knitted' forehead (knitbrow) in the righthand margin - to which the divining rod could be the baptist's stick. Consulting the counterpoint in Rosen #26 to this, it seems that the crossbar on this stick of the baptist is the entire story - including the 'cicada' and the virtuous woman behind it. The 'breathing of silence' is probably the top source of light over the dove in 'Stillheten' #39.

33 'Tentazione di Cristo' is impressive in its two screens - the upper 'Kants Messer' on Christ and the droplet (of the iron ring on the bicepcs) in the lower.

There are also two saints depicted by Tintoretto: My #34 suggested against 'San Rocco' and my #35 against 'San Sebastiano' (Valcanover p.88). The poems assigned to these two artworks from my book are only remotely interesting - in fact it makes sense to say that the correlations are not very interesting. However, what is interesting is that the biography (hagiography) of San Sebastiano seems to apply to my #35 as well as 'Il tentazione di Cristo' and the biography (hagiography) of San Rocco to my #34 and 'Il battesimo di Cristo' - and then the two poems make much more sense. The function of the two saints - and the Scuola Grande is even in the San Rocco region, indeed San Rocco can be seen to be the very theme of the entire series of works - can be seen to be to enrich the formal correlation of the poetic description so that the two poems 33 and 39 apply with amazing precision to the corresponding artworks. Caravaggio was found to be characterized by HI and LO on the canvas, thereby making up for two cycles. Tintoretto here seems to be about two interdependent parametres HI and LO relevance to my white-metre book.

The two saints do with their lives lend inspired life to the relation between poetic logic and the artworks of visual sensation.

Parametre 2: Prophetic language

This same HI-LO function can be seen to apply to the two prophets in the Sala dell'Albergo relative to e.g. the Sala III (third hall) #3 Fuga in Egitto: This latter artwork covers my two poems 52-53 by a horizontal subdivision - 52 applies to the upper half and 53 to the lower, while the two prophets are 'vertical' in their niches. In combination this tells how the poetic logic of prophetic language - or prophetic vision of the artist - applies to the canvas. The two prophets of Tintoretto are probably studies in scapulars - the light enters your body like the series of bodies in the 'Annunciazione'. The central theme in the Fuga is the donkey head in the middle - including the white snout as the last line of my poem 53 for the barrel, textile and rod in the vertical dimension - how the information goes in through the one ear for being turned into the holy family in the horizontal dimension via prophetic language. (The scapular function is seen in the 'San Rocco in Gloria' - artwork #1 in Sala I - Valcanover p.15 - the only artwork without a correlating poem of mine).

HI and LO relevance for these two artworks (the prophets) will therefore mean the relation between the prophetic inspiration and language and the artwork of visual sensation - where the two saints are about the inspiration of life in the relation of poetic logic and the artwork of visual sensation.

This logic is seen in the stick of the baptist John in the Battesimo artwork.

The two prophets are enclosed in niches with shell roof which with their roughly 10-12 curvatures are a HI counterpoint to the series of angels (and puttis) in the LO part of the introductory oval 'San Rocco in Gloria'. The poem 19 talks of 23 and 21.

Parametre 6: Tintoretto's acoustic logic

This introductory 'San Rocco in Gloria' in the ceiling of hall I is otherwise not contained in the correlation series above. Could be it is simply Tintoretto's acoustic logic in the Scuola Grande: There are 8 female angels and 8 puttis - these combine to 64 possible poems. Plus San Rocco himself and a guard and the apparent male authority above - is it God? St.Peter?

