Catholic holy pictures make me cringe

[LilyM]

I’m not fond of the more saccharine pictures of Jesus or Mary either, and am drawn to the much stronger iconic style.

However, not only were the artists of days past perhaps trying to portray aspects of Jesus that aren’t emphasized so much today, there were also somewhat different standards of what constituted masculinity and good looks in a man.

In the 1600s a lot of men got around in long curly hair or wigs, as well as frilly shirts and high heeled beflowered or bespangled shoes - some looked for all the world like attractive girls except that they happened not to be in skirts!

Queen Victoria, for another example, considered her husband Albert to be very handsome indeed, and nothing other than masculine. But in her diaries she talks about his pretty little mouth, or words to that effect, in what we would consider to be very unmasculine terms!

 

[Sonic]

Way to confuse a girl… how can beauty be dependent objective morality?

A piece of music is not beautiful because it is moral… it is beautiful because the ear hearing it appreciates what it’s hearing.

A piece of art is not beautiful because it is moral… but because the eye seeing it appreciates it.

???

From the 1965 Catholic Encyclopedia article entitled The Beautiful pg 613:

Beauty is inseparable from truth and goodness. It is the truth of a thing which is seen or known. It is the goodness of a thing which gives pleasure or enjoyment. Beauty can exist in a thing only to the extent that truth and goodness are present. Thus we may speak of something as ugly because it is dishonest or bad. If a car, for example, is designed in such a way that it will not function, no amount of added ornament will cause its buyer to say it is beautiful. Having neither truth nor goodness, it cannot have beauty either. *See Good, The; True, The. *

Edit:

As such, Christ becomes the ultimate model of the image of Beauty in Christian Culture and Art.

Check out the articles I posted, and you’ll receive a fuller picture of what I mentioned.

 

[nickybr38]

Edit:

As such, Christ becomes the ultimate model of the image of Beauty in Christian Culture and Art.

Check out the articles I posted, and you’ll receive a fuller picture of what I mentioned.

Ah darn… you mean I have to read… SNIFFLE

All right… all right… I will, but only because I feel all stupid for not understanding a word you’re saying.

 

[lil_flower_luv]

Now you know I don’t mean hate literally - I mean it in the same way that kids hate broccoli!

In that case, I hope you will learn, like broccoli, that it’s something that can be good for you.

But her crushing serpent heads…not something I would want displayed.

You wouldn’t want this displayed?

 

[lil_flower_luv]

Madonna of the Streets - one of my personal favorites.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I don’t care for statues or fake pictures.

Iconoclast?

 

[lil_flower_luv]

Iconoclast?

More like troll!

 

[Havard]

I know we’re not talking about film, but I did think Caviezel looked the way I imagine Jesus looked:

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/i...llVaLgCkBpqBkqdI544h2obcL8hY6dJjB5VaqYSUhghbQ

He’s not some hulking brute, but he’s definitely masculine.

 

[triumphguy]

In that case, I hope you will learn, like broccoli, that it’s something that can be good for you.
You wouldn’t want this displayed?

Madonna of the Streets - one of my personal favorites.

There’s nothing wrong with those two pictures. In fact they are quite beautiful.

 

[Snugglebugmom]

Madonna of the Streets - one of my personal favorites.

Love this! Thank you so much for posting!

 

[petitfleur]

In that case, I hope you will learn, like broccoli, that it’s something that can be good for you.
You wouldn’t want this displayed?

I would display that actually, I was picturing something different. I mentioned I liked the Madonna doing laundry, I have a hard time with Marion spirituality as a whole…not against it in any way, mind you just not natural to me.

 

[jilly4ski]

I would display that actually, I was picturing something different. I mentioned I liked the Madonna doing laundry, I have a hard time with Marion spirituality as a whole…not against it in any way, mind you just not natural to me.

I am not going to flame you, though I am a little confused about your sensibilities in this area and what exactly it is that you don’t like.

I personally dislike overly colored statues. I prefer my statues, one color, usually white, stone, or metal. Though a resin statue with minimal color can be ok.

