Baidarka

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/A/angelico/angelico59.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/A/angelico/angelico59.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bosch/bosch70.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bosch/bosch70.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto21.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto21.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto116.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto116.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto5.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/G/giotto/giotto5.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/D/duccio/duccio71.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/D/duccio/duccio71.html</a>

<a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/G/grunewald/grunewald1.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/G/grunewald/grunewald1.html</a>


Think about all of the great paintings inspired by biblical scenes. I would imagine that most everyone reading this has seen an image of Leonardo da Vinci’s <a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html</a> Last Supper. Now we all know that Leonardo da Vinci never saw Jesus. Does anyone reading this think that Leonardo da Vinci was inspired by the Holy Spirit? Does anyone think that he was inerrant? Shouldn’t Jesus and the Disciples have their heads covered? What about Michelangelo’s <a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/M/michelangelo/michelangelo6.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/M/michelangelo/michelangelo6.html</a> pieta is this an accurate representation of Jesus & Mary? Is the Holy Spirit more likely to inspire a writer or a painter? Imagine if we were to burden Artists with the demand of inerrancy. We would condemn da Vinci because the tableware was inaccurate. In Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Adoration of the Magi <a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bruegel/pieter1.html" target="_blank">http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bruegel/pieter1.html</a> Middle Easterners look like Northern Europeans Bethlehem is covered in snow. Michael Angelo's Mary is too tall.
This is great Art but we don’t or at least we shouldn’t ruin our appreciation for this art by burdening it with the expectation of inerrancy. Every one of these artists sees a different Jesus, We could say that they are contradictory. What I’m trying to say is that just as we shouldn’t burden art with an expectation of inerrancy. We should understand that the world’s Holy books are as beautiful as these artworks and as inaccurate in their details.

Peter Kirby

By the way, I have tried to spice things up in my web site by including medieval and renaissance art of scenes in Christian myth. If anyone has any suggestions (for art of any kind) for the web pages that remain unadorned, please get in touch.

<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/" target="_blank">http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/</a>

I am especially interested in finding a photo of the Chair/Statue of Hippolytus!

best,
Peter Kirby

Windy Willow

Hey Peter, I did a quick search and all I could find right now that had anything to do with Hippolytus was at:

The Madonna and Child with Saints
<a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG1165" target="_blank">http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG1165</A>


Mythological Characters
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6946/images/mythological.html" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6946/images/mythological.html</A>


I'll keep search. - WW

Peter Kirby

WW, thanks for the search. I think that the second one concerns the Hippolytus of Greek playwright Euripides. The first one, though, will do fine, until I find a photo of the Chair!

Excuse me for kind of hijacking this thread. I generally agree that a sophisticated faith could be one that looks upon the books of the New Testament as a form of art to be appreciated instead of dogmatized as literal fact.

best,
Peter Kirby

Baidarka

<a href="http://www.art-spirit.net/frames/spitzH.html" target="_blank">http://www.art-spirit.net/frames/spitzH.html</a>

Here's one of mine, A Gnostic Eden with a good serpent and a monstrous Demi-Urge.

Amos

Nice one Baidarka. In a Gnostic Eden the serpent must face down from the TOK to be the temptress from there. In the final battle she must be dragged out of the TOK and raised in the TOL.

In the Mary figure in the Pieta must be equal in size to the image of Christ because they are one and the same.

Toto

I once asked how liberal Christians differentiated between Shakespeare and the Bible, since both contain events that did not happen and moral lessons and poetry. I don't think I ever got an answer.

Baidarka

Amos
Thank you for the thumbs up.
I hate to reveal my extreme unhipness but would you please translate TOK & TOL into the vernacular.
In a sense I see your speculations as a type of jazz poetry riffing off Biblical images in a strange but not unpleasant way, a little obtuse but interesting none the less, in some ways very similar to the creative way that the Gnostics expanded on Biblical themes.
I think that you would enjoy the Art and writings of Alfred Jensen <a href="http://www.alfredjensen.com/home.html" target="_blank">http://www.alfredjensen.com/home.html</a>
You might find a kindred spirit in him.

Amos

TOK means Tree of Knowledge and TOL means Tree of Life. TOL is effeminate or woman or soul, and TOL is masculine or human or ego built on a blank slate. In our mythology both these minds have a female (serpent) called Mary and Eve and also a male called Christ and Adam.

Thanks for the tip and I will check it out.

[ October 12, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

Baidarka

Amos
I see Yin and Yang in the garden.
One slight problem you have made a little typo and listed YOL as both Yin and Yang.