Assumpta est Maria

The other parts of the full Mass by Palestrina can be heard by following the links on the YouTube page

Odoard de Bersaques: The Assumption

The workshop of Simon Bening (1483–1561)

From The Office of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in The Missal of Odoard de Bersaques

c, 1530

Illuminated manuscript

Ms 60 Folio 58v

Bibliothèque d’agglomération de Saint-Omer, France

Simon Bening  was described as "the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe" in his own time. His clients were the most powerful and the richest people in Europe.

This Missal was commissioned by Odoard de Bersaques, the Provost of the Collégiale of Saint-Omer (which later became the cathédrale Notre-Dame in Saint-Omer) as well as chaplain and then Grand Almoner (clericus elimosinarius) to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

In medieval times Saint-Omer was one of those important towns and flash points which powerful men and their armies attempt to conquer and control

It was situated on the borders of territories frequently disputed by French, Flemish, English and Spaniards,

In 1493 the town became part of the Low Countries and under Spanish dominion for more than 170 years. 

The French made futile attempts against it between 1551 and 1596. During the Thirty Years War, the French attacked in 1638 (under Cardinal Richelieu) and 1647.

Odoard de Bersaques was an official in one of the greatest and most powerful Courts of Europe: that of Charles V (1500 - 1558), the Holy Roman Emperor

At its zenith Charles`s empire  spanned nearly four million square kilometres across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas

As chaplain then Grand Almoner to Charles V, the responsability of Odoard de Bersaques would have been, in the Emperor`s name, to distribute money to the deserving poor. He was responsible for the Emperor`s charitable duties. He would also have had important administrative duties at the Court. In England at the time the Almoner to the King would have been a Bishop

Charles V had a large number of almoners presumably because of the large number of his  territories, their respective Courts and the greatness of his wealth. Another of his almoners was Francis Louis of Blois 1506 - 1566, Abbot of Liesse.who refused on an number of occasions  both the Archbishopric of Cambrai and the Abbey of Tournai

Another was Augustino Cazalla who was not quite as fortunate in those turbulent times

The office of Almoner still exists in some courts and countries as it does in the Papal  Household

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We do not know terribly much about Odoard de Bersaques. A plaque was put up in his memory in the cathedral which indicated that he was the last Provost of the Collégiale. We know that he died in 1557

We know what he looked like from the image of one of the pages in his Missal:

The workshop of Simon Bening (1483–1561)

Odoard de Bersaques in prayer before the saints in The Missal of Odoard de Bersaques

c. 1530

Illuminated manuscript

Ms 60 Folio 2v

Bibliothèque d’agglomération de Saint-Omer, France

It is likely that Odoard set the text and after the text was written the Missal was sent to Bening`s workshop for the final paintings to be done and the final illumination

What we see is what Odoard saw and read nearly 600 years ago on the Feast of the Assumption

The image of Our Lady is that of Our Lady of the Apocalypse. She stands on a crescent moon barely hidden

It was a turbulent time. In nearby Germany the Lutheran reformation was in full swing and was spreading throughout Europe. 

A Modern Assumption

Carel Victor Morlais Weight (1908 –  1997)

The Assumption of the Virgin

1971

Oil on canvas

203 x 183 cm

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford

Weight was a distinguished English artist whose prolific output is still to be properly assessed

During the Second World War, he was appointed an official war artist. He was Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art for many years. He did receive official recognition during his lifetime. He was appointed CBE and then before his death CH - Companion of Honour.

He was described as "the Arthur Hitchcock of British painting"

There is a visionary quality to his works. He can convey solitude in a haunting and captivating way

He has been described as "eccentric" in the way that Sir Stanley Spencer was and is so described. But to those who perhaps knew him best that description is to totally misunderstand him

The British Library has a recording and transcript of an interview with Carel Weight

Selections of his work can be seen on the following websites

Structure and Imagery

The BBC - Your Paintings

As regards the painting in Bradford, it was a rather strange topic for a painting at that particular time (1971)

The painting certainly does convey Mystery

In the painting we see the effect in a contemporary suburban setting of the assumption of Mary

The reaction of the onlookers is astonishment, sorrow, bewilderment, alarm, fear and even terror. This is not the iconography of classical religious art to the event we call the Assumption.

The spectators fear what they are seeing and what is to come to pass. What they are seeing is a vision of the Church in the future, what will and should come to pass. As in reaction to Christ`s teaching, the result is often consternation.

On another level, perhaps a similar reaction would be seen if Mary had been jettisoned from the Church or sidelined as seemed possible at the time

Perhaps the painting is simply a satiric comment on the sang froid of the British suburbanite who at the time lived in a two up two down semi detached or terraced house. Or  a contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. 

At the time (1971), the Blessed Virgin Mary seemed to have been "downgraded" even by the Catholic Church. 

As regards the Feast and Dogma of the Assumption, well for many Pius XII simply got it wrong. 

