First of all, allow me to make a brief review of the artist of this magnificent engraving, The great column, and which has been none other than Albrecht Dürer.
The present artistic work is in direct relation to one of the five senses of our organic machine. First we see in it a beautiful lady who carries in her right hand the horn of the goddess Amalthea, which means material or spiritual abundance.
In the main scene we can see a lady reclining on the tree of life ─the BEING─ and pointing with her right hand to a spider’s web, while with her left she holds a bird. This lady is sitting on a rock representative of the stone of stumbling and rock of scandal ─sexuality─ as Saint Paul so well described it.
The sense of smell [Olfaction], dear friends, also has a profound significance in the mysteries. In addition to allowing us to grasp the smells of Mother Nature, it would moreover allow us to perceive other fragrances that correspond to the superior worlds, once we have been properly educated.
With immense pleasure I send you one of the five engravings that I am sending you gradually and that are related to the five senses that our organic machine possesses.
To enter into the subject matter, I have to tell you that on this occasion the artist wanted to refer to the auditory faculty, once again indicated as a human quality and therefore represented in the form of a beautiful woman.
To study this magnificent engraving, first of all we have to say that it was created between the years 1575-1618 and is found in the Rijksmuseum, located in the city of Amsterdam ─Holland─.
Esteemed readers, I show you here two images: a 16th century drawing by Francesco de Rossi ─Italian painter, 1510-1563─, in which Phanes appears as a hermaphrodite deity, as described by ancient Roman texts, and a Roman high relief.
Certainly, companions, our life is comparable to the hours of the day: at dawn we could say that we are in our childhood, when we are at midday ─zenith─ we could say that we have reached youth, when the afternoon begins we can compare that phenomenon with adulthood, our maturity, and when the night arrives we enter our old age.
This engraving was made by an artist named Hieronymus Wierix, who lived in Antwerp ─Belgium. The harshest reality tells us that our life is a pilgrimage that begins precisely in our childhood…
