Just as economists should never be used to tell Australians what kind of society we “must” live in, medical scientists, and indeed climate scientists, should never be used to tell us what we “must” do.

The role of experts is to inform us about the likely consequences of our choices, but it is the role of our democratic representatives to make those choices.

For too long in Australia, economics has been used to tell Australians that we must cut taxes, we must cut working conditions and we must spend less on public services, if our economy is to be “competitive”. But, of course, we didn’t have to do anything of the sort.

Pros and cons: what are the exit strategies for Australia's coronavirus crisis?

Experts and academic jargon were used to narrow the options available to us on the democratic menu, and the result was both poor economic outcomes and a frustrated population. We must not make the same mistakes when talking about Covid-19 and the hard choices we face about “where to from here?”.

Medical science can tell us how to manage Covid-19’s spread through our community. And medical science is our only chance to develop either a cure or vaccine, which scientists say is at least 12 months away. But while medical science can tell us how to pursue such strategies, it cannot tell us which ones we “must” pursue. That question is one for us and our elected representatives.

Federal and state governments have, to date, done a great job of managing the spread of Covid-19. Where wealthy countries like the US and UK have seen cases and deaths tragically soar, Australia has largely contained the spread.

There have been deaths, but not a single person has died due to a lack of medical care— because we have contained the spread effectively enough that our intensive care wards aren’t over-full and our medical staff aren’t stretched to (complete) exhaustion.

Coronavirus will force Australia to make diabolical decisions – we must choose with care

Some mistakes were made and some decisions were poorly communicated but, overall, Australian leaders have responded quickly and effectively to the advice of our medical experts. As a result, Australia has succeeded in largely dodging the first bullet this pandemic sent our way.

But where to from here? If we want to ensure that no one catches Covid-19, our medical experts have shown us that they know how to deliver on that goal. We need to keep our borders closed, we need to stay at home as much as possible and we need to ensure there are no large gatherings of people. It’s not fun and it’s not cheap, but it works.

The question is, do we want to keep “crushing the curve” by keeping 25 million people locked in their homes, and out of their beaches and parks? That’s not a medical question, it’s a democratic one. The sooner we acknowledge that, the better our democratic debate will be. We don’t need to pit scientists against each other to resolve such a question, we need to pit arguments and options against each other.

Australians often choose to ignore experts, whether they be lawyers, economists, film critics, pollsters or medical doctors. If we always listened to economists, we wouldn’t just have a carbon tax, we could also have toll roads as far as the eye can see. If we always listened to lawyers, most people would never go to court. And if we always listened to doctors, we would have banned alcohol, tobacco and junk-food advertising decades ago. Medical science knows how to save a lot of lives, but it’s a democratic decision as to how much of that advice we should take.

The advice from medical experts says that, at best, a vaccine is 12 to 18 months away, and could come with potential side effects that are yet unknown. Australia can choose to keep all our borders, beaches and schools closed until a vaccine is found, but if we make that choice, we must do so knowing that such controls could continue indefinitely. No doctor or scientist can make that decision on our behalf.

Obviously, no one wants the horrific scenes from Italy and the US to be repeated here in Australia. While there are other paths besides locking the population down or letting the virus rip, there are obvious risks to exploring such unmarked trails.

Reasonable people looking at the same range of information will inevitably disagree on both how long we should stay locked down, and which unmarked trail to follow when we do take our first tentative steps away from the current restrictions.

But, like it or not, those questions will need to be asked and answered in the coming weeks. We must admit that while sheltering in our homes and locking up our borders has helped drive the spread of the virus down towards zero, hiding from the world and each other for another 12 months will not make us “stronger” or “more resilient”. It will just make us more stressed, isolated and impoverished.

We need to live restricted lives for at least six months – police-enforced lockdowns are unnecessary

Australian governments have done a great job of avoiding the first wave of this pandemic. But their swift action based on the best science did not buy us safety, it bought us time. We now have the chance to use that time to make good, but likely not perfect, decisions about what we do next.

The benefits of domestic and international lockdowns need to be held up against the physical, psychological and economic costs to individuals and communities.

With no prospect of a vaccine for at least a year, it’s obvious that a rigorous approach to hand washing and social distancing needs to stay in place. But not all questions are that straightforward. For example:

Should restaurants stay shut for 12 months or should they allow tables of four or less to dine together?

Should non-essential retail stores stay shut for 12 months or should they allow limited numbers of customers in at any point in time?

Should airlines stay grounded for 12 months or should people be allowed to fly if they don’t sit next to a stranger?

Should schools stay shut for 12 months or should they open with strict social distancing between students and teachers?

Just as there is no “right answer” to how fast we should let people drive, there is no right answer to which activities are too risky in the age of Covid-19. Medical science can tell us how to prevent the spread of a disease, but it can’t tell us how much risk we should take. And while there is no right way to judge how much risk is too much risk, there are better and worse ways to have democratic debates about such decisions.

We need to be open and honest about the role of evidence, the role of democracy, and the limits of both. Just as scientists will disagree about which are the most important restrictions to keep or remove, so too will our politicians disagree about which experts to listen to. It was ever thus, but that didn’t stop us from curtailing smoking, drink driving and measles.

Sadly, the debate about climate change science and policy has ruined much of Australia’s faith in democratic problem solving. It’s an understatement to suggest that when it comes to the role of fossil fuels in heating our planet, there has been too much politics and not enough evidence.

But just as it made no sense to politicise the science of climate change, it makes no sense to politicise the science of Covid-19. Just as there is no “right” amount of climate change to cause, there is no “right” amount of COVID-19 to allow to spread through the community. While many climate scientists have argued that we should limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, that number isn’t chiselled in stone. It’s a democratic compromise, not a scientific fact.

From a risk point of view, 1.6C would be better than 2C (and 1.3C would be even better still). But while the science around what happens if we continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is clear, the science of choosing the right amount of risk has never been, and never will be, crystal clear.

The same issue now confronts us with Covid-19. As with climate change, the safest number to aim for is zero. But as with climate change, many people don’t think that it is necessary or desirable, or even possible, to aim that low.

Until a vaccine is invented, we are going to need to have a very hard, very important conversation about how much risk to accept from Covid-19. The science will not be crystal clear, there will be differing views from well informed people and hard choices will need to be made, often in real time, regardless of how uncertain the consequences of those choices are. Hopefully, when debating these questions, we can treat the scientists with respect and cut our politicians a little slack.

When we are finished with this crisis, maybe we can take a fresh look at the fact that in the 30 years since Australia first agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, we have nearly doubled the amount of coal and oil we burn, saying it is “uneconomic” to do otherwise.

… just when we need it the most. Millions of readers around the world are flocking to the Guardian in search of honest, authoritative, fact-based reporting that can help them understand the biggest challenge we have faced in our lifetime. But at this crucial moment, news organisations are facing an unprecedented existential challenge. As businesses everywhere feel the pinch, the advertising revenue that has long helped sustain our journalism continues to plummet. We need your help to fill the gap.

We believe every one of us deserves equal access to vital public service journalism. So, unlike many others, we made a different choice: to keep Guardian journalism open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This would not be possible without financial contributions from those who can afford to pay, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.

We have upheld our editorial independence in the face of the disintegration of traditional media – with social platforms giving rise to misinformation, the seemingly unstoppable rise of big tech and independent voices being squashed by commercial ownership. The Guardian’s independence means we can set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Our journalism is free from commercial and political bias – never influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This makes us different. It means we can challenge the powerful without fear and give a voice to those less heard.

Reader financial support has meant we can keep investigating, disentangling and interrogating. It has protected our independence, which has never been so critical. We are so grateful.

We need your support so we can keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent. And that is here for the long term. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/15/how-long-th...

St Andrew and St Patrick, Elveden, Suffolk

As you approach Elveden, there is Suffolk’s biggest war memorial, to those killed from the three parishes that meet at this point. It is over 30 metres high, and you used to be able to climb up the inside. Someone in the village told me that more people have been killed on the road in Elveden since the end of the War than there are names on the war memorial. I could well believe it. Until about five years ago, the busy traffic of the A11 Norwich to London road hurtled through the village past the church, slowed only to a ridiculously high 50 MPH. If something hits you at that speed, then no way on God's Earth are you going to survive. Now there's a bypass, thank goodness.

Many people will know St Andrew and St Patrick as another familiar landmark on the road, but as you are swept along in the stream of traffic you are unlikely to appreciate quite how extraordinary a building it is. For a start, it has two towers. And a cloister. And two naves, effectively. It has undergone three major building programmes in the space of thirty years, any one of which would have sufficed to transform it utterly.

If you had seen this church before the 1860s, you would have thought it nothing remarkable. A simple aisle-less, clerestory-less building, typical of, and indistinguishable from, hundreds of other East Anglian flint churches. A journey to nearby Barnham will show you what I mean.

The story of the transformation of Elveden church begins in the early 19th century, on the other side of the world. The leader of the Sikhs, Ranjit Singh, controlled a united Punjab that stretched from the Khyber Pass to the borders of Tibet. His capital was at Lahore, but more importantly it included the Sikh holy city of Amritsar. The wealth of this vast Kingdom made him a major power-player in early 19th century politics, and he was a particular thorn in the flesh of the British Imperial war machine. At this time, the Punjab had a great artistic and cultural flowering that was hardly matched anywhere in the world.

It was not to last. The British forced Ranjit Singh to the negotiating table over the disputed border with Afghanistan, and a year later, in 1839, he was dead. A power vacuum ensued, and his six year old son Duleep Singh became a pawn between rival factions. It was exactly the opportunity that the British had been waiting for, and in February 1846 they poured across the borders in their thousands. Within a month, almost half the child-Prince's Kingdom was in foreign hands. The British installed a governor, and started to harvest the fruits of their new territory's wealth.

Over the next three years, the British gradually extended their rule, putting down uprisings and turning local warlords. Given that the Sikh political structures were in disarray, this was achieved at considerable loss to the invaders - thousands of British soldiers were killed. They are hardly remembered today. British losses at the Crimea ten years later were much slighter, but perhaps the invention of photography in the meantime had given people at home a clearer picture of what was happening, and so the Crimea still remains in the British folk memory.

For much of the period of the war, Prince Duleep Singh had remained in the seclusion of his fabulous palace in Lahore. However, once the Punjab was secure, he was sent into remote internal exile.

The missionaries poured in. Bearing in mind the value that Sikh culture places upon education, perhaps it is no surprise that their influence came to bear on the young Prince, and he became a Christian. The extent to which this was forced upon him is lost to us today.

A year later, the Prince sailed for England with his mother. He was admitted to the royal court by Queen Victoria, spending time both at Windsor and, particularly, in Scotland, where he grew up. In the 1860s, the Prince and his mother were significant members of London society, but she died suddenly in 1863. He returned with her ashes to the Punjab, and there he married. His wife, Bamba Muller, was part German, part Ethiopian. As part of the British pacification of India programme, the young couple were granted the lease on a vast, derelict stately home in the depths of the Suffolk countryside. This was Elveden Hall. He would never see India again.

With some considerable energy, Duleep Singh set about transforming the fortunes of the moribund estate. Being particularly fond of hunting (as a six year old, he'd had two tutors - one for learning the court language, Persian, and the other for hunting to hawk) he developed the estate for game. The house was rebuilt in 1870.

The year before, the Prince had begun to glorify the church so that it was more in keeping with the splendour of his court. This church, dedicated to St Andrew, was what now forms the north aisle of the present church. There are many little details, but the restoration includes two major features; firstly, the remarkable roof, with its extraordinary sprung sprung wallposts set on arches suspended in the window embrasures, and, secondly, the font, which Mortlock tells us is in the Sicilian-Norman style. Supported by eight elegant columns, it is very beautiful, and the angel in particular is one of Suffolk's loveliest. You can see him in an image on the left.

Duleep Singh seems to have settled comfortably into the role of an English country gentleman. And then, something extraordinary happened. The Prince, steeped in the proud tradition of his homeland, decided to return to the Punjab to fulfill his destiny as the leader of the Sikh people. He got as far as Aden before the British arrested him, and sent him home. He then set about trying to recruit Russian support for a Sikh uprising, travelling secretly across Europe in the guise of an Irishman, Patrick Casey. In between these times of cloak and dagger espionage, he would return to Elveden to shoot grouse with the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. It is a remarkable story.

Ultimately, his attempts to save his people from colonial oppression were doomed to failure. He died in Paris in 1893, the British seemingly unshakeable in their control of India. He was buried at Elveden churchyard in a simple grave.

The chancel of the 1869 church is now screened off as a chapel, accessible from the chancel of the new church, but set in it is the 1894 memorial window to Maharaja Prince Duleep Singh, the Adoration of the Magi by Kempe & Co.

And so, the Lion of the North had come to a humble end. His five children, several named after British royal princes, had left Elveden behind; they all died childless, one of them as recently as 1957. The estate reverted to the Crown, being bought by the brewing family, the Guinnesses.

Edward Cecil Guinness, first Earl Iveagh, commemorated bountifully in James Joyce's 1916 Ulysses, took the estate firmly in hand. The English agricultural depression had begun in the 1880s, and it would not be ended until the Second World War drew the greater part of English agriculture back under cultivation. It had hit the Estate hard. But Elveden was transformed, and so was the church.

Iveagh appointed William Caroe to build an entirely new church beside the old. It would be of such a scale that the old church of St Andrew would form the south aisle of the new church. The size may have reflected Iveagh's visions of grandeur, but it was also a practical arrangement, to accommodate the greatly enlarged staff of the estate. Attendance at church was compulsory; non-conformists were also expected to go, and the Guinnesses did not employ Catholics.

Between 1904 and 1906, the new structure went up. Mortlock recalls that Pevsner thought it 'Art Nouveau Gothic', which sums it up well. Lancet windows in the north side of the old church were moved across to the south side, and a wide open nave built beside it. Curiously, although this is much higher than the old and incorporates a Suffolk-style roof, Caroe resisted the temptation of a clerestory. The new church was rebenched throughout, and the woodwork is of a very high quality. The dates of the restoration can be found on bench ends up in the new chancel, and exploring all the symbolism will detain you for hours. Emblems of the nations of the British Isles also feature in the floor tiles.

