Latin Makes Me Free: Silverpoint at The Museum of National Art

Many say that Latin is useful for many things, but this summer on a trip to the Museum of National Art in D.C. Latin was more than useful for me. Latin is for leisure and joy. Latin is for finding joy in higher things and it is also for freedom: the freedom to self-educate.

Recently the art museum in D.C. has a glorious exhibit of drawings in metalpoint from Leonardo to Jasper Johns. The drawings by Albrecht Durer showed a great knowledge of human and animal bone structure and muscle. One room had a few portraits sketched in silverpoint by Flemish artists. One portrait of a young boy interested me because of the symbol in the top right hand corner. At first I thought it was a capital Greek letter lambda next to a number 8, but that did not make much sense at all. I was also kicking myself for not bringing my sketchbook, but I stared at the symbol for some time in order to etch it into my brain to sketch later.

Sketch of Year 8

As I moved on in the gallery, I observed another Flemish portrait of an older man in silverpoint. It had lettering in the top right corner which I immediately recognized as Latin! This time the artist wrote out the Latin word for age or year and the number 40. Of course! The boy was 8 years old and the artist used the symbol for th
e Latin dipthong: ae.

Being versed in another language (especially Latin) gives one the freedom of discovery and joy! I was so excited about my discovery that I had to tell my husband all about it. I suppose that if I had studied art in college that I would've known what the symbol meant but through my knowledge of Latin, I taught myself.

Latin Grows Green Again

If you're reading this blog, you probably love languages. Maybe you're even dabbling in Latin or picking up Wheelock's for the first time. Once you've studied Latin long enough, you can start translating the ancient greats like Cicero and Horace. I've been translating Latin for quite a number of years now, but it wasn't until recently that I started looking for the beauty in what I was translating. Perhaps now I am reading rather than translating. The drudgery of translating can sometimes become a delight, especially when you are reading a great rhetorician like Cicero.

If you are an intermediate Latin reader and interested in reading the greats with lots of grammatical notes and vocabulary in the margins, I highly recommend getting this book: Aeneas to Augustus by Hammond and Amory. Cicero is a delight to read and for the last few days I have been reading his adapted speech about the Gallic Wars: Bellum Gallicam Caesare imperatore gestum. Of course, in this speech he argues that the wars there have been vital to the stability and power of Rome and that therefore Gaius Caesar is vital for Rome. One of the last sentences in his speech struck me as poetic. I would like to also remind my reader that because word order does not matter much in Latin, word order and placement can become a poetic device. English poems have tried to mimic this sort of device but it's more difficult. Here's the beautiful passage:

Impolitae vero res et acerbae si erunt relictae, quamquam sunt accisae, tamen efferent se aliquando et ad renovandum bellum revirescent. 

Here's a rough, not so beautiful translation: Truly these are harsh and rough things if they are left, although they be cut back, nevertheless they will revive now and then and they will grow green again for war to be renewed.

The "things" that Cicero refers to are the difficult times ahead that the res publica will have to deal with in order to overcome Gaul and have peace together. Even though war is tough and ugly, Cicero deems it a necessary evil for peace and hope in his nation. A few specific words in the passage have beauty. The contrast between accisae (cut back) and efferent se (will revive). These words are near each other in the passage, but yet they are contrasts and the last word in the passage is revirescent (they will be green again). Reviresco struck me as a beautiful word the moment I read it. It's prefix re- means again or back and vir comes from the word viridis which is the color green! I also thought about other words that start with vir or vi and was astounded at the poetic nature of Latin: vir, virga, vir, virginitas, virgo, virtus, and vis. All of these words have to do with renewal and strength! Cicero got his audience to think about renewal and Caesar's worth to the Roman people. Caesar time after time (He battled the Gallic tribes for nearly 10 years before returning across the Rubicon.) renewed the spirit of defense and conquest for the Romans. Cicero was right to say that it took fidelity and virtus to wage war
against the tribes in Gaul.