Seven Sacraments Compositions in English Medieval Art

1929 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. McN. Rushforth
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Great Tradition ◽  
Speculum Humanae Salvationis ◽  
Church Art ◽  
The Church

Émile Mâle says that medieval Christian art in its last period had lost touch with the great tradition of symbolism which had been so important in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and still largely dominated the art of the fourteenth. But there was one great symbolical idea which survived, and that was the harmony of the Old and New Testaments; and so we find among the most popular subjects of fifteenth-century Church art the concordance of the Apostles and Prophets in the Creed, and the series of parallels between the life of Jesus and episodes of Old Testament history, which were summed up and digested in the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis. The reason for the popularity of these subjects was, no doubt, their didactic value, and though Mâle does not develop this side of the subject, we may say that one, though not the only, characteristic of the religious art of the fifteenth century was that, instead of being symbolical, it became didactic. We find in this period a whole series of subjects which reduced the articles of Christian faith and practice to pictorial form, and seem to have been intended to illustrate the medieval catechism by which the teaching of the Church was imparted.

Charlemagne as a Patron of Art

1992 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 43-77
Author(s):  
Henry Mayr-Harting
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Education ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church Art ◽  
Catholic Schooling ◽  
The Church ◽  
Looking Back

The lesson that people hold radically differing views about church art is the harder to learn when one comes to it from the iconodul-istic side. Looking back on my own Roman Catholic schooling, and the place of statues and holy pictures in the religious devotions of that milieu, I realize that once sacramental awareness develops, it is not always easily confined to the matter of the theological sacraments themselves. The beheading of the statues in the Lady Chapel at Ely, which I visited at the age of eleven, seemed a shocking circumstance whose motivation was totally incomprehensible, even allowing for the fact that it was the work of Protestants, and the Old Testament, which might have brought the dawn of understanding, was, of course, no part of an ordinary Catholic education at that time. In short, the author of Charlemagne’s Libri Carolini would have found much upon which to make adverse comment in me, my fellows, and the monks who taught us. With the first artistic love of my student days, which was Romanesque sculpture, came an awareness of the voices and practice of those great medieval Protestants, the Cistercians. But only in the later encounter with Charlemagne was I forced to listen seriously to the moral and theological arguments against the unbridled use of figurai art in the service of the Church.

scholarly journals Church Murals Based on G. G. Gagarin’s Sketches and an Appeal to the «Builders of Russian Сhurches»

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-144
Author(s):  
Инесса Николаевна Слюнькова
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Teaching Artists ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Imperial Academy ◽  
Church Art ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Church

Статья посвящена русскому религиозному искусству второй половины XIX в., вопросам смены художественных формаций от классицизма к историзму и византийскому стилю. Объектом исследования становится творческое наследие вице-президента Императорской Академии художеств князя Г. Г. Гагарина. Предпринята попытка раскрыть его теоретические взгляды на иконографию евангельской темы в украшении храмов, на методы обучения художников, на будущее русского церковного искусства. Рассматриваются авторские проекты Г. Г. Гагарина по убранству и росписям храмов в византийском стиле: Сионский собор в Тбилиси, церковь Мариинского дворца в Санкт-Петербурге, церкви в имении Ореанда в Крыму и селе Сучки на Волге. Часть представленных проектов публикуется впервые. The article is devoted to Russian religious art of the second half of XIX century. It answers some questions of changing artistic formations from classicism to historicism and the Byzantine style. The object of the research is the creative heritage of the vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Prince G. G. Gagarin. An attempt was made to reveal his theoretical views on the iconography of the gospel theme in decorating churches, on the methods of teaching artists, and on the future of Russian church art. There are some G. G. Gagarin’s projects on church murals in the Byzantine style such as the Zion Cathedral in Tbilisi, the church of the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg, the churches in the Oreanda estate in the Crimea and the village of Suchki on the Volga. Some of the submitted projects are firstly published.

scholarly journals Defiling the Church: The Impact of Mmusuo in Akan Conception

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Agana-Nsiire Agana ◽  
Charles Prempeh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

Many Christian churches in parts of Ghana dominated by Akans do not allow corpses to be brought inside the church during funerals services. Others face constant and vehement objection when it is done. Cultural differences on the subject have fuelled heated disputes that have led in some cases to severe congregational division. Opposition is often sustained by a culturally biased approach to biblical texts concerning sacredness and defilement as related to Old Testament sanctuary and temple ritual. Particularly, the religious philosophy of mmusuo provides the psycho-emotive motivation from which many Akan Christians vehemently oppose the practice as sacrilegious. It also provides an analytical and rhetorical framework for appropriating various biblical passages relating to religious sacrilege. This paper unpacks this framework and proposes effectively contextualized theology as a means of avoiding such erroneous conflations and resolving the disputes that arise at the interface of African culture and Christian religion, especially in multicultural congregations.

