Q&A: Spirit Quest
My friend Badger (who is also a museum professional as well as a fencer) has asked me to write something about the experience of looking at devotional art in museums. In her words: "One of my favorite museum provocateurs has made a list of things that museums, unfortunately, seem to feel they cannot do, to wit, be: sexy, funny, subjective, wrong. As we have talked about this list with others, one addition has been 'explicitly religious.' With rare exceptions, even 'religious' museums (e.g. museums of Judaica) tend to be about the history of objects, or facts about ritual. Rarely do they engage in any emotional content regarding faith, or worship. "Museums contain some of the most compelling religious artistic and ritual objects ever created. Whether it is Russian icons, reliquaries, or illuminated devotional manuscripts, they often display works whose primary meaning was originally about faith. But they seem profoundly uncomfortable presenting the material...
The origin of what we call a Christmas Carol which has always been one of my favorites. The site at this link is a military, diplomatic and history of Eastern Europe sometimes going back many centuries.
ReplyDeletehttps://turcopolier.com/the-story-of-carol-of-the-bells-a-christmas-classic-born-in-ukraine-ttg/
Robert