It is a good guess that this relation could contain the key to the correlation between my book and the venetian Nono's quartet. The 'calibration at 50' by the wrapover in the reduction from 105 poems to 64? If the female angels are counted right-left (clockwise) and the puttis likewise but counting from the left side, the wrapover at 50 (out of 64) will be the conjunction of the second female from the left with the second putto from the left, which is the one which with his left hand touches the scapular over the shoulder of the male authority (God?) - cp. the metal ring with the 4-5 'drops' around the biceps of the 'tentazione' of Christ - and with his right foot nearly touches with a toe the hair of the female angel. It is the only point of contact between puttis and angels and that seems to be the calibration point at the beginning of the last stanza of poem 50. In the correlation with the works, #50 for 'Adorazione dei Magi' contains that point of 'calibration' in the relation between the Madonna and the Jesus child. See also 'Rosens triangel' #15.

If so, this compass or two-pointered 'zifferblatt' in the mid of the ceiling of hall I could map each of the 64 works in the Scuola against each of the 64 poems in my book. The first artwork one sees right ahead in Sala I is the 'Crocifissione' with the prophets on each side and the thorncrowning, sentencing and climbing of the Calvary behind - around the entrance door to this Sala I. This suggests that the cross or intersection of harmony (Stillheten) and counterpoint (Rosen) is the theme of the Scuola - put into circulation in history by the catholic saint Rocco - and that explains the few seconds of piano music I heard behind the Scuola for the 'transfiguration of Venice' at the time of the xylophone/marimba.

This is the function of the saint in the ceiling and the prophets at the walls in hall I.

Parametre 5: Substantial intentionalities or entelechies

The metaphysical inspiration of the saints and prophets has a counterpoint in the substantial 'inspiration' - or formal 'entelechies' - of the two marian works in Sala III - showing Mary reading. The first shows her from the front and applies to my three poems #59-60-61 - for the three elements tree, book and house. The relevance of this Maddalena artwork is seen in the isomorphy with the ex nihilo 'Joyce' image which I made in 2014 (along with the front page of 'Der Dornenstrauch' and other graphics listed under '6. The graphics') from material rubbed off a black spot in the bathtub and smeared on a microscope glass - showing the 'Joyce of reading' under the microscope - wherein aristotelian entelechies added in the course of a year some substance (for making the arm and the hand) when turning it - by TEMPUS - into the 'indian'. Here to the left 1) 'Joyce' (reading in sofa with rollerskates), 2) the same Joyce in negative colours mirrored and slightly turned, for showing how this gave the basis for 3) the same image one year later when erosion had removed some of it - and 'meaningful semantics' of aristotelian entelechies type (I here assume that that this is what the socalled entelechies are) had added substance to it for the arm and hand:

The Maddalena artwork (Valcanover p.120) shows her in much the same posture with book such as 'Joyce' but mirrored - as point of departure for the 'indian'.

The Maria Egiziaca (Valcanover p.122) is about this turning of the motive to mirror or turned format. It could be about the same 'over the shoulders' as in stanza 2 of poem 3 in part 4 of my 'Der Dornenstrauch':

Das ist die tiefere Intention:
Zu sehn über eigenen Schultern.
Das ist das Essen: Die eigene Vision
zu sehn in den eigenen Kulten.

Hence this parametre could be about HI and LO intentionality.

The change from Joyce reading in sofa till the indian a year later means that the forearm-and-hand that History by mystery had added through a year is at about the same place but aristotelian 'entelechies' = 'humanoid/humerus-meaningful intentionality guiding the formation of matter', as it can be called here (cp. the computer glitches of vol.4), have inserted by 'humerus-radio-ulna' the correlates to a 'malleus' and 'stapes' (the bones in the ear) apparently 'ex nihilo' - and this is what creates the xylophone or marimba sound (created by 'mallets' striking by hand) when these bones of the arm correspond to the bones in the ear of human audition. Such additional substance added 'meaningfully' by History onto the microscope glass is then the correlate (or, some could say, even 'reason') to the sounds of the xylophone and other things added 'meaningfully' ex nihilo = out of nothing in the air - to an extent that they even can be recorded. That is why the piano was heard behind the Scuola Grande building.