After the reception accorded to Humanae Vitae in 1968, the Dogmatic Declaration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary ex cathedra seemed to be next in line for challenge and to be undermined. It was not about truth, they said. It was about politics, policy and ideology

The Declaration by Pius XII had always been under attack from within and those outwith the Catholic Church. 

When declared it was regarded as a divisive and even hostile act by non-Catholic Christians.

It was even suggested that the belief in the Dogma was Monophysite

The reduction in devotion to the Virgin Mary immediately in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council had got to the point that Paul VI had to issue an Apostolic Exhortation in 1974: Marialis Cultus. 

He said:

"In our time, the changes that have occurred in social behaviour, people's sensibilities, manners of expression in art and letters and in the forms of social communication have also influenced the manifestations of religious sentiment. 

Certain practices of piety that not long ago seemed suitable for expressing the religious sentiment of individuals and of Christian communities seem today inadequate or unsuitable because they are linked with social and cultural patterns of the past. 

On the other hand in many places people are seeking new ways of expressing the unchangeable relationship of creatures with their Creator, of children with their Father. 

In some people this may cause temporary confusion. 

But anyone who, with trust in God reflects upon these phenomena discovers that many tendencies of modern piety (for example, the interiorisation of religious sentiment) are meant to play their part in the development of Christian piety in general and devotion to the Blessed Virgin in particular. Thus our own time, faithfully attentive to tradition and to the progress of theology and the sciences, will make its contribution of praise to her whom, according to her own prophetical words, all generations will call blessed (cf. Lk. 1:48)."

Pope Paul explained what the central element of the Feast of the Assumption was really about. He wrote:

"The solemnity of August 15 celebrates the glorious Assumption of Mary into heaven. 

It is a feast of her destiny of fullness and blessedness, of the glorification of her immaculate soul and of her virginal body, of her perfect configuration to the Risen Christ; a feast that sets before the eyes of the Church and of all mankind the image and the consoling proof of the fulfillment of their final hope, namely, that this full glorification is the destiny of all those whom Christ has made His brothers, having "flesh and blood in common with them" (Heb. 2:14; cf. Gal. 4:4). 

The Solemnity of the Assumption is prolonged in the celebration of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which occurs seven days later. On this occasion we contemplate her who, seated beside the King of ages, shines forth as Queen and intercedes as Mother. ... 

In the Assumption [the liturgical texts] recognise the beginning that has already been made and the image of what, for the whole Church, must still come to pass"

Dancing in Time

Nicolas Poussin 1594 - 1665

Dance to the Music of Time

c. 1634-6

Oil on canvas

83 x 104 cm

Wallace Collection, London

Nicolas Poussin 1594 - 1665

Preparatory drawing for A Dance to the Music of Time

About 1634-6

Pen, brown ink and wash on paper; traces of squaring on black chalk

14.80 x 19.90 cm

The National Gallery of Scotland

The painting has been described as "the jewel" in The Wallace Collection in London

It is a most impressive work

It was commissioned by then Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi (1600-1669) later Pope Clement IX

Rospigliosi was one of the most cultured men of his day

His pontificate only lasted two years but it was reckoned to be one of the good ones. Humility, charity and peace were the hallmarks of his ministry

Rospigliosi was a supporter of France in the contest between France and Spain which dominated Europe in the early seventeenth century but not an extreme supporter. This contest was extended into the papacy and the Church

The final chapter of Giovan Pietro Bellori`s  Le vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni (1672) is the primary source for studies of Poussin.

From Bellori, we know that Rospigliosi determined the theme and greatly influenced the composition

It was one of three related paintings which he commissioned from Poussin. All have similar or related themes.

He defined the theme of this painting: "a moral poem", a pastoral in what seems almost Arcadian surroundings. So are the other two

In those times, poetry and painting were regarded as similar and related (almost identical) pursuits. The principle of ut pictura poesis was predominant in the late sixteenth and in the seventeenth century

The Italian poet of the time  Giambattista Marino (1569 - March 25, 1625), a close friend of Poussin in Rome,  expressed it this way:

"Many are the relationships, and great are the analogies, as believe  all the sages, between canvas and paper, between colours and ink,  between brush and pen… 

Poetry is described as speaking Painting,  

Painting as mute poetry; one is characterised by mute eloquence; the other by eloquent silence. 

One is silent in the other; one argues in the other, thus in turn exchanging roles and voices,  

Poetry may be said to Paint, and Painting to write" 

Giambattista Marino, Dicerie sacre, ed. Giovanni Pozzi (Turin: G. Einuadi, 1966)

Four people (three women and one man) are seen dancing and frame a circle. They face out from the centre. They seem to be dancing clockwise. Or are they ? There are indications that perhaps there are forces pushing anti-clockwise.

These figures are stages in the Fortune of Mankind: Poverty, Industry (or Labour), Wealth and Luxury

Luxury looks out on the viewer. She catches the viewer`s eye. It is she who draws the viewer into the picture.