The new church was dedicated to St Patrick, patron Saint of the Guinnesses' homeland. At this time, of course, Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom, and despite the tensions and troubles of the previous century the Union was probably stronger at the opening of the 20th century than it had ever been. This was to change very rapidly. From the first shots fired at the General Post Office in April 1916, to complete independence in 1922, was just six years. Dublin, a firmly protestant city, in which the Iveaghs commemorated their dead at the Anglican cathedral of St Patrick, became the capital city of a staunchly Catholic nation. The Anglicans, the so-called Protestant Ascendancy, left in their thousands during the 1920s, depopulating the great houses, and leaving hundreds of Anglican parish churches completely bereft of congregations. Apart from a concentration in the wealthy suburbs of south Dublin, there are hardly any Anglicans left in the Republic today. But St Patrick's cathedral maintains its lonely witness to long years of British rule; the Iveagh transept includes the vast war memorial to WWI dead, and all the colours of the Irish regiments - it is said that 99% of the Union flags in the Republic are in the Guinness chapel of St Patrick's cathedral. Dublin, of course, is famous as the biggest city in Europe without a Catholic cathedral. It still has two Anglican ones.

Against this background then, we arrived at Elveden. The church is uncomfortably close to the busy road, but the sparkle of flint in the recent rain made it a thing of great beauty. The main entrance is now at the west end of the new church. The surviving 14th century tower now forms the west end of the south aisle, and we will come back to the other tower beyond it in a moment.

You step into a wide open space under a high, heavy roof laden with angels. There is a wide aisle off to the south; this is the former nave, and still has something of that quality. The whole space is suffused with gorgeously coloured light from excellent 19th and 20th century windows. These include one by Frank Brangwyn, at the west end of the new nave. Andrew and Patrick look down from a heavenly host on a mother and father entertaining their children and a host of woodland animals by reading them stories. It is quite the loveliest thing in the building.

Other windows, mostly in the south aisle, are also lovely. Hugh Easton's commemorative window for the former USAAF base at Elveden is magnificent. Either side are windows to Iveaghs - a gorgeous George killing a dragon, also by Hugh Easton, and a curious 1971 assemblage depicting images from the lives of Edward Guinness's heir and his wife, which also works rather well. The effect of all three windows together is particularly fine when seen from the new nave.

Turning ahead of you to the new chancel, there is the mighty alabaster reredos. It cost £1,200 in 1906, about a quarter of a million in today’s money. It reflects the woodwork, in depicting patron Saints and East Anglian monarchs, around a surprisingly simple Supper at Emmaus. This reredos, and the Brangwyn window, reminded me of the work at the Guinness’s other spiritual home, St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, which also includes a window by Frank Brangwyn commisioned by them. Everything is of the highest quality. Rarely has the cliché ‘no expense spared’ been as accurate as it is here.

Up at the front, a little brass plate reminds us that Edward VII slept through a sermon here in 1908. How different it must have seemed to him from the carefree days with his old friend the Maharajah! Still, it must have been a great occasion, full of Edwardian pomp, and the glitz that only the fabulously rich can provide. Today, the church is still splendid, but the Guinesses are no longer fabulously rich, and attendance at church is no longer compulsory for estate workers; there are far fewer of them anyway. The Church of England is in decline everywhere; and, let us be honest, particularly so in this part of Suffolk, where it seems to have retreated to a state of siege. Today, the congregation of this mighty citadel is as low as half a dozen. The revolutionary disappearance of Anglican congregations in the Iveagh's homeland is now being repeated in a slow, inexorable English way.

You wander outside, and there are more curiosities. Set in the wall are two linked hands, presumably a relic from a broken 18th century memorial. They must have been set here when the wall was moved back in the 1950s. In the south chancel wall, the bottom of an egg-cup protrudes from among the flints. This is the trademark of the architect WD Caroe. To the east of the new chancel, Duleep Singh’s gravestone is a very simple one. It is quite different in character to the church behind it. A plaque on the east end of the church remembers the centenary of his death.

Continuing around the church, you come to the surprise of a long cloister, connecting the remodelled chancel door of the old church to the new bell tower. It was built in 1922 as a memorial to the wife of the first Earl Iveagh. Caroe was the architect again, and he installed eight bells, dedicated to Mary, Gabriel, Edmund, Andrew, Patrick, Christ, God the Father, and the King. The excellent guidebook recalls that his intention was for the bells to be cast to maintain the hum and tap tones of the renowned ancient Suffolk bells of Lavenham... thus the true bell music of the old type is maintained.

This church is magnificent, obviously enough. It has everything going for it, and is a national treasure. And yet, it has hardly any congregation. So, what is to be done?

If we continue to think of rural historic churches as nothing more than outstations of the Church of England, it is hard to see how some of them will survive. This church in particular has no future in its present form as a village parish church. New roles must be found, new ways to involve local people and encourage their use. One would have thought that this would be easier here than elsewhere.

The other provoking thought was that this building summed up almost two centuries of British imperial adventure, and that we lived in a world that still suffered from the consequences. It is worth remembering where the wealth that rebuilt St Andrew and St Patrick came from.

As so often in British imperial history, interference in other peoples’ problems and the imposition of short-term solutions has left massive scars and long-cast shadows. For the Punjab, as in Ireland, there are no simple solutions. Sheer proximity has, after several centuries of cruel and exploitative involvement, finally encouraged the British government to pursue a solution in Ireland that is not entirely based on self-interest. I fear that the Punjab is too far away for the British to care very much now about what they did there then.

Two members of our rope team were sick and were moving slowly.

As a consequence, after 8 hours of climb on this sunny but windy day, we stopped at this point, at the bottom of the summit ridge :-(

At Midnight, once arrived to Camp V, i realized i had Frosbites on 3 fingers of my right hand, 2nd degree !

As often, I am the only Lady wearing the Red down jacket.

There are only 11% of Women on Denali !!!

May 15th, 2017 - Denali Climbing, Alaska Range, Alaska.

11/13 Paris Attack by Israeli Intelligence Services: Ken O'Keefe

VIDEO :

youtu.be/ltV-zdKdpDA

Kenneth O'Keefe

Ken O’Keefe discusses “who is ISIS” and the absurdity of what the mainstream media is telling us in this latest false flag manipulation brought to you by the powers that be.

O'Keefe served as a United States Marine in the Gulf War. According to O'Keefe's own website, he was discharged because he "spoke out openly about abuse of power by my 'superiors' and as a consequence I paid a heavy price. I realised that honour and integrity were virtues which are often punished rather than rewarded and the Marines supplied me with my first serious taste of injustice."

O'Keefe created a marine conservation social enterprise 'to protect and defend the marine environment' in Hawaii in 1996.This enterprise conducted ghost net recoveries and rescues of endangered Green Sea Turtle wrapped in monofilament fishing line. O'Keefe became a pioneer in sea turtle rescues in Hawaii and led a campaign to create a marine sanctuary (Pupukea MLCD) on the North Shore of Oahu. In 1998 he joined an anti-whaling campaign in which he was bloodied when attempting to retrieve a boat belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, of which he was a crew member. It was in this time he was mentored by Paul Watson. Eventually he served as the regional director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in Hawaii.

In September 2013 O'Keefe joined David Icke in the team of The People's Voice, an internet TV station. In particular, he is presenting The Middle East Show, reporting news and comments on the subjects related to Middle east politics.

Michael Kvium. 1955

Man er hvad man kan. You do what you can.

Tu fais ce que tu peux. Oralmoral II 1995

Aalborg. Museum of Modern Art Denmark

Les conséquences de l'augmentation de l'homme

The consequences of the increase of man

Ces portraits de l'humain qui s'exposent dans nos musées d'art contemporain, si on les compare à ceux réalisés par les artistes des temps passés ont une signification. La mort de Dieu chez les "élites éclairées", le culte de la Raison, de l'Homme, de l'Avenir, du Progrès, de la Modernité, du Matérialisme et de l'Argent se traduit dans l'Art Contemporain Officiel par une vision de l'homme d'une laideur repoussante et d'une absurdité totale, toutes deux systématiques. Est-ce un signal d'alarme de l' inconscient collectif humain ?

These portraits of the human being that are exhibited in our contemporary art museums, if we compare them to those made by artists of the past, have a meaning. The death of God among the "enlightened elites", the cult of Reason, Man, the Future, Progress, Modernity, Materialism and Money is reflected in Official Contemporary Art by a vision of the man of a repulsive ugliness and total absurdity, both systématic. Is it an alarm signal from the collective human unconscious?

L'AUGMENTATION DE L'HOMME (Anthropocentrisme et Anthropomorphisme 2)

1) Anthropocentrisme et Anthropomorphisme

2) Dans la peinture catholique et orthodoxe

3) A la Renaissance

3) A la Réforme

4) Dans l'Art Moderne

5) Dans l'Art Contemporain Officiel

La peinture européenne est un témoignage très clair de "l'augmentation" de l'homme au fil de son histoire.

L'augmentation de l'homme ? C'est un constat : Plus l'humanité vieillit plus elle se prend au sérieux, plus son importance augmente, en tout cas à ses propres yeux, plus son regard sur le monde se fait anthropocentrique et plus son existence impacte les autres êtres et la terre toute entière. Mais peut être l'humanité est elle arrivée à un tournant de son histoire qui pourrait inverser la tendance ? Ou la précipiter vers sa fin?

Quand débute en Europe la peinture sur fresques au 11è siècle, puis sur bois au début du 14è siècle, l'anthropomorphisme de la pensée européenne, au travers de l'art catholique et orthodoxe est très clair. Mais l'anthropocentrisme est encore discret.

Anthropocentrisme ? Anthropomorphisme ?

La pensée anthropocentrique fait de l'homme le Centre de tout l'Univers. Il fait surtout de l'homme le centre de la pensée de l'homme. L'Humanité s'enfle et pas seulement démographiquement,surtout psychologiquement et idéologiquement.

L'anthropomorphisme a une portée beaucoup plus limitée : Il consiste à donner des Dieux, ou de Dieu, une représentation sous forme humaine. Dieux ou Déesses bien sûr. Car il semble bien qu'une des premières formes de la divinité ait été la Déesse Mère, sous forme humaine. Alors que le principe mâle aurait été souvent symbolisé par un animal : le Taureau par exemple.

L'anthropocentrisme est croissant tout au long de la période médiévale, il s'épanouit à la Renaissance, progresse encore à la Réforme, et devient omniprésent au fur et à mesure que l'idéologie des "Lumières" triomphe. Et à la fin de cette montée en puissance des "Lumières", quand Dieu disparait de l'art pictural européen, l'anthropomorphisme évidemment disparaît aussi. L'anthropocentrisme a éliminé l'anthropomorphisme. Seul l'Homme est au premier plan. C'est l'Enflure totale de l'Homme. C'est ce que l'histoire de la peinture européenne nous montre.

1) Anthropocentrisme et Anthropomorphisme ne sont pas indissolublement liés. Les cultures ou les civilisations qui donnent aux dieux des formes humaines peuvent ne pas être anthropocentriques. Dans ces sociétés les Dieux ou Dieu ont une forme humaine, mais l'homme ne se pense aucunement comme le centre du monde, ni comme une créature privilégiée. C'est la situation, dans les civilisations Sumériennes et dans l'Antiquité grecque et romaine. Dans ces cultures, ces religions ou représentations du monde, le centre du monde ce sont les Dieux.

L'homme Grec ou Romain a conscience de son importance, il n'est pas un animal et il n'est pas un barbare, il peut même être un philosophe rationaliste. Mais il a une grande conscience de son insignifiance dans l'Univers, notamment par rapports aux Dieux. Il est un être qui passe, et qui doit se contenter de ce passage en honorant les Dieux et ses ancêtres. Pour les Grecs et les Romains l'Ubris, la démesure, l'anthropocentrisme orgueilleux sont des perversions gravement dommageables à l'harmonie du monde. C'est une constante de toute la pensée grecque aussi bien mythologique que philosophique, en partant des pré-socratiques jusqu'aux hellénistiques, en passant par les post-socratiques. Certes un changement de vision du monde et de l'homme se profile avec Platon, et sans doute avec certains cultes à mystères très mal connus, mais ce n'est encore qu'une ébauche. Certes Prométhée promet beaucoup....mais il se fait manger le foie en punition de sa mégalomanie et de sa démesure (ubris) en faveur des humains. Zeus veille à ce que l'homme ne se prenne pas pour le centre du monde, afin d'en préserver l'ordre harmonieux. Et Apollon écorche Marsyas vivant pour les mêmes motifs.

Alexandre le Grand est une véritable incarnation de l'Ubris, sa mégalomanie démesurée a été très critiquée de son temps. Son premier censeur a été son maître, Aristote. Evidemment dès la Renaissance, les humains ont encensé Prométhée et Alexandre et ont continué pendant des siècles, jusqu'à nos jours. C'est une grande tentation de se croire élu, pas la plus précoce chez l'homme, seconde dans son histoire, mais tenace.

2) La peinture catholique et orthodoxe, une fois passée la crise iconoclaste byzantine, est anthropomorphique : elle peint Dieu à l'image de l'homme. Un anthropomorphisme qui est un héritage de la civilisation grecque dont les divinités étaient, pour la plupart, de formes humaines. L'anthropomorphisme du christianisme catholique et orthodoxe, n'est pas encore absolument anthropocentriste, mais il tend vers une valorisation de l'homme par rapport à la vision antique. Plusieurs regards sont possibles certes, mais d'une certaine manière, avec le christianisme catholique et orthodoxe l'homme prend plus d'importance que dans la pensée antique. Avec le Monothéisme l'humanité se considère en effet comme une création privilégiée de Dieu. Ce qu'elle n'était aucunement dans l'Antiquité grecque et romaine polythéiste. L'être humain catholique et orthodoxe est une créature unique au monde dans sa perfection, image de Dieu, élue de Dieu, alliée de Dieu, assurée d'une survie personnelle qui lui est réservée, s'il remplit certains devoirs.

