Question #5 All art is propaganda. Art is meant to sway a person, make them feel something. Art can also be used to elaborate on policy or push an agenda. The painting King Edward and the Pope accomplishes all of these and more. There are so many layers to the painting that I can hardly do justice to it all, but I shall try. I plan to do this by examining several key aspects of the painting and their significance. I will begin by looking at the roles of the titular figures and what the painting says about them. From there, I will examine the peoples surrounding these figures. Then, I will discuss what this painting has to say about common people during this era. Then, I will move into discussing some of the more prominent symbolism present …show more content…
in the image. Lastly, and to conclude the paper, I will discuss the role of Henry VIII in the painting. By examining these images, I hope to discuss in the larger context societal transformations during the 16th and 17th centuries in England. There is striking juxtaposition between the King, Edward, and the pope.
The manner of how each are depicted helps us to gain a better understanding of the artist and the intent of the piece. The main focuses for this section will be on the bearing of the figures themselves, their clothing, how they are presented, as well as how they interact with the subjects in the painting. Before we begin by discussing Edward, we shall discuss their placement. In this painting, the King is above the Pope. This is a profound statement about the place each held in English society. Namely, that the Pope did not have one. Henry VIII, and then Edward after him, were the heads of government and religion and England. In keeping with this view, the Pope is given a much more subservient role in this image. Now, unto the central figures themselves. Edward presents himself as a strong, just monarch. He is sitting upright in his chair, looking like he is about to hold court in his father’s funeral room. His clothes are pristine, and noble. However, his clothes are not gaudy or ostentatious. He holds his scepter of office in his left hand, but pointed up so as to not be seen as being used against anyone. In this way, he conveys authority and power while also coming across as fair. Edward sits upon a throne which reinforces his role as the rightful king of England. The reality behind the painting was not so stalwart. Edward was a sickly young boy, with many health problems. None of this is present in …show more content…
the painting to show Edward as a strong ruler. Not only that, but establish him as the rightful heir. Edward and the Pope are a study in contrasts. The pope is slouched over. He is portrayed as a crooked, bent man. In most common archetypes, these are employed to convey distrust, sleaziness, and evil. There may be more to it than that, which we will discuss briefly. His clothing is considerably more gaudy then Edward’s. He is wearing a crown upon his head. The clothing the pope wears comes off as inappropriate when compared to anyone else in the painting. His robes are either a pinkish or a gold color. Considering this is depicted as a scene of solemn mourning, his clothes show him to be gaudy and extravagant. Someone who desires to be the center of attention. This is a clear riff on the Borgia popes and their tendencies towards opulence. The pope also bears the phrase, “All flesh is grass” upon his robes. The quote, from the book of Isaiah, was commonly used as an epitaph. In more common language, it means that human life is transitory. If you combine the pope’s demeanor with the epitaph on his robe, it leads us to a stark possibility: the pope in this image is dead. There could be several meanings behind the depiction of the dead pope. The most obvious is the nature of the two religions. Edward embodies the Anglican Church, the Pope the Catholic Church. The head of the Anglican Church is the monarch. Since leadership is transferred down through the bloodline, it gives the image of being more permanent and eternal. The pope and King Edward are not the only two figures in the painting. To the right of each head of Church, there are a group of people. These ministers will be what we turn our attention to next. The first word that comes to mind when describing the ministers by Edward is orderly. They are calm, and serene. Their monarch lies dying, and will be replaced by a boy. A sickly boy stands poised to become head of British Church and State. Edward would not have been able to assume the mantle of King when his father died. Because of this, it is not much of a stretch to assume the figure to his immediate right will be his Protector. There is a certain amount of reverence the figures all seem to show Edward. This shows a united English nobility in support of their king and religion. Perhaps, the ministers are also looking towards their former king. They are looking for validation in Edward ruling. So, when Henry VIII points towards his son, the nobles will know their true King. Once again, the side of the pope is a completely different story. There is great clamor and discussion. This shows the differences in power transference between the two regimes. When a pope dies, a new one must be elected. These bishops are thrown into chaos since the pope has passed. The scene is chaos versus the order of the Anglican side. When Henry VIII was dying, his replacement had already been established. Edward VI was the king’s only male heir. Henry VIII made doubly sure by enacting the Act of Succession which passed both of his previous children from the line of rule. They were, of course, later restored. But at this point, Edward VI was the only legitimate heir to the English crown. So, there was no ambiguity in this aspect of the transition between monarchs. The pope’s death, however, had none of this surety. By the expression of the man directly to the pope’s right, this was a sudden death. He seems genuinely shocked the pope fell over dead. So, until the Cardinals could convene, the Catholic Church was without steady leadership. This goes back to the quote upon the chest of the Pope, “All Flesh is Grass”. This painting shows a distinct contrast between the two rulers. There is a plethora of symbolism at work in this piece. For the sake of brevity, I will only focus on two examples. The first example is of iconoclasm. There is a painting above the King’s ministers of a ruined building behind soldiers pulling something down. This, I believe, is a reference to the Reformation. The soldiers seem to be iconoclasts. They are tearing down an image depicting God. The painting right above the ministers would not have been a coincidence either. At this point, the inner circle of the Royal Court was becoming increasingly infiltrated by Protestants. It doesn’t take much of a stretch to see some of these same ministers who support the king as being instrumental of destruction of the Catholic Church in England. Couple the painting with the pope laid over and you can see a clear image of the fall of Catholicism in England. This, I believe, is the true nature of this painting. The purpose of the painting is to propagandize the death of Henry VIII and establish faith in the permanence of the Church of England. The second example takes place diagonal from the first.
