HELIODOR SUNSET
SUBLIMATION ON METAL
13 x 10 INCHES
Signed and Numbered Limited Edition
$900.00
Symbol of hardness and loyalty...
According to the poet Jorge Luis Borges, Dante read in a geometry book that the cube was the strongest of polyhedra. Dante uses this as a metaphor to demonstrate that people are able to withstand the hardships of fate: "A person is a solid cube."
As we understand it today, the hardness of a diamond is due to the structure of the links between its atoms. Every atom is connected to four others in a way that yields a sound structure. This creates a layout resembling a tetrahedron or an octahedron. It is a known fact that these polyhedra are the most durable. Here is what is interesting; two cubes of tetrahedral structure combine to form an octahedron; an octahedron or two tetrahedra can fit inside a cube. Therefore, Dante was not so wrong, and his metaphor does work!
Of course, the beauty of a diamond is obvious, and to say that it pleases the eye is to make a needless statement. Only a diamond possesses the ability to emit light and send rays from sky blue to flame red in colour. The diamond shines with mysterious rays, and its reflection in water is shown in the artist's painting.
The mystifying light of stars instilled in the imagination of ancient peoples the thought that the sky is a huge crystal sphere with diamonds attached all over it, completing one revolution every 24 hours.
It is interesting that the ancients thought diamonds to be alive. Even the mighty thinker Plato stood by this notion. In various scientific writings, the birth, growth, ageing, death, and even reproduction of diamonds have been documented!
