A veiled presence

While inwards Houston I took the chance to watch the Rothko Chapel correct across the route from the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, close the University of St Thomas in addition to the Menil Gallery. Both chapels locomote modern materials to practise an appropriate infinite to serve the fine art within. The Byzantine frescoes from the Church of Republic of Cyprus demo Christ Pantokrator in addition to the Blessed Virgin, amongst angels.They are displayed inwards a drinking glass chapel at the pump of the construction in addition to evoke a sense of the sacred inwards the traditional agency of sacred art. The Rothko Chapel is as effective inwards a very
different style. An octagonal room amongst low-cal entering from above, the walls are occupied past times viii huge sets of panels of grey-blue in addition to brownish in addition to night purple. If the ceiling had been depression in addition to flat, instead of raised in addition to sum of light, belongings the octagonal construction together, the impression mightiness accept been oppressive. Rothko ended his life inwards suicide, in addition to closed to accept seen his obsession amongst darkness as a psychological in addition to spiritual dead end. Yet strangely I did non discovery the lawsuit to locomote 1 of sadness or spiritual despair. These panels ready inwards a infinite of swell integrity invited me into an interior infinite in addition to dialogue that seemed both uplifting in addition to refreshing. Like mirrors soundless without the distraction of images seen inwards glass, the panels reverberate one's interior landscape in addition to allow 1 to listen the voices within one's ain head. The surfaces are non patently simply sum of texture in addition to subtle variation; the forms are non mass-produced simply each unique, in addition to marked amongst the traces of human labour; the geometry is harmonious both amongst the edifice in addition to its play of light, in addition to betwixt the panels, 3 of which (on 3 of the primary walls facing the Four Directions) are triptychs in addition to the 4th maybe a Golden Rectangle.

I felt a flake similar an early on hominid or spaceman from Kubrick's 2001 confronting the dark monolith. Yet these were far from black, in addition to seemed sum of placidity life similar shadowed water, or night oceanic horizons, or the shrouded mountainsides of a Japanese landscape. The texture of brushstrokes suggested inwards 1 the northern lights, inwards closed to other a vast cave of stalactites. You select yourself into that room, in addition to the paintings inwards that infinite help 1 to larn exclusively present. If prayer is attending (Simone Weil) in addition to thus the Rothko Chapel tin locomote a house of existent prayer. Yet the shape of the infinite is crucial. The paintings accept an intensity in addition to a presence of their own, simply it is the geometry of the construction inwards which they are ready that completes the effect. And although the Chapel is a house of worship, meditation in addition to prayer for persons of all faiths, the room feels to Christians a flake similar a baptistry. Sacred geometry speaks a linguistic communication of its own, giving the spiritual traditions closed to sort of mutual ground. And if the visitor does non discovery his agency across the gardens to the Byzantine frescoes where the Presence is less veiled, he at to the lowest degree is brought to the threshold of a revelation, the opened upward Book of Nature that is the cosmos itself, in addition to the Self that awaits inwards placidity expectation.

The instance is gratefully borrowed from a swain blogger at ticktalking.wordpress.com.  

[Since I wrote this post, the periodical Communio has published a wonderful article on fine art past times Rodolfo Balzarotti which contains a detailed analysis of the Rothko Chapel inwards department 3. Please read the article, which is mainly well-nigh William Congdon.]

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