They like all figures in this poetic work are lit from the upper left. In the background in the sky we see figures who are traversing the heavens from left to right also. The mmovement in the picture appears to be from left to right

The dancing figures are the representation of the Greek and Roman  "Wheel of Fortune" (Rota Fortunae) which was also a popular image in medieval times. Fortune`s wheel could be advantageous, disadvantageous, or both.

"Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" were in the hands of Providence not his Will

The man is Poverty. He is the barefoot figure in the rear with his back to the viewer. He looks onto the next stage: Labour. Labour leads to Wealth who is dressed in more finery than the other two. Wealth then to Luxury. Too much Luxury leads of course to Poverty. But the dance can be reversed. 

The music for the Dance is provided for by Time: the old man playing the lyre. 

He dictates the tempo of Life and Fortune. When he stops playing, the Dance is ended and the circle dissipates.The wheel is broken. 

None of the dancers can stop while Time plays on. If they do, the Dance and Fortune stops. 

They do have some influence or control over which direction the dancers move and gyrate.

As regards the two putti. One is beside Father Time holding an hour glass. The other is blowing bubbles. Both underline the finite nature of life and its brevity, the transitoriness of existence and its fragility.

There are two stone works which frame the figures on the ground. They set the boundaries of movement for the dancers.

On the left is a sculpture of a two-headed Janus figure. 

Janus was of course a Roman God: the god of beginnings and transitions, always looking to the past, the other face to the future. His month is January, the beginning or doorway of the year.

He is the god of Doors and Doorways.

As regards his temple in Rome, the gates to the temple were open in war. They were closed in time of peace. They were rarely closed.

We see the god. The doors of his temple must be open. Peace does not reign in Arcady. War and conflict stalk the land. This is not Arcady or Eden. This is after the Fall 

The right hand boundary on which Father Time and assistant rest is of course a tombstone or funeral monument or more likely, cenotaph, an empty tomb. The young dancers are slowly making their way towards it. They must see it and realise that it is for them.

In the heavens above, Aurora, goddess of Dawn, leads the procession with  the chariot of Apollo the sun-god in the sky behind.  The Hours are in his train.  Apollo holds a ring representing the Zodiac.

It is mid morning. The dancers are young. They are energetic and love to dance. It is a happy scene. Both it is a snapshot, a moment in Time.  The figures will change and their energy will fail as evening and night appear. In the end there will be darkness and stillness.

But they will be replaced by new dancers and dances and so on and so on.

It is of course a sombre work. 

On the face of it, not a Christian work. 

One is reminded of the tarantella. One bite of the spider and the victim dances till he or she drops dead either from exhaustion or the poison of the spider. 

However by presenting a Classical pagan meditation on Time and on Life, the commissioner and artist show the futility and vacuousness of the Classical culture. Something is missing. For Poussin and Rospigliosi, it is the Christian vision. 

It is a time and place where the Christian vision is absent. It is either before the Incarnation or where news of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection has not reached. 

It is the time in history of pagan Classicism

All the Popes of modern times have spoken about the emptiness lying at the heart of modern life. It is not a new theme. The picture above demonstrates it. 

Shortly after the Second World War, in 1946 - 8, the Swiss Protestant theologian and ecumenist Emil Brunner (1899 - 1966) delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews. His lectures were entitled  Christianity and Civilisation

He was then Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology, University of Zurich and an associate of Karl Barth

In his lecture, The Problem of Time, Brunner considered (1) Time in Eastern cultures; (2) Time in Greek Platonism; (3) Time for Modern Mankind since the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Idea of Progress; and (4) the Christian concept of Time

He said of Modern Man and the modernist conception of Time:

"Modern man's understanding of time is quite different from this conception. 

To him the temporal is the real. 

Whether there is anything eternal is uncertain; but that the things in time are, is beyond question. 

But what is his concept of time? 

As it is quantity which determines his concept of reality, time also is a quantum—measurable time, time which consists of time-units, time-atoms. The second hand of the watch is the symbol of modern man's understanding of time. 

He looks for reality in the present moment, but the present moment is the smallest indivisible element or fraction of time. 

Life, then, cannot be but the sum or addition of such fractional time-entities, of time-atoms. 

This quantified physical time has completely lost its distinctiveness from space; it has become a fourth dimension of space. Quantified time is spatialised time. 

Time dwindles away into space. It has no quality of its own. It is interchangeable with the dimensions of space, and is therefore always about to pass into zero. 

It is this conception—not the watch or the telephone or the aeroplane—which is the cause of man's not having time. 

Time was lost to him metaphysically long before he had overcome it technically. 

The exact time-signal on the radio, which every decent citizen notes in order to set his watch correct to the second, the wrist watch, which at any moment shows him the exact time—all these devices have been invented because man wants them, because time vanishes under his fingers, because he does not have time any longer. 

We have reached here the opposite pole from the Oriental view. 

Reality is pulverised temporality. 

