{"id":6793,"date":"2017-09-15T07:59:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=6793"},"modified":"2017-09-15T07:59:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:59:26","slug":"monumental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=6793","title":{"rendered":"Monumental"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The earliest three-dimensional art was probably carvings, shortly followed by pottery. Ritualistic and functional purposes found artistic expression. Soon 3-D became large, representing religious ideals and worldly egos by its size – just think of the tomb carvings in Mesopotamia and the statues attached to Egyptian pyramids. The Greeks matched their sculptures to their view of the centrality of man – it had to be the perfect body…..<\/p>\n

Early Christianity was hampered by one of the commandments forbidding the use imagery. Once they found a way around that by claiming this prohibition only referred to idolatry, the dam broke. Just look at the ubiquitous carvings, statues, reliefs in Christian churches – I will need a whole other month to blog about the beauty found there. Eventually.<\/p>\n

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Today I want to focus on the ways sculptures are used as monuments, specifically memorializing power. (Which reminds me I could also do a week on war monuments and comparative sites of unspeakable horror. Maybe.) \u00a0Today’s example was found in Innsbruck, Austria. My friends and travel companions who know e v e r y t h i n g about cool historical sites guided me to the Hofkirche, the church and (empty) burial site of emperor Maximilian I, surrounded by 28 of his favorite relatives…<\/p>\n

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Imagine: on his deathbed, in 1519, this guy expresses a wish to be sepulchered in some chapel, surrounded by 40 larger-than- life statues made of bronze. Well, the 28 who are eventually completed are too heavy for the chapel. So his grandchild Ferdinand builds a new church, the Imperial Court Church, puts a cenotaph (empty grave) into it, and flanks it by the “black men” as they are known. Never mind that about half of them are women. I am not kidding you.<\/p>\n

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Think how it must feel to come to services every Sunday being surrounded by this wealth, this overwhelming imagery, this size of those who rule you.<\/p>\n

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Attached link is a video of the church.<\/p>\n