Simple pleasures of life

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Naming Infinity

As a comment to Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity, a  book by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor, I post this image “Vespers” by  John Singer Sargent.

I love it for the expression of a specific concentration of mind which could be read as mystical — or mathematical, if one inclined so. What is the difference, after all? This is a common facial expression of a person in communication with the deepest level of his subconsciousness.  Sargent painted “Vespers” in an Orthodox monastery at Corfu, but I have seen the same faces, in the same kind of mediterranean light, say, at Luminy.

The painting is in a museum in Liverpool, I can attest that the original is much subtler than any reproduction.

More Lions in Lyon

black lion

lion at bellecour

lion at cafe leffe

another lion at bellecour

lion at villemanzy

lion on a bridge

pink lion

winged lion

Places I visited: a lion in Lyon

Halle de Lyon

lionathalledelyon

ladyandlion