All of the art, literature and architecture we have looked at this semester has been created within a specific religious context. Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by artist and photographerAndres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in urine. Conservative Christian senator's criticism of the piece led to a heated US debate on public arts funding. Republican Jesse Helmes told the senate that Serrano was "not an artist, but a jerk." Serrano was awarded a prize partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Many called for the dissolving of this tax funded agency. Serrano defended his photograph as a criticism of the "billion-dollar Christ- for- profit industry"and a "condemnation of those who abuse the teaching of Christ for their own ignoble ends." The photograph was vandalized in Australia and in Sweden (by neo-Nazis in 2007.) Controversy reached its peak on Palm Sunday this year when it was attacked with hammers after and "anti-blasphemy campaign by French Catholic fundamentalists while on display in an Avignon museum.

Do you see this work as blasphemous? Has it crossed the line of what should be defended as "free speech?" Do you think it is "art?" If you came upon this work in a gallery and had no information about it, how do you think you might react to it?

Serrano has become a familiar figure in popular media, with interviews in Vogue and appearances on the Colbert Report. He is like a rock star, as are many in the modern art world, and has recently entered into the music scene with plans to release a CD under the alias "Brutus Faustus." At 60, Serrano feels he has accomplished everything he has wanted to accomplish except being a rock star. Does this change your impression of his Piss Christ, or of his defense of it?

The Flagellation of Christ, painted by Piero della Francesca, demonstrates this early Renaissance painter's use of mathematical systems to achieve the illusion of a three dimensional image on a two dimensional plane. Modern day architectural students have re-created Piero's painting in 3-D models to show the accuracy of his measurements, perspective lines and the relative size of his figures in relation to their intended distance from the viewer. Yet this painting has an effect of disequilibrium on the viewer. What elements of this work would you characterize as "realistic?" Does the painting have a focal point, an area where the eye naturally rests?

Blog post 8 due 4/19 before noon

In the detail of the tympanum relief sculptures pictured above, master sculptor Gislebertus created a horrific image of the Last Judgement. The archangel Michael weighs the souls of the resurrected and they are separated out into the blessed and the damned. The production of these sculptures required large amounts of money and the support of church government. What do these images tell you about the prevailing view of mankind during the Middle Ages? What role did fear play in the medieval world view? How would you characterize the Christ depicted here?

Blog Post 7 for 4/12

And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in Heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads (Revelation, 12.1-3)

The Book of Revelation of St John was written in the last part of the 1st century AD, probably during the persecution of Christians carried out under either the Roman emperor Nero or Domitian. The concept of the Apocalypse, finds roots in the later books of the Old Testament, most notably in the Book of Daniel.



These two illustrations are not only centuries apart, they were created for very different reasons. One is an illustrated Apocalypse commissioned by Eleanor of Provence and reflects the interest of elite women of the court during the late Middle Ages. The other illustrates the same subject, but was produced by monks living in the Asturias region of Spain, isolated from the culture of the rest of continental and insular Europe. Pushed to the edge of Spain by the Umayyad Dynasty, the monks in Spain perhaps transferred the destructive symbolism of the Book of Revelation to the Islamic rulers. In their isolation, they saw the approaching turn of the millennium as the fulfillment of end time prophecy. (Their illustrations are heavily indebted to Islamic stylistic traits.)

Compare the two illustrations. You should be able to tell the courtly one from the one produced by those waiting for the end of the world. Keep in mind the entertainment value placed on religious illustrations by women of the court. These women were also the chief audience for Medieval Romances like Tristan and Isolde and the Legends of King Arthur.

Which style do you think more appropriate for an illustration of the Apocalypse?

Blog Post 6 for 3-22

The following poem is an Anglo-Saxon riddle poem, translated from Old English into modern English. It is one of many Riddle poems in the Red Book of Exeter

The Exeter Book resides in a locked vault in the library of Exeter Cathedral, safe there after the vicissitudes of a thousand years, although not unscathed. At one time, the front cover had been used as a cutting board and beer mat; leaves are missing and fourteen pages at the back have been burnt. Written in a single hand, it is one of four manuscripts, dating from the second half of the tenth century, that preserve virtually all the poetry in Old English that has survived, including such important elegiac poems as The Seafarer, Deor, The Wanderer, The Wife's Lament, and Width.

The Reed (Probably a love message in the form of a riddle.)

I grew where life had come to me, along

The sandy shore, where the sea foamed in

Below a cliff. Men came

To my empty land only by accident.

But every dawn a brown wave swept

Around me with water arms. How

Could I ever imagine a time where, mouthless

I'd sing across the benches where mead

Was poured, and carry secret speech?

What a strange and wonderful thing to someone

Who puzzles, but neither sees nor knows,

That the point of a knife and a strong right hand

Should press and carve me, a keen blade

And the mind of a man joined together

To make me a message-bearer to your ears

Alone, boldly bringing you what no one

Else could carry and no one hears!

Who is speaking? The Anglo-Saxons loved riddles for the handy way they have of linking an inanimate object (once it is figured out) to a more abstract notion, like love or artistic expression, faith or courage. This perhaps has something to do with the hold overs from their pagan "animism" or their belief that there is no boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds. Can you tell the person/thing who is speaking this poem? Think about what "point of knife" and "press and carve me" might mean - literally and metaphorically. What language evokes pain and melancholy in the poem? What language creates a brighter mood?

You many comment on the poem in any way you like.

Blog post 5 for 3/15

In the second century the Imperial Romans began looking back to the Etruscan styles in their creation of sarcophagus lids. A couple is pictured reclining on a couch together. During the Imperial Roman period, there were workshops creating these in great quantities. The individual features would be added when a sale was made (much like in the addition of the deceased into Books of the Dead in Egypt.) The face of the woman on this particular example was never finished. Nevertheless, there are still comparisons to be made between the 6th century BC Etruscan sarcophagus and the 2nd century AD Roman one. The Romans were very concerned with their image in the public arena, with the notion of decorum and proper action. They also relied on Greek sculptural models for validation of their way of life, often depicting humans as gods.
Discuss these two images in terms of public and private life. Do either of the two pieces seem to exist in a more private world, a more public? How do they communicate either a feeling of privacy and intimacy or public display?

Blog Post 4 for 2-22

Philosopher Karl Popper, a refugee from Hitler's Austria, argued that Plato's search for an ideal society and the introduction of idealism into politics were precedents that led to totalitarianism. He wrote that any fixed society will, by definition, be hostile to criticism or to change. Eventually the preservation of the system will be more important than the welfare of the population.

There have been arguments against this linking of Plato's Republic and totalitarianism, yet it is interesting to see the preference for the classical canon in the art of Hitler's Germany. The painting, The Four Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, hung in a place of honor in Hitler's apartment. Critics often point to the banal nature of art approved by the Third Reich. The clarity and simplicity of of the classical canon may be used for a variety of purposes, including propaganda for a method of governing or a way of life. Classical forms have been used in protest art as well.

Compare Hitler's favorite painting to the classical statue of Aphrodite. There is much to be said in terms of the artists' attitude towards women (treatment of their bodies, facial expression), their use of the ideal female form to promote certain attitudes about beauty and the linking of ideal female form to the state. Think about how the classical ideal of femininity is used today in advertising, how its opposite is used (bohemian fashion -gypsy styles, hippy nostalgia, etc.)