These two formalized images of 'Joyce' are what I used for the cover of my own two books 'Stillhetens åndedrag' (2016) to the left and 'Rosens triangel' (2018) to the right:

Parametre 3: Visual entelechies

The previous example of the two marian artworks (Maddalena and Egiziana) told of 'material entelechies' - the formation of 'meaningfully shaped' matter in place. This parametre 3 is postulated as being of meaningfully shaped perception in time - of high importance for an artist if the art is to let the brush or pencil be guided by the 'inner intentionality' peeping out from behind the canvas, so to speak, or seen by the artist as the 'true being' which the brushwork tries to help forth to become visible. The example here is what happened when I photographed light in a venetian canal and the lights and shadows of the undulating surface showed what seemed to be guided by Tintoretto's art. This is about my two poems #9-10 correlating with 'Visione di Ezechiele' (Valcanover p.52) and 'Visione di Giacobbe' (Valcanover p.52): These two relative to my poems 9-10 exhibit HI relevance indeed (parametre 1) except for one single element in my two poems - that is the element 'the ship' which emerged from the light I photographed in a canal on my way either to or from the bookshop where I bought Valcanover's book - I took the photo on 26 january 2021 at appr 16:11:

This function can be called an 'entelechial' vision - how the camera lens and the pressing of the button on the camera are guided by an inner intentionality which is beyond the photographer's control - cp. also the 'Ezechiel' vision of Tintoretto - here in the combined effect of the two works in the ceiling. (See also the two illustrations in this file for a comparable 'ships-bow' line).

Parametre 4: Ex nihilo sound

A 'quintessential sound' occurred at 20:50 on 30 jan 2021. The clock is 00:01:15 too slow so it really was 20:51. It was a quick fifth of electronic kind - I guessed that it came from a computer - either the one I was writing on or the other one I had - but could not find out of the source.

The two artworks my #14 = 'La Pasqua degli Ebrei' and my #47 = 'Il peccato originale' embellish the outermost margins of the ceiling in Sala II, intersecting the previous two - the visions of Ezechiel and Jacob. It was some gulls who with a crying sound told me about this, for which reason the electronic 'quintessential sound' could be interesting.

In the following morning 31 january 2021 I recorded also some sounds which I believe were 'ex nihilo' and had no detectable physical source. These sounds resembled the sounds of the 'innermost mystery' in Tarkovsky's film 'Stalker' - the sound of the dripping water. (I have guessed that 'Stalker' really means 'Scuola Grande' - and the explorers reach this innermost mystery which I recorded that morning). Here are some samples:

Xylophone sound 1
Xylophone sound 2
Xylophone sound 3
Xylophone sound 4

What is interesting with these sounds (resembling also blipblops from a tap?) is that they resemble the sound of the xylophone near Guglie in october 2020.

On 28 january 2021 these two items occurred apparently ex nihilo on the floor where I was. They resemble the ceiling right and left in 'La Pasqua degli Ebrei', as if seen from above, outside. The swordfish mentioned in my poem #47 Adam is seen in Tintoretto's 'Peccato originale' like a tail in front of the hip region of Adam, curling up with the leaves to its sword along with the body of Eve. On the other side of her body there could be the 'trilobyte' of 28 january 2021 if Adam's body makes for the other item.

'Hammer' can mean 'hammer' but it can also mean 'sloughs' like the two big hairy thighs in the lower part of the Peccato work. (The poem says that Adam and Eve created place by way of her relation to another - who then naturally is Adam himself). 'Filigranssag' could likewise be twisted into 'fillegrønnsak' (a trifling vegetable) in the upper part - closely akin to the apple, but safer.

