Artists and Channels of the Divine

6/24/24

I am convinced more than ever that artists are what keep us from drowning in confusion. In a world where money and industry and power are valued the most, we return again and again to artists of all sorts to remind us of our humanity and our divinity. They are our storytellers and our mirrors. They are our imaginations woven with skill into recognizable inspiration and affirmation.

We experienced many different types of art whilst travelling in Europe. Music: Scottish folk, Jazz and communal hymns. Architecture. Film. Culinary works. Ancient religious icons and markers, weavings of wool, ironworks, and ultimately the elite collection of Le Louvre. Despite the magnificence and palatial grandeur of Le Louvre, there was not a sense of disconnection from the people. In my experience, the art of the Louvre is felt very much as a shared inheritance - a wonder held collectively.

In going to Paris I was working with an impression that certain experiences would be as I expected. That the food would be Julia Child's promise of trout glistening in a pool of buerre blanc and herbs, for example. That omelettes would only exist in classic French form, delicately folded this way then that and pale as the moon. Some things were not quite as I imagined, but others were grander. Architecture and art were larger than life and had a presence beyond their simple material form. They felt alive.

The Louvre has many wings and many cultures representing but I only had time to experience one wing. So my pictures do not convey the diversity of the whole. And I also can't say relics from non-European cultures belong there anyway.

The statue of Nike is everything one could possibly imagine as well as other statues I witnessed and had learned about many years past. Seeing dimples of skin in marble and my favorite painting - Madonna of the Rocks -by Leonardo da Vinci followed by The Mona Lisa was surreal. Breathtaking was the art of the French Revolution. These were all deeply impactful.

Since beginning this post I have seen a live performance of “Rent” at my local community theater. The emphasis on the risks inherent to living as an authentic, fully embodied artist were driven home again. The very world artists thrive in is anti- empire. Art requires space, heart, support and community. True artists, like true theologians and guides are our collective soul through suffering and triumph no matter the scale.

There is quite a bit more to ponder in the image descriptions below, but please forgive me for not attempting more than I am capable of describing or interpreting adequately.

Images:

1- The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Le Louvre. Room 703 Level 1, Denon Wing. This is a statue, perhaps 12 ft tall but far more with the pedestal which resembles the front of a ship. The entire statue is featured in a massive open landing on the grand staircase with ceilings perhaps 100 ft high. She is carved in white marble. It is an embodiment of the goddess Nike with head and arms missing. Nike is carved with beautiful strong legs, and you can see through the fabric to the flesh. There is great detail, such as the curve of her stomach and the indentation of her navel. There is fluid movement in the fabric. The figure is winged.

2- A Hall of marble statues in the Denon wing

3- A different angle of the Nike statue.

4- Eugène Delacroix : La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People), 1830 Musée du Louvre, Paris

The goddess Liberté is seen waving the French flag amidst a war scene championed by revolutionaries. Bodies lay on the ground.

5- Sandro Botticelli: A Young Man Being Introduced by Venus to the Seven Liberal Arts 1484 Denon Wing, Le Louvre. An image depicting Venus as a woman in red introduces a young man with long hair to a host of those representing the seven liberal arts. For example, astronomy is represented by one who holds a scorpion in her lap.

6- Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres: Grande Odalisque

Wiki: “In La Grande Odalisque, Ingres rendered the female body in an exaggerated, almost unbelievable way. Much like the Mannerists centuries earlier—Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck (c. 1535) immediately comes to mind—Ingres distorted the female form in order to make her body more sinuous and elegant.”

7- Leonardo da Vinci: 'The Virgin of the Rocks', about 1483–5. Musée du Louvre. I cannot offer you an image description of this painting because I have too many emotions about it and have loved it for a long time. This painting is full of mystery and the meaning behind it is ever evolving. DaVinci really trips me up because I feel such deep connections. I would encourage you to look up image descriptions and history and conjecture about this painting and DaVinci for yourself.

8- Leonardo da Vinci (the) Mona Lisa. 1503. Here I'll insert the same encouragement to look up descriptions elsewhere. The Mona Lisa is far more than what anyone person can say about it.

9 and 10 Two sculptures: Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss is a sculpture by Italian artist Antonio Canova first commissioned in 1787. Cupid's arms reach around Psyche who reaches up around Cupid's neck. The elegance of their reach toward one another is exquisite. The latter is a close-up of the sculpture Mercury and Psyche. This sculpture reminds me that it is communication and meaning that rescues the soul for love.

10 -Johann Heinrich Füssli: The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth late 18th century. The terrified eyes of a person who has committed a crime and is accountable to God points in the perceived direction of God while holding a torch and lumbering about intent on restlessness at night.

11- Paul De la Roche: The Young Martyr , Le Louvre. An illuminated woman floats in a river with her hands tied and a Halo rises above her almost like a bubble. She is a Christian martyr.

12- This is my photo snapped quite quickly assuming that I didn't even get a decent one, and somewhat irritated that someone stepped into the frame. I was tired. It was the end of the day and I didn't even attempt another image… I did not realize what I had captured.

The inverted pyramid is a source of mythological controversy for folks who follow Dan Brown novels or Mary Magdalene mythology and/or scholarship. I say mythology because Dan Brown admits that his novels are fictional, yet he includes many clues from Mary Magdalene narratives which have been proven not to be mythology. In fact, some of the “debunking” of Dan Brown's nonfiction research, which he claims to be the true aspects of his work is now outdated because of recent discoveries which debunk the debunking, so to speak. Regardless, in this photo you see the inverted pyramid in the background, which in the novels is the location of the burial site of Mary Magdalene in Le Louvre. The reason for secrecy surrounding Mary Magdalene in the novel is because the Holy Grail is the secret of her partnership with Jesus and the bloodline of a child they had together. Therefore, you can see why this photo actually fascinates me. I snapped it quickly and this is what I got. Hello, stranger. Do you have a message for me?