TY - JOUR T1 - From the Museum: the Art of Thinking. Part Five: Seeing JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 64 LP - 65 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00440114 VL - 44 IS - 1 AU - Tom Kotsimbos Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/1/64.abstract N2 - Ulysses deriding Polyphemus is an experiential painting that brilliantly illuminates the canvas using multiple focal points to simultaneously disperse original darkness and shine light on a deeper, multi-layered narrative. As the pioneering “painter of light”, Turner manages to both shine a reverent light on the old masters and provide a complete break from the past. His fundamental insight into the operations of light and colour as registers of cosmic meaning in combination with a scientifically enlightened and inquiring mind, superb technical skill and uncompromising sophistication with poetic leanings allowed him to interweave “many pictures within one picture”. The classical account of Ulysses escaping the Cyclops is therefore embellished with specific natural observations and symbolic connotations. Different sources of illumination are examined and details are infused with chromatic intensity: from the subterranean glow of volcanic fires breaking up the darkness on the far left, to the chemical light of surface phosphorescence allowing bow-wave frolicking Nereids to be visible at night (science rationalising the supernatural), to the all-encompassing celestial light of the rising sun on the right (Apollo and his horse-drawn chariot). ER -