Small & Smallest
Madonna and Child by Duccio di Buoninsegna
When we think of great works of art, we do not visualize them as small enough to display on our refrigerators along with a child's Kindergarten drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has recently purchased the Madonna and Child for a price said to be between forty-five and fifty million dollars. The painting is dated around 1300 A.D., a Renaissance masterpiece. It is not surprising for that amount of money to be spent on a rare painting by an acknowledged artist; what is unusual is its size: eleven inches high by a little over eight inches wide - the size of an ordinary sheet of typing paper. It is painted with tempera and gold leaf on a wooden panel. Those who have seen it attest to its glowing beauty and commanding presence. The Madonna lovingly holds the Child whose tiny hand is lifted to her veil as if to hold it aside. Small as it is, it is America's treasured answer to da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa in Paris.
Have you ever passed up an artwork at a garage sale because it was too small? What drawings do you have on your refrigerator door? Have you framed a child's artwork or saved it in a safe place for years? What painting is your favorite as seen in a museum or in an art book?
quantum mechanics a theory of matter that is based on the concept of the possession of wave properties by elementary particles
subatomic of, relating to, or being particles smaller than atoms
Light is taken for granted: sunrise to sunset, candlelight to electric light, starlight and moonlight, lightning to fireflies. There are many subatomic particles embedded in an atom, but the most spectacular ones are those we can see, not individually, but by their overall effects: photons. Wherever there is light, there are photons for photons are light itself.
In the August 12, 1997 Kalamazoo Gazette, there appeared an article titled Quantum Magic by Malcolm W. Browne of The New York Times. The subheadline reads as follows:When Miles Apart Separated Particles Communicate Faster Than The Speed Of Light. Those particles are photons.
Briefly, an experiment was set up to send pairs of photons along optical fibers in opposite directions, seven miles apart. One of the pair was given a command and the other, miles away, obeyed the same command simultaneously. The experiment was replicated and verified by other scientists, and gave rise to new thinking about the speed of light.
How many forms of light can you observe near you? Have you studied the effects of differing wave lengths? Will you want to know more about subatomic particles, including photons?
Sir James Hopwood Jeans wrote
When we think of great works of art, we do not visualize them as small enough to display on our refrigerators along with a child's Kindergarten drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has recently purchased the Madonna and Child for a price said to be between forty-five and fifty million dollars. The painting is dated around 1300 A.D., a Renaissance masterpiece. It is not surprising for that amount of money to be spent on a rare painting by an acknowledged artist; what is unusual is its size: eleven inches high by a little over eight inches wide - the size of an ordinary sheet of typing paper. It is painted with tempera and gold leaf on a wooden panel. Those who have seen it attest to its glowing beauty and commanding presence. The Madonna lovingly holds the Child whose tiny hand is lifted to her veil as if to hold it aside. Small as it is, it is America's treasured answer to da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa in Paris.
Have you ever passed up an artwork at a garage sale because it was too small? What drawings do you have on your refrigerator door? Have you framed a child's artwork or saved it in a safe place for years? What painting is your favorite as seen in a museum or in an art book?
quantum mechanics a theory of matter that is based on the concept of the possession of wave properties by elementary particles
subatomic of, relating to, or being particles smaller than atoms
Light is taken for granted: sunrise to sunset, candlelight to electric light, starlight and moonlight, lightning to fireflies. There are many subatomic particles embedded in an atom, but the most spectacular ones are those we can see, not individually, but by their overall effects: photons. Wherever there is light, there are photons for photons are light itself.
In the August 12, 1997 Kalamazoo Gazette, there appeared an article titled Quantum Magic by Malcolm W. Browne of The New York Times. The subheadline reads as follows:When Miles Apart Separated Particles Communicate Faster Than The Speed Of Light. Those particles are photons.
Briefly, an experiment was set up to send pairs of photons along optical fibers in opposite directions, seven miles apart. One of the pair was given a command and the other, miles away, obeyed the same command simultaneously. The experiment was replicated and verified by other scientists, and gave rise to new thinking about the speed of light.
How many forms of light can you observe near you? Have you studied the effects of differing wave lengths? Will you want to know more about subatomic particles, including photons?
Sir James Hopwood Jeans wrote
Physics tries to discover the pattern of events which controls the phenomena we observe. But we can never know what this pattern means or how it originates; and even if some superior intelligence were to tell us, we should find the explanation unintelligible.
posted by marguerite louise at
5:27 PM
7 Comments:
I have in storage art that I did as a child in elementary school. Along with it are pieces by each of my children who are 26, 24, 14 & 13.
While never likely to command the price of the Madonna and Child, to me they are priceless.
I tend not to look at the size of a piece of artwork but rather the way it touches me.
By
Anonymous, at 7/14/2005 12:24 AM
I remember getting into trouble for "not staying in the lines" in kindergarten, so I have always been a little phobic about trying art projects.
Hey, that photon thing is fascinating!! When they get the time between the two to go backwards, I'll really flip!
By
Anonymous, at 7/14/2005 12:33 PM
It has been gratifying to know that some of you have been curious enough about the Duccio Madonna to learn more about it and to send e mail to that effect. Thank you. At least one of you has pointed out, on seeing a photograph of the painting, that the Child looks like a little old/middle-aged man. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago discussed that matter in its History of Art classes and told its students that the artists of that period would paint portraits of the Priests and Cardinals on the faces of their Christ Childs in order to gain favors from the clergy.
By
marguerite louise, at 7/14/2005 3:53 PM
These are thought-provoking questions... yes, I have carried around a portfolio of some of my childrens' various works of art for years. I am not up to speed on archival storage for them, though, so they probably won't last as long as the Madonna and Child. I have passed up works of art that were too expensive for my budget, but figure there is always a little nook for a little work of art, if the right one calls out to me. I kept several small paintings, about 3 by 4 inches each, that I got when my grandmother gave up her home, and had them hung as a stack on a narrow space of wall for many years. I think they are packed away now. One of my favorite museum visits is to the Crocker in Sacramento, where some of the art of the Gold Rush era and shortly thereafter hands. I like the light on Albert Bierstadt's landscapes.
By
Birdsong, at 7/14/2005 8:46 PM
As Birdsong has said, these truly are thought-provoking questions---and thought-provoking comments! Thanks for clearing up the art mystery, ML.
To Carrie: I don't know if you'll get your wish on time travel, but if teleportation excites you, here's a tidbit:
By using just three atoms, physicists have conducted experiments that prove teleportation isn't sci-fi. Using atom 1 as the source for the teleported information, laser pulses linked atom 2 with atom 3 so that they interacted at different sites vast distances apart. Then, laser pulses entangled atoms 1 and 2. Because it had been previously entangled with atom 2, atom 3, became imprinted with some of atom 1’s information. The future goal is to make atom 3 totally indistinguishable from atom 1. Voila! Teleportation!
By
Anonymous, at 7/14/2005 9:43 PM
Thanks for the comment; I used to always carry a book to read, and still might, if it is so compelling that I can't wait to finish, but I found over the years that knitting still allowed me to talk to someone if in a public place, or to be productively working while listening at a meeting. They each have their place.
By
Birdsong, at 7/15/2005 5:29 PM
Kimberly, I still don't understand the illusion, but I reread the quotation at the end of my essay about photons and decided it fit my state of mind!
Thanks for trying to explain it!
By
marguerite louise, at 7/20/2005 9:28 PM
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