Art standing Before the Throne and Before the Lamb
Merely if we have died with Christ, nosotros believe that we will too live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the expressionless, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The decease he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
—Romans 6:8–x
Look: Egg mosaics by Oksana Mas
Hand-painted wooden eggs are the primary textile used by Ukrainian creative person Oksana Mas in the by decade. She arranges them into colorful spheres or hemispheres or into monumental images, equally she did for her Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance installation at the 54th Venice Biennale. This piece portrays segments of the van Eyck brothers' Ghent Altarpiece [previously], whose two fundamental scenes are (1) Christ (or God the Father, every bit some fine art historians fence) enthroned, and (2) the Admiration of the Mystic Lamb, based on John'southward vision in the book of Revelation.
The Biennale installation—inside the church of San Fantin—was only a portion of the full piece, which is a massive 92 past 134 meters in total, comprising three,640,000 eggs. Information technology featured panels of the enthroned deity, the slain just risen Lamb, and details of Adam and Eve.
Mas is inspired past the Ukrainian folk custom of Easter egg ornament called pysanky. Traditionally, pysansky are raw eggs that are dyed using a wax-resist method, the designs inscribed in beeswax. Merely for her fine art, Mas starts with wooden eggs, and color is practical with a paintbrush. For Mail-vs-Proto-Renaissance, she distributed plain wooden eggs to people from all walks of life and across forty-ii countries, asking them to paint them and return them to her. Having received hundreds of thousands of painted egg contributions, she assembled them like tesserae, affixing them to boards that are then placed into an architectural framework so that, when viewed from a distance, they form recognizable figures from the Ghent Altarpiece. When yous get up close, you can run into the diverse patterns and other designs painted onto the private eggs.
View more photos at My Modernistic Met.
In May 2012, a different iteration of this piece was installed in Sofiyivska Foursquare in Kyiv, which Mas called the Altarpiece of Nations.
Every bit a traditional symbol of new life or resurrection, eggs are often associated with Easter, and one could hands read Mas's Ghent-inspired egg mosaics through that lens. In Venice, for example, you lot have Jesus in emblematic form every bit the sacrificial lamb, pouring out his claret at the altar, and so yous have him exalted in majesty in his divine-human form, which together reference the death and resurrection narrative of the Gospels. Through that expiry and resurrection, we have been redeemed from the autumn that's alluded to in the wings—redeemed from sin and death, into life everlasting. It'southward a very triumphal paradigm, Mas'south. As is the liturgical artwork it's based on, which shows all the redeemed in the new heavens and the new earth, gathered round "the Lamb at the center of the throne . . . [who] guide[s] them to springs of the water of life" (Rev. 7:17).
(Related post: "Egg Sketches by Autumn Brown")
Listen: "Christus Resurgens," Ireland, 12th century | Arr. Michael McGlynn, 2000 | Performed by Anúna on Cynara, 2000; compiled on The Best of Anúna, 2010
Christus resurgens ex mortuis, jam non moritur
Mors illi ultra non dominabitur
Quod enim vivit, vivit DeoAlleluia (×iv)
English translation:
Christ has arisen from the dead, and dies no more than
Decease volition no longer have dominion over him
In that he lives, he lives unto GodAlleluia (×4)
"Christus resurgens" is an Easter chant in Latin that originated in medieval Ireland, its text taken from Romans 6:9–10. Information technology is arranged hither by Michael McGlynn and performed by the Irish vocal ensemble Anúna, which he founded in 1987. Much of Anúna's repertoire comes from McGlynn's arrangements, resettings, and reconstructions of early on and medieval Irish music, also equally his original compositions.
This vocal is on theArt & Theology Eastertide Playlist .
LOOK: Adoration of the Lamb from the Escorial Beatus
This folio is from an illustrated copy of Beatus of Liébana's (d. ca. 800) hugely influential Commentary on the Apocalypse. The Beatus manuscripts (have a look on Pinterest for some real wacky, Revelation-based imagery) are one of the nigh significant book genres of the Eye Ages in northern Spain, and the Escorial Beatus (named after its current location) is a preeminent example. It probably originated in the famous scriptorium of San Millán de la Cogolla in La Rioja, Spain. Today it is kept in the Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial, part of a royal circuitous situated at the foot of Mount Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
[Related posts: "Worthy Is the Lamb (Artful Devotion)"; "Lamb for Sinners Slain (Artful Devotion)"]
LISTEN: "Glory Hallelujah to the Risen Lamb" by Victor C. Johnson, 2009 | Performed past De Angelis Cappella, 2019
Glory, glory, glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb! (×iv)
Jesus hung on the vicious tree
(Glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb!)
