Tea at Trianon: Supporting the Catholic Arts

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

Monday, February 4, 2019

Supporting the Catholic Arts

From Joseph Pearce at Faith and Culture:

In the past, great artists enjoyed the patronage of wealthy patrons. Today’s artists enjoy no such patronage. Instead they rely on ordinary people to support their work, and by extension their families, through the purchasing of the fruits of their creative gifts. Since this is so, we all need to become patrons of the true art that Catholic artists are producing. We need to buy their paintings, or purchase the literary works of Catholic writers, or the works of Catholic composers and musicians. If we wish to support and encourage a new Catholic revival in the arts, a revival which is so sorely needed as an expression of the culture of life in the midst of the culture of death, we need to proactively nurture and nourish the new generation of Catholic artists.

In the past ten years or so, there has been a dramatic increase in the quality and quantity of Catholic art being produced. There seem to be more Catholic painters and sculptors, supported by the Catholic Art Guild; more Catholic poets, novelists and short story writers, supported by the Catholic Writers’ Guild; and more Catholic composers and musicians. There is, however, an unhealthy divide between the supply of true art and the demand for it amongst Catholic lovers of the arts. Those who admire the visual arts are more likely to buy books about old masterpieces than new works of Catholic art; lovers of literature are more likely to read the classics than new fiction and poetry written by Catholic authors and poets; music aficionados are more likely to buy works by the great composers than new works by contemporary Catholic composers. This is not to say (of course!) that we shouldn’t be admiring the masters who have so enriched our Catholic heritage, but it is to say that we need to be supporting the living tradition that is alive and well and in our very midst. (Read more.)