With aesthetic logic, everything is a sign, even the fantastical. Thomas Cole, 19th-century American landscape painter, seems to be evoking this logic with his unusual and imaginative painting, Titan’s Goblet.
Get inside the image for a moment. Feel the romance and the reality of it. Enjoy its sunset repose over the lake, floating far above the world, surrounded by lush greenery, inside a giant chalice. Wonder with the image: Who made this? Is this a scene of memory, about lost age of giants? Or is it about something to come, an evocation of an abundant, heavenly place? Who lives at the base of the cliff, who sails on the water? Could this exist, and if so, how do I get there?
Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you of great things, things beyond the reach of your knowledge. (Jeremiah 33:3) The reason Cole’s painting is so powerful is that it is both simple and natural. It convinces us of a solid reality, yet one that is beyond the reach of our current experience. In this sense it is a “cosmological proof”: an example of how the mind can take something within the known, natural universe (in this case a cup), and rearrange it to conceive the divine. Can I allow myself to meditate on such possibilities?
Take me beyond the reach of my knowledge, to your titanic font. Amen.
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Second Minute: Your Thoughts and Observations