When I first went to the National Gallery to visit the Visions of Paradise exhibition I asked the guard at the door the best way to find the exhibition (I get lost easily!) He kindly gave me directions and then added with a smile "you can't miss it". And he was rightI The brilliant light of the picture grabs your attention the moment you are within view. You can't take your eyes away from it. The painting is massive and its light is intense, startling, breathtaking. Botticini knew what most of us over the age of 50 already now only too well, that to see you need light! (I find it's impossible for me to read now unless I have a powerful lamp shining directly onto the page in front of me). And his picture is full of light; it's almost like a bright lamp itself, shining brilliantly in the corner of our room/galley/chapel, helping us to see! Not words on a page of course, but the divine reality. In the last post I talked about the lower panel of the painting, with its focus on the sponsors, Matteo Palmieri and his wife Niccolosa. In one sense the painting is really about them and I discussed the ways in which their position on the mountain top represents their claim to have been virtuous patrons, not just of Botticini and this painting, but of Florence. But the first thing you look at when you see the painting, as the guard pointed out to me, is not the two pious, kneeling figures in the centre, but the glorious dome of heaven above and its spectacular brilliance. In this post I want to talk about how understanding the importance of light in this picture helps us to grasp the spiritual and theological purpose of the painting!
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Having overcome his doubts about making the journey Dante now stands at the gates of hell. Inscribed over the gates he sees this terrible inscription Through me the way the city of misery But lest he think this place is the creation of some malevolent power opposed to God, he discovers that this terrible place was conceived by and created by God. Justice moved my creator on high The most terrible thing of all is the sheer sense of hopelessness this forbidding place inspires. There is no end to its horrors the pilgrim discovers. it has always been and always will be. Before me there was nothing In confusion he turns to Virgil his guide for help. Virgil tells the pilgrim that he must be brave and with an encouraging hand he leads the way through the gates. These words I saw darkly inscribed over an archway. And I said Inscriptions above doors and gates can be very revealing. They are usually intended to tell the visitor something about of the place they are about to enter. It can be a company name, a memorial inscription reminding visitors of how and when the building was erected or, sometimes, it can be a message suggesting how the place and its purpose are suited. This was brought to a terrible reality in the sign that was posted by the Nazis above the gates of many of the concentration camps they constructed. The sign said "Arbeit macht frei" (work shall set you free). The sign was a travesty of truth. The work those condemned to the camps would do would probably kill them and, if it didn't, then the gas chambers would finish the job. There was no freedom here only, perhaps, the freedom of death. Whether they intended it as such or not, the Nazis gave to these words a malevolent irony. It challenges everything we thought we knew about 'freedom'. As the pilgrim and Virgil enter hell they read the sign inscribed on the gates. It proclaims that this place of torture and hopelessness has been created by the Justice, Wisdom and Love of God. Just as we are revolted by the Nazi signs over the gates of their earthly 'hells', the reader is confused and horrified by the words on the gates of Dante's hell. How can this place from which there is no escape, not even the escape of death, be a manifestation of the divine wisdom and love? Is there a similar malevolent irony at work here too? Is love not what we thought it was? Is God not who we thought God was? Understanding the answer to these questions is, I think, one of the keys to understanding the whole work.
