Ad Imaginem Dei: New tech in an old situation

Friday, May 13, 2011

New tech in an old situation

Van Cleef and Arpels, Platinum Brooch
set with Diamonds, Emeralds and Black Enamel
Paris, 1919

Some off-topic observations about a new use for new technology in an old setting -- the exhibition gallery.

Yesterday I attended the current exhibition of jewelry by Van Cleef and Arpels that is now at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Since I design and make jewelry I find the subject endlessly fascinating. It's amazing how the urge to adorn the human person with some kind of ornamentation has persisted from the first days of Cro-Magnon man right down to the present.

I'm not a great lover of Van Cleef and Arpels jewelry, which has always seemed to me to be very over-the-top, even gaudy, but there is no question about their artistry, their inventiveness and the quality of their workmanship. So, the flash of diamonds and the clash of colors that sometimes appear in their work notwithstanding, I spent a pleasant two hours poking around this very large exhibition.

One thing that amused me was the realization that modern technology has popped up in the museum world in a new way. The exhibition is very well documented for the visitor. Each person receives a small catalog with their admission pass which describes the objects on display, thus reducing the need for individual labels. This makes for a less cluttered feeling as one looks at the objects. There are some wall cards and labels, but they are very limited in number. There are several videos explaining some of the firm's most famous innovations, such as the mystery setting and the zip necklace. There are full printed catalogs available for perusal. But what really caught my attention were the iPads. The iPad has replaced the audioguide. I did not see the rental stand, but I did see several individuals walking around holding iPads and listening to the commentary with earphones plugged into them. The beauty of this in comparison to the old acoustiguide is that on the iPad one can not only listen but can also look. Several iPads were also available in a stationary location so that the casual visitor might use them. I investigated and found that they included much more detailed descriptions of each piece than was included in the printed handout, plus all of the videos and detailed photographs of each piece.

Van Cleef and Arpels, Sautoir Necklace
Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli and Diamonds
France, 1929

This is clearly going to be the wave of the future for this kind of usage. Of course, good as the technology is it cannot replace the effect of seeing the real thing. An example is given here. It is one of the pieces in the exhibition, a beautiful turquoise, lapis and diamond sautoir necklace that was sold last year at Sotheby's Geneva for $104,257. Beautiful as it looks in this picture, it is nothing to how gorgeous it is in its serenely beautiful reality.

Uniquely among the monotheistic religions Christianity permits the use of images of God. Why? The answer lies in the Christian belief in the reality of the Incarnation. Since God has assumed human nature and form the Biblical prohibition against making images of God ceases to apply. As the second Council of Nicea declared in 787 "Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."
(Council of Nicaea II: DS 600)

This decree of Nicea II was promulgated for the entire church, both Greek and Latin speaking, and was a response to the strongly held beliefs of the iconoclasts, who wished to suppress the use of images, which had convulsed the Byzantine Empire and the eastern churches for almost 100 years. In addition, St. John Damascene, last of the Greek Fathers and a staunch defender of images, had written in De imagine ("In Defense of Images") "Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, (Bar. 3.38) I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." (St. John Damascene, De Imagine, Part I, 15-16, from Internet Medieival Sourcebook.)

The ways in which this imaging of the divine has been accomplished in the course of time is the subject of Christian iconography. To quote from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, iconography is "1: pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject; 2: the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject; 3: the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art".

The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time and as the act of making art develops and changes as well. This is the background for this blog.

Ad Imaginem Dei

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Friday, May 13, 2011

New tech in an old situation

Central Park Sunset

Oscar Wild 1997(?)-2014