C'est une vision du monde et de l'humanité héritée des cultures sémitiques et très précisément de celle hébraïque. Le chrétien élu de Dieu, quelque soit sa nation, est seulement une idéologie un peu moins ségrégationniste que l'hébreu élu ou allié privilégié de Dieu au dessus de toutes les autres nations.

Mais le chrétien (catholique ou orthodoxe, le protestantisme n'existe pas à cette époque) est une névrose de l'élection tout à fait identique à celle qu'exprime l'Ancien Testament. Cette névrose, sort du contexte tribal, qui est celui du judaïsme, et s'étend à l'échelle de l'humanité entière. Une idée que l'Islam reprendra plus de six siècles après.

Être chrétien sauve de la damnation éternelle. De même être musulman. Alain de Benoist a écrit "avec le christianisme il n'y a plus de peuple élu". Il aurait pu en dire autant de l'islam. C'est à la fois vrai et faux. Ces visions du monde chrétiennes et islamiques restent des sectarismes. Le Christianisme ou l'Islam ne sont pas racistes en effet, car le critère de l'élection n'est plus ethnique. "Le peuple élu" chez les chrétiens et les musulmans n'appartient pas à une race ou à des descendants par la mère de tribus privilégiées. Le peuple élu est celui d'une foi qu'il suffit de partager. Peu importent les origines ethniques pour en être membre. L'élection est plus large, elle se fait par adoption. La Grace de Dieu s'étend à tous ceux qui croient en lui. "L'élection divine" a franchi les barrières ethniques elle est devenue exclusivement idéologique. Le catholicisme et l'orthodoxie sont en quelque sorte un premier mondialisme. L'islam puis les protestantismes adopteront ces mêmes conceptions. Ces idéologies continuent cependant de conditionner la grâce de Dieu à la stricte conformité avec leurs doctrines particulières, elles sont donc bien une forme perpétuée de pathologie de l'élection. Toutes ces idéologies ont constamment affirmé qu'en dehors d'elles il n'y a pas de salut et certainement pas chez leurs voisines.

Avec la mondialisation (qui n'est pas le mondialisme) ces sectarismes deviennent de moins en moins crédibles expérimentalement. L'élargissement contemporain du champ de l'expérience humaine ne remet pas en question les croyances religieuses fondamentales dans leurs particularismes, mais très radicalement leur exclusivisme. Les chemins vers la Vérité apparaissent légitimement plus multiples à la fin du 20è siècle qu'au cours des siècles précédents. Du moins en Occident, car au niveau des élites de la pensée la conception de la nécessaire multiplicité des chemins vers la Vérité Unique est très ancienne en Extrême Orient. La dialectique de l'Un et du multiple y est depuis bien des siècles infiniment plus subtile.

En Europe, sur les fresques du 12è siècle et du 13è siècle, comme dans la peinture sur bois du début du 14è, les personnages représentés sont exclusivement des personnages divins ou des anges, qui prennent des formes humaines. Ou des saints qui sont des personnes hors du commun, presque divines, l'équivalent des héros grecs. Mais il n'existe aucun portrait d'un individu quelconque, pas de donateurs, laïcs ou religieux, pas de personnages politiques importants, pas de financiers d'envergure. L'homme et la femme laïque, les donateurs même religieux, sont très généralement absents de la peinture romane et de celle du début du gothique. Ensuite, quand ils apparaissent, ils sont minuscules, figurés à une échelle réduite, tout en bas de l'oeuvre d'art.

L'anthropomorphisme est donc évident, mais l'anthropocentrisme reste relativement modeste dans cette peinture des débuts de l'époque médiévale. En Europe de l'Ouest la peinture gothique est le témoignage de l'importance croissante de l'homme, de sa valorisation constante par rapport à Dieu. Vers la fin de la période gothique (1300s) apparaissent les donateurs et leurs familles : de minuscules figures au bas des tableaux, qui restent cependant essentiellement occupés par une représentation de personnages sacrés. Peu à peu, au cours du 14 è siècle et au 15 è siècle les donateurs et leurs familles grandissent. Ils occupent toutes les volets latéraux et/ou une bonne partie du panneau central. Progressivement Dieu se réfugie au Ciel : tout en haut du tableau. Mais l'homme occupe tout le bas, avec sa femme, ses enfants, ses petits enfants, ses cousins....ou il se glisse tout près du trône de la Vierge et de l'Enfant, l'encadre à la même hauteur. Le Dyptique de Melun de Jean Fouquet est en deux parties : un volet est consacré au portrait du mécène, avec il est vrai son Saint protecteur, l'autre à la Vierge. Une Vierge qui n'a d'ailleurs plus rien à voir avec la virginité puisqu'elle est le portrait d'Agnès Sorel, maîtresse du Roi de France. Avec le temps qui passe le donateur n'est plus à genoux, son saint protecteur disparaît pour lui laisser toute la place. Le ou les donateurs ne sont plus tournés vers la divinité dans une attitude de vénération, ils regardent droit dans les yeux du spectateur. "C'est Moi" dit clairement le tableau. Effectivement c'est ce Moi là qui l'a payé!

3) A "la Renaissance", au 16 è siècle, l'homme s'accroît encore considérablement par rapport à Dieu. Ce phénomène apparaît très clairement en comparant les peintures de la "Renaissance" avec les peintures de l'époque gothique primitive et même du gothique tardif. Au 16è siècle les personnages sacrés ne disparaissent pas, car la Renaissance n'est pas anticatholique. Contrairement à la Réforme. Mais le portrait des hommes et des femmes, de l'élite bien sûr, se séparent de plus en plus et même totalement des représentations de Dieu et des personnages sacrés. Le portrait de l'homme se laïcise, il devient un thème en soi, sans aucune référence religieuse. L'humain fait abondamment son auto-portrait. Désormais il peut s'admirer seul. Dieu et tous ses saints peuvent disparaître du tableau. Ah ! l'Homme enfin !!

La Joconde de Léonard de Vinci est certainement le tableau emblématique de cette période. Car la Joconde n'est aucunement le portrait d'une personne déterminée, son message essentiel c'est la célébration du genre humain. Mais la Renaissance ce n'est pas encore adieu à Dieu. Les thèmes religieux demeurent encore très présents dans l'art européen, comme le démontre aussi l'art de Léonard de Vinci.

Il faudra attendre la seconde moitié du 20è siècle pour dire adieu à Dieu, dans l'art. La Renaissance se résume en cette proposition simple : La croissance de l'importance de l'homme et la diminution de l'importance de Dieu dans les conceptions que l'humanité européenne se fait du monde et d'elle même.

Le regard de l'homme se centre sur lui-même. Renaissance certainement pas, mais évolution idéologique importante, significative, certainement.

4) La Réforme ? Il vaudrait mieux parler des Réformes, car les réformes sont multiples. L'anglicanisme n'est pas le calvinisme et le luthéranisme non plus. Et à la suite de ces trois principaux courants d'origine les églises protestantes ne vont pas cesser de se diviser et de se multiplier, notamment aux Etats Unis.

Les tendances aniconiques très fortes chez les protestantismes, tendances héritées du judaïsme et voisines de celles de l'islam, limitent l'anthropomorphisme dans ces religions, mais elles ne font pas du tout obstacle à l'anthropocentrisme. Une fois de plus il se vérifie qu'anthropocentrisme et anthropomorphisme ne marchent pas nécessairement de concert. L'anthropocentrisme augmente dans la peinture européenne avec les Réformes Le matérialisme très puissant qui caractérise les protestantismes, leur considération pour les richesses matérielles s'aperçoit très bien dans la peinture des Pays Bas du Nord, chez les Néerlandais, dès le 17è siècle. Dieu n'est presque plus un thème de la peinture protestante, sauf le Christ en croix. L'homme de tous les jours, de tous les niveaux sociaux, du grand commerçant au paysan, occupe tout l'espace pictural néerlandais. Le ploutocrate a remplacé l'aristocrate, mais il occupe tout le premier plan de l'art et même tout l'art. La description des moeurs quotidiennes, de la vie banale en société, est une création des Pays Bas protestants calvinistes.

Les banquets ne sont plus les festins des Dieux, mais les gueuletons des compagnies de miliciens.

La Charité et l'Espérance ne veillent plus sur les hôpitaux et les hospices, mais les Régents et les Régentes au premier plan, avec en fond de tableau, parfois, la croix du Christ.

La Cène (le pain, le sel et le vin) devient une scène de déjeuner profane abondamment pourvu en nourritures terrestres : viandes, poissons, légumes, fromages, gâteaux, fruits et vins, tout à profusion.

Les scènes de marchés et de cuisines ( surabondant étalage de viandes, poissons, légumes...) remplacent les scènes de la passion du Christ. Quand les scènes religieuses demeurent présentes, elles se réfugient dans un tout petit coin du tableau (Aertsen, Beuckelaer...).

Le paysage européen n'est plus habité par des Dieux, des Déesses, des Nymphes, des Faunes. La Vierge voyageant en Égypte disparaît. Saint Jérôme ne médite plus dans le désert. Le paysage est devenu le lieu où vivent les hommes ordinaires : paysans travaillant aux champs, bergers gardant leurs troupeaux de bêtes domestiques. "Le passage du gué" a remplacé "le Baptême du Christ". Le boeuf n'est plus celui de la crèche, il rumine en regardant couler un canal, ou se découpe en quartiers appétissants sur la table de la cuisine

"L'augmentation" de l'homme est donc une évidence à la lecture attentive du message que délivre l'art néerlandais du 17è siècle. L'art est à toutes les époques un miroir des valeurs d'une société. Et sur ce point l'art du siècle d'or des Pays Bas est absolument exemplaire d'un changement de valeurs en Europe: Du spiritualisme vers le matérialisme, de Dieu vers l'Homme. Oui, l'homme s'enfle.

Une période de transition existe dans le reste de l' Europe demeurée catholique pendant les 18è et 19è siècles où l'aristocratie et l'église catholique dominent encore. Pendant cette période cependant, dès le 18è siècle, l'anthropomorphisme se réduit. Car Dieu devient de moins en moins un sujet de tableau. Mais l'anthropocentrisme augmente, l'homme se peint de plus en plus, en portrait et dans ses activités quotidiennes. Et quand l'homme peint des paysages, c'est son regard sur le monde que l'art illustre toujours plus exclusivement.

5) Dans cette petite histoire de l'enflure de l'homme, considérée du point de vue de la peinture, il est possible de sauter une étape pourtant esthétiquement très importante : celle de l'Art Moderne (1850-1950).

Pourquoi ? Parce que la diversité idéologique qui caractérise cette période de l'histoire européenne ne permet pas de dégager des constantes remarquables du point de vue ici esquissé de l'anthropomorphisme et de l'anthropocentrisme. L'art moderne retrouve ou renouvelle des techniques anciennes de l'esthétique, il en invente de nouvelles comme l'art abstrait. Il est donc générateur de ruptures de style très importantes certes, mais il demeure globalement un art qui se veut beau, significatif et partagé avec le plus grand nombre. Du point de vue idéologique et de celui de l'anthropocentrisme et de l'anthropomorphisme l'Art Moderne est seulement la continuation de la période de transition précédente dans l'Europe du sud. Il est aussi la généralisation des tendances de fond apparues au 17è siècle dans les Pays Bas réformés. La Rupture totale entre l'art et l'esthétique n'est pas envisagée à cette époque. Le "massacre de la peinture" ne devient un fait d'évidence et une constante qu'avec l'Art Contemporain Officiel, après la seconde guerre mondiale.

6) A partir de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle, Dieu et les personnages sacrés disparaissent totalement de l'Art Contemporain Officiel. Même aux États Unis, pays où la religion chrétienne a semble-t-il conservé plus d'importance sociale. Mais quelle importance politique ? La question se pose sérieusement alors que dans l'Art Contemporain Officiel de tout l'Occident seul demeure l'homme et ses œuvres.

Avec une nouveauté absolument remarquable : le laid et l'absurde.

Contrairement à l'Art Moderne, l'art Contemporain Officiel constitue une rupture totale avec le passé artistique humain : l'anti-esthétique est née et rendue totalement obligatoire dans les milieux officiels. Laideur et absurdité sont une caractéristique de l'art contemporain officiel, mais pas seulement. Malgré des résistances notables, la contagion du laid et de l'absurde gagne aussi l'art des rues et l'art commercial privé. Ces portraits de l'humain qui s'exposent dans nos musées d'art contemporain, si on les compare à ceux réalisés par les artistes des temps passés ont une signification. La mort de Dieu chez les "élites éclairées", le culte de la Raison, de l'Homme, de l'Avenir, du Progrès, de la Modernité, du Matérialisme et de l'Argent se traduit dans l'Art Contemporain Officiel par une vision de l'homme d'une laideur repoussante et d'une absurdité totale, toutes deux systématiques. Il est intéressant aussi de constater que cet Anti-Art est toujours exposé dans des musées d'une architecture admirable, qui constituent son exact contraire. Le contraste entre la magnificence de l'enveloppe et la hideur du message qu'elle contient est aussi un enseignement. Est-ce un signal d'alarme de l' inconscient collectif humain ?

Le gros défaut de l'animal humain est incontestablement l'anthropocentrisme pathologique. Si l'homme descend du singe, selon certaines théories évolutionnistes qu'il est inconvenant de critiquer, il est évident que c'est d'un singe qui se prend de plus en plus pour un dieu, et même pour Dieu.