Summary of 'intentionality' features by the features of 'A waist of time':

For a tentative sketch of an 'acoustic grammar' in my 1997 PhD dissertation 'A waist of time' I suggested 6 features, 2 principles + 4 measurement evaluations. The two principles were the symmetries organizing the records of measurements on the border to silence or white noise, which here can be termed 'recordability'. For the 6 parametres discussed here, they are conveniently recognized as follows:

1. HI-LO relevance by saints on lives	= symmetry
2. Prophetic language	= recordability
---------------------------------------------
3. Visual intentionality	= LEXIS
4. Sound intentionality	= PHONE
5. Substantial intentionality	= LOGOS
6. Acoustic logic	= LEKTON

The 'symmetry' of parametre 1 will be in the isomorphy of elements of the poem with elements of the artwork - by hagiographic guidance. For the order of parametres 3 (LEXIS) and 5 (LOGOS) see the summary overview table (towards the end of the file 'The keys to heaven') where the order of these is swapped. This should suffice for a binary-valued system of 64 elements - for the 64 poems and artworks.

Stillheten is already equipped with such a featural analysis which can be tentatively applied to Scuola Grande (features read probably 1-6 from left to right):

000000	011010	1. #solens pike - #the sun's girl
000001	101001	2. Identifisere Herrren - To identify the Lorrd
000010	101000	3. Kn*lle - Cop*late
000011	100111	4. Der David kjøpte ølet - Where David bought the beer
000100	100110	5. Når tidene kanter seg - When the times are edging themselves
000101	100101	6. Navelen hennes - Her navel
000110	100100	7. Jesus spiller fløyte - Jesus plays the flute
000111	100011	8. Den foldede kapselen - The folded capsule
001000	100010	9. Den strålende informasjonsmasten - The radiant information mast
001001	100001	10. Den snøglitrende fasaden - The snow-glittering facade
001010	100000	11. Hun med den dirrende underkjeven - She with the trembling mandibula
001011	011111	12. Rommet i rommet - The space in the space
001100	011110	13. Villgjess - Wild geese
001101	011101	14. Due - Dove
001110	011100	15. Fink - Finch
001111	011011	16. Rødstrupe - Robin
010000	011010	17. Svarttrost - Blackbird
010001	011001	18. Gulspurv - Yellow sparrow
010010	011000	19. Kråke - Crow
010011	010111	20. Svane - Swan
010100	010110	21. Hakkespett - Woodpecker
010101	000000	22. @at - @at
010110	000001	23. Språk - Language
010111	000010	24. Periskop - Periscope
011000	000011	25. I neste fart - In the next speed
011001	000100	26. Ballongantenne - Balloon-antenna
011010	000101	27. Så var det århundrets tabbe - And then there was the century's blunder
011011	000110	28. Fra et inderlig sted - From an inner place
011100	000111	29. Bukse på seg - Trousers on self
011101	001000	30. 38 Grinzing - 38 Grinzing
011110	001001	31. Damen med hunden - The lady with the dog
011111	001010	32. Tittel - Title
100000	001011	33. Mors dag - Mother's day
100001	001100	34. Vassa - Waded
100010	001101	35. Savonarolas tanke - Savonarola's thought
100011	001110	36. Viserens klubber - The pointers clubs
100100	001111	37. Og jeg kan garantere dagen - And I can guarantee the day
100101	010000	38. Betingelsen - The condition
100110	010001	39. Svare - To answer
100111	010010	40. Gluppeboka - The slupbook
101000	010011	41. Kattunger - Kittens
101001	010100	42. Den blitte - The becomed
101010	010101	43. Fallskjerm - Parachute
101011	101011	44. Hvor linjen trekkes - Where the line is drawn
101100	101100	45. Det mangler Facebook - Facebook is lacking
101101	101101	46. BJ - BJ
101110	101110	47. Adam - Adam
101111	101111	48. Eva - Eve
110000	110000	49. Lazarus - Lazarus
110001	110001	50. Tabitha (Dorcas) - Tabitha (Dorcas)
110010	110010	51. Det forteller hun lett - That she easily tells
110011	110011	52. Men ikke at det har blitt godkjent - But not that it has been accepted
110100	110100	53. Men det så tomt ut - But it looked empty
110101	110101	54. Alle diktere - All poets
110110	110110	55. Og noen ble stående utenfor - And some were left outside
110111	110111	56. Hammerschlag - Hammerschlag
111000	111000	57. For å rapportere på det fremmede fenomenet - In order to report on the alien phenomenon
111001	111001	58. Mennesker pakker sine øyne i vekst - Humans pack their eyes in growth
111010	111010	59. Det er ekspertisen i vårt daglig brød - It is the expertise in our daily bread
111011	111011	60. Som en tilfeldig lathans - Like a coincidental lazybones
111100	111100	61. En pedagogs musikk - A pedagogue's music
111101	111101	62. Her finner vi landet - Here we find the country
111110	111110	63. I full statistikk - In full statistics
111111	111111	64. Over vannet - Over the water

