Geoffrey wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 6:33 pm
its4inthemorning wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 3:05 pm
I lack the historical knowledge to speculate, but I wonder whose visage might have been on the last Jikan that bloomed before the one Geoffrey drew.
just come home. thank you for writing!
people who lack sufficient knowledge to speculate are probably those who give the world the most original thoughts. if a person has nothing upon which to build an opinion, their thoughts and ideas can be like sunken galleons hiding treasure. you pose an interesting question with your wondering, one that i had not considered, and one that is hard to answer. i don't think one should allow a lack of historical knowledge to suffocate speculation. instead perhaps it should be embraced, for who knows what might then transpire? something certainly can come from nothing, for otherwise we would not exist.
for the record, there is often very little thought put into these sketches. the modus operandi is to make a picture as quickly as possible with noisy energetic songs filling the room. this makes it difficult to focus upon anything but the music, and thus prevents a picture from becoming too perfect - definitely something to avoid!
-g
OK Geoffrey, casting my lack of historical knowledge aside, I will speculate on whose face would be on the last "Jikan" to bloom before Leonard's. Relying on Messrs. Google and Wikipedia (not always a wise thing to do, but I think reasonable in this case), I looked for people who made their marks about 500 years before Leonard did. I concentrated on individuals who achieved some prominence in the arts--ideally poetry and/or music, and who seemed to be thoughtful, wise, and well-respected in their times. I came up with these three names: Annamacharya, Leon Battista Alberti, and Nezahualcoyotl.
Annamacharya (1408-1503) was born and lived in India. He was the earliest known musician to compose songs called samkirtanas, which were poems/songs in praise of Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu. Evidently his approach to composing was more streamlined than was Leonard's, for it is said that he composed as many as 32,000 samkirtans. Perhaps the record companies back then were less-demanding. His poems/songs were mostly either spiritual or romantic. In the spiritual ones "he praises the deity, describes his love for him, argues and quarrels with the deity, confesses the devotee's failures and apprehensions, and surrenders himself to Venkateswara." This sounds a bit Cohenesque, at least to me.
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was born in Genoa and lived his life in various Italian cities of note including Florence and Rome. Based on the Wikipedia description, Alberti was what we would today call well-rounded: "Alberti was an Italian Renaissance humanist, author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer." I mean, really, all the other avocations weren't enough, he had to dabble in cryptography as well? Alberti is best-known for his architectural endeavors, and many of his works survive today including: Acqua Vergine the ancient aquaduct that feeds the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, which was restored by Alberti under a commission by Pope Nicholas V; and most of the Santa Maria Novella in Florence just east of the train station (an area with countless little restaurants, each one better than the last).
Nezahualcoyotl (1402-1472) was born and lived in the city-state Texcoco on pre-Columbian Mexico. His father, the monarch of Texcoco, was killed when Nezahualcoyotl was 15 when the city-state was conquered by the Tepanecs. By the time he was 29, Nezahualcoyotl (a) called for and created a coalition consisting of Texcoco and other important city states; (b) led part of the 100,000-man coalition army that vanquished the Tepanics; and (c) was crowned ruler of Texcoco. His poetry works were in the mostly oral Nahuatl language and the fact that they survived and were passed down in that manner until finally being transcribed by others 50-100 years later is a testament to their worth. In addition, "Nezahualcoyotl is credited with cultivating what came to be known as Texcoco's Golden Age, which brought the rule of law, scholarship, and artistry to the city and set high standards that influenced surrounding cultures."
Any of these three individuals, I think, has earned the right to have appeared on the "Jikan" that bloomed before Leonard's. Geoffrey, please feel free to draw a new "Jikan" depicting your choice.
Afterward: Despite the profound accomplishments of these three individuals and the high esteem in which they were held where and when they lived their lives, until today I had never heard of any of them. (Perhaps others more learned than I are familiar with them, but I doubt it would be many.) This leads to the sad conclusion that even the most accomplished persons of our lives and times will eventually be remembered by almost nobody. And if that is the fate of the flowers, it can be said with some certainty that all of us weeds will rather quickly disappear without a trace.
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