Tea at Trianon: The Importance of Beauty in Catholic Life

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, September 20, 2015

The Importance of Beauty in Catholic Life

An interview with artist Daniel Mitsui:

Catholicism is traditional. It contends that the Apostles received a Revelation almost two thousand years ago; their witness was preserved in a law of worship which establishes our law of belief. This idea affects every aspect of Catholic life, including art. The conviction of Catholic artists, everywhere at least through the Middle Ages, was that they were preserving an ancient memory; this was succinctly expressed at the Second Council of Nicea: The composition of religious imagery is not left to the initiative of artists, but is formed upon principles laid down by the Catholic Church and by religious tradition ... The execution alone belongs to the painter; the selection and arrangement of subject belong to the Fathers.

Of course, there is development in Catholic art over time. St. Vincent of Lerins says that authentic development of tradition is like the growth of a body; it looks different in maturity than in infancy, but it has all the same parts. When I draw a scene from the Gospels, I study depictions of the same scene in the work of ancient and medieval Catholic artists. I look for selections and arrangements of subject that endure across historic and geographic boundaries, and perpetuate them as a matter of duty. Doing so makes me a participant in a tradition that stretches back to the very beginnings of Christianity. That is an awesome privilege. (Read more.)

Visit Daniel's website, HERE. Share