Homework – Due next Friday.

• By referring to at least one of the paintings below discuss to what extent it is possible to effectively study Religious Art at A-Level.

• Paintings:– Fra Angelico’s ‘The Annunciation’ – Rogier van der Weyden’s ‘The Deposition’– Holman Hunt’s ‘The Awakening Conscience’

HINT:HINT:

Can we define religious art?Can we define religious art?Does religious art have to have a Does religious art have to have a religious subject?religious subject?Are religious topics suitable for art?Are religious topics suitable for art?Are there any problems interpreting Are there any problems interpreting religious art?religious art?

What problems are there interpreting

religious art?How do we know what the

focus is of this painting?Religious art has a purpose – what if I am a non-believer?Jesus/God = Very complex. Does the art convey all the

correct meaning?

What does this painting tell us about Jesus?

Saint John of the Cross (24 June 1542 — 14 December 1591), was a

major figure of the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish mystic, and Carmelite friar and priest, born at

Fontiveros, a village near Ávila.

• Dali proceeded to paint the Crucifixion set above the rocky harbour of his home village of Port Lligat in Spain, with the enigmatic addition of boats and figures copied from pictures by Velazquez and Le Nain.

Dali speaking about his art...

• “The explosion of the atom bomb on 6 August 1945 sent a seismic shock through me. Since then, the atom has been central to my thinking. Many of the scenes I have painted in this period express the immense fear that took hold of me when I heard of the explosion of the bomb. I used my paranoic-critical method to analyse the world. I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and laws of things, in order to have them in my power ... More powerful than cyclotrons and cybernetic calculators, I can penetrate to the mysteries of the real in a moment...”

Dali speaking about this painting...

• “It began in 1950 with a cosmic dream I had, in which I saw the picture in colour. In my dream it represented the nucleus of the atom. The nucleus later acquired a metaphysical meaning: I see the unity of the universe in it - Christ! Secondly, thanks to Father Bruno, a Carmelite monk, I saw the figure of Christ drawn by St. John of the Cross; I devised a geometrical construct comprising a triangle and a circle, the aesthetic sum total of all my previous experience, and put my Christ inside the triangle.

Christ is...• “The nucleus later

acquired a metaphysical meaning: I see the unity of the universe in it - Christ!”

• “The aesthetic sum total of all my previous experience, and put my Christ inside the triangle”

• Beneath us...

Issues...• Knowledge already implied– I.e. That is the Sea of Galilee and those are the disciples

• Codes & Symbols– Known and unknown

• Dove = Holy Spirit• Cockleshell = St. Peter

– How do you get to know them?• Artist’s Assumed Knowledge– Of religious texts/subject matter– Of meaning of symbols– Of location/influence/change

• Subject matter: i.e. Indefinable concepts like God