Tea at Trianon: Medieval Altar Found Hiding in Plain Sight

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, August 12, 2024

Medieval Altar Found Hiding in Plain Sight

From ArtNet:

For ages, a massive stone slab sat in a rear corridor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It appeared an unassuming artifact; over the years, tourists had even left graffiti on its surface. But recent construction work necessitated moving the block and turning it around, leading to an astonishing discovery that brings its deep heritage to light. Once flipped over, the front of the eight-by-five-foot slab revealed geometric patterning, featuring five circles formed by an unbroken band, a spiritual symbol known as the quincunx. Based on the motif, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) have identified the hunk of stone as part of a once-elaborate Medieval altar, consecrated in the 12th century and long thought lost.
Built in 326 C.E. at the behest of Roman emperor Constantine, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was long considered a sacred site by Christians. The building, it was believed, sits on the location where Jesus was crucified, entombed, and rose from the dead—hence the church’s name, which refers to either the resurrection or Jesus’s empty tomb. In 1149, the European Crusaders, recognizing the church’s significance, re-consecrated it after conquering the Holy City and installed a new high altar. (Read more.)