Angela Center

Integrating: spirituality, psychology, social responsibility and the arts

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for self exploration and self development for both men and women

Conference Facility in Santa Rosa, California with accommodations

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A Theological Interpretation
of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art

4 Wednesday Evenings
April 14, 21, 28 and May 5
7:30 to 9pm
Led by Geoffrey E. Wood., S.S.L., S.T.D.

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance religious topics were almost the sole subject of painting. Such paintings of sacred subjects like the Nativity or Call of St. Matthew or of the Madonna, the Flight into Egypt, the Crucifixion, Resurrection or Martyrdom of St. Sebastian to name a few such paintings were often done to serve as altar pieces before which the Eucharist might be celebrated. The paintings thus supplied a pictorial enhancement to meaning of the Eucharist's connection to sacred history.

By the nineteenth century art had become much more interested in secular subjects: seascapes, landscapes, still life, portraits, depictions of people dancing and working. But to the theological eye there is no such thing as a secular painting. All paintings say something about the holiness of creation. For that reason a painting of a wheatfield by Van Gogh might serve as an astounding altar piece, a supplement to the Eucharist, as much as an explicitly religious scene or figure. This course will explore the sacred hidden in the secular beauty of late nineteenth and early twentieth century art (mainly French).
Warning: do not come expecting the kind of technical critique you might find on a campus and in an art gallery. The interpretation here will be theological and edifying (in the serious sense of that term).

Cost: $56 (Bring a friend free.) Please make reservations.

2004

4 Wednesday Evenings
April 14, 21, 28 and May 5
7:30 to 9pm