The Art of Seeing
The Sacredness of the Christian Mythos
through the four senses hermeneutic/ of interpretation
Thursday 15th December 2022
7-8pm UK time via Zoom
with Mary Attwood
£10
“The theophanic view sees the cosmos as ‘disclosure’ of the divine, as the invisible made manifest…To this manner of seeing also belong the sacred arts…”
Dr Joseph Milne
For the final Art of Seeing session for 2022, and appropriate for the month of December, we will turn our attention to one of the most beautiful myths in the Western world – the sacredness of the Christian mythos. The realisation of the divine in human form meant that Jesus Christ was not half human and half divine but was both fully human and fully divine. In medieval cosmology he was understood as the co-incidence of opposites, reminding us that we are made in the image of the divine and carry a responsibility with that. We will be guided through our work of art with the help of the four senses hermeneutic / of interpretation. The four senses hermeneutic provide a framework which helps us to awaken different modes of attention when encountering a sacred image. Consisting of the literal, allegorical, tropological and anagogical senses, these four senses are non-linear and flowing, rather than a straight ladder. When the Christian myth meets art, we experience something truly sacred for through the image, what we might previously have sensed or thought of the mystical and sacred, is now brought before our eyes. Rather than the ‘idea’ of the divine being transcendent and out of reach, we instead experience the theophanic. For a moment we ‘glimpse’ the divine through the image. The artist whose task it was to create such an image, sought to express the realisation of the divine made flesh in some of the most beautifully imaginative ways that exist in Western art; some with sobriety and simplicity, some with dramatic light and illumination, others expressing the joyous dance of celebration and others drawing us into the dark quiet of an inner consciousness. The work of art will not be revealed until the evening but it is an image which was kept hidden from public view in the inner sanctum of a chapel, and which has fascinated historians and mystics alike for hundreds of years.
These sessions offer theory, participation and reflection as a way to draw together the threads of historical context, meaning, and a personal encounter with a work of art.
This session is £10 per household. If you are not a fan of PayPal you can email Mary directly at info@maryattwood.com
For those who cannot attend live, there will be a recording available.
BOOKING: Please book through Mary Attwood’s website here