It is in vain that Faust wishes to see that moment to which he can say: “Verweile doch, Du bist so schön!” It is in vain that Nietzsche exclaims in a superb poem: “Denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit, will tiefe, tiefe, Ewigkeit”. 

If once you have declared your option for the moment, the fate of your reality as radical temporality is determined, and radical temporality is vanishing time. Time dwindles away, constantly approaching zero. 

It is for this reason that modern man wants to snatch as much of this time as possible, to get as much “into his time” as he can. 

He begins, so to say, a race with time, and in this race man is inevitably the loser, because it is the last moment which decides, and the last moment is death. 

Man races death, but death wins. 

Over the whole of life there looms this certainty of a lost race with death. 

But no one likes to face it. The thought of it is avoided, because man's chances are so absolutely hopeless. Modern man puts out of sight as well as he can all reminders of death; he does not want to hear of it, because the thought reminds him of his being the loser. 

All the same, the remembrance of death stands behind him with its whip like a slave-driver and urges him on. 

This—and this—and this I must have, cries man, before it is too late, before the door closes for ever. 

It is the panic of the closed door. This panic explains many of the features which are typical of modern life: man's hasty enjoyment, his all-dominating craving for security, to which finally he sacrifices freedom and his soul."

The Assumption of Mary: An Icon of Faith

Sano di Pietro (1406–1481)

The Assumption of the Virgin

c. 1448 -1452

Tempera on gold and wood

31.5 x 47.2 cm

Staatliches Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg

Di Pietro was commissioned to produce five scenes for a predella on the Life of the Virgin

It was an important commission. 

It was an icon of faith

It was for the Capella dei Signore in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. In many ways therefore it could be said that at the height of the res publica of Siena, together with worship of Christ, the veneration of Mary lay at the heart of the State.

Siena was formally under the special protection of the Virgin. August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, was the occasion of civic and religious celebrations which extended over three days.

The small figure at the bottom is St Thomas the Apostle ("Doubting Thomas") staring upwards towards the girdle in line with the legend that he doubted also the Assumption of Mary until the belt of the Virgin was let down. He was furnished with the girdle or belt so that he would believe.

St Thomas is by the empty tomb of the Virgin from whence the Virgin has been raised

St Thomas was of course the same Apostle who had problems in believing the accounts of the Risen Christ after the Resurrection. He did not then believe the story of the empty tomb either

The landscape at the bottom is filled with hills and woods with a city like Siena seen in the background

The centrepiece is of course the ascent of the Virgin

She is dressed in white and gold. She is a luminous figure, a figure of the Light. Light from within but mainly from without. She reflects and absorbs the light. She radiates light

She is surrounded by cherubim and seraphim. 

Music making angels singing God`s praises are also in attendance as she rises to Paradise

All ranks of angels, God`s messengers, escort her on her journey, the journey of Faith, a journey which she has been on throughout her entire existence

She is gazing upwards towards her final destination. Her face shows hope and also with faith but also perhaps with natural and understandable trepidation

However the predella was replaced in the Civic chapel by a painting by Sodoma and a marble tabernacle sometime in the early seventeenth century . 

At some time the predella was split up and the pieces were dispersed.

Mary does not ascend. She is assumed. She does not will or effect her ascension. She is the object of God`s grace and will. It is only through God`s grace that she was given the privilege. She "rises" because it is God`s will and pleasure.

The devotion to Mary causes difficulties for non-Catholics. The Dogma of the Assumption causes more difficulties for those who get past that.

Part of the problem is what does the Christian mean by "heaven" ?

We leave aside the other related and profound mysteries such as "seeing God", "death" and "eternal life"

The idea of ascending to a higher state is a recurrent theme in human civilisation - Christian and non-Christian

Some argue that Platonists aim to ascend by means of their intellectual activity to a tranquil, nonerotic state of contemplation.

For the Platonist, there is a  need to rise upward, moving from the human experience of love toward its true perfection in the eternal world of forms. It is an intellectual concept.

For St Augustine, Christian love is always conscious of the Christian`s  sinful state and of his complete dependence on divine grace and being receptive to it. 

For Dante, this process is illustrated by the upwards ascent from the lowest and darkest bowels of Hell, refined  through the various levels of Purgatory, through the Circles of Heaven until the final Beatific Vision

For the Christian, God is both the fount and origin of humanity and its ultimate and final destination. 

The longing for God, to know, love and be with him,  is inherent in our nature and only God can be satisfied by this need. 

On this earth we know through our bodies, minds and souls. And through Grace the Dogma of the Assumption declares that she attained this knowledge of and union with God  and more ahead of any other human being save her beloved Son.

The opposing hypothesis is bleak. It can be seen in the opening paragraphs of Karl Marx`s Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law (1844):

"Man, who looked for a superhuman being in the fantastic reality of heaven and found nothing there but the reflection of himself, will no longer be disposed to find but the semblance of himself, only an inhuman being, where he seeks and must seek his true reality.  

