St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - September 2018

2: The Agony in the Car Park 4: The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal
I was particularly interested that, in title (5 of 6) and content, the tapestries
referred to mediaeval and renaissance religious paintings, not least as I
thought this would interest us as “a thriving, inclusive Christian community”
in our thinking about art. I referred last month to the talk given by the Very
Revd Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Bristol, titled “Do This in Remembrance of Me”*
in which he explored remembering as ‘re-membering’ Christ’s command to
break bread in His name, and the act of receiving the Eucharist as immersion
into and identification with the Passion. His talk was illustrated by the sort
of works the tapestries refer to, with the points made (and emerging in discussion)
that images are ‘affective’, always present to the viewer (‘readable’
3: The Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close
at any point of entry, accessible any time) and comprise paradox (always the
same, never the same twice) so are highly participatory. The works referred
to (Bellini’s Madonna in the Meadow, for instance) were commissioned by the
Church to make visible the gospel for a populace that, as we know, couldn’t
read and that though the immersive power of architecture and imagery was
a given at the time, the fabric of this sensory mediaeval world with its visual
literacy and sense of wonder in the service (for the most part) of God was to
be torn to shreds. As art historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor wrily notes (BBC 4’s
Britain’s Lost Masterpieces), the Protestant reformers didn’t allow paintings of
God so we painted ourselves instead and have been ever since.
5: The Upper Class at Bay (or An Endangered Species)