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Sep 16 2006
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By Gideon Polya   
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Picasso, Guernica, Qana
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On the RHS after the Christ figure we have at the TOP the Appalled Observer (e.g. me); thence resigned, dying Adonis and finally the back of Adonis’ head in the Forest of Cedars of Lebanon below Mount Lebanon in which Adonis is hunting. In the MIDDLE we have a Donkey/Ass (an innocent animal victim), an Old Muslim Woman (who despairingly has seen it all before), and the Ram/Sheep/Goat (another innocent animal victim). In the RHS BOTTOM we have the fallen classical Pillars (e.g. of Baalbek), the crushed Dove of Peace targeted by the Bomb (that incorporates the Old Muslim Woman and whose tail fin is over the shoulder of the Dying Adonis), and (my favourite) the Little Girl (self-possession and curiosity overcoming apprehension) and her dumb Teddy Bear. Image

There is careful complementarity in colour and symbolism. Thus there is another Bomb on the LHS (incorporating the Eagle, it is flesh-coloured, with the double entrendre of Biological Bomb; its stylized  tail fin is above the wings of the Eagle). Various trampling Ungulate hooves are logical elements. The 2 bombs are part of the “Vesica Pisces” construction arising from the classical Golden Rectangle (L = 1.618 x W) construction  used by the Ancient Greeks (the Parthenon), Ancient Egyptians (the Great Pyramid), painters from the Renaissance onwards (notably da Vinci) and even (intuitively) by great landscape  photographers such as Anselm Adams (see: here ).

I have made a “discovery” of what I call the Golden Flowers (4 petalled as with the European Truelove, Paris quadrifolia) which magically appear when the 2 circles of the Golden Rectangle and the diagonals of their enclosing Squares exactly hit the right spot of the Golden Section (the Divine Proportion; see MWC News ). Truelove is both sacred and profane (Father, Son, Holy Ghost and Virgin Mary versus the Medieval aphrodisiac poison Truelove that also brings luck in Love as in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales).  Indeed the Vesica Pisces is also both holy and sexual (e.g. the sacred Christian Fish symbol versus the profane female Vulva representation and  the Gothic Arch of Christian Churches versus the Bomb, Missile or male phallus shape) (for a detailed account of this REAL sacred and profane Da Vinci Code see MWC news ).

The Golden Flowers also have the shape of the Egyptian water fern Marsilia quadrifolia at night-time under water with the leaflets closed. The 4-leafed Marsilia gives the Nardoo seed used traditionally, after very careful washing, by Indigenous Australians (Australian Aboriginals). Washing is required to remove a thiaminase that otherwise yields thiamine deficiency and paralysis. The famous 19th century Australia explorers Burke, Wills and Gray did not wash the Nardoo flour enough when awaiting rescue on Cooper’s Creek in Central Australia and died from thiamine deficiency. Their companion  King survived but was  paralyzed by peripheral neuropathy (see my huge pharmacology reference text: Gideon Polya, “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds, Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003).  The Golden Flowers (Truelove) appear at top of the Violated Woman’s Dress and as the Crushed Dove. The 4 huge Circles and some diagonals underlying the Double Golden Rectangle Geometry are still apparent.

A final element in the painting the painting owes a lot to my Great Uncle George Polya’s solution of the problem of regular shapes that fit into 2 dimensions (technically, 17 plane symmetry groups, all of which were used by the Muslim Moors in the fabulous Alhambra Palace in Spain). This solution inspired lithographer M.C. Escher (you no doubt have seen his wonderful lithographs of interweaving animal forms ). I had also tried, in a different way,  for many years to “fit” multiple images into the 2 dimensions of paper and canvas following the mathematical proof of my wonderful Great Uncle George (see: George Polya, Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, 1924;  Harold & Loretta Taylor, “George Polya. Master of Discovery”, Dale Seymour Publications, Palo Alto, 1993; George Polya, “How to Solve It”, 1945, published in many languages and still in print). 

I am represented in spirit in “Qana” by the appalled observer between Christ and the dying Adonis. My "Qana" (1.3 metres x 2.9 metres) partly owes its style to Fernand Léger and Henri Matisse and its underlying geometry to Picasso and Da Vinci. It has about 3 dozen thematic elements but the core is the evil of destruction by war (crucifixion) but with the promise of renewal (resurrection) - a task poor Lebanon must now meet for the second time in a quarter century.

If enough people like my “Qana” I might attempt a really “Guernica”-size version for the cause of Peace and Humanity. I share the vision of French writer Emmanuel Todd ("Apres l'Empire"; English translation “After the Empire. The Breakdown of American Order, Constable, London, 2004) for a 21st century of endless Peace, or as Fukuyama puts it: "the end of history".

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Each of us, in our own way, must speak out for the innocent. We are obliged to inform others about abuses of humanity and to act ethically in our dealings with all those complicit in such abuses. International sanctions and boycotts worked against Apartheid South Africa. International and intra-national sanctions and boycotts may yet constrain those complicit in the crucifixion of Lebanon and the destruction of Qana.

================

Dr Gideon Polya,  MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality ---

Contact Dr.Polya By E-mail

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Comments (2)
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1. 13-04-2007 10:49
Thank you
Dear Dr. Polya, 
 
I am a lebanese girl, and i happened to pass by this page, i was really touched by what you wrote here,i just wanted to say that i, as well as all Lebanese, appreciate your concern about our country and our beloved Qana, Qana destroyed again by the israeli war this June. More than a thousand child was killed, the village which embraced Christ\'s first miracle has also witnessed the ugliest of massacres.. the world ignores it again...i will make sure many lebanese know about your efforts.. and you are welcome anytime you want to visit Lebanon.. you will have many homes here :grin  
 
Truly yours 
Hadil Abu Khozam :)
hadil.akhozam@gmail.comNOSPAM! ">Hadil Abu Khozam
2. 17-05-2007 09:20
Thank you
Dr Polya thank you, and thanks to all those wishing to do things for good. 
We too, are constantly baffled as to how, a nation which 70 years after the fact, still reminds us constantly about one of the most terrible chapters in human history, can openly engage in bombing innocent children and women, on beaches, in the street, in their own homes, on a daily basis and without any legality, and yet many world leaders and their sponsors choose to ignore the plight of 6.5 millions of forcibly displaced palestinians (for 60 years), hundreds of thousands dead, the illegal use of chemical weapons on innocents in Lebanon, etc. Every effort to promote peace, and the ceasing of shedding of blood on all sides, should be applauded.
twilliams@yahoo.comNOSPAM! ">terence williams

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