Cet anthropocentrisme s'exprime de différentes manières. Il inspire directement la névrose du "peuple élu"depuis plus de deux millénaires, une névrose, très répandue, légère ou sévère, mais qui peut avoisiner la psychose grave et qui est très prononcée dans les cultures sémitiques et les religions monothéistes. Même quand l'anthropomorphisme est absent du fait du refus de la représentation de Dieu et de toute iconographie religieuse, comme dans le judaïsme et l'islam. Dans l'Occident très influencé par les mythes sémites, par l'intermédiaire du judaïsme et du christianisme, la mégalomanie anthropocentrée n'a pas cessé de croitre au fil de l'histoire. "La mort de Dieu" est à l'évidence comprise et célébrée par toute une idéologie "éclairée" comme étant nécessairement la promotion de l'Homme. La preuve: avant les "Lumières" l'homme n'avait que des Devoirs, et après les "Lumières" il a enfin des Droits. C'est la vision de l'histoire de l'humanité qu'impose la religion contemporaine officielle en Occident. L'Occident a inventé la religion contre Dieu, la religion de l'Homme, même et surtout quand il consent encore à se référer à un "Architecte de l'Univers".

Mais il faut peut être regarder ailleurs qu'en Europe et qu'aux Amériques :

Ce complexe de "l'animal élu" est bien moins présent dans la civilisation indienne-hindouiste, où l'homme, sans être une quantité négligeable, il est le seul être à pouvoir se libérer de la roue des renaissances, est beaucoup plus un être parmi une infinité d'autres. Cette conception du monde a influencé le bouddhisme et toutes les sociétés que cette philosophie-religion a imprégné de ses valeurs.

La civilisation chinoise est plus ambivalente, mais la peinture des lettrés chinois peint l'homme comme "une petite chose" dans la Nature. Cet art des lettrés chinois, ni anthropocentriste ni anthropomorphique, est très éloigné de la peinture occidentale.

Il est urgent que l'Europe et l'Occident acceptent d'entendre quelques concepts civilisateurs en provenance non pas d'un certain Moyen Orient, auquel ils ont à l'évidence beaucoup trop emprunté, mais entre autres régions du globe, de l'Extrême Orient. Sans renier leurs particularités, notamment leur attachement à l'individualisme et à un personnalisme source de libertés et d'autonomies précieuses. Il est urgent que l'Occident cesse de se penser comme le nombril du monde, se méfie de l'utilisation qu'il fait de sa science et de ses techniques, renonce à prendre ses croyances actuelles pour la seule vérité vraie et universelle, et de s'imaginer être destiné à dominer le monde dans une République Mondialiste dont il tirerait les ficelles idéologiques, politiques et économiques.

Les élites politiques et idéologiques d'Occident, se prétendent éclairées, s'affirment anti-racistes, mais elles en sont toujours restées à la pensée élémentaire du franc maçon Jules Ferry (1832-1893) quand il affirmait : "C’est un devoir supérieur de la civilisation qui légitime le droit d’aller chez les barbares.". Ou encore, autre propos"d'éclairé". " La race supérieure ne conquiert pas pour le plaisir, dans le dessein d’exploiter le faible, mais bien de le civiliser et de l’élever jusqu’à elle."

Ou Léon Blum cette fois, le 3 juillet 1925 devant les députés français : "Nous admettons le droit et même le devoir des races supérieures d’attirer à elles celles qui ne sont pas parvenues au même degré de culture et de les appeler au progrès réalisés grâce aux efforts de la science et de l’industrie".

L'Occident "éclairé" ne prend pas ce chemin de l'intelligence réellement informée alors que Colin Powel (1937) affirme encore en 1992 " Nous représentons le dernier et le meilleur espoir sur cette planète."

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1692) a bien décrit ce phénomène : C'est un propos de grenouille qui, voulant se faire aussi grosse qu'un boeuf, s'enfle jusqu'à éclater.

La science et la technique dont l'Occident a été l'incontestable et le plus efficace inventeur ont été malheureusement, du 17è siècle où elles s'annoncent, jusqu'à nos jours, des facteurs d'aggravation de la mégalomanie humaine, particulièrement européenne et occidentale, mais pas seulement. Alors qu'une science bien comprise, non pervertie par les idéologies et le politique, aurait dû avoir des effets inverses. Il est absolument évident pour les hommes de science et de sagesse que plus l'homme découvre, moins il sait. Et plus il doit demeurer modeste, même et surtout quand ses moyens techniques augmentent. Plus l'homme développe une puissance technique, souvent fallacieuse, trompeuse, limitée, pleine de dangers, moins il devrait se comporter en anthropocentriste, plus il devrait se méfier de ses pouvoirs et se resituer dans un Univers qui le dépasse totalement, dont il n'est pas le centre, et où il est devenu absolument évident qu'il n'est pas seul. Bref l'homme n'est pas La Créature de Dieu, Unique, Élue, Alliée, Privilégiée qu'il a cru être pendant des siècles dans le cadre des religions monothéistes.

Peu importe finalement que l'homme anthropomorphise. L'anthropomorphisme est seulement une commodité empathique et pédagogique à destination des peuples au cœur simple, ce qui ne veut pas dire d'esprit simpliste. C'est un fait aussi que l'anthropomorphisme a inspiré plus de 3000 ans d'art beau, significatif et partagé non seulement en Europe mais aussi dans le Monde.

Par contre l'anthropocentrisme, l'enflure de l'homme, est une perversion très grave. Se prendre pour "le peuple élu" est simiesque comme l'a poétiquement et analogiquement démontré Rudyard Kipling dans le "Livre de la Jungle". Depuis le milieu du 20è siècle l'Art Contemporain Officiel, l'Art Conceptuel a aussi mis en évidence que l'anthropocentrisme élitiste des Éclairés a généré pour la première fois dans l'histoire des civilisations un anti-art de la laideur et de l'absurdité.

Ce n'est pas demain que l'humain corrigera sa tendance à la survalorisation de son moi. "Les Éclairés" du Mondialisme, l'idéologie qui gouverne l'Occident actuel, continuent obstinément dans la même direction d'une enflure de l'homme et de ses capacités toujours prétendument en progrès.

Jusqu'à sa disparition ? Cela n'a rien d'impossible, c'est même très possible. C'est ce dont certains "Elohim" nous ont avertis.

THE INCREASE OF HUMAN (Anthropocentrism and Anthropomorphism 2)

1) Anthropocentrism and Anthropomorphism

2) In Catholic and Orthodox painting

3) At the Renaissance

3) At the Reformation

4) In Modern Art

5) In Official Contemporary Art

European painting is a very clear testimony to the "increase" of mankind over the course of his history.

The increase of the man ? This is a fact: The older humanity gets, the more seriously it takes itself, the more its importance increases, at least in its own eyes, the more anthropocentric its view of the world becomes and the more its existence impacts other beings and the whole earth. But perhaps humanity has reached a turning point in its history that could reverse the trend? Or rush it at the end of its life

When fresco painting began in Europe in the 11th century, then the painting on wood at the beginning of the 14th century, the anthropomorphism of European thought, through Catholic and Orthodox art, was very clear. But anthropocentrism was still discreet.

Anthropocentrism? Anthropomorphism?

Anthropocentric thinking makes man the Centre of the whole Universe. It also makes man the centre of man's thought. Humanity is swelling and not only demographically, but above all psychologically and ideologically.

Anthropomorphism has a much more limited scope: It consists in giving Gods, or God, a representation in human form. Gods or goddesses of course. For it seems that one of the first forms of divinity was the Mother Goddess, in human form. While the male principle would have been often symbolized by an animal: Taurus for example.

Anthropocentrism is growing throughout the medieval period, flourishes in the Renaissance, progressed further during the Reformation, and became omnipresent as the ideology of the "Enlightenment" triumphs. And at the end of this rise of the "Enlightenment", when God disappears from European pictorial art, anthropomorphism obviously disappears too. Anthropocentrism has eliminated anthropomorphism. Only human is in the foreground. It is the total Swelling of Man.

This is what the history of European painting shows us.

1) Anthropocentrism and Anthropomorphism are not indissolubly linked.

Cultures or civilizations that give the gods human forms can be non anthropocentric. . In these societies the Gods or God have a human form, but man does not think of himself as the center of the world, nor even as a privileged creature. This is the situation in Sumerian civilizations and in Greek and Roman antiquity. In these cultures, these religions or representations of the world, the center of the world are the Gods.

The Greek or Roman man is aware of his importance, he is not an animal and he is not a barbarian, he can even be a rationalist philosopher. But he has a great awareness of his insignificance in the Universe, especially in relation to the Gods. He is a passing being, and must be content with this passage by honoring the Gods and his ancestors. For the Greeks and Romans, the "Ubris", excessiveness, prideful anthropocentrism are perversions seriously damaging to the harmony of the world. It is a constant of all Greek thought both mythological and philosophical, starting from the pre-Socratics to the Hellenistics, through the post-Socratics. Certainly a change of vision of the world and man is looming with Plato, and probably with some mystery cults very poorly known, but it is still a sketch. Certainly Prometheus promises a lot... but he gets his liver eaten by an eagle as a punishment for his megalomania and his oversize (ubris) in favor of humans. Zeus makes sure that man does not take himself for the center of the world, in order to preserve the harmonious order. And Apollo skinned Marsyas alive for the same reasons. Alexander the Great, true incarnation of Ubris, his oversized megalomania was much criticized of his time. His first censor was his master, Aristotle. Evidently in the Renaissance, humans praised Prometheus and Alexander and continued for centuries until today. It is a great temptation to believe oneself elected, that one is chosen, not the earliest in the man history, second only, but tenacious.

2) Catholic and Orthodox painting, once the Byzantine iconoclastic crisis has passed, is anthropomorphic: it paints God in the image of man. An anthropomorphism that is a heritage of the Greek civilization whose deities were, for the most part, of human forms. The anthropomorphism of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity is not yet absolutely anthropocentric, but it tends towards a valorization of man in relation to the ancient vision. Several views are certainly possible, but in a way, with Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, man takes on more importance than in ancient thought. With Monotheism, humanity considers itself as a privileged creation of God. This was not the case in Greek and Roman polytheistic antiquity. The Catholic and Orthodox human being is a creature unique in the world in its perfection, image of God, elected by God, allied with God, assured of a personal survival that is reserved for him, if he fulfils certain obligations.

It is a vision of the world and humanity inherited from Semitic cultures and very precisely from the Hebrew one. God's chosen Christian, whatever his nation, is only a slightly less segregationist ideology than God's chosen Hebrew or privileged ally above all other nations.

But the Christian (Catholic or Orthodox, Protestantism does not exist at that time) is a neurosis of election that is quite identical to that expressed in the Old Testament. This neurosis is outside the tribal context, which is that of Judaism, and extends to the scale of all humanity. An idea that Islam will take up again more than six centuries later.

To be a Christian saves from eternal damnation. So is being a Muslim. Alain de Benoist wrote "with Christianity there is no longer an elected people". He could have said as much about Islam. This is both true and false. These visions of the Christian and Islamic world remain sectarianism. Christianity or Islam are not racist indeed, because the criterion of election is no longer ethnic. "The chosen people" for Christians and Muslims do not belong to a race or descendants by the mother of privileged tribes. The chosen people are those of a faith that only needs to be shared. No matter the ethnic background to be a member. The election is broader, it is by adoption. The Grace of God extends to all those who believe in Him. "The divine election" crossed ethnic barriers and became exclusively ideological. Catholicism and orthodoxy are in a way a first globalism. Islam and then Protestantism adopted these same conceptions. These ideologies, however, continue to condition God's grace on strict conformity with their particular doctrines, and are therefore a perpetuated form of the pathology of election. All these ideologies have constantly affirmed that apart from them there is no salvation and certainly not among their neighbours.

With globalization (which is not globalism) these sects are becoming less and less credible experimentally. The contemporary expansion of the field of human experience does not call into question the fundamental religious beliefs in their particularities, but very radically their exclusiveness. The paths to the Truth appear legitimately more numerous at the end of the 20th century than in previous centuries. At least in the West, because at the level of the elites of thought the conception of the necessary multiplicity of paths to the One Truth is very old in the Far East. The dialectic of the One and the multiple has been infinitely more subtle in the Far East for many centuries.

In Europe, on 12th and 13th century frescoes, as in early 14th century wood painting, the characters depicted are exclusively divine characters or angels, who take on human forms. Or saints who are extraordinary people, almost divine, the equivalent of Greek heroes. But there is no portrait of any individual, no donors, lay or religious, no important political figures, no major financiers. Secular men and women, donors, even religious donors, are very generally absent from Romanesque and early Gothic painting. Then, when human figures appear, they are tiny, shown on a reduced scale, at the very bottom of the work of art.

Anthropomorphism is therefore obvious, but anthropocentrism remains relatively modest in this early medieval painting. In Western Europe, Gothic painting is the testimony of the growing importance of man, of his constant valorization in relation to God. Towards the end of the Gothic period (1300s), donors and their families appeared: tiny figures at the bottom of the paintings, which nevertheless remained essentially occupied by a representation of sacred characters. Gradually, during the 14th and 15th centuries, donors and their families grew. They occupy all the side flaps and/or a large part of the central panel. Gradually God takes refuge in Heaven: at the very top of the picture. But the man occupies all the entire lower part, with his wife, his children, his grandchildren, his cousins..... where he slips very close to the throne of the Virgin and the Child, frames it at the same height. Jean Fouquet's Dyptique de Melun is in two parts: one part is dedicated to the portrait of the patron, with its protector Saint, the other to the Virgin. A Virgin who no longer has anything to do with virginity since she is the portrait of Agnes Sorel, mistress of the King of France. With the passing of time, the donor is no longer on his knees, his patron saint disappears to leave him all the space. The donor or donors are no longer turned towards the divinity in an attitude of veneration, they look straight into the eyes of the spectator. "It's Me" says the painting clearly. Indeed it is, this me, who paid for it!