He gave his life for the likes of me
(Celebrity hallelujah to the risen Lamb!)
Women came at the break of day
(Glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb!)
The affections rolled the stone away
(Glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb!)Celebrity, glory, glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb! (×4)
Celebrity, glory hallelujah
Celebrity to the risen Lamb
Glory, celebrity hallelujah
Glory to the risen Lamb
Celebrity, celebrity hallelujah
Glory to the risen Lamb
Celebrity, glory hallelujah
Glory to the risen Lamb
Glory, glory hallelujah
Glory to the risen LambGlory, glory, glory hallelujah to the risen Lamb! (×4)
Victor C. Johnson is a composer, arranger, conductor, and music educator from Dallas, also as the minister of worship and arts at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. The Cameroonian Cosmic choir De Angelis Cappella performed this Easter spiritual of his at Mvolyé Spiritual Center in Yaoundé in October 2019; spotter the total concert hither. You can also purchase a score and can follow along with that score in this recording by the Lorenz Corporation.
For another similar Easter spiritual past Johnson, see "Shout Hallelujah to the Risen Lamb."
The side by side day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes abroad the sin of the world!"
—John 1:29
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
—1 Corinthians 5:7
You were ransomed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
—1 Peter ane:18–19
Await: Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbarán
Mind: "Agnus Dei" by Samuel Barber, 1967 | Performed by Vlaams Radiokoor (Flemish Radio Choir), dir. Marcus Creed, 2015
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.English translation:
Lamb of God, who takes abroad the sins of the world, accept mercy on u.s..
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the earth, grant the states peace.
"Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is a choral limerick in one movement by Samuel Hairdresser, his own organization of his Adagio for Strings (1936). In 1967, he set the Latin words of the liturgical Agnus Dei, a function of the Mass, for mixed chorus with optional organ or piano accompaniment. The music, in B-flat small-scale, has a duration of about eight minutes" [source]. It's slow and expressive and sublime—1 of my superlative ten favorite pieces of classical music.
Equally the church continues in this fifty-day season of Eastertide to gloat the resurrection of Christ, here are some songs I've come across for the occasion and really enjoyed. A few are brand-new, while others are new performances.
Good Shepherd New York, a church building in Manhattan, has a phenomenal squad of in-business firm musicians and collaborators from declension to coast. They provide music for weekly digital worship services as well equally release recordings nether the name Good Shepherd Collective. Check out their Easter service from April 4! The songs are listed beneath.
- "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" by Charles Wesley / "Celebrate Jesus" by Gary Oliver (1:35)
- "Hither Comes the Sun" past the Beatles (iii:50)
- "Morning Has Broken" by Eleanor Farjeon (vi:59)
- "Easter Dawn" by David Gungor (xi:31)
- "Because He Lives" by Beak Gaither (15:27)
- "Waymaker" by Donald Vails (20:45)
The GSC has posted "Hither Comes the Sun" as a standalone video on Instagram. It features Brennan Smiley on lead vocals and audio-visual guitar; Liz Vice on harmonizing vocals; Charles Jones on Hammond organ; John Arndt on pianoforte; Jesse Chandler on flute, clarinet, and saxophone; Joseph K on electric guitar; Tyler Chester on bass guitar; and McKenzie Smith on drums. The art and end-motion animation are by Boston-based artist Soyoung Fifty Kim.
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"Hallelujah" (Chorus) from the Messiah by George Frideric Handel, 1742 | Performed past the Orquesta Barroca Catalana (Catalan Baroque Orchestra), the Barcelona Ars Nova choir, and 352 other singers, 2020 [HT: Global Christian Worship]
Concluding year the Fundación la Caixa in Barcelona launched project #YoCanto Aleluya, soliciting professional and apprentice singers alike throughout Spain and Portugal to be part of a "virtual choir," a miracle that has exploded since the pandemic has made live musical concerts a wellness risk. Participants were asked to submit a video of themselves singing Handel'south famous "Hallelujah" chorus. Igor Cortadellas of Igor Studio then adult a concept for digitally merging all 352 submissions by projecting them on the interior architecture of Barcelona'south Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar (or overlaying them in postproduction?), and he directed a small team to execute this vision. What a feat! The final video was released a few months ago at Christmastime.
