Munich in early July 1900 was a fun city with a sunny afternoon. In Thomas Mann's novella, Gladius Dei -- which was published in 1902 -- the city looked like Firenze in 500 years previously.
It was not a coincidence. In this story there is a mini shadow of a great drama in Italian city in the Renaissance: a story of faith and anger.
"Munich is brightly lit," so the story began. All seemed relaxed, especially in the North avenue. People did not plagued by greed to earn money. They just wanted to live comfortably. The women wearing the costume of Alban Hills residents in the southeast of Rome and as it is said in Firenze in 15th century : in Munich, the art appeared in each corner.
Piano, violin or cello sounded from the open windows. Young people gathered at the back of the theater, or in and out of the library for bagging literary magazine, or whistled melody of a fragment of Richard Wagner operas, Sigfried, in the scene when Nothung sword forged.
"Art is growing! Art in power!", the narrator in Gladius Dei said. Above Munich as if the art was smiling, stretching out its scepter.
Furthermore, in one part of the Odeonplatz in the city, stood the shop of Mr. Blüthenzweig. The boutique offered a reproduction of almost all great works of world art, also the curios from the Renaissance era, decorative glass and copper sculptures, vases and colorful portraits of famous artists and philosophers.
And there was something different from the others: on the storefront, on the horses, there was a masterpiece reproduction which depicted the Madonna with the Infant.
But the picture in the frame was not quite conventional.
The woman who took the boy has a stunning figure of womanhood. Her lips smiled with half-open. Her tapering fingers looked nervously over her naked boy hips. The boy played her bare breasts while his eyes glanced at the people looking at him.
A young man who stared at the photo hissed, "Der kleine hat es gut. The little one was awful!"
His friend added, "And it seems he wants to make the people jealous."
Next comment, "Arrgh, ...woman can not be trusted!"
But at that time there was another young man: Hieronymus. He just got out of Ludwig Church where he was brooding and staring at a fresco on the wall, a terrible picture of Judgment Day. When he later passed the storefront of Blüthenzweig and he saw a picture of Madonna's -- and heard the comments -- he could not bear.
He came home. But for three days he could not take his mind of reproduction in the shop at the Odeonsplatz. Suddenly he thought he heard the commandment that he should get rid of the frame which shook the confidence to "Dogma of Immaculate", the belief that Mary was born free of original sin. For Hieronymus, the picture was only born of sensual desire.
He went back to the boutique. Here Hieronymus was the incarnation of a monk from Firence in the 15th century -- both his face and his temperament -- and it was the intention of Thomas Mann.
Girolamo Savonarola: from the pulpit of Cathedral of San Marco, the Dominican monk who was not really eloquent continued preaching toward everything considered depraved -- in morally -- in Firenze. His followers were greatly increased : the youths who seized the goods which were considered luxury items or obscene of people's homes, all stacked in square and burned. What became known as "Il falò delle vanità" The Bonfire of Vanities began from here.
But not in all of the Hieronymus was Savonarala. The monk thought the religion would be better if more books were destroyed. Hieronymus actually recognized the importance of knowledge. "Knowledge," he said, "was "the deepest sorrow of the world", but also the "purgatory" that would take a human soul to the ideal level."
His criticism to the work of art (as he saw it in a shop window) not only because he blasphemed the holy. Hieronymus denounced those who in the name of art, "with brilliant colors," would cover the misery of life. For him, art was knowledge, a torch with compassion would illuminate the abyss, in which were stored the "harsh and grief."
Knowing, no cover-up, illuminating are the main things for him. But the metaphor of "light" in association with "fire" is also overshadowing the destruction. We recall Savonarala in the 20th century is plagued by his impression of the painting in Ludwig church: the earth on fire on the Day of Judgement. Maybe it's because his formulation of arts contains a paradox. "Art," he said, "is the "divine fire" which will burn the world. All the shameful things and agonizing will perish "with redemption compassion".
In this novella, Heronymus words (or Mann?) often bounce and collide with each other. And we will wonder, "Is it true that art is to uncover and find out, and contains a tremendous power, so that God becomes anxious, and he threatens man with a sword -- the Gladius Dei super terram -- especially when what is celebrated just a sensory preoccupation?"
People often think there is a "beauty" in the preoccupation, but actually, it's unclear what the word means. People still continue to contend, "Is it true Picasso canvas is beautiful? Duchamp's Fountain, Otto Dix paintings, and all the works that are considered "degenerate" by the Nazis and "decadent" by the Stalinists.
But maybe the art is just the game in an unusual process, unexpected, but involves our mortal self intensely. Whatever its meaning, I doubt God is anxious.
***
[CZ-lacalifusa 090314]
The Beauty of Falling in Love Virtually :
 |
| In this photo : Alain Soral |
At this time
I want to fall asleep again
Flying high in the clouds
Leave the earth here
At this time I want to create again
I'll write a song while I'm remembering your face
A long night, dimly lit
I listen in the dark
A life of rhyme...
Every action that can be done by animals can be replicated by humans. But every man to do can not always be replicated by animals. If the ingenious people are not able to distinguish the quality and capacity of the culture of each nation-state and eventually draw a correlation, objective linkage so that they are able to provide an accurate diagnosis of several economic phenomena, political, social a nation-state which choked in geography, then they are lower than animals.
Each human can be said to have equal authorized capital to change into the future. But every culture is not equivalent, because certain cultures are positive, while certain cultures indicate the reverse: take us to see the pattern of life in the stone age, which is too limited and underdeveloped.
***
Each human can be said to have equal authorized capital to change into the future. But every culture is not equivalent, because certain cultures are positive, while certain cultures indicate the reverse: take us to see the pattern of life in the stone age, which is too limited and underdeveloped.
***
 |
| Home Without Broom, is a different matter with: Man Without Love. If you are a man without love and you do not have a broom in your house, it is the most fun thing for me to remember. So, what now? Let it dirty! Mwah! Kiss you, Soral! Maybe you are a bit slouchy author, but you are very sexy.  |
A thousand of your black hair straggling
A thousand pine as whack
A thousand mourning in a pretty face
A thousand wound pain in my chest
There I found an open hill
A thousand pine
Sighing softly
A river splitting a bright house
The two of us together lived in it
It seemed there was nothing to fret
And it's not for troubled
Except to be enjoyed
In solemn together
Forever, together forever
***
[CZ-lacalifusa 030914 / freeinterpretationoftheimagesabove]
Looking for suitability of characters between the shades of time in this video with a man and a stone ax in his left hand in the picture above :
No comments:
Post a Comment