THE ARTIST AND THE DOG: CHAPTER 1 PART 2 :: THE DISCOURSE OF THE ANGEL
On the road the Dog, tired and frustrated, began barking questions to the Artist. The Artist said, “Quiet!”
But the Dog went on barking, “Where are we going anyway? We have been on this road for quite some time now! I don't see anything but you and me on this road. I keep expecting to meet at least other fellow travelers! Perhaps, I can have a conversation with somebody else, because you are not talking. Your head is just straight up, as if in the clouds, bouncing along on your way, dragging me with you. I know where you are going to, you said that already. You didn’t ask me to come, I came of my own volition, but, I might remind you, that you accepted me to come with you and I demand to know where we are going! You owe me that at least!”
The Artist stopped abruptly and looked into the eyes of the Dog. The Dog whimpered a little bit thinking, “Uh oh, I am in trouble!” but in the back of his head he knew what the Artist was going to say because he has said it a thousand times already,
“I am on the road to recover the Ancestor. If you are coming with me, that means that you are on the road to recover the Ancestor too, and since I am the one who is leading it, it is common courtesy that you follow quietly and allow me to take you to the destination which you seek."
The Dog barked at him, “Well, I don't know if I seek any destination! I just thought it may be fun to go along with a fellow like you seeing how serious and determined you looked made me absolutely curious to find out for myself exactly what you are searching for. I know I heard you say the Ancestor, but I really don't know what that means. I also heard you say you are the Ancestor. I don't know what that means either since, by logic, you cannot be the Ascestor that you are going to go look for since, by logic, you are already this Ancestor as you said, so there is nowhere to go, so I don’t anderstand why you are on this road."
The Artist calmly said, “Either you are coming or you are not. If you are coming, this is where I am going. If you are not coming, then you can go, so I can have some peace and quiet.”
The Dog responded, “Come on, I only enquired so that I can have some idea where we are going to. After all, you are the leader and I am the follower, so leader, please lead the way!”
It was getting late and the Artist found that he is tired after all this talking and yapping by the Dog, so he decided he needs a place to lay his head for a moment. It happened that there was a garden near by and they entered into it.
The Artist said, “You take the night watch since you have the grand expectation. You take the night watch and prove your worth through the ages.”
The Dog, pleased to have at least some instructions from his master, the so called leader, the Artist. He happily went to observe the Night Watch.
In no time at all, the Artist fell asleep with his head upon the stone. While asleep he dreamt the famous dream. He saw himself struggling with the Angel of the Ancestor. At first, they were in conversation and then as time went on the Artist realized that he has not heard from the Angel what he needed to hear so he kept the dialogue going. Eventually pressing so intensely toward what he needed to hear, which for him he had not heard yet, and now morning is approaching and the Angel politely requests his departure. But the Artist would not let him go until first, a struggling of words, then a struggling of stands, then a full blown physical struggle to the point where if one stood at a particular distance from the frame, with a point aiming toward the scene of the struggle one may even say that they are in a full blown fight.
And one would be correct because at this point it is a full blown fight. Until finally the Angel exclaimed, “What do you want?! I don't know what you want?! I feel I have told you everything about the Ancestor! I know you know you are the Ancestor. I have told you that I am the Spirit of that Ancestor, and you yourself has agreed that it is true, but now you are holding me captive, unwilling to let me depart when my time has come and now you insist on something that you needed to hear that I have not told you."
The Artist replied, “I know you have told me everything that you could tell me. Or that you think you could tell me, but what I am asking for is more than just you telling me something, what I am asking for is a blessing from you. A blessing that would not be just words, but would be something substantial that would feed me through the ages, that could be the rock that the foundation of my susbtance lies on, a blessing that would stretch out into generations and generations. "
The Angel, now running out of time, gave the blessing in this way by saying, “Let me tell you a vouch safe story of this Ancestor of yours that is the key to your existance, and this is the legend. So, the Angel told the legend as described by Giorgio Vasari about Giotto.
.
"Giotto won such a reputation in Pisa and beyond that Pope Benedict IX, who was intending to have some paintings commissioned for St. Peter’s, sent one of his courtiers from Trevisi to Tuscany to find out what sort of man Giotto was and what his work was like. On his way to see Giotto and to find out whether there were other masters in Florence who could do skillful work in painting and mosaic, this courtier spoke to many arists in Siena. He took some of their drawings and then went onto Florence itself, where one day he arrived at Giotto’s workshop to find the artist at work. The courtier told Giotto what the Pope had in mind and the way in which he wanted to make use of his services and, finally, he asked Giotto for a drawing which he could send to his holiness. At this Giotto, who was a very courteous man, took a sheet of paper and a brush dipped in red, closed his arm to his side, so as to make a sort of compass of it, and then with a twist of his hand drew such a perfect cirlce that it was a marvel to see. Then, with a smile, he said to the courtier, “There’s your drawing.”