So things like this I don’t like very much
http://www.leafletonline.com/images/22326_W.jpg

But things like this I like
http://www.leafletonline.com/images/17436_W.jpg

But my favorite are things like this
http://www.leafletonline.com/images/24956_W.jpg

Sorry about the size of the pictures.

 

[onjac]

You’re not alone in this.

There are some pictures that intimidate me more so than inspire me. And I’m like jilly as well in that I’m not a big fan of saccharine pictures.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents brought a porcelain doll of an angel for Christmas. I was really excited to see it. I grabbed the box, flung off the lid, picked it up and was-- horrified. Okay, if you saw it now, it’s just a standard doll but I think I knew then and there that I wasn’t a fan of them. They didn’t really look angelic to me because of the look in their glass eyes. (That and I had the misfortune of accidentally seeing part of one of those horror films with those talking dolls…)

But enough negativity. There are some beautiful works of art out there. Just beautiful and inspiring.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I apologize up front. I am not trying offend anyone - seriously. It would have insulted my long dead and very saintly Nan for me to express this opinion to her.

I was brought up in a very Catholic family: statues of Mary crushing the serpents head, pictures of the Madonna, the Last Supper and the Pope on the wall, Holy cards in Bibles. The colour blue is the most prominent colour in all of them.

I used to be embarrassed when people came to our house. The statues were all in windows so all our C of E neighbours could see them.

I hate them! The pictures of Christ look emasculated, wimpy, feminine. I won’t comment on the pics of Mary because I know people will be insulted.

It’s my guilty secret. I feel bad about it. Truly!

I have no religious pictures up - except for the “cartoon” by Leonardo of Mary and Elizabeth with Jesus and John the Baptist as infants (but it’s mainly brown and doesn’t look like a “holy” picture).

I long for pictures of Christ that I can put up, or Mary.

Am I the only one?

Can anyone recommend religious art I might like?

Oh no! You are certainly not alone! And in fact, I’m happy to know people like you exist! You don’t have to feel so bad either. 8D

I for one don’t have a high opinion of religious images too. Heck, even images inspired by religion don’t appeal to me compared to what really catches my eye.

I mean Renaissance cherubs are cute and all but I’m kinda partial to images of raging dragons and massive boom spells myself. Oh and style, yesh indeed, very picky about style. I’ll tell you one thing, detailed lips are a major turn-off for me. :dts:

Then theres this one. He doesn’t look too happy.
http://www.dcpages.com/gallery/d/14371-20/National_Shrine_Midnight_Mass.jpg

Whoa! That is cool!
Is that an old image?

I know it’s your opinion and you’re welcome to it–but talk about cringing–I am upset in learning a person can feel “hate” towards holy religious articles, save those who reject Christian beliefs and tradition altogether.

No, we just don’t like the style. Honestly, all those angels with wings and harps… sometimes it’s cute but most of the time it’s just… bleargh. I definitely do not see myself dressed in white robes, waving around that incense thurible, and singing Latin in angelic pitch with a sunlit church in the background.

Frankly I take more pleasure envisioning myself in a violet-black, leather coat, with a creepy Phantom mask. On one hand, blue crackling bolts and the other, black smoky mana. And to top it off, I have the ever so epic evil laugh whilst lightning flashes across the sky with my dark castle behind me.

Why I like the latter and not the former? I really can’t explain outside mere taste. It’d be like asking me to explain why I like the colors black and blue or why I prefer dark shades over bright. I can’t say it’s fair to be upset by something that can’t even be explained.

Besides, God Himself defies any attempt to make Himself containable to our mortal senses.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

Talking about guys running around in wigs and looking ridiculously effeminate,
a couple of years ago I saw the wonderful movie AMAZING GRACE, about the efforts in England to END the slave trade. A beautiful, beautiful film indeed.
But the guys depicted in that film? All the parliamentarians?
What the heck were they doing wearing all those hideous, effeminate wigs???
Why did they need the stupid looking wigs?
And what was all that stuff in the bottle that they kept “seasoning” their wigs with??
It looked like bottles of oil, or oil mixed with powder or something.
Their heads must have stunk to high heaven from wearing all that junk!!!

