Holy Land Fire Sale

Journal 34; April 8, 2009

I don’t think I can escape religion. Religion is a part of history. Like everything else, religion is a symbol of what could potentially be, the afterlife, heaven and hell, but is also gives us the motivation in the sort of ways we are to be right now, it gives us the morality to find our own way, which it assumes will be through the Church. When we see places like the Cloisters, we are brought inside of this symbolic shroud, looking at all these relics of hope and redemption.

The Tomb Effigy of Jean d’Alluye is not a tomb, we are quick to be told. There are no coffins here, but representations of those might crusaders who traveled to the Middle East in search of God. What doesn’t really matter is the bloodshed per se, but the thought that Jean d’Alluye came back with a relic of the cross from his journal. The True Cross. Though there were only three nails from the True Cross, there exist quite a few more nails circulating with that title, but this shouldn’t matter. Jean sleeps peacefully, hands folded in prayer with a solemn look on his face. His sword and shield hang at his side, his shield to low to represent a still-pugilistic nature; he seems to have given it up for god. At his feet sits a lion, representing courage.

A firm representation of courage can be seen in the painting of Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Michael, by Master of Belmonte. In this painting Michael stops out a demon, possibly even Lucifer himself, with a golden spear. In Michael’s armor we see what looks like a reflected sunset with gilt inlay, and his wings appear like armor too instead of wings. His pointed armored greaves are silver like his shield, and both appear almost white, representing the purity of the wearer. On the same token the demon is represented in brown and earthy colors, made out of dirty animals sewn together, alligator, goat, snake, and troll. Though the spear goes through his mouth he seems to welcome the violence, and standing on top of him Michael seems to have defeated the demon, but how does one murder something without life? Even the demon’s torso smiles at the violence, but the grim determination in Saint Michael’s face points to an overall victory: “even though I may not kill you, I will always be there to stop you.”

The reliquaries too are mellifluous here; in every shape and form we find ways to hold the holy relics of Christ and the saints, the blood and bones and sinew, the wood and nails. Some are represented golden arms with viewing displays showing the bone behind layers of glass, others are necklaces looking like glass elevators. The gold here is supposed to reflect the richness of the object inside, and in all of these there is always a thin layer of glass protecting the relic (ironically no longer housed within the display).

Religion is perhaps the supreme example of theory versus application. The True Cross is a symbol of sacrifice, redemption, and hope, but I don’t think Christ ever envisioned cutting it up and selling it to the highest bidder. Neither did the saints think while being ripped apart by lions in Nero’s circus or being crucified upside-down that this would have any effect on their post-mortem bone value. With these objects, these symbols, lives and purposes gained legitimacy, but when money was exchanged between hands, I would say that something was lost. But all symbols have some sort of value, and we must accept this, because without them we might forget not only the thing but what it stands for. Without the symbol we lose the idea.

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