Recently in Art & Christianity Category

"Building a New World" is new initiative Interdisciplinary Centre  for Social Communications of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome, Italy) beginning today, Friday, 2 March.

This project is focused on film and the power film has in our lives. The premise is: a good film liberates, forms and calls us to a new way of seeing and engaging in reality. Therefore, the good people at the Gregorian are exploring how a good movie or documentary can invite people to greatness through the imagination and research how a poorly written movie with mediocre images can severely handicap one's openness to the true, the beautiful and the good. Just think of the good Father Robert Barron's "Catholicism" project is doing for those learning the Catholic faith for the first time or those renewing their faith; or how damaging "The Deputy" was to to the person of Pope Pius XII and the rest of the Church.

The Catholic Artists Society is hosting a lecture on October 31st at 6:30pm titled "Art, Beauty and the Sacred" given by Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang. The evening will include the celebration of First Vespers of All Saints in the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer (NYC). The flyer can be viewed here: Catholic Artists Society All Saints and lecture.pdf

Pope Benedict gave the following teaching on beauty --a subject near to his heart-- on August 31. Some of the paragraphs are here (the entire address is here). Isn't what the Pope says true???? The beautiful expressed in food, music, art, architecture, the human body, the poerty and friendship is the extroversion of the Holy Spirit.

 

Today, I would like to consider briefly one of these channels that can lead us to God and also be helpful in our encounter with Him: It is the way of artistic expression, part of that "via pulchritudinis" -- "way of beauty" -- which I have spoken about on many occasions, and which modern man should recover in its most profound meaning. 

 

Perhaps it has happened to you at one time or another -- before a sculpture, a painting, a few verses of poetry or a piece of music -- to have experienced deep emotion, a sense of joy, to have perceived clearly, that is, that before you there stood not only matter -- a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, an ensemble of letters or a combination of sounds -- but something far greater, something that "speaks," something capable of touching the heart, of communicating a message, of elevating the soul. 

 

A work of art is the fruit of the creative capacity of the human person who stands in wonder before the visible reality, who seeks to discover the depths of its meaning and to communicate it through the language of forms, colors and sounds. Art is capable of expressing, and of making visible, man's need to go beyond what he sees; it reveals his thirst and his search for the infinite. Indeed, it is like a door opened to the infinite, [opened] to a beauty and a truth beyond the every day. And a work of art can open the eyes of the mind and heart, urging us upward.

 

Benedictine abbeys are places where the culture of prayer, study, charitable work and arts and crafts can breathe with ease. That's the genius of Saint Benedict and the leadership of monasticism through 1500 years. Few religious orders have such an expansive sense of culture as the Benedictines (or share in across the world). Art aids one in his or seeking God and a better sense of self.

Benedictine culture is very interesting. I find this to be true for 2 reasons: after 1500 years of Benedictine monasticism a refined style of humanity and relationship with God is constitutive and monasteries have interesting people as monks and nuns. The famous Rule of Saint Benedict encourages the monk to praise and worship God through a proper ordering of life and interest. Few Benedictines I know are not proficient in works of culture (in the true meaning of the word) like music, vestment making, bee keeping, keeping the library, preparing good lessons for the classroom, cooking, music writing, preaching, study and the like.

The religious and art worlds are abuzz with the latest find: an early 6th century image of the Apostle Paul in Naples. The discovery happened in the Catacombs of San Gennaro.

Paul Haring, a photojournalist who works for Catholic News Service in Rome talks about his vocation in following Pope Benedict to record for us "the moment" with the Vicar of Christ. As Paul notes, it is a singular act of Providence to be see life through an new lens, especially when pointing that lens at the Supreme Pontiff.

Our Lord ascended to Heaven so that the Holy Spirit might come at Pentecost and fill the Church with His truth. The greatest art expresses that truth and is far superior to vain "self-expression." John Keats said "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," but T.S. Eliot rightly thought that the expression was meaningless sentimentality. The craftsman ignorant of the Creator becomes a vain aesthete expressing nothing more than the ego. While truth is beautiful, beauty is not truth itself but expresses that truth. In the classical tradition, beauty consists in proportion, integrity and clarity: it is harmonious, suited to its purpose, and intelligible. This is sublimely seen in Christ Himself, Who incarnated this beauty as the Way (guiding to a harmony of virtue) and the Truth (revealing God) and the Life (enlightening with creative love). St. Macarius, an Egyptian monk of the fourth century said, "The soul which has been fully illumined by the unspeakable beauty of the glory shining on the countenance of Christ overflows with the Holy Spirit . . . it is all eye, all light, all countenance."

The art world is abuzz due to an article in L'Osservatore Romano on Sunday stating that a "lost Caravaggio" may now be found.

The as yet unauthenticated painting, "The Martyrdom of St Lawrence," owned by the Society of Jesus, is thought to be a Caravaggio because it has the hallmarks of a Caravaggio, including dramatic lighting effects, the L'Osservatore Romano said. "Certainly it's a stylistically impeccable, beautiful painting," the article stated in its Sunday edition. "One can't but be reminded of works like the Conversion of St Paul, the Martyrdom of St Matthew and Judith and Holofernes."

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the acknowledged pioneer of the Baroque painting technique of contrasting light and dark known in Italian as "chiaroscuro." It is estimated that about 80 of the painter's works are extant. He was born in Milan and trained there under Titian. Many are also aware of the artist's wild lifestyle and the alleged murder he committed of a man in a brawl and then fled Rome. Moreover, Caravaggio's mysterious death in 1610 has long intrigued scholars. Among the theories of his disappearance are that he was killed on a deserted Tuscan beach or collapsed there due to an illness. Italian anthropologists announced last month they had found the famous artist's mortal remains. The artist's club is observing the 400th anniversary of the artist's death.

Leave it to the Jesuits to have at least two Caravaggio's!

Have you asked yourself: What is the oldest piece of Christian art in the world today? I have. AND reading UK's Telegraph online I found out the answer to my question. A page in the famous Garima gospel collection was identified and re-dated.

Franciscan Friar Jack Karam (left) stands near Israel Antiquities Authority workers at the excavation site of the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth, Israel, that can be dated back to the time of Jesus. Archaeologist Yardena Alexandre (unseen) says remains of a wall, a hideout and a cistern were found after builders dug up an old convent courtyard in the northern Israeli city. (AP Photos/Dan Balilty)

As you know, 21 November 2009 the Holy Father held an audience in Rome with a number of prominent artists, musicians and architects. In support of his efforts, a number of Catholic architects, academics, musicologists, journalists have drafted a letter of appeal to Pope Benedict offering considerations for the recovery the sacred arts in support of the sacred Liturgy.

I have attached the English draft translation for your consideration. This is still in draft form, but is substantially in place. Appeal to His Holiness.pdf

A Congress on Sacred Art in Rome is being planned next year to draw attention to the issue. At present, we are still looking to get the word out, and to enlist signatories of architects, artists, academics, journalists, cultural critics, clergy, concerned laity, and the like to add their support to this endeavor.

Would you please visit the website to become a signatory to this letter, and forward this email to your own circle of influence, and perhaps give it some space where ever you publish or contribute?