“The medieval worldview is a harmonized amalgamation of pieces from a range of cultures.” Basically the beginning of scholasticism, right? For me, scholasticism marks the beginning of the end for the early Church phronema. How long is it before the Gospels are on the same level as Amor and Psyche? Along with its sculpture—overtly love-as-eros (erotic!)—seen in every art museum’s neoclassical section? Or Apollo and Daphne? Kinda like Goethe’s eternal feminine? Is Caravaggio’s gritty realism really breathing life into martyrdom, or just satisfying the early modern’s materialistic fascination?
I think the two pics are still swimming in Orthodox imagery though
The second one seems like the apocalyptic eschaton *within* Creation. Like Revelations and Genesis going on at the same time. The middle circle has the first day with Light and Dark divided, surrounded by the firmament. Count the divisions out and the layer corresponding to the 4th day has the sun, moon and stars. From Rev 12 and Phlp. 2:15, interpret the sun as Christ, the moon as Mary (so this is subtle Mary symbolism - that’s why the sun is in the moon’s womb), and the stars as the Church. Obviously the “I am the Light” symbolism sticks out like a sore thumb.
Now it seems like correspondence breaks down here, but four is coincidentally the number of the Earth, and the Earth is not literally the Earth in Genesis, more like “formed Creation.” Count out two more layers and we only have 6 - yikes. The 5th layer is maybe like Rev 13:13? It’s almost like whatever those things are, hailstones or rocks, they’re feeding off the fire and bringing it down to Earth. 5 is also the number of Man, and the day in Genesis that God begins to make creatures. The 6th layer then is the layer of fire. Not a mistake, I think this is a picture of God as a consuming fire, most especially for “the goats on the left.”
Hell as a devouring head is a medieval symbol. All those figures with three heads probably indicate the parody of the trinity (unholy triumvirate) in Revelations—the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth—at different spiritual levels. Notice the one head, the dragon, trying to “devour her child” (Rev 12:4)
More support: since there’s a departure from the Genesis creation poem at layer 4, which contains Christ, we should make note of the psalm for the fourth day of the week (corresponding to the fourth day of Creation - Psalm 93 in the OSB) — “The Lord is the God of vengeance; The God of vengeance declares Himself boldly.” The whole psalm is a plea to separate the wheat from the chaff. The inevitable flip side of the coin of righteousness. Very eschatological in the Light of Christ.
The first image seems a bit simpler. Almost like a snapshot of Genesis 2:15. The sea is like chaos, potential, destruction, which the demons (“powers and principalities”) are sucking Man into on all four corners of the Earth. Pulling formed Creation into the unformed. Hildegard paints herself staring at it.
I haven’t read her stuff, do you know why she was so apocalyptic? Was she a chiliast?
Really soulful, interesting post. I just sent The Discarded Image to my Kindle. And can only wonder what C.S. Lewis would think about the way we think about and use "The Cloud."
“The medieval worldview is a harmonized amalgamation of pieces from a range of cultures.” Basically the beginning of scholasticism, right? For me, scholasticism marks the beginning of the end for the early Church phronema. How long is it before the Gospels are on the same level as Amor and Psyche? Along with its sculpture—overtly love-as-eros (erotic!)—seen in every art museum’s neoclassical section? Or Apollo and Daphne? Kinda like Goethe’s eternal feminine? Is Caravaggio’s gritty realism really breathing life into martyrdom, or just satisfying the early modern’s materialistic fascination?
I think the two pics are still swimming in Orthodox imagery though
The second one seems like the apocalyptic eschaton *within* Creation. Like Revelations and Genesis going on at the same time. The middle circle has the first day with Light and Dark divided, surrounded by the firmament. Count the divisions out and the layer corresponding to the 4th day has the sun, moon and stars. From Rev 12 and Phlp. 2:15, interpret the sun as Christ, the moon as Mary (so this is subtle Mary symbolism - that’s why the sun is in the moon’s womb), and the stars as the Church. Obviously the “I am the Light” symbolism sticks out like a sore thumb.
Now it seems like correspondence breaks down here, but four is coincidentally the number of the Earth, and the Earth is not literally the Earth in Genesis, more like “formed Creation.” Count out two more layers and we only have 6 - yikes. The 5th layer is maybe like Rev 13:13? It’s almost like whatever those things are, hailstones or rocks, they’re feeding off the fire and bringing it down to Earth. 5 is also the number of Man, and the day in Genesis that God begins to make creatures. The 6th layer then is the layer of fire. Not a mistake, I think this is a picture of God as a consuming fire, most especially for “the goats on the left.”
Hell as a devouring head is a medieval symbol. All those figures with three heads probably indicate the parody of the trinity (unholy triumvirate) in Revelations—the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth—at different spiritual levels. Notice the one head, the dragon, trying to “devour her child” (Rev 12:4)
More support: since there’s a departure from the Genesis creation poem at layer 4, which contains Christ, we should make note of the psalm for the fourth day of the week (corresponding to the fourth day of Creation - Psalm 93 in the OSB) — “The Lord is the God of vengeance; The God of vengeance declares Himself boldly.” The whole psalm is a plea to separate the wheat from the chaff. The inevitable flip side of the coin of righteousness. Very eschatological in the Light of Christ.
The first image seems a bit simpler. Almost like a snapshot of Genesis 2:15. The sea is like chaos, potential, destruction, which the demons (“powers and principalities”) are sucking Man into on all four corners of the Earth. Pulling formed Creation into the unformed. Hildegard paints herself staring at it.
I haven’t read her stuff, do you know why she was so apocalyptic? Was she a chiliast?
Really soulful, interesting post. I just sent The Discarded Image to my Kindle. And can only wonder what C.S. Lewis would think about the way we think about and use "The Cloud."