February 8, 2006

  • Iconography
    (continued)

    "... iconography,
    the concept and image
    of the bride of Christ--
    the sponsa Christi--
    assumed particular relevance in
    the definition of women's identity."

    -- Silvia Evangelisti in
    Historiographical Reviews

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix06/060208-Sponsa.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


    Related material:

     Arts & Letters Daily
    (Feb. 8, 2006) annotated:

    Dan Brown is not the first to have suggested that Jesus had a sex
    life-- even Martin Luther said it. So what about the lady, Mary
    Magdalene?... more

    "In 'The Little Mermaid,' Ariel's true identity is the 'Lost Bride,' the Magdalene."
    -- Joan Acocella on pop religion in this week's New Yorker

    For literature profs of today, Theory is what the Dialectic was to
    Marxist intellectuals of the past: the key to almost everything... more

    "Contemporary
    literary theory did not emerge in an
    intellectual and cultural vacuum. The subordination of art to
    argument and ideas has been a long time in the works. In The Painted Word, a
    rumination on the state of American painting in the 1970s, Tom Wolfe
    described an epiphany he had one Sunday morning while reading an
    article in the New York Times on an exhibit at Yale University. To appreciate
    contemporary art-- the paintings of Jackson Pollack and still
    more so his followers-- which to the naked eye appeared
    indistinguishable from kindergarten splatterings and which provided
    little immediate pleasure or illumination, it was 'crucial,' Wolfe realized, to have a 'persuasive
    theory,' a prefabricated conceptual lens to make sense of the
    work and bring into focus the artist's point. From there it
    was just a short step to the belief that the critic who supplies
    the theories is the equal, if not the superior, of the artist who
    creates the painting."
    -- Peter Berkowitz, "Literature in Theory"

    The idea that anyone, regardless of learning or class, could "come
    to Christ" went along with the idea of equal rights in America. William
    Jennings Bryan... more

    "... evangelical Protestantism has always been
    an integral part of American political history."
    -- Michael Kazin, Dissent Magazine, Winter 2006

    And from non-Protestantism, for the birthday of John "Star Wars" Williams, we have...

    Sanctus from Missa "Veni Sponsa Christi" (pdf), by Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650).

    Related material: Catholic Tastes and
                               A Mass for Lucero.