O Afflicted One...

Mariano Akerman, Jerusalem, 1992

O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
Isaiah 54:11

David Roberts, Jerusalem, 1839
Rembrandt, The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1655
The Western Wall and tho Mosque of Omar, photograph, 1978
Boris Shatz, The Ark of Covenant, 1924
Shmuel Katz, Jerusalem and its Walls, 1975
King David, Gaza Synagogue mosaic, 550 CE
Seal of Ma'adana, 7th century BCE
Luca Giordano, Solomon's Dream, 1693-4
Fergusson, Solomon's Temple, conjectural reconstruction
Temple Implements, Perpignan Bible, 1299
Nicolas Poussin, Judgement of Solomon, 1648
Raphael, The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, Vatican fresco, 1511-12
Ark of the Law and Ritual Objects, Beth Alpha Synagogue mosaic, 550 CE
Silver Hanukkah lamp, Central Europe, 1830
Avi Yonah, Model of Herod's Temple, c. 1970s
After Michelangelo, The Purification of the Temple, 16th century
Simone Martini, The Bearing of the Cross, 14th century
El Greco, The Crucifixion, 16th century
Raphael, The Resurrection, 1501-2
Jerusalem, Santa Maria Maggiore mosaic, Rome, 450
Andrea del Sarto, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1528
The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, photographs
Anonymous, Sacrifice of Isaac, Egyptian mural
The Ark of the Law, Roman glass, 4th century
Ecclesia et Synagoga, Liebfrauenkirche sculptures, Trier, 1250
Jean-Leon Gerome, The Wailing Wall, 1870
Anna Ticho, Judaean Desert, 1970
Rafi Peled, Lions' Parade, Jerusalem, 2002
R.B. Kitaj, Arabs & Jews (Jerusalem), 1985
Dead Sea Manuscripts: The Great Isaiah Scroll, Qumran, 125 BCE
Marc Chagall, Peace, mosaic detail
Mariano Akerman, Jerusalem, 1992

The Foundation Stone, also known as "Navel of the World"
Hebrew, English, German, Russian, Farsi, Turkish, Indonesian

Reference

Solomon 1 2
The Dream of Solomon at Gibeon, by Luca Giordano, 1693. The painting is a depiction of the passage from the Bible, I Kings 3:5-15, in which God appeared to the young king. In the dream God asks Solomon what gift he wanted and Solomon responded that he wanted understanding so that he could properly judge the people. The Neapolitan Giordano produced this painting in Spain when he was about fifty-nine years old. He had just entered the service of the Spanish king. He became wealthy in that service and returned to Naples in 1702 where he died three years later. The painting is 361 cm wide and 245 cm high and is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Raphael, The Judgement of Solomon, 1510-11. Fresco, 120 x 105 cm. Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Structures of Consciousness

Richard Nickel, Ornament, 2008

THE ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE
Oscar Maisonave's Differentiation

1. Structural


Le Corbusier, Ville Savoie, Poissy, France, 1928-31

2. Decorative


Colisseum, Flavian Amphitheater, Rome, 78-80 EC

3. Ornamental


Johann Esaias Nilson, Neues Caffehaus, Augsburg, 1756


THE ELEMENTS OF COMPOSITION
According to Alfonso Corona-Martinez & Liber Vigo

1. Tradition: Beaux-Arts Approach


Latrobe, Bulfinch y Walter, Capitolium, Washington, D.C., 1800-60

2. Innovation: Modern Approach


Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1950

SEMIOTICS
by Mariano Akerman


Charles Moore, Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans, 1975-79


And silence is made, European beer advertisment, c.2006


Jeffrey Gusky, Of Life and Loss, photograph, Dzialoszyce, Poland, 1996


Marko Mäetamm, Bleeding House #2, oil on canvas, 2004

Resources
Tradition and Innovation
Visual Communication

Sephirot

In Kabbalah, the Sephirot are the ten attributes or emanations through which God created the world and/or manifests.

The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim (עץ החיים) in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to God and the manner in which he created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. The Kabbalists developed this concept into a full model of reality, using the tree to depict a map of Creation. The Tree of Life presents ten sephirot. It may correspond to the Tree of Life mentioned in Genesis 2:9.


Portae Lucis: The Wise Man holding the Tree of Life, engraving, Augsburg 1516

Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla (1248–1305) (Hebrew: יוסף בן אברהם ג'יקטיליה‎, Spanish: Chiquitilla, "The Little One") was a Spanish kabbalist, student of Abraham Abulafia. Born at Medinaceli, Old Castile, Gikatilla was for some time a pupil of the kabbalist Abraham Abulafia, by whom he is highly praised; his kabbalistic knowledge became so profound that he was supposed to be able to work miracles, and on this account was called "Joseph Ba'al ha-Nissim" (the Thaumaturge or literally Master of Miracles; Zacuto, Yuḥasin, p. 224a). Like his master, Gikatilla occupied himself with mystic combinations and transpositions of letters and numbers; indeed, Abulafia considered him as the continuator of his school (Adolf Jellinek, B.H. iii, p. xl). But Gikatilla was not an adversary of philosophy; on the contrary, he tried to reconcile philosophy with kabbalah, declaring that the latter is the foundation of the former. He, however, strove after the higher science, that is, mysticism. His works in general represent a progressive development of philosophical insight into mysticism. His first work shows that he had considerable knowledge of secular sciences, and that he was familiar with the works of Ibn Gabirol, Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, and others. He died at Peñafiel after 1305.

See also:
Kabbalah
Tree of Life
Klippot