The mosaics at Resurrection Cemetery at Affton, Missouri, in the Archdiocese of St. Louis include some of the most aesthetically pleasing works of religious art I have ever seen.
St. Louis has been dubbed “Rome of the West” because it was the mother diocese of many dioceses in the Midwest today.
The panels are skillfully executed and finely drawn. The artist’s interpretation is sensitive and sympathetic. Tilework is radiant and pleasantly textured.
They follow principles of graphic design—balance and proportion, rhythm and movement, unity and variety, among others. Various design elements are aesthetically apportioned (golden ratio), while asymmetry adds interest. Patterns, contours, and colors repeat yet vary, creating visual movement and rhythm. The consistent style throughout conveys a sense of unity.
The mosaics are among the last commissions of the Ravenna Mosaic Company, closed in 1988, “Ravenna” after the capital of the late Roman Empire where the famous Byzantine mosaics of the fifth and sixth centuries are located.
The art of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik created in conjunction with the Centro Aletti, Rome build on the conventions of classical mosaics—two-dimensional and graphic, buoyantly multihued, suffused by gold, and decoratively patterned. Pleasingly variegated tiling imbues mosaic art with inimitable appeal.
Rupnik’s mosaics have been complimented for their attributes of light, brightness, dynamism, and abundant design. Religious figures are depicted with idiosyncratically large eyes, a signature feature of his art.
Rupnik’s work has graced important sacred buildings, including the Shrine of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy and the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, Washington, D.C., where this particular piece is located.
The accomplished priest is today notorious because he stands accused of clerical sexual abuse. On June 15, 2023, the Society of Jesus expelled him for his “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” His Vatican trial is ongoing.
Personally, I am smitten by his work because I find it highly aesthetic.
Is it possible to separate the artist from their art? Yes, it is to some extent possible to contemplate a work of art isolated and detached from the life and person of the artist. Caravaggio’s masterpieces, for example, are regularly displayed with admiration without regard to his conviction for murdering Ranuccio Tomassoni in a brawl.
Monastery Icons is a take on longstanding conventions of Byzantine iconography. They are set apart especially by their bright, rich colors, even as they maintain the highly graphic style of the Orthodox icon—linear, flat, stylized, and symbolic—notably resulting in their remarkable visual clarity. Embellished with text in English instead of Greek, the images are rendered more accessible to a popular English-speaking audience.
“John Baptizing Jesus” (1968) by Harry Anderson (American illustrator, 1906-1996) displays skilled draftsmanship and renders the Biblical event realistically in painterly style. The illustration strongly evokes the event as it took place about two thousand years ago so that we can almost locate ourselves in the scene and watch it as it happens.
Graphic design principles, for example:
ReplyDeleteAlignment
Contrast
Balance
Hierarchy
Color
White space
Proportion
Repetition
Rhythm
Movement
Emphasis
Proximity
Unity
https://www.figma.com/resource-library/graphic-design-principles/
—“13 core graphic design principles + how to apply them,” Figma
Gonzalinho
Rupnik’s art is some of the most impressive I have ever seen. Its contemplative quality makes it easy to mentally separate the man from the work. However, I think I can understand why others have this difficulty. We are human beings, after all.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
THE RAVENNA MOSAICS
ReplyDeleteThe Ravenna mosaics date from the fifth centuries, first under the Ostrogoths and then under Justinian and the Byzantines.
“Although the origins of Ravenna are a little unclear, it is believed to have been inhabited as far back as 1400 BC. It fell under Roman control in 191 BC and became the base of the Roman Republic’s naval fleet. The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC and flourished for several centuries. However, by the 5th century AD, its borders were under constant attack. In 402, the Roman Emperor Honorius moved the capital from Rome to Ravenna marking the start of Ravenna’s heyday and the building of some extraordinary monuments.
“The Roman Empire fell, in the west at least, when the last emperor Romulus August was deposed in 476. In the east, however, the empire continued to exist with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its eastern capital. This became the Byzantine Empire.
“Meanwhile, Ravenna was now under the rule of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the eastern branch of the Goths, a Christian Germanic tribe. Their most notable king, Theodoric the Great (454–526) built some of Ravenna’s most impressive monuments including the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the Palace of Theoderic, and the Mausoleum of Theodoric.
“However, in 540, when the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, the greatest Byzantine ruler, came to power, he defeated the Ostrogoths and made Ravenna the western capital of his empire, the ‘Constantinople of the West.’
“The Byzantine Empire’s control of Ravenna ended in 751 when the city was conquered by the Lombards (although the empire itself lasted until Constantinople was taken by Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1453).”
https://mandalameadow.com/ravenna-mosaics/
—Kathryn Burrington, “The Ravenna Mosaics | Some of the most beautiful mosaics in the world,” Mandala Meadow
This splendid piece depicting the baptism of Jesus by Saint John the Baptist is located in the Neonian Baptistery, named after Bishop Neonis (450-475 C.E.) who renovated the roofing.
“Entering the octagonal-shape Neonian Baptistery you’ll find yourself facing a ‘unicum’ for what concerns early Christian and Byzantine art. It is in fact the best preserved baptismal building in the world, both for the architectural structure and for the interior (marbles, stuccos and mosaics). Of the most ancient baptisteries built in Antioch, Constantinople, Ephesus, Trier, Milan, Aquileia and Rome between IV and V centuries only the perimeter walls, or the basement, survive.
“…Around the middle of the V century the Bishop Neonis (450-475) decided to redo the roofing of the Baptistery of the Cathedral, erected a few decades before by Bishop Ursus. Hence the name of Basilica of St. Ursus, then rebuilt in the XVIII century.”
https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/neonian-baptistery/
—“Neonian Baptistery,” Opera di Religione della Diocesi di Ravenna
Resplendently colored, Roman mosaics of this period radiate a charm almost naïve in character. They aren’t supposed to be “realistic” in the photographic sense of the term.
Gonzalinho