The basis of anti-religious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. 

Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again."

The difference between the two viewpoints is of course what we call the theological virtue or gift of faith 

Pope Francis in his recent Encyclical Lumen Fidei (2013) had this to say about the Light of Faith and the viewpoint taken by modern critics

"An illusory light? 

2. Yet in speaking of the light of faith, we can almost hear the objections of many of our contemporaries. In modernity, that light might have been considered sufficient for societies of old, but was felt to be of no use for new times, for a humanity come of age, proud of its rationality and anxious to explore the future in novel ways. 

Faith thus appeared to some as an illusory light, preventing mankind from boldly setting out in quest of knowledge. 

The young Nietzsche encouraged his sister Elisabeth to take risks, to tread "new paths… with all the uncertainty of one who must find his own way", adding that "this is where humanity’s paths part: if you want peace of soul and happiness, then believe, but if you want to be a follower of truth, then seek". 

Belief would be incompatible with seeking. 

From this starting point Nietzsche was to develop his critique of Christianity for diminishing the full meaning of human existence and stripping life of novelty and adventure. Faith would thus be the illusion of light, an illusion which blocks the path of a liberated humanity to its future. 

3. In the process, faith came to be associated with darkness. 

There were those who tried to save faith by making room for it alongside the light of reason. Such room would open up wherever the light of reason could not penetrate, wherever certainty was no longer possible. 

Faith was thus understood either as a leap in the dark, to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion, or as a subjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal consolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an objective and shared light which points the way. 

Slowly but surely, however, it would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown. 

As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way. 

Yet in the absence of light everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil, or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.

A light to be recovered 

4. There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. 

The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. 

A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God. 

Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. 

Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future opens up before us. 

Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time. 

On the one hand, it is a light coming from the past, the light of the foundational memory of the life of Jesus which revealed his perfectly trustworthy love, a love capable of triumphing over death. 

Yet since Christ has risen and draws us beyond death, faith is also a light coming from the future and opening before us vast horizons which guide us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth of communion. 

We come to see that faith does not dwell in shadow and gloom; it is a light for our darkness."

No one except a madman has ever been ready to die for his faith in Nietzsche or Marx. However many millions have been put to death by their disciples

Finally turning back to the Assumption, Pope Francis, following the tradition of his predecessors, said this of Mary and Faith:

"In the Mother of Jesus, faith demonstrated its fruitfulness; when our own spiritual lives bear fruit we become filled with joy, which is the clearest sign of faith’s grandeur. 

In her own life Mary completed the pilgrimage of faith, following in the footsteps of her Son. 

In her the faith journey of the Old Testament was thus taken up into the following of Christ, transformed by him and entering into the gaze of the incarnate Son of God."

The Fifteenth Joy of the Virgin

Herman, Paul and Jean de Limbourg (active 1399 - 1416)

Les Belles Heures of Le Duc de Berry

1405 - 1408/9

Made in Paris

Tempera ink and gold leaf on vellum

23.8 x 17 cm

The Metropolitan Museum, New York

The page is from Quire XII, Folio 88 (part of the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin) of the Limbourg Brothers`  Les Belles Heures de Jean de France Duc de Berry.

Books of Hours were very popular devotional books in the Middle Ages

This Book was sumptuous and was probably begun in 1405 and was completed in 1409

There are 156 pages of paintings in the Belles Heures

This is the Fifteenth Joy of the Virgin: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The first image depicts Mary in white alb and in prayer transported to heaven by seven fiery red cherubim

Earth is seen below and God in Heaven is seen welcoming her into Heaven

The prayer is:

The King and attendants witness the fact of the Assumption and kneel in devotion and prayer

The prayer is (folio 91):

Books of Hours were the main tool for private devotion for 250 years until the middle of the sixteenth century

At their heart was The Hours of the Virgin (The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin), a set of prayers dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary

See:

Husband, Timothy Bates, with an essay by Margaret Lawson. The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008

Freeman, Margaret B. "A Book of Hours Made for The Duke of Berry." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New ser., v. 15, no. 4 (December, 1956). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1956

Flinn, Elizabeth Haight. "A Magnificent Manuscript: A Historical Mystery." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 6 (February, 1971).

Transfiguration on Mount Sinai

Apse mosaic of The Transfiguration of Christ

AD 548 - 565

Monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai

Kurt Weitzman, January 1964 National Geographic Magazine

The main structure within the monastery is the Church of the Transfiguration, which is the work of the Byzantine architect Stephanos

The main Church of the Transfiguration was built in the 560s, around the time of the Emperor Justinian's death.

Behind the apse is the holiest part of the Monastery, the Chapel of the Burning Bush, which incorporates the 4th-century chapel built by the  Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Monastery was originally referred to as the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. It was not until several centuries later that the Monastery came to be associated with St. Catherine of Alexandria



Above and around the scene of the Transfiguration, medallions of the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist are on either side of the Lamb of God (the Deesis). You will also note the other medallions of holy men and women.

