Madison Miller

Professor Hayden

REL 1112

13 October 2019

Art Museum Experience

After visiting the Dayton Art Institute, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have never seen

art in person before and what made it even crazier was how old some of the art was. I

saw all different types of art from paintings, to tapestries, to sculptures and even

furniture. I was amazed at how beautiful and intricate all the details were in each piece.

Some of the artwork had stories behind them, and each story was truly fascinating. I

mainly focused on the European art, and I found many different pieces based on the

religion Christianity. Therefore, I will be telling you my experience seeing art based on

the Christian religion.

The first piece that caught my eye was a painting called, The Lamentation of Christ.

It was a beautiful, yet depressing painting. It showed Jesus’ dead body being held by

people. After reading the story behind it, I found out the people holding him were the

Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, John the Evangelist, and the third Mary (the mother of

the apostle James the Lesser). The more I read, I also found out that the background is

the bases of the crosses that were used to crucify him. This painting relates to what I

learned in this class. It shows Mary Magdalene who contrary to popular belief, has no

evidence she was a prostitute. Mary Magdalene was a very close disciple of Jesus, she
witnessed the crucifixion and shown in the painting is just moments after his removal

from the cross. She was also the first-person Jesus appeared to after his resurrection.

Another piece that caught my eye was a painting called Madonna and Child. The

painting shows Virgin Mary looking at and holding her son Jesus. This painting relates

to what I learned in class because it shows Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary’s status

and importance in the church doctrine grew more and more over time. Her virgin status

was controversial. Many Catholics believed she was a virgin at conception but had

standard marital relations with Joseph later in life. Others believed this was blasphemy,

as she was a pure vessel. So, the Council of Constantinople, in 553, established Mary's

perpetual virginity throughout her life. Another controversy arose because the doctrine

of the Original Sin conflicted with Mary’s pure state. They questioned, if she gave birth

to God, then how could she be stained with sin? So, the Catholic Church established

the doctrine of Immaculate Conception -- which refers to Mary's sinless state when she

was born. Only she and Jesus are believed to have been born without the stain of

Original Sin. This painting reminded me of that because it shows the only 2 people to

have ever been born without the stain of the Original Sin.

I saw a sculpture that really caught my eye. It was Saint Theresa of Avila. This

sculpture reminded me of the Saints we learned about. I remember Saint Theresa being

an important figure. She was known for being so filled with her love of Christ, that she

literally couldn't keep her feet on the ground. In sculpture form she appears to be

kneeling and she is wearing a headdress and a long dress that is covering her whole

body. This looked similar to what Muslim women wear. Another sculpture I noticed was

of Saint John the Baptist. He appears young and is wearing what appears to be a toga
and sandals. The sculpture is a copy of a 15 th century marble sculpture and it is made

from white marble. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Scholars believe he was

influenced by the Essenes, the group of Jews who lived in the desert and wrote the

Dead Sea Scrolls.

Speaking of Saints, I noticed a painting of St. Francis. The painting was called St.

Francis in Ecstasy. What caught my eye was the skull in the painting. It also shows St.

Francis looking up with his mouth wide open. This reminded me of St. Theresa’s statue

in Rome of her in spiritual ecstasy. St. Francis of Assisi practiced Holy Poverty, as

taught by Jesus and Paul. He was often associated with nature and animals, the

contemplation of this fleeting life, and our inevitable death. He wrote beautiful poetry

and legend says he experienced stigmata, or the suffering of the wounds of Christ

during the crucifixion. My interpretation of the skull in the painting is of our inevitable

death, while the plants and flowers next to the skull represent nature.

Finally, there was one painting that instantly caught my eye. It was of a man wearing

nothing but a cloth around his genitals, he was punctured by arrows, and bound my

rope. The painting was called Saint Sebastian. Although we learned about Saints, we

didn’t learn about Sebastian. The story next to his painting taught me something new. I

learned that according to legend, Sebastian was a secret Christian during the reign of

the fourth-century Roman emperor Diocletian. When his two Christian friends were

discovered and sentenced to death, he too admitted he was a Christian. He was bound

to a tree, shot with arrows, and left for dead, which is shown in the painting. However,

he was saved by two women who removed the arrows. Once healed, he returned to

confront the emperor with a renewed vow of his Christian faith, but this time was beaten
to death. This reminded me of what we learned in class about how early Christians were

disliked by Jews and Romans. Romans saw Jesus as the anti-Roman ideal and rumors

circulated that this new group was a death cult of cannibals who ate the body and blood

of their God and who drew symbols of death. The Christians were arrested, tortured,

burned, and crucified in the streets. Saint Sebastian wasn’t afraid of expressing his

beliefs even though Christians were seen as evil and killed for their beliefs.

Overall, I was inspired by all the art I saw. It really helped me have a better

understanding of the Christian religion. Even though I am Catholic, I feel as if I do not

know much about the religion. The art, along with the stories describing them, helped

me make more sense of everything I have learned about Christianity in this class. I think

this experience was very eye-opening and I enjoyed it very much.