The power of King Solomon's wisdom has been inherited through time, we have heard the story of the two mothers, a dramatic core of the biblical history (1 Kings 3).

Two women lived in the same house and both gave birth three days apart. One night, one of the babies died because his mother accidentally crushed him while she slept. In the midst of desperation, she exchanged the bodies, she placed her dead son in the other woman's arms and took the living child.

When the second mother woke up and saw the dead baby, she realized by his features that he was not hers. Since there were no witnesses in the house, both ended up before King Solomon, each claiming that the living baby was her son.

Faced with the impossibility of knowing who was lying, Solomon asked for a sword and ordered: "Divide the living child in two and give half to each".

The false mother accepted, saying: "Neither for me nor for you, let him be divided". The true mother, terrified, pleaded: "No, my lord! Give her the living child, but do not kill him".

Upon seeing this reaction, Solomon knew immediately who the real mother was, for only she was willing to renounce her right of possession in order to preserve the life of her son.

At first glance, we would be facing a biblical allegory of natural justice, suggesting that true political wisdom resides in the ability to discern the truth through the knowledge of human nature... In depth, the work proposes a truth about human nature, assuming that it is legible through the passions in the face of a crisis, forcing the psyche to strip itself bare.

Thus, this narrative transcends the legal to reveal a spiritual ethic about our human nature. The idea of a divine truth inhabiting the sacrifice of the ego, by reminding us that the spirit only reaches its maximum nobility when it is capable of letting go of that which it loves most to allow life and light to prevail over the shadow of attachment…

SPIRITVS SAPIENTIÆ (Spirit of Wisdom)

Engraving by Adrian Collaert after Jan van der Straet, 1567/1605