What Happened to the Last Judgement in the Early Church?

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 20-30
Author(s):  
Josephine Laffin
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
The West ◽  
West Wall ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Common Representation ◽  
Venetian Lagoon ◽  
The Church

The Last Judgement was one of the most important themes in Christian art from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. It can be found in glittering mosaics on the west wall of the cathedral on the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon, on the sculptured centre portal of the west façade of Notre Dame in Paris, in Luca Signorelli’s haunting frescos in the Chapel of the Madonna of San Brizio in Orvieto, and in Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel. Numerous other churches had their own ‘dooms’. A dramatic but not untypical example from the twelfth century can be found above the entrance to the Church of Sainte-Foy at Conques. Christ is enthroned as an austere judge, dividing the saved from the damned. The procession to heaven is neat and orderly while hell is chaotic, being depicted as a hideous mouth devouring the damned, a common representation in medieval art. In ominous foreboding, this Romanesque Last Judgement rivals the thirteenth-century hymn, theDies Irae, as a reminder of the coming ‘day of wrath and doom impending’.

Wyclif and the Independence of the Church in England

1923 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 131-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Alva Gifford
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Henry Viii ◽  
English Society ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
John Wyclif ◽  
The Church ◽  
Better Than

I was moved to investigate the subject of this study by an admiration of long standing for John Wyclif, and by the feeling that James Gairdner, the latest historian of Lollardy, had done scant justice to the religious movement that began with Wyclif, and that survived through a century and a half to lend powerful aid to Henry VIII, when the hour struck for the rejection of the Roman jurisdiction. When the work was finished, I found myself at a goal not far removed from that of Dr. Gairdner, although I had reached it with less reluctant feet. Dr. Gairdner had the spirit of the true archivist.1 He had no aversion to dust; he could endure even dirt; but disorder, never. And Lollardy, in English society in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, was a source of disorder. I do not revolt at disorder when great changes are necessary. Unlike Dr. Gairdner, I can find great uses for the man who “refused to recant or bow to the opinion of trained judges,” even though they “presumably understood such questions better than himself.” I cannot view the literature of Lollardy, admittedly crude, as “poisonous.” And I respectfully dissent from the view that an admission of the right of sects to exist is “fatal to the essence of Christianity itself.” But I have found ever increasing reason to concur in the conclusion to which Dr. Gairdner's unrivalled knowledge led him, viz., that Lollardy survived through the troubled days of the fifteenth century to “help Henry VIII put down the Pope,” that Henry's reformation of the Church was “precisely on Lollard lines,” and that “Lollardy affected the Church more and more after his death.”

Ignatius and the Archives

1978 ◽  
Vol 71 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 97-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Schoedel
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Current View ◽  
Direct Information ◽  
Formal Authority ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church

The well known passage about the “archives” and the “gospel” in Ignatius’ Letter to the Philadelphians (8.2) is one of the most intriguing glimpses given us of debate in the church early in the second century. Wide agreement about the meaning of the passage seems to have been reached, and the current view may be summarized more or less as follows: Ignatius recalls a conversation that picks up just after he had made a theological point during his visit to Philadelphia (he gives us no direct information on the subject of the discussion). His opponents had replied (according to most commentators) that if they did not find it in the “archives” (that is, the Old Testament), they did not believe it to be in the “gospel.” Ignatius had retorted that Scripture in fact supported him: “It is written” (γέγραπται). But his opponents had answered that his certainty was not well grounded: “That is just the question.” The passage concludes with a statement that may represent not so much what Ignatius said then as what he now regards as an appropriate way of ending such debates. The “archives” (he says) are Jesus Christ; or (as he rephrases it) the “inviolable archives” are Christ's cross, death, resurrection, and the faith that comes through him. If this is what the passage means, it represents a remarkable reliance on the “gospel” and the events of salvation as opposed to the formal authority of the (Old Testament) Scriptures.