In the lower left corner, we have the pope brandishing his scepter at common people. By their garbs, these people are nothing more than commoners. These people look as if they are attempting to escape from the authority of the Catholic Church. The man closest to Henry looks as if he’s beseeching the monarch for aid. This further establishes the image’s view of the Catholic Church as the enemy. The pope in this painting represents subjugation. In this way, the Church of England offers hope for the masses from the cruelty of Catholicism. The commoners could also be escaping from the chaos of the pope’s death. Perhaps, they took advantage of the chaos to flee from the church? They saw an out and they took
it. The elephant in the painting is Henry VIII, himself. As I have already stated, as Head of the Anglican Church his heir becomes the head upon his death. Henry VIII had three children, two girls and Edward. Upon Edward VI’s birth, Henry enacts the Act of Succession formally blocking both Mary and Elizabeth from ruling. This was largely an unnecessary move. By English custom, Edward VI would be king upon Henry’s death by simple reason of being a male heir. This painting can be viewed as passing the torch from Henry VIII to Edward VI. The dying king is pointing at his son. There can be little ambiguity in that gesture. It is as if Henry in the painting is saying, “Look to Edward. He will lead you. He is my rightful heir.” Here we see visually, what was passed into law, the act of succession from one king to the other. As I began, so I will finish. All art is propaganda. This painting attempts to reaffirm faith in the Anglican Church while undermining the authority and credibility of the Catholic Church. Certain obvious liberties were taken with the painting to portray the English in a much better light. For instance, Henry VIII is not over three hundred pounds and covered in boils. Also, Edward VI is not depicted as a frail, sickly child. This propaganda establishes the English as a strong, noble line. Conversely the pope is depicted as sallow and bent over. In conclusion, the painting itself is deeply significant in describing the role both religion and government played in England during this era. This one image encapsulates a lot of the pressures and turmoil at work. There were a lot of forces acting both upon the government and the common folk. There are several things I wish I had time to examine about this work. Most notably, I wanted to find if these men in the image had correlations to actual ministers. Not only that, if they were actual minister during this era what significance does their position in the painting have. As well, some of the smaller words in the painting I wanted to examine their significance. Unfortunately, aside from the writing on the pope’s chest I could only make out one more word by his shoulder: “idolatry.” While I’m sure there is great significance behind those words, I did not have the time nor resources to fully research their meanings.
At the top of the artwork the upper part of the cross extends beyond the altarpiece. The edge of John the Evangelist’s red robe on the left of the altarpiece and the edge of Mary Magdalene’s pale blue skirt on the right are cut off when the panel ends, giving the viewer the feeling that, rather than looking in on the scene, the viewer is actually taking part in the scene. This, added to the empathy invoked through the delicate, heart-wrenching rendering of the figures in the artwork, let the observer directly interact with the painting and places him/her within the narrative.
Edward IV's Reign and Success Edward’s reign was mainly stable and successful. He was the first king to die financially solvent in over 200 years due mainly to his careful avoidance of major foreign wars and by the end of his reign there was evident recovery of prosperity in the southern counties. However, Edward died too early to ensure that his heir would succeed him unchallenged. He had not created a collective commitment to the future of his dynasty that would make his heir strong enough to survive a minority reign. Although this was his main failure, he did not wholly succeed in all other actions through his reign.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards Birmingham City. Also, the clergymen believed the time that will allow segregation to be diminished was not happening anytime soon because it is not convenient. King refuted the clergymen’s argument in a variety of ways using tactics of argumentation and persuasion like appeal to emotion through real life examples, appeal to logic, and even articulating certain phrases through metaphors and word choice. Many of these different tactics of argumentation and persuasion made his letter very effective and is now seen as a great piece that is looked upon highly today.
MacCulloch’s view as a post-revisionist offers a unique and distinctive view into the subject of the English Reformation under Edward VI’s reign. He succeeds in developing his idea that the Reformation was distinct during Edward VI reign by explaining and arguing with other historians opinions in great detail and has set a new path for further thinking and research on the Edwardian Reformation.