"Hallelujah" concludes part 2 of 3 of the oratorio, which covers Christ'south passion and death, resurrection, ascension, and the starting time spreading of the gospel. The words of the chorus are taken from Revelation 19:vi, 11:15, and 19:16. For some other blog postal service featuring an extract from Handel'south Messiah, see the Artful Devotion "Worthy Is the Lamb."
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"Easter Dawn" | Words by Malcolm Guite, 2012 | Music past Zebulon Yard. Highben, 2021: A conductor, composer, and scholar of sacred music, Dr. Zebulon Yard. Highben serves as director of chapel music at Duke University. This year he wrote a choral setting of Malcolm Guite's sonnet "Easter Dawn," nigh Mary Magdalene'south encountering the risen Christ on Easter morn. Sung by the Duke Chapel Choir, it premiered last Sun as role of the chapel'due south Easter service and will be role of the online jump concert "Religion & Hope & Love Abide: Meditations on Resurrection," which goes alive tomorrow (April 11) at 4 p.m. EDT (view the program).
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"Proceed the Banquet (Pascha Nostrum)" by Ryan Flanigan: For this new vocal, Ryan Flanigan of Liturgical Folk adapted the words of the Pascha Nostrum ("Our Passover"), a traditional Christian hymn for Eastertide that, after the Reformation, was preserved in English in the Book of Common Prayer. It is based on i Corinthians 5:7–viii, Romans 6:9–11, and ane Corinthians xv:20–22. Flanigan wrote a fun new tune for information technology, which he demos here.
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"Zinda Yeshua (Jesus Is Alive)" by Blesson Varghese and James Bovas: This Hindi-linguistic communication Easter song is from Grace Ahmedabad, an Assemblies of God church in the Indian state of Gujarat. James Bovas sings lead, with Priscilla Mozhumannil on supporting vocals. Encounter the YouTube clarification for a full listing of credits. [HT: Global Christian Worship]
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"Judah's Lion" | Words by Fulbert of Chartres, ca. 975–1028, and Rick Barnes, 2016 | Music by Rick Barnes, 2016 | Performed by Covenant Presbyterian Virtual Choir and Orchestra, Birmingham, Alabama, 2021
. . . you were ransomed . . . non with perishable things such as silver or aureate, merely with the precious blood of Christ, similar that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown earlier the foundation of the globe but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the expressionless and gave him celebrity, so that your faith and hope are in God.
—1 Peter 1:18–22
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Song: "I Will Praise Him" past Margaret J. Harris, 1898 | Bundled and performed past The Isaacs, on The Isaacs Naturally: An Nigh A Cappella Collection, 2009
When I saw the cleansing fountain
Open broad for all my sin,
I obeyed the Spirit'due south wooing,
When He said, "Wilt thou be clean?"I volition praise Him! I will praise Him!
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His claret tin launder away each stain.Then God's fire upon the altar
Of my heart was set aflame;
I shall never stop to praise Him:
Glory, glory to His Name!I volition praise Him! I will praise Him!
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood can wash abroad each stain.
Glory, glory to His Name!
[Related posts: "Worthy Is the Lamb" (Artful Devotion)"; "No Other Fount (Artful Devotion)"]
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The awe-inspiring Ghent Altarpiece past Northern Renaissance painters Hubert and Jan van Eyck [previously] is 1 of the world's finest fine art treasures—every student who's taken Art History 101 knows this piece, and it has been the bailiwick of much scholarship.
Peradventure you know it from the detail photos of the recently restored Adoration of the Mystic Lamb console that went viral in January.
Over the by three years, conservators nether the leadership of Belgium's Royal Found for Cultural Heritage removed the overpaint that was added to the van Eyck brothers' original in the mid-sixteenth century, revealing a strikingly humanoid face on the Agnus Dei that surprised everyone. (The rest of the painting is much more naturalistic.) Social media users fabricated fun of the cartoonish appearance of the lamb, merely Hélène Dubois, head of restoration, says this lamb has a more "intense interaction with the onlookers."
The haloed lamb who stands on an altar and bleeds into a chalice is the focal point of the entire fifteen-foot polyptych. He is, of course, a symbol of the self-sacrificial Christ. Angels environment him holding instruments of the passion, and the Latin inscription on the antependium (altar hanging) translates to "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (John ane:29).