So, how do you imagine heaven? Green meadows? Rolling hills? Golden cities? Cloudy vistas? I imagine we all have our own personal vision of what heaven might be like, but I doubt if anyone reading this would have gone for the 'alien mothership' vision employed by Francesco Botticini in his masterpiece The Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven now on display as part of an exhibition in the National Gallery in London. Like a great otherworldly vessel, the huge resplendent 'dome' appears to hover over the earth, its insides open to view from below. Inside we can see row upon row of 'superior beings' sat in an ordered hierarchy of importance watching the action in the centre - a human being is physically being lifted up (on what appears to be a magic carpet) to the apex of the structure where she is greeted by the 'supreme being' (seated but also seated on a magic carpet). The human being of course is Mary the mother of Jesus and it is the risen and exalted Jesus himself who greets her. This is no medieval representation of alien abductions or a foretelling of the invention of hover boards, but rather a vision of heaven, heaven as the destination of the righteous and the home of God and the angels, but a heaven which is a truly 'alien' physical space just beyond the stars. Colourful, magisterial, bizarre, and, in the views of some of that era, heretical, this painting (also known as the Palmieri Altarpiece) is one of the strangest and most imaginative depictions of heaven ever attempted in art. In this and the following posts I want to explore this wonderful painting in some detail especially looking at the ideas about heaven and paradise that might have influenced Botticini. Dante the pilgrim is on the threshold of the greatest adventure of his life. He is beginning a journey which will take him through the wonders of paradise to the highest heaven and the vision of God. But on the way, he knows, he will be a witness to the horrors of the damned in hell, and of the trials of those who must purge their sins away through suffering, in purgatory. This then is going to be an arduous, harrowing journey. He must prepare himself! The day was coming to its end and the darkening air Inferno Canto 2:1-6 To help his resolve he reminds himself of two other famous visitors to the afterword. He thinks about Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil's great epic poem the Aeneid, and his journey to the underworld. Then he remembers that the Apostle Paul spoke about a journey he made to paradise in the third heaven. But these thoughts don't help him; in fact they make things worse. When he contemplates his famous predecessors he realises that he has no qualifications for such a journey. He is no ancient warrior here (like Aeneas) nor is the chosen apostle of the Church, like Paul. Suddenly he feels terribly inadequate. He tells Virgil his feelings and seeks his help. But me? Who has deemed me fit to go there? Inferno Canto 2:31-36 And so he begins to have second thoughts Like someone who loses the desire Inferno Canto 2:37-42 Virgil sees the pilgrim's dilemma. He understands the terror in his heart "If I have rightly understood your words", Inferno Canto 2:43-48 Virgil encourages the pilgrim by telling him why he came to help him. He tells the pilgrim that the lady Beatrice herself, the great love of Dante's life, visited him in his 'suspended' place at the edge of hell, where he exists in a shadowy half life with the other great pagan thinkers and writers, and that there she asked him to find and help the pilgrim. He is only here to help the pilgrim because the woman Dante the pilgrim (and Dante the writer) adored has summoned him. By saying this Virgil reminds the pilgrim that Grace and Beauty are waiting for him on 'the other side'. I was one of those who were suspended Inferno Canto 2:52-57 Beatrice had been told about the pilgrim's struggle on the mountain by Saint Lucia who in turn had been sent by the Virgin Mary herself. Beatrice had been desperately worried that Dante the pilgrim would be too afraid of the the wild beasts ever to leave the forest and find the way to paradise. Virgil describes what she said to him about the pilgrim "My friend, who is no friend of Fortune, Inferno Canto 2:61-70
The pilgrim continues to retreat from the fierce animals but suddenly he is confronted by a shadowy figure While I was fleeing to a lower place When I saw him in that vast wilderness The shade replies revealing that he is the shade of Virgil the great roman poet He answered "Not a man, though once I was. I was born under Julius Caesar (though late in his reign) I was a poet and I sang of that just He asks the pilgrim why he is heading back to the wretched misery of the dark forest rather than climbing the mountain towards paradise "But you, why do you turn back to wretchedness? The pilgrim is overwhelmed with joy at the realisation that this is his hero, the Roman poet Virgil "Are you Virgil that source "You are the glory of all other poets you are my master and my 'author' After commenting on the eventual fate of the three beasts, Virgil reveals that he has been asked to be the pilgrim's guide, first through hell, the place people burn hopelessly, and then through purgatory where they burn hopefully! "Therefore for your sake I think it wise where you shall hear despairing cries And after, you shall see the ones who are content Finally he reveals that he cannot take the pilgrim into heaven (paradise) itself because he has not been counted fit by God. Another (Beatrice) will lead the pilgrim there "Should you desire to ascend to these, For the Emperor who lives on high Everywhere He reigns and there He rules. The pilgrim readily accepts the offer of guidance and help. And I answered: 'Poet, I entreat you. lead me to these realms you speak of Inferno Canto 1:61-87; 112-135 Just as Dante the pilgrim is about to re-enter the dark forest, despairing of ascending the mountain and finding the light of God, a strange, shady form appears in front of