What Thinking Looks Like

Tired of artificial intelligence? Scott Samuelson reflects on great Baroque paintings to remind us of what natural intelligence is.

Detail of Jusepe de Ribera’s painting Touch (c. 1615), oil on canvas. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. See the full image here.

By Scott Samuelson

When we conjure up what thinking looks like, what tends to leap to mind is an a-ha lightbulb or a brow-furrowed chin scratch—or the sculpture The Thinker. While there’s something deservedly iconic about how Rodin depicts a powerful body redirecting its energies inward, I think that the most insightful depictions of thinking in the history of art are found in the work of Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), a.k.a. José de Ribera or Lo Spagnoletto (The Little Spaniard). In a time when we’re alternatively fascinated and horrified by what artificial intelligence can do, even to the point of wondering whether AIs can think or be treated like people, it’s worth asking some great Baroque paintings to remind us of what natural intelligence is.

Early in his artistic career, Ribera went to Rome and painted a series on the senses. Only four of the original five p…