Only one artwork contains all valuations: That is the last 'Assunzione della Vergine' which is inherently paradoxical - both 000000 and 111111. Compare also 32 = 011111 (Resurrezione) with 33 = 100000 (Tentazione).

[Added 10 february 2021: For the point of the break of parallelism between the two columns, where one of them turns around at 42.666, the line in 'Stillheten' is 'Det er skolebokstavenes navn' = 'It is the school-letters' name'. Observe the 'Pilate' artwork to #43, how the scribe whose pen apparently tickles Pilate under the shoesole can be observed in 90 degrees angle and then it looks like the two men hiding underneath the righthand side of the cross in the 'Crocifissione' = #44. In vol.3 p.1200-1201, there is a poem I wrote in 1995 over the syllable LAT in several unrelated languages: It is called "LAT: Two men hiding in the church lavatory". The school-letters' name is then 'pi-LAT-e'].

The series is naturally compared with the four ancient categories LEXIS-PHONE-LOKOS-LEKTON (see e.g. Sextus Empiricus 'Against the professors') in my 'keys to heaven'. However, there the order is LOGOS-PHONE-LEXIS-LEKTON and it seems a little hard to change that. On the one hand, 'information transfer' could of course be LEXIS and grammar types could be LOGOS, but a closer study of the basis for these concepts in the verses of Acts 10 suggests that the original assignment probably is right. LEXIS is probably best understood as sound technologically represented - but primarily in symbolic = visual form as a discrete category. For LEKTON as a logical value that can be both true and false at the same time and hence inherently be about multiple realities, such as the sound that exists and does not exist, I make in vol.4 p.1210 a reference to Sextus Empiricus II.70f in Sextus Empiricus: Against the logicians. Translated by R.G.Bury. Loeb Series, Harvard/Heinemann 1983 (the english translation is a little hard to follow, though).

How to solve the problem of potential swap of LEXIS and LOGOS? Could be this is precisely where protestantism and catholicism differ - that Luther swapped LEXIS and LOGOS relative to the catholic conception. (For the present concordance, the 48 verses of Acts 10 seem conveniently paralleled by the 48 first poems of 'Rosens triangel' - the dominican, franciscan and carmelite parts). The following distinction between white and yellow metre could be an attempt to heal this schism - which again possibly could be the theme of the following political interpretation.

