Reconsidering Transcendence in Art

Presence or Absence of Divine Learning from Michelangelo and Van Gogh Spirituality, Articles, Spiritual Quotes, consciousness

Reconsidering Transcendence and spirituality in art

Spiritual Quotes

by Nataša Pantović

“Beauty is the word that shall be our first. Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach, since only it dances as an uncontained splendor around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another. Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness. No longer loved or fostered by religion, beauty is lifted from its face as a mask, and its absence exposes features on that face which threaten to become incomprehensible to man. We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past — whether he admits it or not — can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

On the 13^th of May, I spent hours meditating on the reflections of the two-day international conference on 'Reconsidering Transcendence: Between Presence and Absence' organized by the Faculty of Theology of Malta and their most inspiring Dean John Berry. Invited by a soul-friend Alda, I knew I was up for a treat and I'll tell you in a minute why...

Michelangelo's Passion for Beauty and Transcendent consciousness

A cousin of mine, Milan Gutić, a University of Belgrade Art Graduate, whilst finalizing his first year of the Faculty of Mathematics, got so inspired by Michelangelo and has decided to against the wishes of all his guardians focus on studying Art instead of Abstract Mathematics.

TITLE:  Michelangelo:  The Artist, The Man, and His Times

AUTHOR:  William E. Wallace

DATE PUBLISHED:  2011

FORMAT:  Paperback

ISBN-13:  978-1-107-67369-4

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From the blurb:

"Michelangelo is universally recognized to be one of the greatest artists of all time. In this vividly written biography, William E. Wallace offers a substantially new view of the artist. Not only a supremely gifted sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, Michelangelo was also an aristocrat who firmly believed in the ancient and noble origins of his family. The belief in his patrician status fueled his lifelong ambition to improve his family's financial situation and to raise the social standing of artists. Michelangelo's ambitions are evident in his writing, dress, and comportment, as well as in his ability to befriend, influence, and occasionally say "no" to popes, kings, and princes. Written from the words of Michelangelo and his contemporaries, this biography not only tells his own stories but also brings to life the culture and society of Renaissance Florence and Rome. Not since Irving Stone's novel The Agony and the Ecstasy has there been such a compelling and human portrayal of this remarkable yet credible human individual."

In this informative and fast paced biography of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.  We learn about his life, his family, his relationships with other artists and patrons, his friends, some of the politics occuring in Rome and Florence during his lifetime, and something of his projects and poetry. Wallace has reserarched his subject extensively and makes use of (and quotes) many of Michelangelo's personal letters.  However, Wallace doesn't not elaborate on any methods or techniques Michelangelo made use of during his many projects.  I would also have liked more detail on how Michelangelo dealt with all his commissions, assistants and actualy physicaly work.

The book includes 10 colour photographs of Michelangelo's works, but it would have been more helpful if the author had included photos of all the works discussed in the book so the reader could see what he was talking about.  The book also includes a list of all the popes during Michelangelo's lifetime, as well as a "cast of principle characters" which is useful since a great many people have the same first name.

This biography is accessible, informative and makes a good introduction to the subject.

OTHER BOOKS

-Brunelleschi's Dome:  How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King

-Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

I'm always reluctant to start these and then love them once I do.  Jaya Jones is an historian specialising in Indian history (India Indian) and I admit, that's not my historical catnip.  But Pandian always ties the plot to other cultures too, and then there's the female Indiana Jones vibe with a touch of art thief, and each book pretty much ends up as a fun adventure.

This time, Jaya gets information about an unknown renaissance artist rumoured to have worked with Michelangelo; this artist spent many years working and learning from artists in India and could be a long missing link between Indian and renaissance art.  This information sends her to Italy, where it's said the artist hid his artwork in the Parco dei Mostri - The Park of Monsters.

Pandian manages to weave Jaya's brother into the story line - although I have to say, I think I was meant to like him, but he just came across as a stick-up-the-backside prat.  More romantic progress is made and many startling revelations revealed, but this doesn't take up much story space.  

While there are a few elements I disliked, for the most part it was a fun story: art, adventure, thieves, ghosts, and big gothic statuary.  It would be hard not to like it.

As always, Pandian includes an author's note at the end explaining what in the story is historically accurate, and what is fiction/creative license. Parco dei Mostri is a real place, as is the fact that Michelangelo spent time in the vicinity around the time of the Park's creation.

Total pages:  273

$ Earned: $3.00

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling is another very good work of art history from Ross King.  It covers in most detail the years 1505, when Michelangelo was called to Rome from Florence by Pope Julius II to make his tomb, to 1512, when he finished the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  It also takes a good look at Julius II, at Raphael (who was working next door), and to a lesser extent the other personalities dominating the Italian scene in the first decade or so of the 16th century.