The image of the Transfiguration has an iconic quality as one might expect

The aim was to draw the viewer closer and uplift him  by contemplation of the holy image

The figures lack material form deliberately. They face front. The viewer is brought into contact with the divine

Of apse mosaics and paintings at this time, the art historian Beat Brenk of La Sapienza in Rome and also of Universitat Basel  has written:

"The purpose of the apse paintings was entirely different from that of the nave mosaics, of whose existence most congregants were probably unaware. The nave mosaics were usually devoted to the earthly life of Christ and the saints. 

The fact that the apse was located behind the altar would almost automatically mean that its theme was associated with the act of worship.  

But appearances are deceptive.  

Apse pictures are not liturgical pictures even when they depict Christ as a particularly large and isolated figure, as is the case in S. Cosma e Damiano in Rome.  

Apse images were never worshipped, but they attracted notice, and in some cases they teach the believer how to approach the divine. 

Cult objects must somehow be accessible to and palpable for congregants, but apse pictures never were.  

Their function was to direct the congregation’s gaze to the hereafter.  

The spherical curve of the apse was itself an image of the cosmos.  

Virtually all apse pictures portray Christ, Mary or the saints with stars, clouds and rainbows on a blue or gold background.  

Apse pictures were part of the presbytery, which was clearly separated from the congregation’s area in the nave or side aisles.  

Apse images never tell a story, but instead provide congregants with a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.  

Congregants would have found convincing the proposition that, once in heaven, the saints would intercede with Christ and Mary on their behalf.  

Apse mosaics and their depictions of a Christian ‘Olympus’ were one of the most impressive innovations of Christian art." 

From Beat Brenk in Art and Propaganda fide in Christian art and architecture, in  300–600  in Constantine to c. 600: The Cambridge History of Christianity ; volume 2 edited by Augustine Casiday and FrederickW. Norris (2008)

The scene is the representation of the scene when  death was imminent but before the final journey to Jerusalem, he took his three favoured apostles on a spiritual retreat on a mountain. They were Peter, James and John and are shown lying on the ground at the feet of Christ.

The story is narrated in Luke 9: 29 - 36

"The Transfiguration of Jesus 

28 About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. 

29 While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. 

30 And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, 

31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. 

32 Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 

33 As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. 

34 While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. 

35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” 

36 After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen."

To prevent any misunderstanding as with the custom in such mosaics and icons of the time, the artist has inserted large inscriptions underneath each of the figures (except Christ) identifying each figure.

Moses and Elijah represent the Old Testament law and the prophets. On Mount Sinai both Moses and Elijah received  a theophany and a commission.

As the heavenly voice indicated,  Jesus was the one to be listened to now.

According to Luke the three discuss the Exodus of Jesus: the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus that will take place in Jerusalem

Hence the size and central position in the firmament of the figure of Christ

Exodus recalls the mission of Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush on Mount Sinai

One recalls that after his encounter with God, Moses` face was shining, transformed and transfigured that people could not look on him.

Two  sixth-century mosaics adorn the area above the triumphal arch just in front of  the entrance to the Chapel of the Burning Bush. One depicts Moses at the burning bush, while the other shows him receiving the Law on Mt Sinai.

The pairing of the burning bush with the reception of the Law reflects the transformation that Moses underwent.

From most favoured at the Egyptian Court, he gave up his position and wealth to obey God`s command and begin a life of wandering in the desert. He becomes the leader of Israel. He talked with God.


Sinai (or Mount Horeb) was  significant in the story of Elijah. 1 Kings 19 tells the story

Prompted by an angel, he journeyed to Mount Horeb (Sinai). God comes to him and orders him to return to what Elijah fears is certain death:

"9 There he came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him: Why are you here, Elijah? 

10 He answered: “I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.” 

11 Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 

12 after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. 

13 When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah? 

14 He replied, “I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.” 

15 The LORD said to him: Go back! Take the desert road to Damascus"

Elijah  raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was taken up in a whirlwind In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord

These are perhaps only a few of the thoughts or meditations of Stephanos in the late 6th century

In the History of Christian Art

Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis (Il Pordenone) (ca. 1484 - 1539)

Golgotha

1521

Fresco, 

9 x 12 metres

Cathedral, Cremona

In 1517 Martin Luther published the 95 Theses

In 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicated him

Meanwhile in 1520 in the medieval cathedral at Cremona (began 1107) work commenced on a series of fresco decorations

Pre-Baroque,  the Cathedral and its decoration give a glimpse of a way of life and thinking about Faith before the intense  ideological inter-Christian battles of faith fought over the succeeding centuries all over the Continent of Europe

In the Reformation, many reformers removed the decoration from all churches and cathedrals  in a new form of Iconoclasm

In differentiation Catholics introduced the Baroque. Further changes and developments followed. 

