True to the Son

This past week I had the amazing opportunity to go to the British museum AND the National Gallery in London. The British museum was great and I was especially drawn to the Greek section of the museum. The artifacts from the Parthenon and the archetecture were absolutely beautiful. I love to see the detail carved into every area of the building. I love the theme of perfection with the Greek sculptures. As I was looking around at the "fit" Greek bodies, I remembered that Grecians were very competative and hosted many games and athletic competative events. It seems that they prided themselves on their built, in-shape appearances. Ok, enough about that- it was just fun to make the connection even though I'm sure almost everyone knew that already.

Now, the National Gallery. This was my favorite part of the whole time I spent in London. We literally stayed at the museum for three hours. When I was little, I never would have dreamt I could do such a thing. The crazy thing is- I loved every moment of it. I could sit here and write for hours because there was just so much to take in. I can't wait to go back because it was almost overwhelming. Scratch that- it was overwhelming. Though I could write this whole blog over the time there (and probably fifty million more blogs), I just want to point out one thing I noticed that day...

We talked in class about how there is so much Christian or religious art in British history- I love that! But, I must admit I was a little disheartened when Professor Wiggins pointed out the reasoning behind it. He asked us, "who was the ruling power during that time?" and of course the answer is the Church. If the church owned everything and controlled where government money was spent, consequently, the artists would make things the Church would buy/support. This frustrated me because I had been so moved before when I had looked at religous art and I thought it was so awesome that people had these important things on their minds. I loved the thought that people were free to paint whatever they wanted, and they choose to make paintings of Jesus. When I found out that many painters probably painted these things to make a living and appease the Church, I couldn't help but think less of the holiness I had felt about paintings I had seen before.

This is the cool thing, though...

When we went to the national Gallery, I stood in front of a painting of Jesus that literally made me cry (another thing I never would have thought I would ever do). I was so incredibly moved by the expression on his face, that I could almost hear him talking to me. it made me long for when I get to see him face to face and just be in his presence all the time. I realized as I kept lookingthat day that there were other paintings of him and/or Mary and the disciples that moved me. There were also many that of the same things, from world renown artists even, that were beautiful, but hardly moving (to me). They seemed cold and lifeless. I was able to make clear distinctions of those that were painted for the purpose of the Church, and those that were painted out of an intimate spiritual connection. When the connection was there, the atmosphere around the subject(s) of the painting was emotional and the facial expressions spoke ever so loudly.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Like I said, I could write about this for days.

peaceadeace