Michelangelo was as grumpy as he was talented.  He was overjoyed to get the job of making Pope Julius II's tomb (seen as an affirmation that he was indeed the world's best sculptor), and then very angry that Julius changed his mind, and wanted him to fresco a ceiling instead.  (He had not worked in that medium in half his lifetime, since he was a teenager in the shop of Domenico Ghirlandaio.)  I can only envision him muttering, "Damn it, Pope Julius, I'm a sculptor, not a painter!"

He continued grumpy as he went to work on the ceiling.  His assistants were annoying.  His neck hurt.  Someone was stealing the marble he had bought for the pope's tomb, which had been left just lying around.  His family back in Florence were all lazy, or unambitious, or too ambitious, and expected him to pay for everything.  He wasn't being paid enough.  The pope was a megalomaniac who knew nothing about art.

That last one was pretty much true.  Julius II was a piece of work.  He was intent on re-conquering lands that had formerly been part of the Papal States - and he was then shocked and surprised that when he went to war with his neighbors, they called in someone larger to protect them.  (That would be France.)  He issued coins which compared him to Julius Caesar on one side, and to Jesus Christ on the other.

He also did not have great taste in art.  His original plans for the ceiling featured strongly the emblems of his own family - oak leaves - (which would have been much simpler to execute) and Michelangelo rejected them out of hand.  Then, when it was done, he insisted it wasn't really done, because it hadn't been covered in gold leaf.  Julius disliked the existing frescoes in the papal bedroom (the art had been installed by one of his recent, loathed, predecessors, Pope Alexander VI, a Borgia) so much he moved down a floor.  He hired Raphael to decorate the library of his new suite.

Raphael was not nearly as grumpy as his rival at work over in the chapel, and was dubious about Michelangelo's skills as a painter - until he saw the half-finished ceiling.  (Michelangelo hated visitors interrupting his work.)  He then paid him a painter's compliment, inserting Michelangelo into the already mostly done "School of Athens."  He immortalized one notoriously grumpy genius as another notoriously grumpy genius - Heraclitus.  (Michelangelo would also paint a self-portrait of himself on the ceiling; as a grumpy Jeremiah.)

When the ceiling was done in 1512, Michelangelo might have thought he was done with the Sistine Chapel.  That was far from the case.  He'd be called back to work on its altar wall, painting the Last Judgment, in the 1530s and 1540s.  And while he was still finishing up that work, he got the job as architect of St. Peter's basilica.  ("Damn it, Pope Paul, I'm a sculptor, not an architect!") 

Recommended to those interested in Michelangelo, in the Renaissance, or just in very readable art history.

A lost work of art linking India to the Italian Renaissance. A killer hiding behind a centuries-old ghost story. And a hidden treasure in Italy’s macabre sculpture garden known as the Park of Monsters…

Filled with the unexpected twists, vivid historical details, and cross-cultural connections Pandian is known for, Michelangelo’s Ghost is the most fast-paced and spellbinding Jaya Jones novel to date.

When Jaya’s old professor dies under eerie circumstances shortly after discovering manuscripts that point to a treasure in Italy’s Park of Monsters, Jaya and her brother pick up the trail. From San Francisco to the heart of Italy, Jaya is haunted by a ghost story inexorably linked to the masterpieces of a long-dead artist and the deeds of a modern-day murderer. Untrustworthy colleagues, disappearing boyfriends, and old enemies—who can Jaya trust when the ghost wails?

I adore the Jaya Jones series. True, I have only read the previous book in the series, but I loved it. It was such an easy-going adventurous story and I'm glad to say that this book was just as good as the previous one. Jaya Jones old professor contacts her with a tantalizing discovery. A manuscript that could show the way to some hidden masterpieces by a disgraced Renaissance artist. However, Jaya wonders if there someone out there who is after the masterpieces when the professor suspiciously dies. Someone that doesn't hesitate to kill to get to them...

In this book is Jaya Jones teaming up with her brother Mahilan and his girlfriend Ava in searching for clues to where the artist Lazzaro Allegri's masterpieces can be hidden. Of course, Jaya's boyfriend Lane Peters is also in the book, even though he is not traveling with her to Italy since they can really have an open relationship because of his past. And, he has another "job". I was a bit sad that my favorite character Henry North didn't seem to be in the story, but I got myself a surprise when he did have a cameo later on in the book. It's so typical of me to like the "bad guy" the most!

The story was wonderfully engaging and interesting, sure I did see some twist coming, but I enjoyed the book immensely. Pandian sure knows how to write a great adventurous story with interesting and likable characters. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I have the first two books in the series, but I have yet not read them.