The Church was, undoubtedly, the most powerful body in Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages. In most Western kingdoms the Pope had more power than the king himself, and the Christian religion controlled all aspects of daily life. People were to devote themselves utterly to the Church in prayer and giving, and they would be saved. As seen in Document 6, the lords and nobles committed themselves to the service of God before men, saying, “Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him [God]…” Those who lived during this time trusted the Church’s explanations for the workings of the world. They saw God as all powerful, as the force behind everything. Art and music thus were focused around the Church and giving praise and thanks to God. Most art works of the time featured Jesus or other saints.
The ability to create a picture of The Annunciation in one’s mind is a key factor in understanding the analysis of the work. Francisco de Zurbaran approaches the painting with a naturalistic style. The painting features a room in which a woman – like angel is seen at the left kneeling on the ground before the Virgin Mary. The figure of Mary is placed between a chair and a small wooden table draped with a green cloth. Mary disregards an open Bible on the table, as she appears solemn while staring at the floor. Floating above the two main figures in the upper left side of the painting are cherubs resting on a bed of clouds. They happily gaze down at Mary with eyes from Heaven.
Dante lived in a time of intense political strife and competition over land, resources, and people. Many factions competed for power in the region, including the Holy Roman Emperors, an organization of “german aristocrats who claimed an ancient right to rule Christendom” (Moss, Wilson p. 174), the Papal authorities in Rome, lead by the controversial and power hungry Pope Boniface VIII, and smaller groups in city-states such as Florence, Tuscany and Rome. These groups were often made up of noblemen and other aristocracy in the cities that desired to consolidate local power under a “small, select group” (Moss, Wilson p. 174) that would allow them to exercise their will on the cities’ populace. Another class that emerged in the period was the merchant class, impelled by the increasing move towards urban centers and the lessening control of local feudal lords and vassals, in favor of more overarching rule by kings over a wider area. This rise in consumerism and capitalism lead to a desire for power by the merchant class to “establish a system of rule that would protect their newly acquired wealth.” (Moss, Wilson p. 174)
The Catholic Church has many influences on King Arthur and the rest of his Knights of the Round Table. The knights depended on the church for its teachings and the great power the church held in society. The Knights of the Round Table pledged great loyalty to the church. Also the knights held the teachings of the church in great reverence and were never disloyal to the church. There are many links between the Catholic Church and the way that Camelot (the land of King Arthur and his Knights) was ruled.
The shift between the Middle Ages and Renaissance was documented in art for future generations. It is because of the changes in art during this time that art historians today understand the historical placement and the socio-economic, political, and religious changes of the time. Art is a visual interpretation of one’s beliefs and way of life; it is through the art from these periods that we today understand exactly what was taking place and why it was happening. These shifts did not happen overnight, but instead changed gradually though years and years of art, and it is through them that we have record of some of the most important changes of historic times.
The scene in the painting reminds me of what happened at 1770, the Boston Massacre. In this piece however it seems that the group of people were trying to escape being forced to convert to a different religion hence the church and were caught by the guardsmen, which led to some of the people being shot and killed, or it could have been the total opposite maybe the people were trying to go into the church but the guardsmen didn’t want them too and those who retaliated were shot on site. It seems like the people are being interrogated at gunpoint, a reason as to why I’m not sure might have something to do with the church, it could have been that the people were seeking shelter at the church from these soldier in the black hats, and once the people
“Philosophers, writers, and artists expressed disillusionment with the rational-humanist tradition of the Enlightenment. They no longer shared the Enlightenment's confidence in either reason's capabilities or human goodness.” (Perry, pg. 457) It is interesting to follow art through history and see how the general mood of society changed with various aspects of history, and how events have a strong connection to the art of the corresponding time.
O’Donnell, Sr., Joseph J.. “Art and the French Revolution”. The Eerie Digest, May 2013. Web. 5th May 2013.
Art is important to religion in many different ways. Perhaps none has analyzed how art and religion have influenced and affected each other through the ages. Pictures painted of past events that help to bring back the feeling and importance of the past have been forgotten by some. To the one’s that haven’t forgotten are able to see the event’s as the bible says they happened. Not only can you see the events, but it also allows the younger students of the church to understand the events. The use of images of God became widespread after the second century. This religious art has defiantly been around for centuries and plays an important role to the history of religion as well as the future.
Early in history, the Roman papacy consolidated its power. It became one of the most influential organizations in the medieval period. This rise to power resulted from the decline in the Western Empire, the leadership of Roman bishops, and special grants that gave the church land holdings. This rise to power caused some positive ramifications, such as the protection of the church from heresy. However, the absolute power of the pope also caused corruption and abuses, many of which would eventually spark the reformation.