After the First World War, a new more austere and simple style took root. Pictorial art dimished and was minimised. The movement grew after the Second World War and developed apace after the Second Vatican Council

Some have asked for an introduction to the History of Christian Art

I can only recommend a very short erudite but highly interesting and readable book by Dr Beth Williamson entitled Christian Art: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: OUP, 2004)

Doctor Beth Williamson Senior Lecturer in  the University of Bristol is one of the most distinguished art historians in the present day

She has also taught  at the University of East Anglia, University College London and the Courtauld Institute

She has also written on the imagery of the Virgin Mary. See The Madonna of Humility Development, Dissemination and Reception, c.1340-1400

One does wish that when Bishops and other Catholic institutions invite lecturers to speak at talks she is always included in their invitations

One becomes tired of seeing the view expressed that in medieval churches (and the pre-reformation church) the frescoes were designed to teach the unlearned poor while they attended a Latin Mass with the priest speaking with his back to the congregation. The so called unlearned poor were apparently mired in superstition and only concerned with superficiality

The view of course betrays an ignorance of the medieval church and pre-Reformation church and society and a patronising attitude towards the people who lived in those times. It is a view borne out of pride and a blind adherence to the Theory of Progress

Here is her short and succinct account of the purposes of Christian art in amongst other things Churches. 

Perhaps the commissioners and architects of modern Churches would do well to take note:

"It is often said, in the context of Christian art, that images function as the ‘books of the illiterate’. The origin and context of this view is not so often articulated, however. The saying arises with Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), the pope who received the vision of the Man of Sorrows during the mass ... 

According to Gregory images could fulfil a useful purpose, not only in stimulating religious feelings, but also in conveying the important messages of the scriptures to those who could not read them.  

What exactly did ‘illiterate’ mean in this context?  

It used to be assumed that the ordinary lay population in the earlier medieval period was almost totally illiterate, and that only the most educated of clerics had a decent knowledge of Latin.  

However, more recent scholarship has discerned more subtle gradations and levels of literacy, from a reasonable reading knowledge of the local vernacular, through an ability to read and write in the vernacular only, through the ability to read Latin, right up to the elites who could not only read and understand Latin, but write elegantly in it as well.  

Some laypeople might have had a basic ability to understand some limited Latin, but might also have found pictures very helpful in reminding them, or guiding them, as to the meanings of the texts. ... 

Bede introduced a slightly different understanding of the effect of religious imagery when he remarked that pictures could ‘recall to the memory of the faithful’ events such as the Crucifixion, or other Christian miracles. 

This is an important distinction, as Bede appears to argue here that pictures can remind viewers of that which they already know, rather than teach them what they do not know, and what they cannot read in scripture.  

In other words, Bede’s understanding of religious imagery here (and that of several other later writers) is that such pictures fulfil a recollective rather than an instructive function. Theologians of later periods considered these different functions, and gradually a position was arrived at whereby the church sanctioned and encouraged the use of images both to instruct and to remind. 

St Bonaventure (1221–74), the Minister General of the Franciscan Order, established a tripartite defence of religious art: that images were made for the uneducated, who may, through the images, understand that which they cannot read in scripture; that devotion is more likely to be aroused in those who see images of the deeds of Christ than in those who merely hear about them; and that those deeds are more likely to be remembered if they are seen than if they are only heard.  

It is this sort of thinking that stimulated the development of images such as the Man of Sorrows, or the mass of St Gregory, discussed in Chapter 2, which rely for their efficacy on the viewer’s existing knowledge of the narrative context surrounding the image."

Pordenone and those who commissioned him did not have an audience of ignorant illiterates. the work was not intended for elites. It was for peoples of  sophistication and refined palette and of a depth of faith whoch we now can only envy

As well as this gem, the book contains many other gems which should be drummed into students in seminaries who attend History of Religious Art courses. And others more advanced.

Buy, beg, steal or  borrow this book.

Death of a Saint

C. de Mallery (1571–1645)

Plate 13 Death of St Ignatius of Loyola

Engraving

30 x 40 cm

Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1526-1611) Vita beati patris Ignatii Loyolae religionis Societatis Iesu fundatoris ad viuum expressa ex ea quam 1610

Adrianus Collaert (c.1560-1618) 

Plate 14 Funeral of St Ignatius of Loyola

Engraving

30 x 40 cm

Pedro de Ribadeneyra 1526-1611 Vita beati patris Ignatii Loyolae religionis Societatis Iesu fundatoris ad viuum expressa ex ea quam 1610

St Ignatius of Loyola died early on the morning of 31st July 1556 in Rome

The death was not expected despite the fact that he had been in ill health but he had been expected to make a full recovery

He was 65

The body was embalmed and then  put in priest`s vestments and then  put on a bier

The funeral mass commenced after the 5 o`clock  evening vespers on 1st August

The Mass was in the Maria della Strada Church where the body was buried

In 1568 the Church was demolished to make way for  Il Gesù where he now rests

In a lengthy report on the death and burial  to the superiors of the order, St Ignatius` secretary, Father  Juan de Polanco SJ described the funeral:

"The burial of his blessed body was deferred till after vespers on Saturday, and although he was never moved from the place where he expired, there was a great concourse of devout and pious persons. Some kissed his hands, and some his feet, and some touched them with their chaplets, many of our Fathers did the same. 

