Tea at Trianon: The Image of an Upright Man

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

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

The Image of an Upright Man

From Catholic Exchange:

I must admit that I was overwhelmed with the discovery of the upright man. It caused me to back out of the room in awe and respect for what the image of the man of the shroud was visually telling me. My first thought was that indeed this image is a reflection of the moment of Jesus’ resurrection. It was a moment in direct contrast from all that I previously understood. Prior to that moment, I thought there was nothing on the shroud that revealed that this man’s image was a reflection of Jesus’ resurrection.

In the context of what I knew of Jesus’ life, the image of the upright man that I now saw was a visual declaration of his resurrection. But as I calmed down from my initial moment of awe, questions were screaming inside my head: “He is upright, but why isn’t he standing?” “Why is he in midair?” I had no answers and did not know where to find them. Then one source came to mind. I went to the Bible and read the four Gospels.

So I began a biblical search for answers as to why the image of the shroud shows a man whose hair falls to his shoulders and whose feet do not touch the ground. And that was the beginning of an exhilarating biblical journey. That journey opened the door to discovering the sign that John ingeniously concealed and much more. That journey also brought me to Pablo Eduardo, a master of artistic anatomy. The result is a new sculpture of the man of the shroud that now resides at Ave Maria University. This sculpture of the man of the shroud, called The Sign, visually shows that Jesus is not lying in burial but is raised up, lifted up in resurrection and ascension to his Father (figure 9). (Read more.)