William Blake, whose Ugolino and his sons in prison is my focus this week, has provided some interesting connections to earlier work. The picture in the Fitzwilliam is one of over 100 illustrations Blake worked on in the last year of his life. Commissioned to illustrate a translation of Dante's 'Inferno', the artist became obessessed with the project but failed to complete before he died in 1827. Commentators believe that Blake, a Dissenter, intended his drawings as a critique of Dante's apparent approval of the punishments meted out to souls in Purgatory.
Medieval thinking on Purgatory was responsible for the development of the system of Indulgences that so upset Martin Luther. The link here with my current work is with Carillo's Mass of St Gregory. This painting has an inscription on the reverse that describes the 73,000 years or more of indulgences available to anyone reciting prescribed prayers in front of the painting. From our Post-Reformation perspective all this is difficult to grasp but the sincere belief that underpinned it is beyond doubt.
Studying the art of the Medieval church gives a fascinating insight into beliefs and religious practice at the time. It also draws out some themes that will bear closer study - the veneration of the mass at a time when taking communion was generally an annual event not a weekly occurence, the doctrine of transubstantiation that arose from that and now, unexpectedly, ideas about hell. I hope to look more deeply at these themes over the next two days.
In Cambridge this week is the annual Midsummer Fair which is 800 years old this year, tomorrow is the Feast of Corpus Christi and Friday the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. Hoping to connect with the city centre churches for at least one of those occasions. I've become much more aware of this cycle of Feast days on my visits to the city - there are five churches on my walk from the library to the museum so it's hard to miss.
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