Thought for the Week

Mgr Kieran Heskin

Sacred Heart Church, Ilkley

IN 1653 Rembrandt produced a thought provoking painting for a Sicilian art collector which has come to be known by many as “Aristotle Contemplates the Bust of Homer”. It was purchased in 1961 by the Metropolitan Art Gallery in New York where it is now on display. It can also be viewed on Google!

In this painting, Aristotle, the fourth century B.C. Greek philosopher and teacher, is standing in his study. His lips are pursed in thought. His right hand, the hand of favour is placed on a bust of Homer, the blind poet of the Iliad and Odyssey. Aristotle is wearing a heavy gold chain that extends over his right shoulder and under his left arm. A medallion representing Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored, hangs from the chain suggesting that it is a gift from the former pupil to his teacher. Aristotle’s left hand, the hand of disfavour, is placed on the gold chain at waist level.

The philosopher is clearly comparing the competing values of life: the spiritual, as depicted by the bust of the poet, Homer, with the material as depicted by the gold chain of the conqueror, Alexander. His right hand is raised higher than the left. His right hand is in the light, his left hand is in darkness. His head is inclined more towards the poet than the conqueror. Aristotle is thus portrayed by Rembrandt as someone who favours the spiritual over the material, as someone who opts for the values of the poet, the mystic and the philosopher over than those of the conqueror.

The message of this painting is as relevant for our age as it was for the age of Rembrandt. The world of today is still a world of competing values. The voice of the advertiser is clever and seductive: often leading people to buy things they don’t want with money they don’t have to impress people they often don’t even like! It is the task of the “Aristotles” and the “Rembrandts” of our day, the parents, the teachers and the preachers to direct us away from overly materialistic values to the ones that are of eternal consequence – the kind of values revealed in the Scriptures.