scholarly journals Painted Churches of Medieval Lebanon: an Overview

Chronos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 129-161
Author(s):  
Tasha Voderstrasse
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The modern country of Lebanon preserves an important medieval and post-medieval legacy of standing churches and Christian religious art. After their discovery by western scholars in the 19th century, the art of the churches only attracted limited scholarly attention until about 100 years later, when they began to be studied in detail. Now a variety of studies have appeared on the churches and their art, including several books (Nordiguian and Voisin 1999 and subsequent new editions; Cruikshank Dodd 2004; Immerzeel 2009; Zibawi 2009) and numerous articles in both print and online. This article seeks to provide an overview of the studies of these monuments, first discussing the origins of the study of these churches and the viewpoints of the different scholars who have approached the material, and then examining some Of the surviving monuments. The churches discussed here date to what can be most accurately termed as a high medieval period of the 12th-13th centuries AD, when Lebanon was under the rule of the Crusaders. Nevertheless, while the region was under Crusader control, there is a growing recognition that the monuments that were produced were local art that was influenced from a variety of sources. Post-Crusader material will not be discussed, although it should be noted that the country also possesses important Christian art from the subsequent periods. The article will not only examine the standing architecture, but also the wall paintings, which have been the subject of considerable attention on the part of scholars in recent years. Further, other Christian religious items that would have been found or still can be found in the churches, such as icons, will also be treated here, particularly as a number of scholars have related the different art forms to each other. It is by examining all forms of Christian art surviving in Lebanon from this period that we can come to a better understanding of how and why this material was produced, as well as how the studies of this material has evolved through time. It can also help provide new ideas for further research, in addition to the valuable work of documentation, restoration, and interpretation that has been occurring since the end of the 20th century.

scholarly journals “To the honour and worship of Almighty God and his saints:” Lay Patronage at All Saints’ Parish Church, Bristol

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Gearin
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Written Word

Countless objects across England were destroyed, leaving comparably few traces of late medieval art, architecture, and religious practice for examination today. Written documents, however, were not an active target of the Reformation. In some cases they are the best resource available for understanding and imagining the appearance, importance, and role of parish churches in the late medieval era. They provide glimpses of very personal relationships between the laity and the churches they used, and help to discern some of the ways in which benefactors could actively shape the interiors of these buildings to assert their authority within the community, and obtain prayers for salvation after death. Additionally, the laity helped form the congregation’s sensory perception of the Mass through donations of objects that engaged sight, touch, and sound. This will be demonstrated through the use of primary source texts written in fifteenth century English and accompanying modern translations of those texts, surviving artistic and architectural elements, and secondary interpretations of medieval documents. Original fifteenth century wills, churchwarden accounts, and inventories can be extremely thorough and difficult to follow; therefore, this research requires careful close reading of a high volume of documents spanning decades. Constructing a visual narrative based solely on written word is challenging, yet ultimately rewarding in cases in which a church’s religious art objects do not survive. Doing so can lead to significant revelations about the realities of late medieval religion. 

A Decolonial Feminist Dante: Imperial Historiography and Gender

2021 ◽  
pp. 700-718
Author(s):  
Marguerite Waller
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Church Art ◽  
Gender System ◽  
The Church

This chapter brings a decolonial dimension to Euro-American feminist readings of Dante’s constructions of gender and sexuality. Corroborated by the religious art of the first millennium of the church in Rome, the Commedia’s concern with gender and sexuality relates directly to Pope Boniface VIII’s official disenfranchisement of women as part of his effort to imperialize the papacy. The ‘decolonial’ turn taken by several feminist theorists over the last forty years draws upon strategies and metaphors similar to Dante’s to challenge a post-1492 colonial sex/gender system. Early church art needs to be consulted in Dante studies for evidence of an anti-imperial Christian culture, subjugated and occluded by Dante’s time, that embraced the sensuous, the female, and a decentralizing relational imaginary. The ninth-century Basilica of Santa Prassede in Rome and the story of Titus unfolded across Purgatorio and Paradiso suggest a ‘decolonial’ alternative to the sex/gender system on which imperial sovereignty depends.

Amnon and Thamar on a Misericord in Hereford Cathedral

Traditio ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
R. E. Kaske
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
The Difference ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
The Church

It is of course generally recognized that the carvings on medieval misericords, in England as elsewhere, are preponderantly secular in subject, including only a slight sprinkling of biblical and other religious motifs; according to a recent study, ‘only about 4.5 per cent of Britain's almost 8,600 surviving centrepieces and supporters have primarily religious significance, and 1.5 per cent are Scriptural, as compared with over twice that in France.’ To this basic situation we must add that of all medieval art forms, misericords are among those most completely lacking in context, and so are likely to be among the most mute about their own intended meanings. As M. D. Anderson remarks on another of their enigmatic aspects, ‘Between the clearly identifiable subjects and those as clearly not intended to convey any particular meaning lies a mass of work presenting a wide variety of iconographical puzzles’; and while she is referring to the difference between the purely decorative and the iconographically significant in any way, a similar no-man's land must surely be allowed to exist between the clearly non-biblical and the biblical or possibly biblical. An instructive example can be found in a fifteenth-century French misericord now in the church of St.-Cernin, which shows a ‘handsome dancing man with … oriental turban and earrings’ and is identified by its editors — attractively though by no means conclusively — as David dancing before the Lord in 2 Kings (Vulgate) 6.14–16.

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