As if he were being ridiculed, the courtier replied, “Is this the only drawing I’m to have?”
“It’s move than enough,” answered Giotto. “Send it along with the others and you’ll see whether it’s understood or not.”
The Pope’s messenger, seeing that this was all he was going to get, went away very dissatisfied, convinced he had been made a fool of. All the same, when he sent the Pope the other drawings and the names of those who had done them, he also sent the one by Giotto, explaining the way Giotto had drawn the circle without moving the arm and without the help of a compass. This showed the Pope and a number of knowledeable courtiers how much Giotto surpassed all the other painters of that time. And when the story became generally known, it gave rise to the saying which is still used to this day to describe stupid people, “You are more simple than Giotto’s Circle.” This is a splendeid witticism, not only because of the circumstances which gave rise to it but also because of the pun it contains; the Tuscan word tondo means both a perfect circle and a
slow–witted simpleton. "
The Artist said, “Are you kiding me? Everybody knows this legend!"
The Angel looked perplexed as if something has gone over his head because he couldn’t understand how the Artist could have missed what he had said through the mouth of Vasari. The Angel said, “Do you understand what I just told you? What is there to understand? It is a staight forward story.”
Then, the Angel smiled and said, “Oh, I see. You really don't understand. It is not just a story. It is the provocation of prophecy, it is the telling of things to come and of what has come and what will come to be. For instance, why the Red paint? Nobody has asked that. And why the decisive move from the Pope to seek out our master, the Ancestor, Giotto? And for instance what about the presence of the courtier and his role in the whole affair of dealings as a ruse to bring about the truth? A truth that has to be demonstrated before his own eyes or else the news of its perfect simplicity would not be carried out because the evidence would become unbelivable. If he had given the piece of paper with the red circle on it to the Pope without himself actually witnessing the process itself, the Pope would never have believed it. But because of his presence, there was a stereo recording of the experience in the form of the courtier who carries the amplification accompanied with the proof of the circle on the piece of paper making the Pope believe the unbelivable. This is one of the underlying currents of this prophecy, but the true prophecy is not to prove the point of our master’s ability, but for our master to point to the truth of future currents that are the prerogotives of his occupation. That is, he points to the sine, but the real prophecy is for you, the Ancestor. The Red is to tell you, the Ansestor, of your root. The Dragon Flame of passion that is the root-way of our decree that holds all the points of your lineage in this necklace of the Cipher to show you, the Artist, where your priorities lie and where the root of your nature stands. And this, where I come from, is called ‘The Breath of the Dragon Fire,’ you may call it ‘The Red Dragon,’ so that every time you see this, you know that the Ancestor speaks to you through the Breath of the Dragon Fire to remind you of your destined decree to follow the Path of the Way."
The Artist feeling somewhat astonished by that explanation realized he has heard something he has not heard before and so he has asked the question, “Where can one find this Dragon Fire?” and the Angel said, “You can find it, no, you encounter it at the Golden Gate.”
“Ok, I undertsand,” said the Artist, “I get it, but something tells me it is not all the meaning there is, so please continue, do not hold anything back from me.”
The Angel said, “The simplicity of the drawing is not to prove a point, but it is to show that it has already been completed before it has begun, and that what has begun must be completed, and what is completed is something that has arrived from the somewhere that it came from. And when that sign was shown to the Pope carried by the courtier it opened the door for the rest of the Ages, all the way from then to now and beyond making it possible for three dimentional visualization, for movie making and now for remote laser operation opening the door to the Age of the computer and beyond.”
The Artist said, “Please tell me more!”
The Angel went on and said: “Shortly, a few years after Giotto’s prophecy, the graph became possible through Nichole d’Oresme in 1360; A medieval school man allowing thinkers to express space-time motion on paper through the intersection of the horizontal abscissa and vertical coordinate, giving science a powerful tool for conception allowing abstract concepts to be visualised as an absolute necessity for scientific discoveries. Also - Abstract Art.
The graph is an indespensible tool allowing the plotting of three coordinates, making the vanishing point accessible giving birth in the lineage by bringing on an implicit new paradigm shift regarding space, time and light."
Now, the Artist who, for the first time in the dream has become completely contemplative said to the Angel in a state of humility, the Angel looking upon him with a gaze of pity. The Artist said, “But you have not said anything about me.. Me now, the Ancestor, right now. How do I fit in, in this roundelay of the Red Dragon?”
The Angel said, “At last, you have come upon the question that was the reason for my appearance just now. And the answer to that question is, that you have been given the prophecy of the Curve, to bring it all about in the roundelay of the Happenings.”
The Artist said, “Where can I find this Curve?” and the Angel pointed into the distance and said, “Look there, upon the horizon! You see how it comes, look at how it Curves!”
At this moment, with these words from the Angel, the Artist woke up and said, “I see, I see, I see!” with the words falling all over themselves.
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