Talk:Portrait (He Knew)

Opinion: lyrics strongly point to this song being about Galileo, not Einstein.
The Album cover sets the stage for understanding the meaning of the song Portrait (He Knew). It shows a ship sailing off the mythical edge of the Earth. Portrait (He Knew), addresses a similar myth. It speaks of Galileo's struggles as he debated with his church to accept new scientific evidence and reasoning that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around.

The title of the song is Portrait (He Knew). Shortly after Galileo's death, Bartolome' Morillo painted a portrait of Galileo in a cell-like setting where Galileo was essentially coerced into agreeing to not tell the world of his opinion or knowledge that the Earth moved. This portrait shows what Galileo knew, but in a sort of parenthetical or subtle way. It shows Galileo's hand gesturing to the famous words "Eppur si muove" or "And yet it moves". The legendary phrase had been obscured by the frame, adding to a sense of mystery and discovery.

One of the reasons that Galileo was on the forefront of breaking the news that the Earth revolved around the Sun is because he was one of the first to use a telescope, and is credited for making the telescope. In this sense he was quite literally a "true visionary man" as the lyrics state. With the telescope, he made observations of four moons revolving around Jupiter which was new and strong evidence that not everything revolved around the Earth. He made drawings of that system and became known as the father of modern science. This appears in the lyrics that state "But he knew, you could tell by the picture he drew, It was totally something new"

Galileo was religious and was coerced by many leaders of his church into hushing his words. Galileo was concerned about the welfare of his soul in the afterlife which explains the repeated concern in the lyrics about "where was he going to". Galileo was allowed to debate with the church because he was well respected. The song contains a quoted lyric that goes "'His numbers are not the way'". This is potentially a play on words regarding the debates. The church may have said that Galileo's mathematical numbers are not the way, while Galileo could have responded equally with those same words, but meaning that "His Numbers" (the 4th book of the Bible) are not the way. Galileo is credited for making a similar play on words by saying "The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go."

The song makes a momentary shift from past tense to present tense when it says "He's lost in the deepest enigma". At the time of the song's writing, how was Galileo lost? Well, a museum had one of the three fingers that were cut from Galileo's hand after death, but two of the fingers had been lost without a trace around 1905. The verb tense and mystery of the body parts makes a potential match for the lyrics. The two missing fingers and tooth were rediscovered after the song was written.

There are other references in the lyrics that may refer to Galileo's experiments with gravity using inclined planes, Galileo's loss of vision, and possibly a nod to his contemporary Kepler who was bright as a star (a play on words that the supernova at that time was named after Kepler).

PlanetObserver