You lot can zoom in on all the altarpiece panels and accept a look at the restoration process (ongoing since 2010, with the upper interior panels to be tackled in 2021) at the Closer to Van Eyck website, which I've mentioned before—though the site appears not to have been updated in a while.
If you'd like to learn more, the Google Arts & Civilization online exhibition Inside the Ghent Altarpiece is a great identify to start, equally is the altarpiece'south Wikipedia page. If yous prefer to learn audiovisually, you might enjoy these two Smarthistory videos:
This post belongs to the weekly serial Aesthetic Devotion. If you lot can't view the music histrion in your electronic mail or RSS reader, try opening the post in your browser.
To view all the Revised Common Lectionary scripture readings for the 3rd Lord's day of Easter, cycle A, click hither.
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the vocalization of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!"And I heard every fauna in heaven and on world and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.
—Revelation five:11–14
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Vocal: "Worthy Is the Lamb / Amen" past George Frideric Handel, from Messiah (1742)
This video is a 2014 performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir—and you tin can find many more besides on YouTube. I'm partial, though, to the Oregon Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra'due south functioning on Easter Joy (2009), which you lot can stream on Spotify:
Handel was German simply spent the bulk of his career in London, settling there in 1712 and becoming a naturalized British denizen in 1727. In the 1730s, he transitioned from composing Italian operas to composing English language choral works, 1 of which is the world-famous oratorio Messiah. (Read Charles Jennens's full libretto, a curation of scripture passages, here.)
People might assume that the and then-oft-performed "Hallelujah" chorus is the finale of this majestic work, just no, that chorus concludes function two, capping off the narrative of Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, and the early spreading of the gospel through the known world. The "Worthy Is the Lamb" chorus, rather, serves as the Messiah's consummation, an acclamation of Christ's full and concluding victory over sin and death that follows role three's prophecies of the day of judgment and the general resurrection. The text is taken from Revelation v.
The anonymous sixth-century mosaicists of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italia, gloriously visualized this passage in the cross-ribbed vault of the church's chancel, just above the altar. Tens of thousands of tesserae (tiny pieces of colored glass, and clear glass sandwiching gold leaf) come together to image Christ high and lifted up equally the sacrificial Lamb of God. Can you lot imagine worshipping in this infinite? It must accept been so transporting for those early Christians of Ravenna: to enter and move toward their promised end in Christ. To be enfolded in this luminous vision of paradise that they enacted below in the liturgy.
To learn more than about San Vitale and its mosaics, see this Smarthistory video. (Unfortunately it focuses on the 2 political portraits at the expense of the biblical subject field matter, but even so, information technology gives a good sense of the architectural setting of the mosaics.)
This post belongs to the weekly series Artful Devotion. If you can't view the music player in your email or RSS reader, effort opening the post in your browser.
To view all the Revised Common Lectionary scripture readings for the Third Sunday of Easter, cycle C, click here.
Over the past twelvemonth or and then, information technology seems I keep running into artistic responses to the book of Revelation. There was the "Apokalipsa" icons exhibition held in Nowica, Poland, in fall 2016, to which thirty-six artists contributed (see photos, plus this Artful Devotion); then last September there was the release of the book Picturing the Apocalypse: The Volume of Revelation in the Arts over Two Millennia , which I mentioned in an earlier roundup. What's more than, this April, Pillar Church in Holland, Michigan, was awarded a Vital Worship Grant by the Calvin Establish of Christian Worship "to enrich worship past collaboratively creating artistic liturgical resources inspired by the book of Revelation in order to promote a rich engagement with Scripture." I'll exist interested to see what they come up with!
Now I meet that the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) is calling for papers on the topic of "Waiting for the End of the Earth: Eschatology and Art 1850–2000," for a symposium to be held Feb 11–12, 2019. Proposals due by September 4.
After 1850, religious subjects became increasingly suspect among modernist artists adamant to paint only what the eye tin can see. Gustave Courbet's pronouncement, "show me an angel, and I'll paint one," exemplified a new, more skeptical orientation. Nevertheless, historical forces and personal motivations compelled many artists, working beyond a spectrum of materials and visual methods, to directly employ or obliquely reference themes of the Last Judgment and the Apocalypse. Over a century that saw 2 world wars, economical booms and devastating depressions, the ascent and autumn of ideologies of left and right, the collapse of colonial empires and the anarchy of failed states, the threats of nuclear annihilation and ecological degradation, artists frequently turned to eschatological imagery to visualize the experience of modern life.