The quasi-political interpretation

Finally, how do these 64-poem white-metre aspects of Tintoretto relate to the 64-poem yellow-metre 2-cycle analysis of Caravaggio's work (see end of the file)? It is not impossible that the white metre follows the first 6-bit-string column while the yellow follows the second. If so, the white and the yellow metre will run in parallel (as far as these bitstring columns are concerned) from about 43 = Cristo davanti a Pilato till the end. It seems that this Cristo davanti a Pilato (wherein Christ can be conceived as a sort of 'lapis philosophorum') could be the secret of a potential quasi-'political' plot based on Tintoretto. This plot could be centred on the mythos that pope Paul VI on 5 may 1978 travelled up to Fredrikstad in Norway and in the night to 6 may tiptoed into the house of the old mother (to MP Georg Apenes) called Inger-Johanne Apenes and murdered her by cutting her throat. In the same night, Aldo Moro was murdered in Rome. This mythos could possibly have been constructed on basis of just this artwork - one can see a 'pope's high hat' over Pilate and the white around Christ as a sort of bride's gown with a long tail - and then there could be a 'knife' where it looks as if the water runs wrong way from the jug. I recall a story from probably 1989 when I met my official father (by preappointment over telephone) - or rather the one who was in that role since the late 1960's - on a 'Kaffistova' place in lower Karl Johan in Oslo and a servant came and poured a cup of coffee into his lap. I tried to say that this cannot be okay but they both said it didnt matter. Today this looks like a prearranged matter for 'telling something' - very childish with such secrets. I have speculated that the purpose with the Apenes murder (a famous socalled unsolved case in Norway) could have been to blame me for it - a lie that would be if such theories be launched. In fact I was to a party in the house next door - at 'Hanne Skjefstad' who had moved in not so long before - her name means appr. 'the hand that held the knife' - see the 'party' in the lower lefthand side of the artwork. I have earlier noticed a potential role of the Tintorettos in the church of San Rocco next door to the Scuola Grande for the names of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof in Germany. I mention also that the official father through many years had hardened skin under the foot, approximately where the scribe's pen is tickling Pilate's footsole. From time to time this hardened skin needed to be filed down.

For my own Rosen #22 (to this artwork and Stillheten #43), it tells of a ring of steel (cp. the glory of Christ) and the edge of a knife a la alcohol. My Stillheten #43 tells of a 'lapis philosophorum / in my poetry's synapse'. At #42,666 (which is exactly 2/3 of 64, the point where the yellow and white metres could split) the line is "a magic wand's cunei-sense examines". There could therefore happen to be universal poetic-semiotic reasons for these ideas - but to take it into crimes like murder is of course totally wrong.

Concluding remarks

In the article 'The transfiguration of Venice' I mention the incidence with the 'Tintin' occurrence and the later dog. I have no knowledge of such traditions but can guess that the name 'Tintin' is derived from 'Tint-or-etto' and could be based on reports from people who have experienced 'strange things' after having been to the Scuola Grande. Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' could be telling. The recordings I made in the morning 31 january 2021 are telling: I discovered that the outer sound - which can be recorded technically - are generated from an inner condition in a meeting between the subjective mind and a border to a metaphysical state: The recordable sound takes form on this border and is dependent not only on the subjective mind but also on the metaphysical condition on the border, which means that if the sound arises on this meeting-place, it is possible that some 'creative' changes can be added to it by the volition of the subject but not much: If too much volition is added the sound fades, and, generally, the volume of the sound is inversely proportional to the volition excerted by the subject. Therefore, for making such ex nihilo sound different from what arises, one must change the metaphysical condition or oneself or both. This phenomenon is perhaps just what Tintoretto's Scuola Grande can provide - a local change in the metaphysics, a miniature cosmos wherein the subjective mind gets the chance to experience phenomena which otherwise only long exercises in mystic inquiry can lead to an understanding of.

Clearly the Scuola can be the background of the correlations between the venetian Nono's quartet and my book.

Therefore it is probable that the occurrences discussed in the article could be truly interesting phenomena. It could then have been the completion of my two white-metre books and my visit thereafter to the Scuola in late 2018 or spring 2019 that led to these phenomena in october 2020. However, for just the same reasons of an apparent tradition, it is of course also possible that things had been 'organized', including artificially generated sound (by 'sound projection'?) in the Giardino on the north-south axis relative to the xylophonist near Guglie. One reason why this is unlikely is that I had never been into this garden before and it was an impulse which made me go in there as I saw the door stood open and it was a public garden, told a sign. Also, the sound resembled quite a lot the wisteria which grew up on the roof of the building of the linguistics institute. Most interesting is the sound of the morning 31 january 2021 - I recognized the sound from the xylophone near Guglie of october 2020: That was an able xylophonist playing in the street on a rack with what looked like coconuts attached to the woodbars for enhancing resonance - but maybe it was not coconuts but something resembling the 'fruit' shared between Eve and Adam's hands in Tintoretto's 'Peccato originale' (my #47). Were even the xylophonist an ex nihilo visitor or audible fata morgana - or was it a musician hired for the occasion by somebody who had organized it?

