2024-01-05 17:23:21
The Saints. Spiritual adventure and representation
de Robert Bared
Hazan, 192 p., 39,95 €
Who is this saint carrying a shell, pilgrim’s staff and sword? Saint James of course, but why did the so-called Saint James shell become the symbol of the Saint of Compostela? And why is the evangelist Luke represented by a bull, Mark by a lion, Matthew by a man and John by an eagle? How can we recognize Saint Nicholas from other bishops with pastoral miters and crosiers? Who is this saint carrying her severed breasts on a tray?… Identifying the painted or sculpted images of saints in churches or museums is often a treasure hunt.
This beautiful book, signed by Robert Bared, doctor of letters, is a precious guide, synthetic and richly illustrated, to decipher the imagination of painters and sculptors and go back to the origin of the distinctive signs that are their attributes (the keys to the Apostle Peter, the grill of Deacon Laurent, the clover of Saint Patrick…). The author has selected 77 figures among the most represented in art (such as Sebastian pierced by arrows or Christopher carrying the Child Jesus on his shoulders) or having been the subject of great veneration (such as Rita of Cascia or Thérèse of Lisieux) and presented them chronologically.
A quality composition
For each, we will find an abstract of his life, reporting one or two recurring miracles in his iconography. But also his attributes, the main scenes where the saint is represented in art, the day of his feast, his patronage, the reasons for which he is invoked… In comparison, the author has chosen for each one a famous painting representing him , accompanied by a few lines taken from his writings or from a great author. “I was a man without honor. And, all of a sudden, I had one, the one I never imagined would become mine, God’s.” said Thomas Becket to King Henry II, shortly before being assassinated in his cathedral, in the room dedicated to him by Jean Anouilh.
The informed reader will no longer be mistaken between Saint Michael and Saint George: both fight the dragon, but the archangel wears wings and is on foot or in the air, while George is almost always on horseback. . The tradition is, moreover, rich in meaning: we thus learn that Saint Luke, whose Gospel opens with the evocation of the childhood of Jesus, is represented as “painter of the Virgin” undoubtedly because he would have drawn from Mary, after the Resurrection, the story of this childhood and also collected his intimate view of the events.
#beautiful #book #decipher #representations