Museum of Art | San Diego Review

Located at 1450 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92102
Why do we go to art museums? What are we trying to discover or find?
Are we looking within ourselves
for a connection to religious beliefs
or perhaps a way to look into the past and experience
the social setting of times and eras that have gone by?
It could be solely for the appreciation of viewing art and the benefit of the cool air conditioning on a hot summer's day.
Much of the subject matter in the San Diego Museum of Art
is focused on people,
whether known to many like the Madonna and Child,
or unknown but very relatable like this young girl shielding a candle flame flickering in an open field. What does the flame symbolize and what or who is she remembering?
The figures we see can represent ordinary people doing ordinary things like this woman reading,
or members of aristocracy posing for a portrait even during the most trying of times. This one is of Henrietta Maria who was the Queen of England until her husband King Charles the First was tried and executed for treason in 1649.
Paintings like these capture a person or an event in a single moment of time.
We don't see what occurred before and we can only guess what will happen after.
When we put each of these individual moments together, only then do we get a span of time.
And time is what is known to the land and trees depicted in these landscapes. You can almost sense the power from the water's waves and the clouds moving effortlessly in the wind.
Have you ever stopped to think how the span of each of our lives may appear to the mountains or trees?
Mountain ranges have been on Earth for billions of years. Some trees,
like the Great Basin bristlecone pine, this one appropriately named Methuselah, have lived on this planet for over 4,800 years. Natural features that have existed for so long
would see our lives flourish and wither like so many snowflakes in the countless winters and summers witnessed by them over the millennia.
If we draw out the existence of life even further, our Earth seems to be the only planet with life. The whole of humanity ponders whether or not life exists outside of our planet.
In fact, a search online results in only a chance or evidence of life, but no direct confirmation.
Some people are convinced Earth is unique and is the sole proprietor of life in the entirety of the universe.
For those of us who believe in the possibility of other life, however minute, contact with an otherworldly civilization depends
upon a grading
ramp called the Kardashev Scale. This scale, developed in 1964 by astronomer Nikolai Kardashev,
essentially describes the technological advancement of a society through its energy consumption
and subsequently the likelihood of that civilization to make contact with others external to their planet, if they exist.
On the Kardashev Scale, a Type I civilization can harness all the energy generated by its planet, to the point where they can even control weather and natural events like earthquakes or hurricanes.
A Type II civilization has the technology to utilize all the power created from their sun. The little dot seen here is Mercury, one third the size of Earth, passing in front of our Sun in the background. A Dyson Sphere would hypothetically enclose our Sun in a sphere of solar panels to collect its energy, however, looking at the size of the Sun in the relation to the size of Mercury or Earth, it would be a formidable task to say the least.
A Type III civilization has the knowledge to capture all energy from their galaxy. Our Milky Way Galaxy has an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars. Imagine setting up a Dyson Sphere for our Sun, then replicating it across the Milky Way 100 billion times, once for each star in the sky. Even if we could construct one a year it would take us far longer than the age of the universe, determined by astronomers to be only 13.7 billion years old.
There have been additional Type classifications added to the Kardashev Scale. Our human civilization on Earth is currently rated below the lowest level right around Type 0.72.
This means it will be a long way off before we populate our solar system and an even longer duration before contacting any alien lifeforms, if they exist.
What drives us to explore is the belief that something exists past what we can see and touch.
In a similar manner, European art from the Medieval, Rennaisance, and Baroque eras
inspired observers to appreciate the parts of their religion which were less tangible and more spiritual.
Here is a painting of Saint Jerome. He points to the trumpet, referencing the Last Judgement. In the background is a lion, which had entered the monastery causing the other monks to flee, but Saint Jerome saw it had a thorn in its paw.
He extracted the thorn, befriending the lion while demonstrating the power of kindness. The lion is almost always present in depictions of Saint Jerome.
There are paintings of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Family of the Virgin Mary, Saint