Sunday, February 21, 2010

Weird Religious Art: 3 Jesi and the flying heads.

Every now and then, I find weird religious artwork on the internet. So, I am starting a new series to discuss the meaning of the bizare imaginings that are ispired by dogma.

Here we have a depiction of the Holy Trinity as portrayed by Fridolin Leiber, entitled Holy Trinity.



Every person of the trinity looks like (the popular depiction of) Jesus, angels are depicted as flying heads, and The Jesi are standing on the flying heads. Weird!

14 comments:

fuuuuck said...

That's really what heaven looks like. Ask Mark or "a".

Robert Madewell said...

Hane you ever noticed that figures in religious art seem to be doing some kind of gang signs? Maybe, it's Nanoo Nanoo or Live long and prosper?

I did a little googling on the strange hand gestures see in religious art and came up with a list of gestures prominent in Hindu art and what they mean, but as far as I can tell, theres no such list for Christian art.

Robert Madewell said...

Here's another Jesus flashing a gang sign.

CLICK HERE

What does that gesture mean? The God-Jesus (the one in the middle) in the feature picture is doing that same sign and the Jesus-Jesus (the one with the holes in his hands) is also doing that with his hand on his lap. (At first, I thought he was flipping the bird.)

Mark Morrison said...

Ok Robert you must be running out of things to post about. ethinethin I don't think that would be accurate.

Robert Madewell said...

Mark, don't tell me that you don't find that painting freaky.

I find it curious that depictions of The Holy Trinity are very similar to depictions of other triune or quatrune dieties. Especially Brahma (the God of Hinduism).

CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE

fuuuuck said...

ethinethin I don't think that would be accurate.

What does heaven look like, Mark?

Mark Morrison said...

here you go ethinethin :

Revelation 21
1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

9And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Mark Morrison said...

11Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

12And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

13On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

14And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

17And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

19And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Robert Madewell said...

Sure, Mark, that's what The Bible says. But, why should I believe that vision of heaven instead of the one in The Book of Arda Viraf? What makes your holy book any different than any other?

Mark Morrison said...

What makes your holy book any different than any other?

It's self proving Robert. The Bible is amazing, it was written over 2000 years by 40 plus authors and yet Jesus is the thread through the whole thing. All of the prophecy that was written before the birth of Jesus that was fulfilled through Him.

Mark Morrison said...

Just curious you can answer or not your choice. How does your dad feel about your stance ? Also does he see the things that you post? Thanks for your time.

Mark

fuuuuck said...

All of the prophecy that was written before the birth of Jesus that was fulfilled through Him.

How convenient.

Mark Morrison said...

ethinethin said,

How convenient.

If prophecy is written "before" someone is born and their life fulfills said prophecys I wouldn't call that convenient. I would say that is a miracle. Jesus is the Son of God.

Robert Madewell said...

Mark, you do know that those fulfilled prophecies were somewhat retconed to fit with Jesus. The author of Mark even gets his prophet wrong once. He said that Jeremiah prophecied that Judas would take 30 peices of silver, but it was'nt written by jeremiah, but by zechariah. There are even prophecies that aren't really prophecies. Like poetry from the book of psalms. It's a matter of intepreting the scriptures so that it says what you want it to say. We could do that with any holy book. Maybe even any book. Jules Verne predicted space travel and submarines.There was even an early SF writer that predicted nuclear bombs (I forget who, off hand). Should we consider those devine scripture?