3) At the "Renaissance", in the 16th century, man still increases considerably in relation to God. This phenomenon appears very clearly when comparing "Renaissance" paintings with paintings from the early Gothic and even late Gothic periods. In the 16th century, sacred characters did not disappear, because the Renaissance was not anti-Catholic. Unlike the Reformation. But the portrait of men and women, of the elite of course, is increasingly and even totally separated from representations of God and sacred characters. The portrait of man is secularized, it becomes a theme in itself, without any religious reference. Humans paint their own self abundantly. Now the human can admire himself alone. God and all his saints can disappear from the picture. Ah! The Man at last!

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is certainly the most emblematic painting of this period. The Mona Lisa is in no way a portrait of a determined person, its essential message is the celebration of the human race. But the Renaissance is not yet farewell to God. Religious themes still remain very present in European art, as Leonardo da Vinci's art also demonstrates.

It will be necessary to wait until the second half of the 20th century to bid farewell to God, in art. The Renaissance can be summed up in this simple proposition: The growth of the importance of man and the decrease of the importance of God in the conceptions that European humanity has of the world and of itself. Man's gaze focuses on himself. Renaissance certainly not, but an important ideological evolution, significant, certainly.

4) The Reformation ? It would be better to talk about Reforms, because there are many reforms. Anglicanism is not Calvinism and neither is Lutheranism. And as a result of these three main currents of origin, Protestant churches will continue to divide and multiply, especially in the United States.

The very strong aniconic tendencies among Protestants, tendencies inherited from Judaism and similar to those of Islam, limit anthropomorphism in these religions, but they do not at all hinder anthropocentrism. Once again, it is clear that anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism do not necessarily work together. Anthropocentrism increases in European painting with the Reforms The very powerful materialism that characterizes Protestantism, their consideration for material wealth can be seen very well in painting in the Northern Netherlands, among the Dutch, from the 17th century. God is almost no longer a theme of Protestant painting, except Christ on the Cross. The everyday man, from all social levels, from the great merchant to the peasant, occupies the entire Dutch pictorial space. The plutocrat has replaced the aristocrat, but he occupies the whole foreground of art and even all art. The description of daily mores, of everyday life in society, is a creation of the Protestant Calvinist Netherlands.

The banquets are no longer the feast of the Gods, but the gueuletons of militia companies.

Charity and Hope no longer watch over hospitals and hospices, but only in ther place, the Regents and Regents, in the foreground, with the cross of Christ sometimes in the background.

The Last Supper (bread, salt and wine) becomes a profane lunch scene abundantly provided with terrestrial foods: meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, cakes, fruits and wines, all in abundance.

The scenes of markets and kitchens (overabundant display of meat, fish, vegetables...) replace the scenes of Christ's passion. When the religious scenes remain present, they take refuge in a very small corner of the painting (Aertsen, Beuckelaer...).

The European landscape is no longer inhabited by Gods, Goddesses, Nymphs, Fauns. The Virgin travelling in Egypt disappears. Saint Jerome no longer meditates in the desert. The landscape has become the place where ordinary people live: peasants working in the fields, shepherds guarding their herds of domestic animals. "The crossing of the ford" has replaced "the Baptism of Christ". The beef is no longer that of the Nativity, it ruminates while watching a canal flow, or is cut into appetizing quarters on the kitchen table

The "increase" of man is therefore obvious from a careful reading of the message delivered by 17th century Dutch art. Art is at all times a mirror of the values of a society. And on this point the art of the golden age of the Netherlands is absolutely exemplary of a change of values in Europe: from spiritualism to materialism, from God to Man... Yes, the man swells.

A period of transition have existed in the rest of Europe, which remained Catholic during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the aristocracy and the Catholic Church still dominated. During this period, however, from the 18th century onwards, anthropomorphism was reduced. Because God is becoming less and less of a subject on the board. But anthropocentrism is increasing, man paints himself more and more, in portraits and in his daily activities. And when man paints landscapes, it is his view of the world that art illustrates ever more exclusively.

5) In this short history of the swelling of man, considered from the point of view of painting, it is possible to skip an aesthetically very important stage: that of Modern Art (1850-1950).

Why? Because the ideological diversity that characterises this period of European history does not allow us to identify any remarkable constants from the point of view of anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism outlined here. Modern art rediscovers or renews old aesthetic techniques, it invents new ones like abstract art. It is therefore a source of very important stylistic breaks, but overall it remains an art that is intended to be beautiful, significant and shared with the greatest number of people. From the ideological point of view and from the point of view of anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism, Modern Art is only the continuation of the previous transition period in Southern Europe. It is also the generalization of the underlying trends that emerged in the 17th century in the Reformed Netherlands. The total rupture between art and aesthetics was not envisaged at that time. The "massacre of painting" only becomes an obvious fact and a constant with Official Contemporary Art, after the Second World War.

6) From the second half of the 20th century, God and the sacred characters disappeared completely from the Official Contemporary Art. Even in the United States, a country where the Christian religion seems to have retained more social importance. But what is the political importance? The question arises seriously when in the Official Contemporary Art of the whole West only Man and his works remain.

With an absolutely remarkable novelty: the ugly and the absurd.

Unlike Modern Art, Official Contemporary Art constitutes a total break with the human artistic past: the anti-esthetic was born and made totally mandatory in official circles. Ugliness and absurdity are a characteristic of official contemporary art, but not only. Despite notable resistance, the contagion of the ugly and the absurd also spread to street art and private commercial art. These portraits of the human being that are exhibited in our contemporary art museums, if we compare them to those made by artists of the past, have a meaning. The death of God among the "enlightened elites", the cult of Reason, Man, the Future, Progress, Modernity, Materialism and Money is reflected in Official Contemporary Art by a vision of the man of a repulsive ugliness and total absurdity,both systématic.It is also interesting to note that this Anti-Art is still exhibited in museums of admirable architecture, which constitute its exact opposite. The contrast between the magnificence of the envelope and the hideousness of the message it contains is also a teaching. Is it an alarm signal from the collective human unconscious?

The major defect of the human animal is undoubtedly pathological anthropocentrism. If man is descended from the monkey, according to some evolutionary theories that it is inappropriate to criticize, it is obvious that it is from a monkey that increasingly sees itself as a god, and even as God.

This anthropocentrism is expressed in different ways. It directly inspires the neurosis of the "chosen people" for more than two millennia, a neurosis, widespread, mild or severe, but which may be close to severe psychosis and which is very pronounced in Semitic cultures and monotheistic religions. Even when anthropomorphism is absent because of the refusal to represent God and any religious iconography, as in judaïsm and islam. In the West, heavily influenced by Semitic myths, through Judaism and Christianity, anthropocentric megalomania has grown steadily throughout history.

"The death of God" is obviously understood and celebrated by a whole "enlightened" ideology as necessarily being the promotion of human beings. The proof: before the "Lights" man had only Duties, and after the "Lights" he finally has Rights. It is the vision of the history of humanity imposed by the official contemporary religion in the West. The West has invented religion against God, the religion of Man, even and especially when it still agrees to refer to an "Architect of the Universe".

But we may have to look elsewhere than in Europe and the Americas:

This complex of the "chosen animal" is much less present in Indian-Hindu civilization, where man, without being a negligible quantity, (is the only being able to free himself from the wheel of rebirths), is much more a being among an infinite number of others. This world view has influenced Buddhism and all the societies that this philosophy-religion has imbued with its values.

Chinese civilization is more ambivalent, but the painting of Chinese scholars paints man as "a small thing" in Nature. This art of the Chinese scholars, neither anthropocentric nor anthropomorphic, is very far from Western painting.

It is urgent that Europe and the West accept to hear some civilising concepts coming not from a certain Middle East, from which they have obviously borrowed far too much, but from other parts of the world, from the Far East for instance. Without denying their particularities, in particular their attachment to individualism and to a personalism that is a source of precious freedoms and autonomy. It is urgent that the West stop thinking of itself as the navel of the world, distrust the use it makes of its science and technology, renounce taking its current beliefs as the only true and universal truth, and imagine that it is destined to dominate the world in a Worldist Republic from which he would draw the ideological, political and economic strings.

The political and ideological elites of the West claim to be enlightened and anti-racist, but they have always remained faithful to the elementary thinking of Freemason Jules Ferry (1832-1893) when he stated: "It is a duty superior of the civilization which legitimizes the right to go to the barbarians. " Or, a another "enlightened" statement. "The higher race does not conquer for pleasure, in order to exploit the weak, but to civilize it and raise it up to it."

Or Léon Blum this time, on July 3, 1925, before the French deputies: "We recognize the right and even the duty of the superior races to attract to them those who have not reached the same degree of culture and to call them to progress achieved thanks to the efforts of science and industry".

The "enlightened" West does not take this path of truly informed intelligence while Colin Powel (1937) still states in 1992 "We represent the last and best hope on this planet."

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1692) described this phenomenon well: It is a frog talk that, wanting to make itself as big as an ox, swells until it explodes.

Unfortunately, the science and technology of which the West has been the indisputable and most effective inventor have been, from the 17th century, when they were announced, until today, factors aggravating human megalomania, particularly European and Western, but not only. While a well understood science, not perverted by ideologies and politics, should have had the opposite effect. It is absolutely obvious to men of science and wisdom that the more man discovers, the less he knows. And the more modest he must remain, even and especially when his technical resources increase. The more man develops a technical power, often fallacious, misleading, limited, full of dangers, the less he should behave as an anthropocentric, the more he should distrust his powers and resituate himself in a Universe that totally exceeds him, of which he is not the centre, and where it has become absolutely obvious that he is not alone. In short, man is not the Creature of God, One, Chosen, Allied, Privileged, that he has believed to be for centuries in the context of monotheistic religions.

It doesn't really matter if man anthropomorphizes. Anthropomorphism is only an empathic and pedagogical convenience for people with a simple heart, which does not mean a simplistic spirit.

It is also a fact that anthropomorphism has inspired more than 3000 years of beautiful, significant and shared art not only in Europe but also in the world.

In contrast, anthropocentrism, the swelling of man, is a very serious perversion. To think of oneself as "the chosen people" is simian, as Rudyard Kipling poetically and analogically demonstrated in the "Jungle Book". Since the middle of the 20th century, the Official Contemporary Art, Conceptual Art has also emphasized that the elitist anthropocentrism of the Enlightened has generated for the first time in the history of civilizations an anti-art of ugliness and absurdity.

It is not tomorrow that humans will correct their tendency to overvalue their selves. The "Enlightened" of Globalism, the ideology that governs the current West, stubbornly continue in the same direction of a swelling of man and his capacities always supposedly in progress.

Until the man disappeared? This is not impossible, it is very possible. This is what some "Elohim" have warned us about.

A.R. Penck 1939 Deutschland

Erinnerung Mémoire Memory 1999

Augsburg Glaspalast Kunstmuseum Walter.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTUAL ART (4) THE ART OF THE TOP EYE. A SMALL HISTORY OF PATHOLOGY.

1) The old pathologies: the chosen peoples.

2) A new pathology: the enlightened

3) Political and social consequences of the new pathology: The Initiation.

4) Back to art. The Contemporary Conceptual Art or the Art of the Top Eye

1) The old pathologies: the chosen peoples.

When visiting the Museums of Contemporary Art of Europe, always installed in very expensive buildings, with a very generally remarkable architecture, designed by prestigious architects, the visitor is necessarily led to ask himself: How do they manage to impose this official contemporary anti-art, everywhere ugly, absurd, provocative, botched, sad, uprooted, obsessional, and as a result of all this, totally artificial ?

How do they manage to hold this obscure, incomprehensible, hermetic discourse everywhere, closed to the common people? And why is that?

It's easy to understand: They do it on purpose.

The Why is also simple to understand, as for ancient art, it is the ideology that inspires this art.

Official Contemporary Art is not a coincidence, an accident, a temporary error, it is a will, a project, in the long term, for society. A project which corresponds to a relatively recent ideology in human history, a new religion, that of man and of his reason. It is in the name of this faith in the human Raison that our elites want an art separated from the peoples, an art for an avant-garde of the chosen ones of the Intelligence, of Initiates, to which they claim to belong. For the elites of past centuries, art was a means of communicating with peoples and influencing them through the transmission of a shared ideological message. Art was not reserved, but rather a common good between elites and peoples.

Contemporary ideological and political elites have turned official contemporary art into an apartheid art, an art reserved for the enlightened, the initiated. It is true that these elites have new means of communication and propaganda towards the peoples: Schools, television, cinema, radio, mass media, advertising. The role of art as an instrument of indoctrination has become less essential and much more indirect. The art have could settle himself in "reserve". The Conceptual Contemporary Art, this art reserved for the "enlightened", is an excellent revealer of the values that animate the ideological and political elites of our time and in particular of one of the essential characteristics of contemporary political ideology: the claim of these elites to the possession of "higher lights", of higher knowledge, which can only be acquired through the mechanism of Initiation and which legitimizes their power of government. A doctrine that inspires all discourse, hermetic and nebulous, that is inseparable from official contemporary art, and that has considerable political and sociological implications, that go well beyond the museums of contemporary art alone.

Museums of contemporary art are only, in the aesthetic field, the apparent tip of an iceberg that concerns the entire Western society and whose invisible presence they reveal.

The pathology we are about to discuss here, considered from a collective, social point of view, is that of the chosen, the initiated and the enlightened. History has always known the chosen by race, ethnicity, nation, and God's chosen ones, who have influenced world events for millennia. For about three centuries now, representatives of a very similar neurosis have appeared in Europe, but whose doctrines and ideological justifications are different, and even often opposed: the chosen of Reason.

The pathology of "elected peoples", "superiors" by their races, native lands, cultures, and/or religions is very old. She has been active in all cultures, it is not possible to be complete.

The Aryans in India, or Nazi Germany,

The Greeks opposing the Barbarians,

The Chinese consider themselves the only "Sons of Heaven", but also the Japanese or Koreans (Moon)

The Jews, "Chosen People", "People of the Covenant" with the only true God, "people priest", people of the only true End Time Messiah.....

