But views of heaven and hell changed over time. Left: A detail from “The Last Judgement,” a 13th century Byzantine ceiling mosaic at the Florence Baptistry. Teichner asked, “To what extent is our Western concept of heaven and hell shaped by art?” “I’m tempted to say almost entirely,” replied Richard Townsend, director of the Museum of Biblical Art in New York, “and in fact, that’s why [Biblical] art, up until the modern era, was didactic.”
Can You Guess Which Paintings These Skies are From?
Из сервиса Google Искусство и культура
“Thirty-Six Views of Mt.Fuji; Evening Shower at Mountain Foot” (1831), автор – KATSUSHIKA HokusaiShimane Art Museum
From gathering tempests to serene atmospheres, the sky in a landscape painting sets the mood and creates drama, whether as a background detail or the main action. Scroll on to see if you can recognise these famous painted skies.
“The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834” (1834-1835), автор – Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775 – 1851Philadelphia Museum of Art
We start our cloud-gazing quiz with a rather fiery option. In fact, the oranges, reds and yellows in this background are so strong, they almost totally obscure the clouds themselves.
Just to the right of the inferno, you’ll see dark clouds and even darker plumes of smoke – or could it be smog? At the top of the image, you can see flecks of red, yellow and orange – presumably sparks from the fire that’s raging in the other corner of the painting.
The clouds in the background are steely grey and rather ominous. They could be storm clouds about to burst or they could indicate a darkening night sky.
In the center of the image, we get our biggest clue yet as to its identity. Two Gothic towers stand side by side, their corner spires only just visible through the flames and smoke.
Slightly lower in the image, we see another part of the building, now almost totally consumed by flames. So, have you guessed which masterpiece we’re looking at?
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, JMW Turner
Painted in late 1834 or early 1835, the image depicts the fire that broke out at the Palace of Westminster on the evening of October 16th 1834. The blaze destroyed much of the building, though the 11th century Westminster Hall survived more or less unscathed.
Turner was one of the many people who gathered on the south bank of the river Thames to watch the inferno. He made a number of sketches of the incident and painted two famous works of the event. This version of the fire is currently held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The “Clouds of Heaven” Motif in Art Created for Glencairn
The “clouds of heaven” motif—an arching, multilayered band of clouds, usually appearing at the top of a medieval work of art—is used repeatedly in the original art and decoration created for Glencairn in the 1920s and 1930s. It is found in various locations in the building in stained glass, sculpture, and metalwork. This article will provide examples of the “clouds of heaven,” both in the art made for Glencairn and in Raymond Pitcairn’s personal medieval collection.
Raymond Pitcairn began collecting medieval art in 1916 in order to provide inspirational models for the artists and craftsmen who were working on Bryn Athyn Cathedral. Pitcairn, who supervised both the design and construction of the Cathedral, was determined to build “in the Gothic way.” He assembled a highly skilled creative team in a series of workshops near the construction site, and made available to them his growing collection of medieval stained glass and sculpture. In the late 1920s, as the construction of the Cathedral began to draw to a close, work began on Glencairn, Pitcairn’s castle-like home. The same craftsmen now went about creating medieval-style artwork for the building in stained glass, stone, wood, and metal. Pitcairn’s favorite works of medieval art were incorporated into Glencairn’s Great Hall, placed in juxtaposition with original artwork made in the Bryn Athyn workshops.
Pitcairn placed a strong emphasis on the use of natural materials and actively solicited creative input from his craftsmen—practices that were popular during the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Glencairn’s decorative program included imagery—and even inscriptions carved in wood and set in mosaic—from both the Bible and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). According to stone carver Benjamin Tweedale, Pitcairn sometimes prepared his artisans for their work by asking them to read appropriate passages from the Bible or Swedenborg. They would then discuss the project and begin to formulate design ideas—“all leading to a steadfast expression of faith in stone” (E. Bruce Glenn, Glencairn: The Story of a Home, 1990, 59).
An observant visitor to Glencairn will find numerous examples of the “clouds of heaven” in the building’s original artwork. Sometimes the clouds appear as an element of the overall composition (e.g. Figure 6), and sometimes the clouds seem to be used decoratively (Figures 10-15). Certainly the use of a symbol for heaven is consistent with the rest of the religious imagery in Glencairn. But what, exactly, was the inspiration for this “clouds of heaven” motif?
“Dante’s Inferno”
An early cinematic vision of hell was in the 1935 drama “Dante’s Inferno.” Harry Lachman, a post-impressionist painter who became a set designer and director, incorporated a 10-minute sequence inspired by Dore’s vision of “The Divine Comedy.”
Passengers for heaven board a Concorde to the afterlife in the comedy “Heaven Can Wait” (1978).
“South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”
Fire and brimstone abounded in the hell of the animated film “South Park: “Bigger, Longer and Uncut” (1999), but the musical comedy also featured a Satan who sang wistfully of a life “Up There.”
The Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, Germany, recently hosted an exhibition, “The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory Revisited by Contemporary African Artists.” Among the works on display is “The Day After” (2013) by Sengalese artist Ndary Lo. Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt, Germany
“Prism”
Wim Botha’s bronze sculpture “Prism” (2014), at the Frunkfurt Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, “The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory Revisited by Contemporary African Artists.” Wim Botha at Stevenson Galleries, South Africa Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt, Germany
Photographer and performance artist Claudia Rogge created this digitally manipulated vision of heaven in “Lost in Paradise.”
claudia-rogge.de
“Ever After: Claudia Rogge” (published by Hatje Cantz Verlag)
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
First published on October 26, 2014 / 7:28 AM EDT
