112
bovines and sheep, all boarding the HMS Harebell for the journey by sea to Argyll,
where many of the locals were promised work in the town of Artdornish part of
the year?
3
We are accustomed to speaking of the expulsion from paradise in human terms,
most memorably in Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo’s (1403–1482) tempera and
gold on canvas of the “Creation and Expulsion from Paradise” that once was the
predella, or base of the altarpiece in the church of San Domenico of Siena and
painted in 1445.
4
Or in the deeply evocative illustrations of Milton’s Paradise Lost,
particularly the final Book XII, by John Martin, and later Gustave Doré (Milton’s
original edition being published in the Autumn of 1667). Line 645 of Book XII is
most telling: “Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon.”
5
But as for the
sheep, we search back beyond the van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece, to the night
of the exodus from Egypt by the Israelites, during which the Paschal Lamb
6
was
sacrificed. No more wrenching image of this than in the painting, “Agnus Dei—The
Lamb of God,” by Francisco de Zubarán, c.1635–1640. “Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world,” John the Baptist exclaims.
7
We humans get
over it. The Lamb never does.
12.2 The Ghent Paradox
The city of Flemish Ghent itself lays claim to other inherent contradictions. In the
case of one of Ghent’s other famous offspring, Leo Baekeland (1863–1944), often
described as “The Father of the Plastics Industry,”
8
his instincts regarding resins—
terpenes, one of the largest classes of organic compounds on the planet—led to his
phenol + formaldehyde experimentations, resulting in the first commercially
exploitable thermosetting network polymer, a synthetic plastic, polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride.
9
Its initial application was produced in 1908 by the Weston
Electrical Instrument Corporation for the Boonton Rubber Company and was called
Bakelite, the name Baekeland had given to the proliferation of products resulting
3 See Island on the Edge of the World – The Story of St. Kilda, by Charles Maclean, Taplinger
Publishing Co., New York, 1980, pp. 11, 108, and 142.
4 See Paradiso – The Illuminations to Dante’s Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo, by John PopeHennessy, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1993, p. 33.
5 From the Cassell & Company, Limited edition, Edited, With Notes And A Life Of Milton by
Robert Vaughan, London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1890, p. 329.
6 Exodus 12.1-4.
7 John 1:29 – See Preacher’s Institute, “About the Paschal Lamb,” by Fr. John A. Peck, May 7,
2013, https://preachersinstitute.com/2013/05/07/about-the-paschal-lamb/. Accessed March 1,
2019.
8 Landmarks of the Plastics Industry. England: Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Plastics Division.
1962. pp. 13–25.
9 https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/leo-hendrik-baekeland, Accessed January 24,
2020.
12 The Paradise Paradox
bovines and sheep, all boarding the HMS Harebell for the journey by sea to Argyll,
where many of the locals were promised work in the town of Artdornish part of
the year?
3
We are accustomed to speaking of the expulsion from paradise in human terms,
most memorably in Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo’s (1403–1482) tempera and
gold on canvas of the “Creation and Expulsion from Paradise” that once was the
predella, or base of the altarpiece in the church of San Domenico of Siena and
painted in 1445.
4
Or in the deeply evocative illustrations of Milton’s Paradise Lost,
particularly the final Book XII, by John Martin, and later Gustave Doré (Milton’s
original edition being published in the Autumn of 1667). Line 645 of Book XII is
most telling: “Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon.”
5
But as for the
sheep, we search back beyond the van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece, to the night
of the exodus from Egypt by the Israelites, during which the Paschal Lamb
6
was
sacrificed. No more wrenching image of this than in the painting, “Agnus Dei—The
Lamb of God,” by Francisco de Zubarán, c.1635–1640. “Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world,” John the Baptist exclaims.
7
We humans get
over it. The Lamb never does.
12.2 The Ghent Paradox
The city of Flemish Ghent itself lays claim to other inherent contradictions. In the
case of one of Ghent’s other famous offspring, Leo Baekeland (1863–1944), often
described as “The Father of the Plastics Industry,”
8
his instincts regarding resins—
terpenes, one of the largest classes of organic compounds on the planet—led to his
phenol + formaldehyde experimentations, resulting in the first commercially
exploitable thermosetting network polymer, a synthetic plastic, polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride.
9
Its initial application was produced in 1908 by the Weston
Electrical Instrument Corporation for the Boonton Rubber Company and was called
Bakelite, the name Baekeland had given to the proliferation of products resulting
3 See Island on the Edge of the World – The Story of St. Kilda, by Charles Maclean, Taplinger
Publishing Co., New York, 1980, pp. 11, 108, and 142.
4 See Paradiso – The Illuminations to Dante’s Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo, by John PopeHennessy, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1993, p. 33.
5 From the Cassell & Company, Limited edition, Edited, With Notes And A Life Of Milton by
Robert Vaughan, London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1890, p. 329.
6 Exodus 12.1-4.
7 John 1:29 – See Preacher’s Institute, “About the Paschal Lamb,” by Fr. John A. Peck, May 7,
2013, https://preachersinstitute.com/2013/05/07/about-the-paschal-lamb/. Accessed March 1,
2019.
8 Landmarks of the Plastics Industry. England: Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Plastics Division.
1962. pp. 13–25.
9 https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/leo-hendrik-baekeland, Accessed January 24,
2020.
12 The Paradise Paradox