The Last Judgment described in the sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions threatens damnation and promises redemption for both the individual and gild. This symposium volition explore the fashion that apocalyptic beliefs and imagery—Jewish, Christian, and Islamic—have informed the work of avant-garde artists from all regions of the world. We invite proposals for 20-infinitesimal papers of original inquiry that explore questions such as, merely not limited to: What unlike visual languages have artists used to address the idea of the end of the world? What meanings have they found in the eschatological narrative? How are cultural differences and similarities manifested in their work? To what extent is the teleological narrative of modern art a disguised, secular version of a theological narrative?
Some other recent release, from December 2017, is the poetry collection What Will Soon Take Place by Tania Runyan, "an imaginative journey through the book of Revelation" that "offers a poet's view of the prophetic, not in the sense of seeking out clues to the 'end times,' but a means of taking this strange, fantastic book of scripture and letting it read its way into personal lives." I love Runyan'southward poetry (all the poets published by Paraclete are great), so this volume is near the top of my to-read list. Bank check out "The Angel Over Patmos" and "The Great Throne," and come across the promo video below, with an excerpt from "Vision of the Son of Homo."
Also from 2017, a collage by Nicora Gangi inspired by medieval Final Judgment triptychs. Commissioned by Spark and Repeat Arts, Buss the Son calls on us to love Christ with sincere affection, adorning his feet with kisses similar the woman in Luke seven. The left panel shows a heap of humanity'south various "gilt calves," those things we worship that merely lead to death. This is contrasted on the right with the New Jerusalem, where the Lion and the Lamb sit atop a cascade of glory. At the bottom of the fundamental panel is the city of destruction, the destination of those who give Christ the betrayer's kiss; the serpent-like forms recall the Evil 1 who deceived Adam and Eve and plummeted humanity into alienation from God. In a higher place, though, the Son shines brightly, inviting all the reconciled into his loving presence.
Lastly, though it was released in 2013, I just recently discovered The Lamb Wins by the Lesser Calorie-free Collective, an album of thirty-plus original songs past fifteen-plus artists based on John's Apocalypse. My favorite song is "The River and the Tree of Life."
Oh yep, and considering I just finished reading the massive Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, hither's a curt, thematically relevant excerpt, from "Figures for an Apocalypse: VIII. The Heavenly City" (page 148):
Shine with your lamb-low-cal, shine upon the world:
Y'all are the new creation's sunday.
And standing on their twelve foundations,
Lo, the twelve gates that are One Christ are wide as canticles:
And Oh! Begin to hear the thunder of the songs within the crystal Towers,
While all the saints rise from their earth with feet like light
And fly to tread the quick-golden of those streets . . .
Update: On June 28 and 29, 2018, the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) in the U.k. hosted the conference "Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling." All the talks, given by various scholars, have been added to the organization'south media archive. They address the theme in Hans Memling, Albrecht Dürer, William Blake, James Hampton, Keith Haring, Michael Takeo Magruder, David Best, Bob Dylan, and more.
This week the Revised Mutual Lectionary assigns an additional set of readings, on height of Sunday'southward, for the special celebration of All Saints' Mean solar day (Hallowmas) on November i. Amidst them is John's vision of a multitude of angels and faithful departed surrounding the enthroned Christ in sky, sounding forth his praise.
After this I looked, and behold, a neat multitude that no i could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, continuing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud vox, "Conservancy belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces earlier the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and accolade and power and might exist to our God forever and ever! Amen."
—Revelation 7:9–12
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O quam gloriosum est regnum (" O how glorious is the kingdom") — A cappella motet for four voices composed by Tomás Luis de Victoria, 1572 | Performed past the University of Utah Chamber Choir
O quam gloriosum est regnum
in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes sancti!
Amicti stolis albis,
sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit.O how glorious is the kingdom
in which all the saints rejoice with Christ!
Clad in robes of white,
they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
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Explore the individual panels from Fra Angelico's "court of heaven" predella in greater detail on the National Gallery of London'southward website, and rejoice this All Saints' Day in the Christian witness of those who have gone before us!
This post belongs to the weekly serial Artful Devotion. If you tin can't view the music player in your email or RSS reader, attempt opening the post in your browser.
To view all the Revised Mutual Lectionary scripture readings for All Saints' Day, wheel A, click here.
Source: https://artandtheology.org/tag/agnus-dei-lamb-of-god/
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