Muslims, Faithful to Allah, the One, vindictive and merciful, the only true one, as opposed to God or the Gods of the Infidels, condemned to eternal hell,

The Aztecs, the chosen people of Huitzilopochtli, a solar deity, practising human sacrifice by the tens of thousands annually to the detriment of the surrounding peoples.

The Inca, son of the Sun, reigning over a totalitarian society, so popular that it collapsed at the mere sight of a few dozen Spaniards.

The Protestants, predestined for salvation by the Grace of God alone, without the works being necessary.

The list would be long to establish of all the "superior peoples" and "True Believers" in human history.

The Lazarist Catholic Fathers Huc and Gabet, missionaries crossing Tibet in 1844-1846, were very sincerely frightened of the mass of the damned whom they met on their journey. They did not seem to have understood the distant humour of some of the Buddhist sages they met, who recognized the great spiritual and moral interest of Catholic teaching. Without however converting, Or maybe they didn't want their true thinking to show through in their book, for fear of attracting the wrath of their own hierarchy.

It is certain that by the cross effect of the reciprocal damnations of the various religions, especially Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the Infernos del Ciel must have been saturated with people for two millennia.

The Hells on Earth have also multiplied, in the name of these many true antagonistic faiths, eager to convert all those who did not ask them anything. Muslims have imposed themselves from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean via the suburbs of Vienna. Catholic Spain has been illustrated in this regard in South and Central America. But Protestants were not more tolerant one or two centuries later in North America. Even the Bisons will not escape the conversion with rifle.

All these "chosen", these "enlightened", these "initiates" have existed, and still exist, in an infinity of religions which, with very few exceptions, conceive of truth and of salvation, for them, but also for the others only through doctrines always based on the divine election, of a particular people or of believers without ethnic distinction but holders of the single Truth. Ecumenism is publicly displayed, but mental reservations are alive and well.

Doctrines are one thing, practices and behaviours can be different. But the doctrines of the monotheistic religions, derived from Semitic thought (Judaism, Christianity, Islamism), are all very marked by the same handicap: the simplistic belief in the existence on earth, within reach of human thought, of one Truth, and only one . This is not the case with the religious and philosophical doctrines of the Far East, such as the Hinduisms, Buddhisms, Taoisms, Confucianism and Shintoism, which distinguish all the truths to which the human mind can have access, multiple and even apparently contradictory, and the Metaphysical Truth, of which man cannot be aware during his lifetime. Far eastern religious thought is, as a result of this fundamental analysis, in theory much more tolerant than Western religious thought. For centuries, Hindu philosophical and religious thought in particular has been based on the principle that all the great religions of the world, despite their different and sometimes opposing discourses, are bearers of saving truths.

These pathologies of the belief in a unique truth and in a particular excellence of which a group of humans would be the sole holder because of a membership, ethnic or cultural, a filiation or a divine election, a faith or of an initiation, have long been based essentially on the race or the land of birth and on religion, these sources being able to be combined.

It is important to observe that these neuroses of superiority are not harmful in themselves but by the action of men, what men do with them. Religious beliefs, even exclusive ones, have not only had bad consequences in terms of civilization and art, contrary to the doctrine spread by their contemporary atheist opponents. History and in particular art history demonstrate this. The alchemy of pathology and normality is complex in human beings. Well-controlled and compensated neuroses can be stimulating and creative of memorable actions, of admirable and lasting civilizations. Without too much collateral damage. But other pathologies have been little creative or totally destructive, especially for those who were not chosen, elected, enlightened, initiated, those outside.

The pathology of election by belonging to a nation, a land and a culture of origin, for example, has wreaked havoc in Europe when it has lost its sense of proportion. When the neurosis became obsessive. When fidelity to a past and a culture has become an aggression against the past and the culture of others. This ultra-nationalism was the consequence of and reaction to the absurd conquests of the French Revolution and the First Empire. The whole 19th and first half of the 20th century was a period of dramatic clashes of multiple ultra-nationalist neuroses that were exported to Japan.

This ultra-nationalism was in no way born of the spontaneous passions of peoples, it was totally created and fuelled by the ideological and political elites of the time because it served their interests. Peoples always slaughter each other by order from above. And it is certainly not the simplistic dream of the "enlightened" of a Universal Republic, the new ideological mega-neurosis of globalism, that will be an obstacle to the massacres of peoples.

Since 1945 it is indeed the opposite neurosis that the elites have been imposing: nationalism, the simple feeling of national belonging, is described as a racist abomination, and it is the contempt for the nation, the land and the culture of birth, which is the mandatory correct thought under penalty of criminal conviction. What has happened so that in half a century the hypertrophied adoration of the nation becomes its utterest execration? The same speech that was worth the Legion of Honour in 1900 is worth prison in 2000. It is because a new ideology, which appeared in Europe in the 18th century, was imposed on peoples by the political-economical elites.

2) A new pathology: the enlightened

The important novelty with major political consequences is that all the superiority complexes, which were exclusively ethnocultural and/or religious in inspiration for millennia, were able, from the end of the 18th century, the famous "Enlightenment", to base oneself on totally secular, profane, rationalist ideologies, even claiming to be scientific.

This is the great recent progress of human civilization. The chosen one of Reason was born, and gradually imposed himself against the chosen one of God or certain Gods and against the feeling of belonging to a culture or a territory. There is often opposition between God's chosen ones, always very active in certain regions, and the chosen ones of Reason, but there is also very often an alliance. It depends on which God and which chosen people it is. And what a chosen people is hidden behind the chosens of reason. The vocabulary has evolved accordingly: the "enlightened" "the Illuminated", were both ben added and opposed to the "chosen of God" to the "believers", the "faithful", the "sons of Heaven"...

The "enlightened" are the spiritual sons of Jean Jacques Rousseau, a profound neurotic but highly gifted to found a system. These "enlightened" will have considerable political success: they are certainly the minority, but they are the exclusive legitimate interpreters of the General Will, the only true because the only one founded in Reason. This General Will, in reality particular, property of a handful of self-proclaimed enlightened people, is superior to the will of the majority of peoples supposedly lost by passions. The enlightened are inhabited by Reason while the peoples are only inhabited by passions.

This doctrine of "General Will", the expression of a minority enlightened by Reason, founded the new democratic, republican aristocracy, the modern, rationalist and materialistic aristocracy. Jean Jacques Rousseau is the Founder Father of the new conception of the political and ideological elite still in force throughout the West and Eurasia and which has even spread to the Far East, China and Korea.

The "avant-garde enlightened" by the lights of the dialectical and scientific materialism of Marx, Engels, Lenin, are indeed a direct avatar, adapted to the scientism of the 19th century, of the Rousseauist ideology. A century after Rousseau, it was necessary to be less literary, less "philosophical" and more "scientific". Hence Marxism Leninism, Maoism.....

These "enlightened" represent a double betrayal: betrayal of true philosophy, that of Socrates or Confucius, and betrayal of true science, just as modest, when it can express itself freely apart from the pressures of ideological drifts and political and economic ambitions.

The pathology of the "initiated" by their belonging to an esoteric doctrine and a network of elected officials is therefore not endangered, because religions have, in certain regions of the earth, less power over men than in the past. The chosen ones of God or of the Gods are no longer alone: they are neighboring, collaborating with, or facing, a new and growing category of chosen ones, those of Reason and Science. A reason and a science misguided, of course, but spirituality and religion too have been misguided.

The "superior men" thus continue to proliferate, who sometimes self-proclaim themselves with sincerity and good faith, almost innocently, as authorized and only able to teach and govern the mass of the uneducated, unelected, non- messianic, not predestined, unenlightened, unrelated, uninitiated, uneducated, in short all the poor inferior men misguided in their irrationality. Hell is paved with good intentions, in times of triumphant Reason as in the times of God or of the Gods or of the Fatherland.

Contemporary political elites consider themselves to be far above the people. They do not proclaim it too loudly, publicly, but they think it very loudly within their reserved cenacles.

This is not a new idea in the history of humanity. "Aristocracy" is defined etymologically from the Greek aristos, better, excellent, and kratos, power.

The novelty is not therefore in this belief in the political superiority of a few, but in the conceptions of the basis of the legitimacy of the power that these elites hold and exercise over peoples.

It is no longer the force of weapons, nor birth. Because these elites claim to be civilian, peaceful authorities, exercising effective control over the military and democrats, popularists.

This is no longer the divine election, because contemporary government elites are politically atheistic and proclaim themselves secular. Even in countries where religion has retained a certain social influence, such as the United States.

Likewise, wealth has been partly delegitimized. Money is in fact an ever more active actor of power over men, but the wealth is no longer so ostensible, it claims less, and is hidden more. You have to be rich to be powerful, but you shouldn't look so much anymore, unlike the old aristocracies. It is a wealth of merchants and bankers who are well established at the top of society, but who prefer relative discretion. It is no longer a wealth of aristocrats and nobles who display and proclaim their difference. But on this point, since the collapse of communist societies, developments are underway towards greater legitimacy of money.

3) Political and social consequences of the new pathology: The Initiation.

The public, official discourse bases the political legitimacy of the rulers on the election by the governed. This is the correct public doctrine. Political legitimacy through popular designation, a people more or less widely understood, is also not a novelty in human history. Neolithic societies, classical Greece, have experienced this type of legitimation of power. The people have always been most often a trompe l'oeil, an alibi, nothing new from this point of view either.

But in the 18th century, a political doctrine emerged in Europe that developed the idea of the coexistence of two totally contradictory political legitimacies: the peoples and the enlightened ones. The trick was to pretend to reconcile them. With a little intuition it is possible to guess for whose benefit.

18th century Europe proclaimed itself "the Enlightenment". The "lights" for Europe of course, but also for the whole world, because the West tends to claim to think for all other civilizations.

This appellation of "Age of Enlightenment" is charged with significance, like that of "Middle Ages" or "Renaissance". It expresses a vision of history that is infinitely more ideological propaganda than historical reality. Since the "Enlightenment" the legitimacy of political elites throughout the West has in fact been based on a new, fundamental, essential doctrinal affirmation, which remains discreetly in the background compared to the publicly reaffirmed principle of legitimacy through popular election. The political and ideological elites are legitimate because they are enlightened, enlightened, educated, initiated into the mysteries of the lights of a higher Reason. "Enlightenment" whose peoples are, by nature, in the most total ignorance, but which they can possibly acquire through appropriate education, an initiation. Education is for everyone, but Initiation is the obligatory passage for the entry into the world of ideological and political elites.

Initiation to a Higher Intelligence has become, in a little over two centuries, the cornerstone of the organization of the entire social and political system of the West. It is no longer only the business of a few groups, claiming marginal influence, but it is the whole of Western society that is politically governed, entirely, on the basis of Initiation. The peoples have seen nothing, and continue to see nothing. They still believe they are in an elective and pluralistic democracy. They have an excuse: everything has been done to hide this evolution from them.

It is essential to understand which Initiation is involved here. It is a worldly initiation, whose exclusive goal is success in society. It is an initiation with a view to global action on all men, a materialistic, prosaic, direct and exclusively social and political initiation.

It is not in any way a spiritual, intellectual or moral initiation whose necessary, unavoidable and primary purpose is the personal learning of discipline about oneself, the acquisition of individual wisdom through the mastery of one's desires, and a distance from the vanities of daily life. With, secondarily only, possible, indirect political and social effects, through the exemplarity of the individual behaviour or of a small group of wise men and disciples.

It is by no means initiation as it has been understood for millennia in all the great religions and philosophies. The initiation of Brahmanist, yogic, sannyāsin, Confucianist, Buddhist, or Socratic, Stoic, Epicurean (not confuse epicureanism and hedonism), scholastic, Augustinian, Benedictine, Aquinian, Dominican, Franciscan, etc. This is not here either the initiation, as it is understood on Mount Athos.

Certainly the Gnostic, Kabbalistic, magical, satanic drifts, whose purpose is not self-discipline and exemplary behaviour, but the acquisition of power over others, a public or occult power, have always existed. These abuses were very particular, individual, or the result of small groups whose influences remained marginal, without significant consequences at the level of societies, on the government of all men.

It is this Initiation, materialistic and non-spiritual, political and non-personal, initiation for action in the world and not for meditation on the world, initiation greedy for power over other men and not seeking wisdom through self-control, which has become, behind the mask of elective and liberal democracy, the system of government, unofficial, secret, but real and effective, of the whole West.

The government of the Shade was born thanks to the "Enlightenment". This was to be expected.

As a direct result of this evolution in conceptions of political legitimacy, in about 250 years, Europe and the West have gone from a transparent, public, obvious, nation-specific system of government to an opaque, secret, clandestine, unique system of government for the whole West. To take the example of France, and without going back to the medieval period, to the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, to the times of Francis I, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, all the French knew their governors. Not only at the local and regional level (the lord, baron, count, bishop or abbot), but also at the level of the entire kingdom. When the King allowed a minister to govern, as in the case of Louis XIII and Richelieu, all the people were informed. The same was true in all European nations, in the England of Elizabeth I, or in the German empire of Charles V or Ferdinand I, or in the Russia of Peter the Great and Catherine II. The exercise of political power was, everywhere in Europe, nominal, exoteric, ostensible, public. The peoples knew who ruled them. And the rulers knew that the peoples knew how to name those who ruled them. It was a political system based on personal and public responsibility. Even if the accountability could be pushed back into the distance. A distant, very distant one, often in the afterlife. But in this era of active and shared beliefs from the bottom up in the social hierarchy, this very distant beyond could be constraining down here.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the political system of the entire West has gradually come to be at the opposite end of this model: it is increasingly unified by a totalitarian, profane and no longer religious ideology, that of the Enlightenment and its latest avatar: Globalism. The system is totally secular, profan, atheistic and materialistic. But he also changed totally in his mode of exercise. Real political power has become secret, hidden, clandestine, cabalistic.

