Sunday, April 17, 2005

Luther and the Sistine Chapel.

While slightly sacrilegious, this Onion article makes me laugh! "Heaven Less Opulent than Vatican, Reports Disappointed Pope."

On a tangential note, I realized several years ago (or last year?) that it's really cool to try to put church history in light of world history. For example, young Martin Luther visited Rome in 1510 and was disgusted with its excesses. This 'happens' to be around the same time that da Vinci painted the Last Supper (1498) and the Mona Lisa (1503), Michaelangelo finished the Pieta (1500) and sculpted David (1505). Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel while Luther was there, and he finished it in 1512. Do you think he saw it?

Similarly in church history, while I was at the art museum on Thursday, particularly looking at the arms/weaponry collection, I was picturing people wearing that armor and using those swords and guns (yeah - firearms are that old!) at that same time. And then over in the Asian art collection, I was picturing some of those events taking place on the other side of the world, yet nearly completely severed from the Western world. This world is certainly a rich place!

1 comment:

Melodee said...

Yes, indeed Molly! I often try to integrate my history studies in my own mind, but sometimes it's kind of hard to wrap my mind around it! One semester in particular my literature studies covered the same time period as my Music History course. My niece and nephew were studying the same period in American history. It was mind-boggling to realize that all this was going on at the same time. (George Eliot writing cultured "Daniel Deronda" while Custer was fighting Crazy Horse?)

I love your what-ifs, Molly. I wonder if Luther did see the Sistine...