We had great difficulty in preventing those who wished to take away pieces of his berretta, his clothes, strings, night-caps, or other articles; we gave nothing to any person whatsoever, or suffered such things to be carried away, knowing whence they were procured.  

Some artists came to take portraits of him, which he had never allowed whilst living, though frequently requested.  

In the largest chapel of our church, on the Gospel side, a tomb has been excavated, and there we have placed the body in a coffin, and said the office for the dead in the customary manner. The tomb has been covered with a large slab which can be removed when necessary, and here the body will remain till it is determined what else ought to be done." 

(quoted in Mariani, The life of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits , Volume II, translated 1848)

Pedro de Ribadeneira  (1 November 1527 – 10 September or 22 September 1611) was one of the early Jesuits and admitted to the order by St Ignatius himself in 1540

He moved up the ranks quickly and took on many positions of responsibility

Amongst his works is the official Life of St Ignatius which went through several editions in 1572 and 1587

There are distinct changes as the cult and iconography of the saint matured

The work above published in 1610 was to commemorate the beatification of St Ignatius

The finest artists and engravers of Antwerp were engaged in the work

See also Pollen and Thompson Saint Ignatius Loyola (1913)

Stewart Rose St. Ignatius Loyola and the early Jesuits (1891)

Aparecida

Our Lady of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil

Aparecida. 

Pope Francis constantly refers to this. He has just visited the Shrine again

More particularly he refers indirectly to the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean,  held close to the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil in May/June 2007

It followed four previous conferences: Rio de Janeiro, Medellín, Puebla and Santo Domingo

Pope Benedict delivered at the beginning of the Conference an address which set out the agenda (Conference Hall, Shrine of Aparecida Sunday, 13 May 2007)

The Conference produced a document called "The Aparecida Document" which was approved of by Pope Benedict. The Document and Pope Benedict`s introduction are here

In June 2012, George Weigel in First Things said:

"I read the “Aparecida Document,” the final report of the Fifth General Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM), which was held in Brazil in 2007. This master plan for the New Evangelization in Latin America is rather long—20-times longer than the Gospel of Mark, I’d guess. But in virtually every other respect it’s an entirely admirable piece of work that should be known throughout the world Church."

Weigel was impressed by the lack of defensiveness about the document. It frankly acknowledged that the Church had failed in its essential message to evangelise. It was not a political or bureaucratic document.

Weigel interviewed the then Cardinal Bergoglio about why the Document was such a break from previous CELAM documents. Here is what he said:

"In a meeting with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., the archbishop of Buenos Aires and one of the world Church’s great leaders, I asked how the Aparecida Document—which seemed such a break from previous CELAM documents—had happened. The cardinal cited three reasons. 

First, Aparecida is a Marian shrine, and meeting there oriented the bishops’ reflections in two directions: toward the traditional piety of Latin America and toward Our Lady as the Star of the New Evangelization (as Blessed John Paul II had named her). In that intersection between past and future, and under Mary’s protection, there was an opportunity for real creativity in facing the truth of the Church’s situation and prospects. 

Second, the bishops had regular contact with the throngs that came to Aparecida on pilgrimage: it was as if CELAM was meeting, not in some convention center or monastic enclosure, but right in the middle of the People of God on their pilgrimage through the early 21st century—a pilgrimage in which both popular piety and new missionary initiatives will be part of the New Evangelization and in which lay Catholics will be the Church’s primary evangelists. 

And third, the cardinal replied, the bishops were surrounded by prayer: as they discussed the future of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean at the shrine of Aparecida, they could hear their people praying around them. Thus the fifth CELAM conference became, not another bureaucratic exercise, but a kind of retreat."

The visit to Aparecida and the Aparecida Document seemed to have a profound effect on Pope Benedict XVI. Most of his Address to the Members of the Curia in December 2007 was devoted to the visit and the Document

Here is his address

The Address should be read in full

Here is a short extract:

"[I]t was there that we drafted the document on the theme "Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that in him they may have life". 

Of course, someone might immediately ask: but was this the right subject at this time in history in which we are living? Was it not too abrupt a turn toward interiority at a moment when the great challenges of history, the urgent questions about justice, peace and freedom, require the full commitment of all people of good will and in particular of Christianity and the Church? Should we not have tackled these problems rather than withdrawing into the inner world of faith? .. 

[W]as Aparecida right to give priority to the discipleship of Jesus Christ and to evangelization in the quest for the life of the world? Might it have been an erroneous withdrawal into interiority? 

No! Aparecida decided correctly because it is precisely through the new encounter with Jesus Christ and his Gospel - and only in this way - that forces are inspired which enable us to give the right response to the challenges of the time."