It is Plato's "Republic" that has thus been implemented, but a republic in which the Wise Men, at the top of the pyramid, are totally unknown to the general public. Only their creatures, their servants, the Guardians of the Compliant Order, appear officially, on the front of the stage. The official rulers, appointed after totally controlled elections, are all very brilliant puppets of an opaque, underground, secret system of influence, totally ignored or unknown by the populations.

These Influences act through sectarian organizations, with the most diverse names, hidden from the general public, totally opaque to the outside world, but all linked to each other at the top of the pyramid. In France the last leader who was not under the control of these illuminated Influences was General de Gaulle. The "1968 Revolution", an agitprop masterpiece organized by the enlightened, had no other purpose than to drive him out of power. The 1968 revolution, like its predecessors of 1789 or 1917 and many others, was nothing more than a coup d'état organized by masked elites, using peoples to establish their domination.

It is to these connected esoteric organizations that the apparent, official leaders are accountable, not to the peoples. And it is this underground organization, this Power of the Shadow, which, under the mask of institutions of democratic appearance, more or less elected, directs Western society. Exactly as it imposes Contemporary Art, without ever being accountable to the governed.

These sectarian organizations are structured on the model of progressive materialistic Initiation. This model operates exclusively by co-option and imposes rites of access and passage from the first grades to the higher grades. A whole hierarchy and a whole solemn, falsely symbolic and mysterious ritualism are instituted, with a single purpose: to give an impression of spirituality charged with a high conceptual and moral significance. But in reality effectively sorting the increasingly senior executives in the group hierarchy, and ensuring the total power of the "insiders" of the top (the Wise Men of the Plato Republic) over the "insiders" of the middle (the Guardians of the Plato Republic). And through these agents of control, transmission and execution of instructions, throughout society, on all those who are not part of these networks: the peoples.

Secrecy is a determining means of action in the politics of these networks of influence.

Secrecy commands the prohibition to reveal outside the group the belonging to the sect and its organization. This is the main oath, the first, founder, when entering the organization.

The secret imposes of course to deny the very existence of the secret vis-à-vis the outsiders. The secret publicly confessed is no longer a secret. The secret is never acknowledged, it is always denied.

But the secret is also the basic principle of the internal organization of these networks: The secret works only in one sense, as in the mafias, or in the "secret services" of the states: from the bottom to the top. But not from the top down. This secret is achieved by appropriate methods of compartmentalization, hence the lodges, circles, clubs, and other cells, reduced in number of participants who try out beyond a certain number of participants. From where also the diverse and multiple obediences, the related organizations, allied, separated at the base, but connected by their summits. This compartmentalization imposes the progressive signs of recognition which allow the certain identification, the proof of the belongings and the ranks, and ensure the transmission of the orders. This apparent dispersion and proliferation is one of the ways to keep the secret by blurring the tracks.

This sectarian system is based on an organization that has absolutely nothing to do with that of the armies and more generally of state administrations or private companies, in which the hierarchy, the chain of command, is apparent, publicly and clearly defined. In the organigram of organizations of this type, secrecy has replaced the transparency that is the rule in daily action.

This is the argument of the Initiation to "Higher Lights" that justifies this secret organization, partitioned, opaque not only with respect to foreigners to the sect, but even within the network, between its frames and its subordinate members. The Eye at the top of the pyramid sees everything. The middle and bottom floors see nothing, or only false pretense, appearances

At the end of the road to this materialistic, worldly, political Initiation, there is no true light, no discipline on oneself, no wisdom, no spirituality, no superior morality, but only the materiality of power over others, and that of money. This power is exerted first on the members of the network themselves, who are only instruments of the supreme power, the tentacles of the octopus, and through them extends its effects on the whole society.

This system of organizing total political power over humanity is very sophisticatedly hidden and organized very effectively:

1) This system is disguised as to the doctrinal principles behind generous philosophical proclamations such as "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", the well-known Masonic motto, which is also that of the French Republic. The Progress of Humanity as a whole, because the project is globalist, towards more light is of course the ultimate goal.

The true, materialistic, worldly and political goals of social success and control are hidden behind the systematically contrary discourse, the proclamation of a highly spiritual ambition, the alibi for philosophical, moral, social research, and a "selfless philanthropic and cultural action. This is the application of the well-known principle: the bigger the lie, the more often it is repeated, and the more it will appear to be true. This lie is effective both outside the group and inside, at least in the lower ranks and especially in all blue masonry. Man loves to deceive himself almost as much as he loves to deceive others.

2) To maintain secrecy, and to fit within the framework of the democratic appearance that is part of the official discourse, this system hides behind an exoteric, public apparatus. A legal facade, an associative institutional framework, a head office, dressed in a whole ceremonial apparatus intended to "communicate" publicly and to seduce and impress the members themselves, and the crowd remained outside. This institutional framework is used to recruit new members, train future executives, and hide the real underground organization. The iceberg has an apparent summit, but its depths are invisible to the common people, and also to the vast majority of its members.

3) This system of Shadow government in the name of Enlightenment has created and organized a basic motivation, universally effective, acting from the bottom to the top of its pyramid of ranks.

At the very bottom, from the very first ranks, and all along the hierarchy, the single engine, real despite public discourse, has nothing to do with the acquisition of wisdom, spirituality, an effort on oneself. It is not a yoga, certainly not an asceticism even less a distance from the realities of the world. On the contrary, it is a dive into the world. Motivation is eminently prosaic: it is ambition and social success. Social success by belonging to a small closed environment of effective relationships, the possession of an essential address book to promote private action, family, professional, and public action, political. The career and advancement, the power that is at the end, are with money the main engines of life in society. And these engines have been very smartly used and distributed from the bottom up the network pyramid. Belonging immediately provides material benefits, advancement in the rank hierarchy provides others, for which reason, it is necessary to know how to obey, without trying to unlock the secrets of unkwowns at higher ranks.

At the top is wealth and power over all men, in the most absolute concealment and, except the settling of scores, which can be deadly, "Death to traitors", the most total political impunity. Total irresponsibility, before God of course, because these ideological and political elites no longer believe in it, but also before the governed, because these real rulers are totally hidden from them.

The liberal capitalist West has learned the lessons from its confrontation with its communist rival. This rivalry was a family affair, a confrontation between "enlightened" people of different tendencies. To sum it up simply: The Bankers' Society versus the Apparatchiks' Society. The West of the Bankers triumphed, first and foremost on the economic field, because it did not ignore the engine of profit. But the triumph of the capitalist West is also due to the fact that it has gradually developed a very effective political system, also based on the Single Party of the enlightened, but a secret single party, not apparent, elusive, against which no revolt can succeed since it is a power that does not exist. Associations, lodges, circles, cells, brotherhoods, clubs, cenacles, unofficial and discreet committees, hidden in the fabric of society, connected in a discreet, effective but not very visible way, like the spider's web, are much more effective than the single public party, institutionalized, displayed, of the communist world. The political model of the official single party continues to work in China.

4) Back to art. The Contemporary Conceptual Art or the Art of the Top Eye

Contrary to appearances, we have not moved away from the Official Contemporary Art as it is exhibited in the Temples of Conceptual Art: the Museums of Official Contemporary Art.

Contemporary Conceptual Art (ConCon Art in short) is explained like all previous arts by the ideologies, good or bad, more or less good and bad, both good and bad, neuroses, more or less well controlled or not controlled at all that structure the minds of elites, and that they impose on their obedient or constrained sheeps.

Official contemporary art can therefore help to understand current political and ideological developments. The Contemporary Conceptual Art, ugly, absurd, provocative, botched, is a hermetic art, reserved for an elite of initiates to so-called higher lights. It's the Art of the Top Eye. Contemporary Art, devoid of any cultural roots, bears witness to a desire to erase the differences and murder the nations on the grounds of promoting a hypothetical universal man, the globalist homo. Subject and not citizen of a Universal Republic, the new ideological mirage at the fashion. The new mega-neurosis of the "enlightened".

Contemporary Conceptual Art, the Art of the Top Eye, is the echo of this collective pathology of election, common to many ethnic groups, cultures and human groups for millennia. A pathology that has adapted to the rationalism and materialism of our times, and which, in the last fifty years of the 20th century, has succeeded in structuring an entire effective political system that extends throughout the West and that intends to perpetuate its power, and develop its action on a global scale.

The Contemporary Conceptual Art ("ConCon Art"), the Art of the Top Eye is the application in the aesthetic field of the doctrines of the "Enlightenment", it is the expression of the neurosis of the election by the Reason, the result of the materialist Initiation. It is the policy of the "Enlightenment" in art which, after three centuries of implementation, can flourish without complex, without control, with impunity, richly, alongside the beautiful, significant and shared art of previous millennia.

A period in the history of European art has escaped this direct determinism of the neuroses and pathologies of election: the period of modern art, from 1850 to 1950 in approximate dates. For this reason alone that the diversity of ideologies, the competition between them has left during a century, the field open to artistic creation of popular origin not directly conditioned by the elites. The ideological and political elites were in conflict. The eye at the very top of the Pyramid was still only a project in progress, but it was not yet omnipotent. European artists were thus able to express themselves freely through multiple ancient and modern aesthetics.

The peoples were summoned by their elites to a first hyper massacre that claimed the lives of some artists. The ideological confrontation continued between the two wars. Another moment of possible freedom for artists, but only in a smaller part of Europe. Indeed, since 1917 in Russia, then since 1930 in Germany totalitarian regimes have imposed themselves which have exterminated men and the arts. It was at this time that the Official Contemporary Art, the Conceptual Art, the Art of the Top Eye, was set up in New York. The Top Eye that appears on every dollar bill.

New convocation of the peoples for a second great massacre. This period of appalling clashes between ideologies ended with the triumph of the Enlightenment in 1945.

It is this triumph of the Highest Eye that is expresses itself in Contemporary Conceptual Art.

Art is indeed a very reliable revealer of ideological and political predominances throughout human history. Long-term or temporary dominances. Aton didn't last long against Amon. Hellenism has totally disappeared in the Middle East under the blows of Islamic swords, but only after a millennium of domination. Mithra had to quickly give way to Christ etc.

In our time, there are still traces of the diversified freedom that Europe of Art experienced between 1850 and 1950. But it is necessary to look elsewhere than in the Art of the Top Eye for spontaneous and sincere artistic expression: photography, street art, private, local and regional commercial painting. Contemporary Conceptual Art, the massacre of beauty and meaning, the refusal to share a common aesthetic between elites and peoples, could be the harbinger of a new great massacre of the Innocents by decision of their political and ideological elites.

The last day of the AustralianLight trip to Croajingolong National Park in the East Gippsland area of Victoria.

The conditions had been lacklustre for the most part, with the possibility of going home without a single seascape image approaching reality. Thankfully though, on the last morning, the skies finally put on an epic show, as if to bid us a fond farewell.

Sadly, through the manic scramble of shooting two cameras, I managed to poorly secure my Lee Filter Holder + Singh Ray reverse grad to my other camera (the Fotoman 617). A short moment of not paying attention meant I got back to the camera and found it sans holders and filter. This shot had better be worth the loss :)

www.australianlight.com.au/galleries/latest_releases/cons...

Back to Europe for a while..

These are some more shots of my Tour to Europe in Sept - Nov 2012. I has been a while since I last saw them.. great to be able to catch up on them at last!

This was my last day of the Cosmos Tour Oct 17, 2012 Spain. I took a morning trip to Toledo from Madrid.

The Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo (Spanish: Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Toledo, Spain, see of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toledo.

The cathedral of Toledo is one of the three 13th-century High Gothic cathedrals in Spain and is considered, in the opinion of some authorities, to be the magnum opus of the Gothic style in Spain. It was begun in 1226 under the rule of Ferdinand III and the last Gothic contributions were made in the 15th century when, in 1493, the vaults of the central nave were finished during the time of the Catholic Monarchs. It was modeled after the Bourges Cathedral, although its five naves plan is a consequence of the constructors' intention to cover all of the sacred space of the former city mosque with the cathedral, and of the former sahn with the cloister. It also combines some characteristics of the Mudéjar style, mainly in the cloister, and with the presence of multifoiled arches in the triforium. The spectacular incorporation of light and the structural achievements of the ambulatory vaults are some of its more remarkable aspects. It is built with white limestone from the quarries of Olihuelas, near Toledo.

It is popularly known as Dives Toletana (meaning The Rich Toledan in Latin).

For More Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Toledo

Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge. More abstractly and more precisely, it may be taken to ask whether specified axioms of Euclidean geometry concerning the existence of lines and circles entail the existence of such a square.

In 1882, the task was proven to be impossible, as a consequence of the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem which proves that pi (π) is a transcendental, rather than an algebraic irrational number; that is, it is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients.

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VERY EPIC POST

The first photo snow session of 2021, so everything was inside. 2021 will be the start of the years of unintended consequences for some based on the various political situations in the world. People believe it will be back to normal. For some, it will be no hits or unintended consequence. I believe I am in that number.

Looking at all the rhetoric and in some cases, all I can do is wonder if we need a certification test for people on both sides in the USA to run for office. The issue is most under 50 were not required to take civics as a requirement to graduate high school so most of what they know came from the opinion of higher education. As a person who trains people, I do insert opinion in my training. I do try to let people know it is my opinion and to find their own way.

Not to be political, I just look at real historic numbers based on similar conditions over the last 20 years and because I lived it. I also know it. However, this time it will be something unexpected and unintended. In this new season, everything you read or hear do your part to self verify. Never rely on "fact-check" sites. They all have a bias. I've known this since they began. I've caught errors on right-wing and left-wing sites.

Just do your part, not all Republicans or Democrats are evil. Neither are all conservatives are republican as not all liberals are democrats. That is an idea a person has.

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It’s not all candy canes and snowflakes… ❄️

This holiday season, secrets are unraveling, and the Naughty List has deadly consequences.

Will you solve the mystery? 🔍🎄

MadPea’s immersive crime story is arriving soon.

