Forgive me that for three days entry is not created, but today I had a speech to the opening of the cable, so the stress was outstanding and I was not able to focus on something else (something went wrong, but I like it in my usual style - it was crazy.) Yesterday a student asked me whether the image, which is in contact can be considered a late medieval copy of another medieval, endowed with great veneration of English paintings. Already the first glance, however, indicated that we have more to do with the poor quality of the earliest second dziełkiem Call. Seventeenth century, and in my private opinion, probably from the early eighteenth century was However, this reason for me to once again reach the books on medieval paintings in the Iberian Peninsula (and the receipt of meritorious opieprzu for drinking cola in bibiotece). Well, back demons ... which has always been my grief. Because if you look at all the devils by St. overcome. George and Archangel Michael, is contrary to appearances, though ugly, it's not such a terrible devil, as he is painted. It's about them so I will post today.
presented next illustration is one of the most famous late medieval paintings resulting in the Iberian Peninsula (now you can stumble on them visiting the National Gallery in London). Its author is a native of Cordoba, Bartolome Bermejo (real name is Bartolome de Cardenas), which according to some art historians, was one of the best artists in Spain before El Grecia, although I personally think that this deserved a more honorable title Pedro Berrugeute. It should be noted, however, not only for strictly Flemish style of painting (the artist was educated in the Netherlands), but also the manner in which the devil are shown on one of the more famous his paintings. This is also the occasion of the oldest preserved piece, which can be attributed to the artist.
"Sw. Michael kills the dragon, "from about 1468 was originally designed for the parish church in Tous (the city of the Valencia, where the artist lived) as the central altar painting. While the Convention itself the image should not surprise us, it does raise a smile on your face can also smiling (or scared?) Mug deptanego creature. On one side we have the client because of work, so Juan Antonio, lord of Tous, who is entrusted with the Archangel (a thus active in the fight with the devil), delving into the prayer and recitation of Psalm 51 and 130. However, a grotesque monster catches the viewer's attention. First of all, worthy of praise for the artist is the idea of \u200b\u200breproduction of red-eye analogy with crystals and ornaments of Jaszczurcza armor. If you look closely, you can easily see that even resemble the jaws of the end nałokietników some dangerous reptiles. And the skinny devil himself is far from being any threat to sprawiania payer and the archangel.
idea of \u200b\u200bpresenting the devil in this way, of course, not derived from the land of Spain today, but from other cultural centers of Europe at that time. However, while for example in Italy is dominated by big mouth swallowing the damned, the artists in the Netherlands much more willing to experiment with this, the creatures should have with "posklejać" to the devil looked like the most scary and unusual. A classic example is the work of Hieronymus Bosch's even, but it predates him by several decades, Dirk (Dieric) Bouts in the "Last Judgement" shows the different creatures that combine features of a frog and a cow or a bat rays and ( link ). Although from our perspective it looks hilarious, yet in "The Fall of the Damned" (one of the few surviving parts of the aforementioned "Last Judgement") revealed what is was all quite popular in the painting of the late Middle Ages, so the real fear of the devil as the driving force behind the world. Also in Poland we have the forms. Just go on a trip to the abbey in the Land and in one of the rooms to see harcującego devil, who has two faces, one of them ... on the buttocks.
For such a fairly widespread solution Bartolome Bermejo, however, is not established. Contrasted rather shining armor, the principal defender of the world and the viewer with the armor of the devil, which in itself is another of his face. This multiplication seems to be no borders: the serpent's tail, wings and legs of the dragon-like bird legs. It is hard to believe that such a creature was able to keep a sword and armor to defend against (and above all to attack) holding the weapon archangel. Of course, so as to clarify the issue, from the mouth of the additional armor, and took art historians are already wiser (and older) than me. It is therefore several reasons. The first is the mythical way of portraying people living in fantasy lands. I have already mentioned some time ago about psiogłowcach as one of the best examples of these beliefs, supported the medieval scientific literature ( link ). Time acefale, so people fish without the head, which according to the Romans to be of Nubian tribes. Of course, as befits such a creature had to be brave, bloodthirsty and niewychowane, so probably for these reasons at the time of Diocletian occupied Lower Egypt ;-) (Romans finally managed to bounce Thebes, but the legend remains.)
But what does this have to do with the devil? To explain this we need to reach their presentation, not only in art, but literature. Take for example this "Othello", where we can find the main character's monologue describing Desdemonie far lands and peoples: "It went back to talk about kanibalach what to eat each other, Antropofagach, a fabulous peoples, whose head grows down arms ...." And Shakespeare himself took this passage from Walter Raleigh, who described the Indians. I think the conquistadors (including the notorious Orellana latest Indiana Jones) busily made notes about meetings with only the Amazons.
Another idea, which could benefit samokonsumujących Bermejo is the idea of \u200b\u200bthe creatures. On the one hand, this being symbolized infinity, the repetition or "circularity" of history, such as Uroboros snake eating its own tail, but at the same time began to appear only focus on the things of this life, and thus fell into condemnation (instead of "directionality" to the sky) . Let us dispense with longer tail that sometimes tried to weave into this samokonsumpcję criticism of various sexual behavior ... But it is precisely in this sphere of human life can be found the last source of additional jaws of hell, mentioned by the authors of numerous books. Vagina dentata
. So in Latin called "toothed vagina" connected with the myth of the body of a woman who specifically "armed" men consuming przyrodzenie (maybe some people associate the film "Teeth" or modifications of this idea in the third part of the "Blade"). Of course you can talk about the fact that it is is a form of expression of male fear of too much infatuation in a woman's body and place the problem in the context of psychoanalysis, but you only need to pay attention to the fact that the vagina dentata present there are times when fighting scenes St. George and the Dragon. This dragon is sometimes the more feminized, and if we add to this one form of female hysteria, about which they wrote the ancient as Plato, Galen, Hippocrates and St. Augustine, called the "wandering uterus", we get quite unusual, caricature of a dragon-devil-woman, instead of the grotesque creature, as he seemed at first glance.
placed above the dragon B. Bermejo is not the only of its kind to appear in English art, as seen even in the second illustration of today's post or the painting of Pedro Garcia de Benabarre, lubującego to literally illustrate the existing ideological concepts. For example, in a scene out of the Archangel Michael fighting the devil in an even more eloquent way, was released two joint nature of Satan, who by the way pulls together a frightened soul of the sinner. In turn, the scene of martyrdom of St. Sebastian first put a few tips in the body of the martyr (Which is still standard in the art of that time), but the scene putting podziurawionego saint to cloacal artist himself could give. So clearly that the devil is not so harmless as it might seem. The aim of the artists was to show that in a confrontation with the messenger of the heavens he does not have a chance, but those souls who certainly did not lead a pious life but are caught in a world of eternal damnation. Thus, the viewer can easily be convinced that the only hope for him is confidence in the commandments of their religion, and the abstractness or a hostile creature fantazyjność indicate the futility of neglecting the duties of a pious Christian.
0 comments:
Post a Comment