him. Amazingly, (since he had been dead for over a thousand years) it is Virgil, the famous Roman poet and Dante's literary hero. In Dante's day Virgil was perhaps the most famous Latin author and it is clear that Dante admired him greatly. He was most famously the author of an epic poem called the Aeneid, the story of the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas after the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, to Italy where he founded the city of Rome. The book, written in Latin, is written in verse and deals with heroic and epic themes and includes a famous (and hugely influential) visit by the hero, Aeneas, to the underworld, where he sees various characters from mythology and from his own life and the punishments and rewards they experience. And yet although we shouldn't be surprised that Dante employs as his (and our guide) to the afterlife someone who had written so masterfully on such themes before, it is a surprising and 'edgy' choice. Part of the genius of Dante is that time and time again we are challenged morally and intellectually by the choices he makes. The readers of Dante's day would have been surprised that a pagan author would play such a crucial role in the story. Here, right at the beginning Virgil acknowledges his distance from the Christian vision. He says he does not belong in paradise so another must guide Dante the pilgrim through that part of his adventure. He was alive during the time of the false and lying gods (presumably implying his own part in their devotion). He confesses that he was a rebel against His law. So, a man who did not know Christ as saviour and Lord will guide the pilgrim away from the forest of dark ignorance and sin towards the light! Because the poem is so well known we barely bat an eyelid at this choice but at the time it was a remarkable one. Dante could have employed a Christian guide, the Apostle Paul (who had visited paradise while he was alive), a church father such as Augustine whose writings had helped to define church thinking on the afterlife, or even, perhaps, as in earlier tours of hell and heaven, an angel. But he didn't. He chose the pagan poet Virgil. But the reasons for that choice help us to understand his purpose in writing the Commedia and the manner in which he writes it.
When I had rested my body there a while As the slope began to rise Whichever way I turned she was there It was that hour early in the morning first started the beautiful motions of those things that gaudy beast, wild in its spotted pelt. and he was coming straight towards me, it seemed And now a she wolf came who, in her leanness, This last beast brought my spirit down so low, Inferno Canto 1:28-60 Drawn to the lightStill in his dream-like state (despite the fact that he claims he has woken up!) Dante sees the light of the sun streaming from the summit of the mountain before him and decides he must head towards it. Physically of course, the light he sees is the light of the rising sun but (as we will see later) the light actually emanates from God. It is really God's light he sees and is attracted to. Quite reasonably, he starts climbing the hill. The light reminds Dante the pilgrim of the first day of creation, when for the very first time the sun and the stars shone. I mentioned in the last post that Dante is the poet of hope and here the reason for his hope is revealed. The God he seeks is the God of creation who brought all things into being out of the darkness of nothingness. As he sees the sunlight he thinks of God's love which first started the beautiful motions of those things (the sun and the stars). The line could alternatively be read as 'setting all those beautiful things in motion'. Either way, Dante equates God, love and beauty with the created order. Later, Dante the pilgrim will discover how God's love and the beauty of the cosmos are closely tied to one another. Dante's search for God involves a search for Love and Beauty too.
Half way through the journey of our life How can I express the horror of that wood To speak of that place is so bitter for me I can't say how I got myself into that place, But when I reached the foot of a slope, looking up, I saw its shoulders Then the fear that had endured And just like someone who, struggling for breath so my mind, still in flight, Inferno Canto 1:1-27 Dante's midlife crisisHalf way through the journey of our life, Dante the pilgrim discovers that he is lost in a dark forbidding forest. Since Dante the poet was born in 1265 and the allotted span of a human life is traditionally 'three score years and ten' (70), the journey through the three domains of the afterlife apparently begins in the year 1300. The pilgrim is 35, so at the mid point of his life. But this, Dante says, is the mid-point of our lives, the lives of the readers too, (despite the fact that, sadly, I am no longer 35!). The poem pulls us all into that terrible forest, for according the writer, we are all enduring a mid-life crisis of existential proportions. We, the readers, stand there too, lost and confused with the pilgrim. But not because we stand there as individual readers, but because this is the crisis of the life of the world in which we all live. According to some medieval speculation about the age of the earth, 1300 stood exactly as the mid-point of the history of the world. The Christian world was in crisis as the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor fought it out for political supremacy over europe. In February 1300 Pope Boniface VIII declared a year of Jubilee (the present Pope has just done the same!) and declared that a plenary indulgence (time off from Purgatory) would be given to everyone who visited the churches of St Peter and St Paul in Rome. This was in fact a huge money-grabbing operation, as tens of thousands flocked to Rome. This is where the story begins, in a year like this, a year which finds mankind at its own 'mid-life crisis'.
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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