When Katherine Solomon visits Dr. Christopher Abaddon in his office, she is treated to tea, a Solomon family tradition that hints at familial ties, the relationship of Abaddon to the Solomons. She stops to admire an original Michael Parkes oil painting, The Three Graces, noteworthy for the “nude bodies … spectacularly rendered in vivid colors” (93). The painting reappears again on several occasions and serves to conceal a secret doorway into the maniacal doctor’s dungeon of torture.
The oil-on-canvas painting measures one meter by 1.3 meters, and was painted in 2004. Parkes is an American artist born in 1944 and described as a “magical realist painter.” He has in fact commented on his own work:
The Three Graces in Renaissance times were known as the hand maidens of the goddess, Venus. They were normally representing beauty, chastity, and pleasure because Venus was known as the goddess of love. This love is of an earthly or physical love. However, in earlier Platonic times, the Greeks had a more esoteric interpretation of that love that Venus embodied. They believed she was representing the highest form of spiritual love.
The Three Graces, painting by Michael Parkes (2004)
Therefore the Three Graces were not handmaidens to a Venus of earthly sensuality or love but they were stepping stones for the descent of the highest energies descending through the embodiment of Venus to the earth plane. They are Silence, Harmony, and Order.
The subject has been popular in Western art, including a very famous painting of the same name by Raphael. In one more curious coincidence, there is a gallery called “The Three Graces” in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Brown’s home state. But Kim Ferreira, herself an artist who opened the gallery in 2004, has no recollection of a visit by Dan Brown. Raphael was her, and perhaps Brown’s, inspiration, and she has assembled an impressive collection documenting the art history of The Three Graces with reproductions, noted below. In part she highlights the aspect of “a trinity, physical and intellectual representations of charm, beauty and joy and a symbol of compassion and benevolence.” There are three surviving members of the Solomon family, Peter, Katherine, and Zachary. Peter might be considered charming and Katherine beautiful, and Zachary thinks he is creative, but as Mal’akh or Abaddon, he is hardly benevolent.
The magic of words to describe these paintings fails to capture the eye’s delight at the brilliant colors of Brumidi’s Apotheosis or Parkes’ The Three Graces. An illustrated version of The Lost Symbol is surely on the way. As for The Three Graces itself, I suspect it will not only call to mind pleasant associations, but also reveal secrets to the text on closer examination.
THE THREE GRACES
www.theworldofmichaelparkes.com/html/Detail.asp?WorkI nvNum=9336&whatpage=artistfull
THE WORLD OF MICHAEL PARKES
www.theworldofmichaelparkes.com/html/home.asp
THE THREE GRACES A HISTORY BY KIM FERREIRA
www.threegracesgallery.com/graces.html
VIDEO OF MICHAEL PARKES ON HIS VENUS PAINTING
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEc-8J7O0o4
