Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

The graphic depiction of Jesus as the suffering Man of Sorrows is not a crowd pleaser but is a crowd draw, according to Jesuit Father Gregory Waldrop, assistant professor of art history at Fordham University.

Fr. Waldrop moderated a March 18 panel discussion on the Man of Sorrows as part of a symposium organized by the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture in conjunction with a new exhibit at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art.

“No one would dispute the importance of Christ’s sacrificial death in Christian theology, but we are less inclined today to decorate our living rooms with bloody representations of him,” said Waldrop.

But Waldrop said the Man of Sorrows — which is an image of Jesus upright, dead but not yet resurrected — still resonates artistically and religiously. “It continues to attract and provoke, responding to current conditions of anguish, loss and deprivation in the world, and showing up in contemporary songs, popular images and even as a theme in artworks by high-profile, emphatically secular contemporary artists.”

For more on Waldrop’s panel discussion, visit Catholic News Service.

The graphic depiction of Jesus as the suffering Man of Sorrows is not a crowd pleaser but is a crowd draw, according to Jesuit Father Gregory Waldrop, assistant professor of art history at Fordham University.

Fr. Waldrop moderated a March 18 panel discussion on the Man of Sorrows as part of a symposium organized by the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture in conjunction with a new exhibit at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art.

“No one would dispute the importance of Christ’s sacrificial death in Christian theology, but we are less inclined today to decorate our living rooms with bloody representations of him,” said Waldrop.

But Waldrop said the Man of Sorrows — which is an image of Jesus upright, dead but not yet resurrected — still resonates artistically and religiously. “It continues to attract and provoke, responding to current conditions of anguish, loss and deprivation in the world, and showing up in contemporary songs, popular images and even as a theme in artworks by high-profile, emphatically secular contemporary artists.”

For more on Waldrop’s panel discussion, visit Catholic News Service.

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal

Jesuit Brother Edwin Sheehy has found artistic outlets in a variety of disciplines: baking, sculpting and puppetry.

Br. Sheehy began baking at Loyola Seminary, in Shrub Oak, New York, for over 200 seminarians a few years after joining the Society of Jesus in 1951.

He estimated that while there he baked 1,500 loaves of bread from scratch annually; at night he began to work with clay as a sculptor.

Sheehy’s next interest was puppetry after a visit to Hollywood’s Universal Studios in 1970, where he saw a puppet show. He thought, “I could do that.”

He has constructed numerous puppets and has performed at children’s Masses illustrating the Gospel.

Sheehy, now 77, has been at the St. Peter’s Prep community in Jersey City since 1999 to focus on his artistry. He has returned to sculpting and has done, among other things, a bust of St. Ignatius Loyola.

To learn more about Br. Sheehy, read this profile in the Jersey Journal.

Magis Productions, founded by noted photojournalist Jesuit Father Don Doll of Creighton University, will receive the 2010 Chief Standing Bear Organizational Award this Friday, May 14 in the Nebraska State Capitol Rotunda.

Awarded by the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, the honor recognizes Fr. Doll and his colleague Carol McCabe for their work in the field of photography, particularly portrait photography, which gives “voice to Native American peoples and promotes social justice for all.”

Members of the Kateri Drum Group of St. Augustine Indian Mission, Winnebago, Neb., will perform at the awards event.

“It’s an honor to accept this award,” said Doll who was introduced to photography when he was assigned to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota as a young Jesuit in the late 1960s. “It’s been a privilege to make photographs that in some small way assist Native Americans in the pride they take in their heritage and their identity.”

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A rarely viewed world map compiled in 1602 by Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci, has gone on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

The 400-year-old map, which will be on display from Jan. 12 to April 10, is being shown publicly for the first time in North America. Measuring 12 feet by 5 feet and printed on six rolls of rice paper, the map identifies Florida as “the Land of Flowers” and puts China at the center of the world. It also includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world; Africa is noted to have the world’s highest mountain and longest river. The description of North America is brief with mentions of “humped oxen” or bison, wild horses and a region named “Ka-na-ta.”

A Jesuit missionary from Italy, Ricci was the first Westerner to visit what is now Beijing in the late 1500s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map at the request of Emperor Wanli.

This map – one of only two in good condition – was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map ever sold.  After the three-month display, the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division will digitally scan the 1602 document and make the electronic image available to scholars and students for research.

To read the full story, please visit: On This Rare Map, China Is the Center of the World (ABC News)

Links:

Library of Congress

James Ford Bell Library