Valente Academy LawArt 2018_03-04_A Flicker of Hope

Valente Academy INTANGIBLE TURNING TANGIBLE Valente Associati GEB Partners is a leading firm providing legal, tax, and strategic management consulting services. (www.gebpartners.it) A FLICKER OF HOPE 2018 Some of the most meaningful works of art have been occasionally created by the minds of ingenious, albeit anonymous artists or craftsmen. This is surely the case of a jar with a bronze lid, crafted by an anonymous artisan, or perhaps an artist, who was surely a dreamer with a fanciful imagination. Such artisan was inspired to transform a simple brick – salvaged from the wrecks of the House of Commons – into a jar with a bronze lid. The seal adorning one of the sides of the jar represents Saint George, Patron Saint of England, as a symbol of special protection, hope and ultimate victory over the “big bad dragon”. While Westminster Hall was rescued from the blaze – in view of its historical meaning – the House of Commons did not fare as well. The artisan being unknown, we are left with the stimulating task of guessing, or of drawing our own conclusions as to the true motivations that left us with this small, but effective, symbol of hopefulness (or at least, this is one of the many likely or subjective interpretations):  life goes on, even under the form of a humble brick, which destiny was to be transformed by human events into an ornament for a mantlepiece, a small and perhaps, even seemingly superfluous object; and yet, this object is an incisive reminder that life goes on, must always be respected and that, notwithstanding man’s folly, it always has the last word. This particular jar represents in its simple lines how creativity, originality and ingenuity may create something out of a mere “nothing”. Copyright © Valente Academy