I have used lyrebirds and chameleons as symbols of universality, for the former seems to contain within itself all sounds, and the latter all colors.
I also do not feel obligated to pretend an ignorance of cultures or peoples unknown to medieval artists. I accept the influence of Japanese art, for example. That is in the true spirit of Gothic art; to admire beauty in all of its forms, and to find a way to offer it back to God.
“Jesus Christ instructed his Apostles: Teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. This Great Commission can be illustrated by figuratively baptizing the art of all nations. Doing this requires Christian artists to let go of historic and current enmities.
Yes, for centuries Moors and Turks waged wars of conquest against Christendom. Japanese Buddhists long persecuted the Church with horrific brutality. The Romans fed the saints to lions; the culture preserved by Cassiodorus was the culture of Diocletian. Christian artists should not ignore any of that.
But they nonetheless should see truth, beauty and goodness in the cultural treasury of all nations, and fashion sacred art from it to honor Jesus Christ. This is the visual expression both of Christianity’s universal prerogative and its peculiar commandment: Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” (from Daniel’s lecture “Gold out of Egypt”).
REGINA: You love beautiful elaborate Churches and contend that modernism has simplified many churches to the point of stark bareness.
Daniel: In a very literate society, it is easy to think of the definition of prayer as thinking pious thoughts to yourself. Anyone who thinks that is going to consider especially beautiful artwork or music as a distraction, and to consider artwork or music ‘prayerful’ or ‘reverent’ when it really is just easy to ignore.
The theology of beauty that was articulated by Hugh of St. Victor and Suger of St. Denis encourages a very different way of considering prayer. The ability to delight in beauty is a vestige of the prelapsarian state. When the senses are delighted, the mind is lifted in an anagogical manner to a more spiritual realm.
Also, sacred art and music is our offering to God. Its subjective effect on people is not really the first concern. God deserves the best from us. All the parts of a church, even seemingly insignificant things like floor tiles or brick bonds or drain spouts or door hinges, can be beautiful and symbolic and interesting. Maybe if they are ugly or perfunctory or meaningless, many people will not notice. But it makes a very shabby gift to God, who will notice!
REGINA| 170