Page 216 - Kavur, Boris. Devet esejev o (skoraj) človeški podobi. Založba Univerze na Primorskem, Koper 2014.
P. 216
devet esejev o (skoraj) človeški podobi
of images in churches the words of Gregory the Great who in his letters to
Serenus, bishop of Marseille explained that “images are introduced due to our
emotional idleness /…/ Since our emotions are more excited by the seen as by the
heard.” (Baxandall 1996, 55). But what did the people see or understand in the
Middle Ages?
The transition between the Medieval, austerely codified explanation of
hairy, wild, as the antithesis of Christian stability perceived human figures,
towards savages, representing a metaphor for virtue and natural life, was
caused by the change in social mentality at the end of the Middle Ages.
Ecclesiastic hegemony was profoundly shaken at the end of 16th century
and the corrupt papal authority lost its influence most of all in territories
north of the Alps. Severe criticism from Luther and humanistic-reformist ide-
al of Erasmus of Rotterdam profoundly undermined the authoritarian posi-
tion of the church and caused a rise of secular authority which began to dic-
tate its will and believes. And since the state as such did not perform rigorous
mind control, as Church before, the end of 16th century became a period of ex-
pansion for liberalism which enabled the reinterpretation of old and creation
of new forms.
A matter of secondary importance was also the change of ideological
control – a consequence of a period after the Thirty years’ war when the sys-
tems of social stability became disintegrated and when the Church was re-
placed by a much more tolerant state. It was the formulation of the question
of identity – of the human identity in general as well as the emerging nation-
al identities. Questions of human agency and identity became a basic to med-
ical sciences and utopian literature as well. It was a period in which social
elites started to use antiquarianism for the creation of national identities –
imaginary as well as real information about the regional past and continuity
of power.
Antiquarianism found its roots in the Medieval obsession with collect-
ing of curiosities and human anatomical parts. At the time Europe was in a
state of frenzy – everybody was collecting relics and before modernity the
most enthusiastic bone collectors were medieval Christians. Bones were in-
cluded into cabinets of curiosities which were mostly organized by medics.
Probably most famous was the cabinet of sir Hans Sloan who was a personal
physician of English king Georg II. His collection of human skeletons was
bought after his death by the British parliament and it became the core of
British Museum of Natural History (Walker 2000, 9–10).
With first reports on inhabitants of Africa in the 14th century and the
discovery of the New world, traditions from antiquity writing about the
216
of images in churches the words of Gregory the Great who in his letters to
Serenus, bishop of Marseille explained that “images are introduced due to our
emotional idleness /…/ Since our emotions are more excited by the seen as by the
heard.” (Baxandall 1996, 55). But what did the people see or understand in the
Middle Ages?
The transition between the Medieval, austerely codified explanation of
hairy, wild, as the antithesis of Christian stability perceived human figures,
towards savages, representing a metaphor for virtue and natural life, was
caused by the change in social mentality at the end of the Middle Ages.
Ecclesiastic hegemony was profoundly shaken at the end of 16th century
and the corrupt papal authority lost its influence most of all in territories
north of the Alps. Severe criticism from Luther and humanistic-reformist ide-
al of Erasmus of Rotterdam profoundly undermined the authoritarian posi-
tion of the church and caused a rise of secular authority which began to dic-
tate its will and believes. And since the state as such did not perform rigorous
mind control, as Church before, the end of 16th century became a period of ex-
pansion for liberalism which enabled the reinterpretation of old and creation
of new forms.
A matter of secondary importance was also the change of ideological
control – a consequence of a period after the Thirty years’ war when the sys-
tems of social stability became disintegrated and when the Church was re-
placed by a much more tolerant state. It was the formulation of the question
of identity – of the human identity in general as well as the emerging nation-
al identities. Questions of human agency and identity became a basic to med-
ical sciences and utopian literature as well. It was a period in which social
elites started to use antiquarianism for the creation of national identities –
imaginary as well as real information about the regional past and continuity
of power.
Antiquarianism found its roots in the Medieval obsession with collect-
ing of curiosities and human anatomical parts. At the time Europe was in a
state of frenzy – everybody was collecting relics and before modernity the
most enthusiastic bone collectors were medieval Christians. Bones were in-
cluded into cabinets of curiosities which were mostly organized by medics.
Probably most famous was the cabinet of sir Hans Sloan who was a personal
physician of English king Georg II. His collection of human skeletons was
bought after his death by the British parliament and it became the core of
British Museum of Natural History (Walker 2000, 9–10).
With first reports on inhabitants of Africa in the 14th century and the
discovery of the New world, traditions from antiquity writing about the
216