 

[Jaypeeto4]

I know we’re not talking about film, but I did think Caviezel looked the way I imagine Jesus looked:

Yeah, I loved Jim Caviezel’s JESUS in THE PASSION, too. He was terrific.
He seemed like a man, not like a glassy-eyed avatar.
Jeffrey Hunter, in KING OF KINGS, I found pretty impressive too.
Too bad Hunter died so very, very young.

On another note, and I KNOW it’s just a rock-opera, highly fictionalized,
but I thought Ted Neeley, who portrayed Christ in the film of Jesus Christ Superstar,
looked, in most shots, like a classically-handsome Jesus that you would find in a really NICE portrait of the Sacred Heart or something (not the effeminate Sacred Heart pics, tho).
Of course, Neeley is now in his late 60’s and STILL playing Jesus, on stage, in productions of Superstar. Though he isn’t ugly, and not half-bad looking for his age,
someone needs to remind Ted that Jesus died at 33, for petes sake, and that he needs to move over and let someone else take over this role in future productions. When Jesus was carried triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday of 33 A.D., with the crowds waving palms and singing HOSANNA, he wasn’t 68 years old and leaning on
a walker !!!

 

[Jaypeeto4]

All this talk of bad statues and bad art reminds me of something that was
hysterically funny that I saw several years ago.
I certainly don’t mean to be sacrilegious nor disrespectful of Our Lady Mary,
but there was a store on S.E. 1st Street in downtown Miami (long since closed down)
that sold statues of Saint Anthony of Padua, and also numerous statues of
Our Lady Of Fatima, imported from Fatima itself.

I remember that the OL of Fatima statues came in multiple sizes, from 6 inches to about 2 feet tall. I was looking at them, they were quite nice and intricately fashioned,
when one of them jumped out at me really boldly:
the artist who had made Mary’s eyes, had made Our Lady of Fatima
completely and grossly CROSS-EYED. I mean she looked absolutely ridiculous.
I burst out laughing thinking, o lord no, not that, not a cross-eyed Our Lady!!!
I mean this was REALLY bad. I was laughing out loud. I called the sales lady’s attention to the statue and said something like PLEASE, don’t sell this one, it’s awful…

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Oh… I know what you mean…

paintinghere.com/UploadPic/William_Bouguereau/big/The%20Virgin%20with%20Angels.jpg

-Hideous!

s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvflawodgb1r7rdcpo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1326578213&Signature=zXp1YAYa9g75rWoBAWwDHoz2f3k%3D

-Just ew…

allartclassic.com/img/Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio_CAM001.jpg

-C’mon now… Jesus wasn’t that feminine…

… on a more serious note. I understand. I used to find a lot of it just… ugh… but what is beautiful to one person isn’t to another. Beauty is subjective. So we have all of this art. Some of it you might find beautiful, some of it you might not… but there’s enough out there that you can find the art that speaks to you and uplifts your heart to God at the same time.

On a side note, I was always disturbed by the bent crucifix that the Pope sometimes carries… These days I don’t mind it but it used to really weird me out!

STOP!
Come on! Let’s cool down…
I am a man and find the first picture just lovely. I mean, there are angels playing the violin … but the whole picture is so sweet … I mean … is it wrong to be sweet? And the painting is good!
The second and third are masterpieces of MichaelAngelo. The second, the superb Pietá, it is a work of art that is in the St Peter’s Cahtedral. One day a madman tried to destroy it with an Hammer and show she is behind glass. Those are superb descriptions of utter pain, despair and loneliness…
Of course, no confusion between the 1st and the 2nd ad 3rd. he first is kitsch art the other are masterpieces of Christin Art…

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Then theres this one. He doesn’t look too happy.
http://www.dcpages.com/gallery/d/14371-20/National_Shrine_Midnight_Mass.jpg

It is an imitation, modern, of the Pantokrator (All Powerful) of the Hagia Sofia (Holy wisdom) of Istambul (ancient Constantinople):

Hagia Sophia
http://www.holidaystoturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hagia-sophia1.jpg

Pantokrator

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Madonna of the Streets - one of my personal favorites.