Whatever the explanation, secrecy on such matters is not the right thing.

The alignment of my book with Tintoretto's works can of course be done differently in which case other possible feature assignments could be made. What I have made and presented here is on basis of my intuition.

Added on 7 february 2021:

Now the Scuola Grande has opened again and I went to see the details of the 'Tentazione di Cristo'. In the reproduction in Valcanover, it seems that an underlying layer has been highlighted - and one can see the patterns in the canvas under the paint. But in the normal reproductions, also in other publications in the bookshop in the Scuola, this is not visible. On the artwork itself one cannot see the two 'screens' on the surface, but there is probably a deeper shadow underneath - which, though, is perhaps more felt than seen.

Click here for my pocketcamera-photographic reproduction from Valcanover in absence of this Valcanover reproduction on the web. There are two 'screens': One crosses with its lower frame over the mouth of the 'angel' and lacks a small rectangel in the upper left part, the other crosses over the ear (there are two ears) and touches the back of the head (the occipital lobe, the visual perception region) of Christ.

I refer to my poem 'Halb offen stand die Tür, halb Wirklichkeit' wherein there in the title and first line is mention of the 'screen' onto the ear and the back head of Christ and in the last line the 'screen' crossing over the mouth of the 'angel' - the mention of a 'Handtuch aus dem Ried'. This latter 'Handtuch' could be recognized as the rectangel lacking in the upper lefthand part of the 'screen' on the angel's mouth - or even the contents in its hand[s]? There is in fact in this artwork of Tintoretto the justification of the 'strange declination' of mine in the form 'ihre junge Kehle' (accusative or even nominative) which normally should have been the dative 'ihrer jungen Kehle' (the 'Kehle' = 'throat' is here relevant to the issue of catholic transubstantiation): This is seen in the 'strange gender' of the angel - with a 'dative' gesture, while Christ could be seen to have a more accusative or even nominative gesture. (Some commentators call the angel a 'demon' but I would suppose it looks like an angel with wings). My poem looks like a quite relevant comment to the artwork of Tintoretto - cp. even the light in the eyes of the angel - sufficient for the assumption that the 'deep screens' on the canvas of Tintoretto are no artificial effect added phototechnically (for example for the fancy effect of it relative to my poem in 'Stillhetens åndedrag'). A pity it would have been also if my 'strange declination' had been adjusted with the rule of Duden in hand.

An interesting theory takes form if one assumes that the 'entelechies' or 'intentionalities' described in this article - 4 or 6 binary features - are of the same kind as the redundancies that could arise from the formula described here - if, that is, the equation is solvable - if 1) it is assumed that the sum of probabilities can be more or less than 1.0, and 2) the system nevertheless strives towards equality. It is probable (although I cannot evaluate this) that the criteria will not vary wildly but that a small number of parametres can be defined for describing the variation.

It is seen that the normal system of always counting only probability sums of 1.0 is the case of loyalty to the monarch. Anything else is to postulate 'other realities'. But culture remains at a standstill as long as this continues and global peace and stability is obtained when other realities can be allowed to blossom. A far more interesting solution is to see that if the sum of probabilities is more or less than 1.0, the system will inherently have to strive towards 1.0 for satisfying the laws of the human psyche. One can guess that the four main forces of physics - gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces - can be constituted by various kinds of such 'striving towards 1.0' and that these also are my four poetic metres (blue, red, yellow, white).

(There was a coup in Myanmar/Burma the same 1 february 2021 as this article was published - see this article).




Source:

Valcanover, Francesco: "Jacopo Tintoretto e la Scuola Grande di San Rocco", Storti Edizioni, Venezia 1983-2015.

© John Bjarne Grover
On the web 1 february 2021
Last updated 10 february 2021