366/256

Ex London East Lancs Lowlander Volvo B7 PG04WGZ 2742 is seen here operating for Transdev Harrogate on school work. The bus was recently transferred from London to Rosso in Lancashire.

X Bohême. Madonna of Vysehrad. Prague vers 1365.

Prague Narodni galerie Couvent Sainte Agnès de Bohême.

LA FEMME ET L'ENFANT DANS LA PEINTURE EUROPÉENNE

C'est un fait que la femme a tenu dans l'histoire européenne, artistique mais aussi politique et sociale, une très grande place. La peinture européenne en témoigne à l'évidence ( cf La femme dans la peinture européenne 1 et 2, Les femmes dans la culture catholique et orthodoxe, et la femme dans la Mythologie grecque).

Selon que l'inspiration des artistes prenait sa source dans la religion catholique ou l'antiquité grecque et romaine la femme représentée n'était pas la même et ces différences ont des conséquences dans les représentations de l'enfant. Car c'est un fait aussi que la peinture européenne a beaucoup représenté l'enfant, et que cette représentation de l'enfant était liée à celle de la femme-mère privilégiée par le christianisme catholique et orthodoxe.

L'Antiquité privilégiait la femme-femme, bien plus que la femme-mère. L'Antiquité Gréco-romaine représente de préférence la femme symbole de l'amour profane et de l'érotisme. Tout au moins dans les représentations artistiques, sinon dans la vie quotidienne. Aphrodite-Vénus, Artémis-Diane, les Nymphes et les innombrables déesses ou mortelles maîtresses de Zeus donnent à la femme amoureuse, amante, une présence étonnamment puissante dans une société gréco-romaine dont les valeurs principales restent par ailleurs très masculines. La société grecque encore plus que celle romaine, moins misogyne dans la vie quotidienne.

Les religions catholique et orthodoxe ont modelé l'art européen, de manière exclusive, pendant des siècles : du 5è au 15è siècle, soit pendant mille ans. Sous leur influence la femme représentée n'était plus celle de l'Antiquité. C'était une évidente rupture dans la culture : la femme valorisée par l'art catholique et orthodoxe européen devient la Mère ou/et la Vierge. Bien sûr Artémis-Diane était vierge, mais pas pure ! D'ailleurs les contemporains de la christianisation de la société antique reprochaient au christianisme d'être une religion pour les femmes (et les esclaves) et répandue par les femmes. D'où aussi le nombre très importants et le rôle décisif des saintes dans la religion catholique. Culturellement on est à l'opposé de l'Islam.

La femme de l'Europe catholique et orthodoxe symbolise toujours l'Amour, mais ce n'est plus du tout le même amour que dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine : c'est l'Amour maternel et l'Amour mystique (le mariage mystique de Sainte Catherine thème de nombreux tableaux), et non plus l'Amour érotique.

Evidemment l'Enfant (Christ) allait avec la Mère (Marie). Et l'Enfant, comme la Mère était à l'image de l'enfant et de la mère, c'est à dire une valorisation, indirecte mais extrêmement puissante, de la maternité et de l'enfance dans la société humaine. L'anthropomorphisme et l'acceptation des images religieuses présentent des avantages, pas seulement artistiques mais aussi idéologiques, symboliques et offrent des possibilités d'identification. Ils autorisent un "jeu de rôle" influent sur les sociétés. La mère symbolise l'amour qui donne, l'amour sacrifice de soi, et l'enfant l'innocence.

Dans la peinture européenne l'enfant ou l'adolescent prend la forme du Christ-enfant ou de Jean Baptiste enfant bien sûr, mais aussi des chérubins, des séraphins, des anges, et des putti, dont il ne faut pas sous estimer l'importance quantitative et symbolique. Ces enfants là sont partout dans la peinture européenne de l'art roman à l'art baroque.

Comme pour la femme, l'art européen se distingue beaucoup de l'art d'autres grandes civilisations (sauf sans doute de l'Inde hindouiste, une fois de plus) par sa représentation systématique, pendant deux mille ans de la maternité et de l'enfant, depuis le nourrisson jusqu'à l'adolescent. Un thème constant partout présent, dans les foyers même les plus humbles, et dans toutes les églises même les plus modestes. La crèche de l'Enfant Jésus et l'Adoration des Rois chaque année, et les Saintes Familles toute l'année...et le Massacre des Innocents comme contrepoint....quels puissants symboles maternel et familial ! Quelles valeurs sous-jacentes, contrariantes, dialectiques, suggérées par l'Eglise à une société masculine, restée très guerrière.

Contrairement à la représentation de la femme, la "Renaissance" au 16è siècle, n'a pas apporté d'évolution notable dans l'image de l'enfant. Eros-Cupidon est réapparu, certes, mais marginalement et dans les seuls milieux aristocratiques. Cet enfant là n'a pas fait partie de l'imagerie populaire européenne, et les représentations catholiques de l'enfant sont restées maîtresses des foyers européens. La Renaissance n'existe pas, du point de vue de l'enfant.

La Réforme a des conséquences bien illustrée par les Pays Bas dès le 17è siècle : La Mère divine disparaît, mais la mère humaine est abondamment représentée. En conséquence l'enfant divin disparait aussi, sauf quelques peintures du Christ adolescent chez les Docteurs de la Loi. Par contre l'enfant humain est très représenté, et il appartient à toutes les classes de la société, paysans, artisans, bourgeois, aristocrates, dans les scènes de société et les paysages. Habillé exactement comme les adultes, l'enfant est souvent une image un peu caricaturale de l'âge adulte.

L'Art Moderne européen continue de représenter fréquemment la femme et l'enfant. Pendant toute la période très diversifiée qui va de 1815 à 1940, l'enfant, comme la femme, est très présent dans la peinture européenne, de moins en moins sous l'aspect religieux. C'est de plus en plus l'enfant profane, le petit de l'homme, qui l'emporte.

L'Art Contemporain, dans nos musées ? Des enfants ? Non. des carrés blancs, noir, rouge... des lignes droites et courbes, des zigzags, et beaucoup de taches colorées. Un art enfantin ou infantile peut être, mais où l'enfant est absent.

THE WOMAN AND THE CHILD IN THE EUROPEAN PAINTING

It is a fact that women have held a very important place in European, artistic, but also political and social history. European painting is obvious evidence of this (see Women in European painting 1 and 2, women in Catholic and Orthodox culture, and women in Greek mythology).

Depending on whether the inspiration of the artists originated in the Catholic religion or in the Greek and Roman antiquity, the woman represented was not the same, and these differences have consequences in the representations of the child. For it is also a fact that European painting has represented the child very much and that this representation of the child was linked to that of the woman-mother privileged by Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.

Antiquity favored the woman-woman, far more than the woman-mother. It represents preferably the woman symbol of profane love and eroticism. At least in artistic representations, if not in everyday life. Aphrodite-Venus, Artemis-Diana, the Nymphs and the innumerable goddesses or mortal mistresses of Zeus give the amorous woman, paramour, a surprisingly powerful presence in a Greco-Roman society whose main values remain very masculine. In Greek society even more than in the Roman society, less misogynous in everyday life.

The Catholic and Orthodox religions have shaped European art exclusively for centuries: from the 5th to the 15th century, either for a thousand years. Under their influence the woman represented was no longer that of antiquity. It was an obvious break in culture: the woman valued by European Catholic and Orthodox art becomes the Mother and / or the Virgin. Of course Artemis-Diana was a virgin, but not pure! Besides, the contemporaries of the Christianization of the ancient society reproached Christianity for being a religion for women (and slaves) and spread by women. Hence also the very important number and the decisive role of the holy womens in the catholic religion. Culturally, it is the opposite of Islam.

The woman of Catholic and Orthodox Europe still symbolizes Love, but it is not at all the same love as in Greek and Roman antiquity: it is the Maternal Love and the Mystical Love (The mystical marriage of St. Catherine's, theme of many paintings), and not More Erotic Love.

Obviously the Child (Christ) went with the Mother (Mary). And the Child, as the Mother was in the image of the child and the mother, that is to say, an indirect but extremely powerful appreciation of motherhood and childhood in human society. Anthropomorphism and the acceptance of religious images have advantages, not only artistic, but also ideological, symbolic and offer a possibility of identification. They allow "role playing" to influence societies. The woman-mother symbolizes the love that gives, the self-sacrifice, and the child symbolizes the innocence.

In European painting, the child or adolescent takes the form of the Christ-child or of John the Baptist child, of course, but also of cherubim, seraphim, angels, and putti, of which we must not under estimate the quantitative and symbolic importance. These children there are everywhere in the European painting of Romanesque art to baroque art.

As for the woman, European art is very different from the art of other great civilizations (except perhaps from Hindu India, once again) by its systematic representation, during two thousand years of the maternity and the child, since the infant until the adolescent. A constant theme everywhere, in even the most humble homes, and in all even the most modest churches. The Nativity scene of the Child Jesus and the Adoration of the Kings each year, and the Holy Family all year round ... And the Massacre of the Innocents as a counterpoint .... what powerful maternal and family symbols! What underlying, contrarian, dialectical values suggested by the Church to a male society, which remained very warlike !

Unlike the representation of woman, the "Renaissance" in the 16th century, did not bring a notable evolution in the image of the child. Eros-Cupid has reappeared, admittedly, but marginally and in the only aristocratic circles. This child was not part of European popular imagery, and Catholic representations of the child remained masters of European homes. The Renaissance does not exist, from the point of view of the child.

The Reformation has consequences well illustrated by the Netherlands since the 17th century: The divine Mother disappears, but the human mother is abundantly represented. As a result, the divine child also disappears, except some paintings of Christ adolescent among the Doctors of the Law. On the other hand, the human child is very represented, and it belongs to all classes of society, peasants, artisans, bourgeois, aristocrats, in scenes of society and landscapes. Dressed exactly like adults, the child is often a somewhat caricatured image of adulthood.

European Modern Art continues to represent women and children frequently. Throughout the very diversified period from 1815 to 1940, the child, like the woman, is very present in European painting, less and less in the religious aspect. It is more and more the profane child, the child of man, who prevails.

Contemporary Art, in our museums? Children? No. White squares, black, red ... straight and curved lines, zigzags, and lots of colorful spots. A childish or infantile art can be, but where the child is absent.

Consequences . I first heard it when i was a kid . It was a vinyl 3 record box set and it was brilliant . I Have heard clips and sound bites from it in ads lately so searched this CD version and got it from Japan . Not quite the same but still BRILL!

Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd.

The platform began production in 1976, first as an oil-only platform and later converted to add gas production. An explosion, and the resulting oil and gas fires, destroyed it on 6 July 1988, killing 167, including two crewmen of a rescue vessel; 61 survived.

The total insured loss was about £1.7 billion (US$3.4 billion). At the time of the disaster, the platform accounted for approximately ten percent of North Sea oil and gas production, and the accident was the worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and industry impact.

The Kirk of St Nicholas in Union Street, Aberdeen has dedicated a chapel in memory of those who perished and there is a memorial sculpture in the Rose Garden of Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen. Thirty bodies were never recovered.

During the late 1970s, major works were carried out to enable the platform to meet UK Government gas export requirements and after this work had been completed, Piper Alpha was operating in what was known as phase 2 mode (operating with the Gas Conservation Module (GCM)) since the end of 1980 up until July 1988; phase 2 mode was its normal operating state. In the late 1980s, major construction, maintenance and upgrade works had been planned by Occidental and by July 1988, the rig was already well into major work activities, with six major projects identified including the change-out of the GCM unit which meant that the rig had been put back into its initial phase 1 mode (i.e. operating without a GCM unit).

Despite the complex and demanding work schedule, Occidental made the decision to continue operating the platform in phase 1 mode throughout this period and not to shut it down, as had been originally planned. The planning and controls that were put in place were thought to be adequate. Therefore, Piper continued to export oil at just under 120,000 barrels per day and to export Tartan gas at some 33 MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet per day) during this demanding period.

Because the platform was completely destroyed, and many of those involved died, analysis of events can only suggest a possible chain of events based on known facts. Some witnesses to the events question the official timeline.

12:00 noon Two condensate pumps, designated A and B, displaced the platform's condensate for transport to the coast. On the morning of 6 July, Pump A's pressure safety valve (PSV #504) was removed for routine maintenance. The pump's two-yearly overhaul was planned but had not started. The open condensate pipe was temporarily sealed with a disk cover (flat metal disc also called a blind flange or blank flange). Because the work could not be completed by 6:00 p.m., the disc cover remained in place. It was hand-tightened only. The on-duty engineer filled in a permit which stated that Pump A was not ready and must not be switched on under any circumstances.

6:00 p.m. The day shift ended, and the night shift started with 62 men running Piper Alpha. As he found the on-duty custodian busy, the engineer neglected to inform him of the condition of Pump A. Instead he placed the permit in the control centre and left. This permit disappeared and was not found. Coincidentally there was another permit issued for the general overhaul of Pump A that had not yet begun.

7:00 p.m. Like many other offshore platforms, Piper Alpha had an automatic fire-fighting system, driven by both diesel and electric pumps (the latter were disabled by the initial explosions). The diesel pumps were designed to suck in large amounts of sea water for fire fighting; the pumps had an automatic control to start them in case of fire (although they could not be remotely started from the control room in an emergency). However, the fire-fighting system was under manual control on the evening of 6 July: the Piper Alpha procedure adopted by the Offshore Installation Manager(OIM) required manual control of the pumps whenever divers were in the water (as they were for approximately 12 hours a day during summer) although in reality, the risk was not seen as significant for divers unless a diver was closer than 10–15 feet (3–5 m) from any of the four 120 feet (40 m) level caged intakes.

A recommendation from an earlier audit had suggested that a procedure be developed to keep the pumps in automatic mode if divers were not working in the vicinity of the intakes as was the practice on the Claymore platform, but this was never developed or implemented.

9:45 p.m. Because of problems with the methanol system earlier in the day, methane clathrate (a flammable ice) had started to accumulate in the gas compression system pipework, causing a blockage. