“See Mary’s robe? You can see in the draped fabric the folds where it has been stored in a chest.
That shows she brought out her finest robe to meet the Magi. Isn’t that interesting?”
“And she’s wearing the traditional red and blue. Painters crushed *lapis lazuli to make that blue. In the Renaissance, blue stood for heaven and red for the blood that Christ would shed.”
“But do you like it?”
She shrugged and smiled at the same time. “I like it because I know things about it. That’s why I’m telling you, so you’ll like it too.”
The painting is “The adoration of the Maji by Gentile da Fabriano.
Life Studies by Susan Vreeland p. 192
*Lapis lazuli: a deep blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BCE, lapis lazuli was mined.
The words “I like it because I know things about it” touches a deep cord within me. I have believed since a teenager that “Love is the beginning of knoweldge.” And lately I’ve come to believe that “knowledge is the beginning of love” as well. Either way you look at it, you can’t truly love something or someone without knowing them and the more you know them or a subject the more you will love it because you will understand it.
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