St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - September 2018

Left: exhibition photo of Hogarth's Rake's Progress
Right: Christ ascended; detail, after Raphael, from
the Hogarth altarpiece; in-situ drawing EJL 2017
6: Lamentation
With more time it would be good to look at the theology of art but for now
perhaps it’s enough to say how strange that depictions of God should have
been proscribed. I understand Jesus as God’s self-portrait (imago Dei) and
ours too, which I see as double-edged since he is our pattern but the Passion
was our response (“God got into our justice machine” says S Mark Heim in
A Theology of the Cross). This correlates with my thinking about the portraits
we have created through the centuries (and today in photographs and film)
which I see as finding form for the longing we have for potential amid our
‘warts and all’ tendencies, and as such as a quest for meaning in a world
that’s uncertain but where our end is already known. To me this matches the
process of portrait-drawing in which one uses fragile pieces of the world to
map the invisible ‘coordinates’ of one’s subject by paying attention to fleeting
visible details. I think it also provides a way of understanding the works
by the artists featured in the exhibition, which project our dreams, follies,
prejudices and choices in high relief; in other words a context for the religious
content in Perry’s tapestries, and in Hogarth’s ‘oeuvre’ too (for instance
in Moses brought before Pharoah’s Daughter and the altarpiece, below). Whilst I
am not intending to attribute religious belief to either artist, I am suggesting
that there’s something incarnational about the business of making art and
the mapping of one thing onto another that seems to lie at its heart. And as
regards the artists’ work, I note that both comment on the plight of society
using forms of satire (truth-telling); both provide compelling portraits of their
time using sequencing format (storytelling); both have promoted the visual
arts in their respective societies; both have a presence in our island culture
and worldwide; both have referred to the iconography of the Church in ways
that make me think about what it is to be human. As such, both remind me
that visibility of and access to art is important. (I note the exhibition audio
guide didn’t feature a religious response. Could it have done?)
Eleanor Vousden, PCC
Acknowledgements: thanks to Rhys Williams for permission to use details of his photographs
taken at the exhibition. All 6 of Grayson Perry's tapestries are shown in this article; photos taken
courtesy of the Museum // * The last talk in the series “One Hundred Years of Remembering and
Forgetting: 1914–2018” at the Chapter House in June — see Bristol Cathedral online for a précis.
... “modern moral subjects”
whilst we’re on the subject, see
over for details of two events this
month, both with history, arts and
storytelling themes and plenty of
opportunity for discussion:
a modern twist on an old
favourite — The Knight's Tale from the
Canterbury Tales by mediaeval
poet Geoffrey Chaucer. New work
and a production-in-the-round from
dramatist and mediaevalist
Professor Rob Pope; a cast of
professional actors and lively local
talent keep the pace up.
a morning of talk and
discussion open to all on the theme
of arts and society; last of a 3-part
series, with more planned. This
one's on storytelling and the arts
through the ages: Professor Rob
Pope talks about his work, and I
take a slot too. Open discussion.
Free event — all welcome.
All from Kingdom Creatives — arts
initiative at Bristol Diocese.
— EV