Flynn-Burhoe, Maureen. 2007. "Spinoza in a Century of Genuis: our Distant Relatives." Creative Commons License 2.5. From Rembrandt to Spinoza, the Golden Age of the Netherlands casts its long shadow into the 21st century. Candle light flickered and the sand in the timer flowed silently but he barely noticed, he was so engrossed in his reading. With his left hand he held unto the globe4 while all around him in the darkness others slept deeply. The work of these candle-light-scientists continues to be honoured today. Indeed their century, the 17th centuryis now recognised as one that was crowded with genius2.  Damasio chose a reproductionof this painting by Dutch artist Gerrit Dou3entitled Astronomer by Candlelight (c.1665) for the cover of his splendid,insightful book1 (2003)entitled Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain in which he combines his own research as head of neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center with the writings of Spinoza, a contemporary of Rembrandt. In Chapter 6, "A Visit to Spinoza," Damasio revisited the historical period which he calls a century of genius in which Spinoza's life unfolded. He noted that it was in the Netherlands in the 17th century that the makings of contemporary justice through such enlightened minds as that of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) who introduced modern concepts of international law (1625). It was also during this period that modern capitalism emerged in the Netherlands (2003:231). While he lived in the most tolerant country of the 17th century Spinoza's iconoclastic ideas regarding truth claims and legitimization of truth were too radical even for Holland. Spinoza was born into a prosperous family of Sephardic Jewish merchants who had fled Portugal during the Inquisition shortly before Spinoza was born. Their acquired wealth from trade in sugar, spices, dried fruit and Brazilian wood was Spinoza's inheritance. But he valued his intellectual independence more than money and learned to live frugally even refusing professorial positions so as not to have his time or thinking compromised. He never owned his own home preferring to occupy only a bedroom and study. In that bedroom was the one object upon which Spinoza fixated. This was the four-poster, canopied and curtained bed where he was conceived, birthed and in which he finally died. It is called a ledikant and contrasted sharply with the armoire or cupboard bed that was more common in Amsterdam homes of the 17th century (to be continued p.229). Other than that he only needed paper, ink, glass, tobacco and money for room and board. He reminds me in some ways of our contemporary Russian mathematician Perelman who learned to live on $100 a month to devote himself solely to the elevated apolitical study of pure mathematics.

Damasio chose a reproduction of this painting by Dutch artist and Rembrandt (1606–1669) student from 1627 to 1628, Gerrit Dou⁴ (1613 - 1675) entitled Astronomer by Candlelight (c.1665) for the cover of his splendid, insightful book in which he combines his own research as head of neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center with the writings of Spinoza, a contemporary of Rembrandt.

In Chapter 6, "A Visit to Spinoza," Damasio revisited the historical period which he calls a century of genius⁵ in which Spinoza's life unfolded. He noted that it was in the Netherlands in the 17th century that the makings of contemporary justice through such enlightened minds as that of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) who introduced modern concepts of international law (1625). It was also during this period that modern capitalism emerged in the Netherlands (2003:231).

Damasio used Dr. Tulp in reference to the mind-body problem.

On the face of it, Rembrandt's painting celebrates Dr. Tulp's fame as a physician and scientist on the occasion of a particular anatomy lesson in January 1632. The Guild of Surgeons wished to honour Dr. Tulp with a painting and no better theme could be found than a theatrical anatomical dissection, a public and paid event that attracted the curiosity of the educated and the wealthy. But the painting also celebrates a new era in the study of the body and its functions, chronicled in the writings of William Harvey and Descartes, who is presumed to have been in the audience on that day. Harvey's discoveries on the circulation of the blood are of the same vintage, the post-Vesalius era of fine scalpels, lenses and microscopes that could dissect and amplify the fine physical structure of the human body. The work announced the Dutch interest in studying and depicting nature --- all the way into the human body, underneath its skin --- and was a good emblem of the rise of science that marked the age.

Perhaps more importantly, Rembrandt's painting also reminds us of the puzzlement that the new anatomical discoveries produced in the discoverers. Dr. Tulp's right hand holds the tendons with which the cadaver's left hand once flexed its fingers, while Dr. Tulp's own left hand demonstrates the motion those tendons would accomplish. The mystery behind the action is revealed for all to see. It is not a hydraulic or pneumatic pump device, although it might have been, of course, and therein lies the beauty of the movement caught on canvas: The movement of a hand is achieved by muscular contraction and by the related pulling of tendons attached to the bony parts, rather than in some other way. Dr. Tulp verifies what is and separates what is from what might be. Conjecture gives way to fact. The spectacle of a mystery revealed, however, is disquieting for some, and that is the least we can read into Dr. Tulp's look. Dr. Tulp does not face the viewer, nor does he look at what he is doing, nor does he glance at his colleagues. He stares leftward into a distance beyond the confines of the frame and, if historian Simon Schama is correct, beyond the confines of the room. Schama suggests that Dr. Tulp is looking at the Creator Himself. The interpretation accords well with the fact that Tulp was a devout Calvinist and with these verses written by Caspar Barleus a few years later after the painting gained renown: "Listener, learn yourself and while you proceed through the parts, believe that, even in the smallest, God lies hid."²⁷ I see Barleus's words as a response to the unease of the discovery, the unease that would have been produced by the inevitable, subsequent thought: If we can explain this about nature, what can we not explain? Why can we not explain everything else that happens in the body, including perhaps, the mind? Will we be able to discover how one's thoughts can will a hand to move. Afraid of his own thoughts, Barleus wished to calm the public, or the deity or both, by saying that, although they are trespassing backstage and discovering how the tricks are done, by no means are they less reverent for the work of the Creator. The intended meaning of Dr. Tulp's facial expression is impossible to decipher, of course, and sometimes when I stand in front of the picture I think that he is simply telling the viewer: "Look what I have done!" Whatever the precise meaning, Rembrandt or Tulp, perhaps both, wanted us to know that no one took in stride what was happening in the Theatrum Anatomicum. ²⁸

Barleus's pious reassurance was indeed necessary as an antidote against what Descartes probably was thinking on those days regarding mind and body, and especially so against what Spinoza would be thinking and writing on this issue within the next two decades. And it is fascinating to realize ---- showing once again how words can fail lie --- that if you would take Barleus's admonition out of context and offer it to Spinoza's, the meaning would be entirely different. Looking at Rembrandt's masterpiece, Spinoza could perfectly well have said, that his God was in every inch and every motion of the dissected body, yet he would have signified something else (Damasio 2003:217-220).

To be continued . . .

Please note that permission for use of this image on this blog under the Creative Commons is pending.

Appendix

¹I would like to have this review in Amapedia, another pioneering moment on Web 2.0 brought to me through ReadWriteWeb but I am not an Amazon member since I have not purchased online so I am excluded.

²Among the renowned Dutch artists, scientists and merchants who were part of the Golden Age in Holland were the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), Nicolaes Tulp (1593-1674) Doctor, Magistrate, and Mayor of Amsterdam, wrote a book on diseases and human & animal anatomy,Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) laid the foundations for international law, René Descartes French philosopher lived in Leiden from 1628 till 1649 and Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), a famous mathematician, physicist and astronomer. See wikipedia.

 

³Damasio chose a reproduction of this painting by Dutch artist and Rembrandt (1606–1669) student from 1627 to 1628, Gerrit Dou (1613 - 1675) entitled Astronomer by Candlelight (c.1665) for the cover of his splendid, insightful book in which he combines his own research as head of neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center with the writings of Spinoza, a contemporary of Rembrandt.

⁴The globe depicted in Dou's painting is probably similar to the one depicted by other 17th century Dutch artists, such as Vermeer. The celestial and terrestrial globes depicted in Vermeer's The Astronomer (1668) and The Geographer (1669) were sold as a pair by the Hondius family of cartographers. The open book in Vermeer's The Astronomer (1668) has been identified as being Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae (Blankert et al. 1988:187). 

⁵Among the renowned Dutch artists, scientists and merchants who were part of the Golden Age in Holland were the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), Nicolaes Tulp (1593-1674) Doctor, Magistrate, and Mayor of Amsterdam, wrote a book on diseases and human & animal anatomy, Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) laid the foundations for international law, René Descartes French philosopher lived in Leiden from 1628 till 1649 and Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), a famous mathematician, physicist and astronomer. See wikipedia.List of those labeled as a 17th century genius:

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) laid the foundations for international law. Publications mentioned 1604, 1605, 1632.
Nicolaes Tulp (1593-1674) Doctor, Magistrate, and Mayor of Amsterdam, wrote a book on diseases and human & animal anatomy.

Rembrandt (1606–1669)

Gerrit Dou (1613 - 1675)

Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677),

René Descartes French philosopher lived in Leiden from 1628 till 1649

Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), a famous mathematician, physicist and astronomer

Selected bibliography and webliography

Blankert, Albert, Montias, John Michael, Aillard, Gilles. 1988. Vermeer. New York: Rizzoli. p. 187. 

Damasio, Antonio. 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harcourt.

Flynn-Burhoe. 2007. Review of Damasio, Antonio. 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harcourt.

Flynn-Burhoe, Maureen. 2007. A Social History Timeline Related to Damasio's Looking for Spinoza (2003).

Grotius, Hugo. 1604-5. 1950. De Jure Praedae (Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty) Original Publishing: 1868 (actually written in the end of 1604 and the beginning of 1605); English Translation: Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.

Grotius, Hugo. 1623 [1971] True Religion Explained and Defended against the Archenemies Thereof in the Times (The Truth of the Christian Religion) Original Publishing: 1632; English Translation: New York: DaCapo, 1971.

Grotius, Hugo. 1625. [1975] Prolegomena to the Law of War and Peace. Original publishing: 1625 English Translation: Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril, 1975.

Uzgalis, Bill. 1997-2003. "Hugo Grotius". in "Great Voyages: the History of Western Philosophy from 1492-1776". wuzgalis@orst.edu. Oregon.

Grotius, Hugo. 1625. [1853] De Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) Original Publishing: 1625; English Translation: Cambridge: John W. Parker, 1853.

Hondius, Jodocus. 1600. Celestial and Terrestrial Globes.

Metius, Adriaen. 1621. Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. Second edition. Amsterdam.

Rembrandt. 1632. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. The Hague:Mauritshuis .

Vermeer. 1668. The Astronomer. Reproduced in Albert et al (1988: Plate 24).

Vermeer. 1669. The Geographer. Reproduced in Albert et al (1988: Plate 25). 

Review of Damasio, Antonio. 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harcourt.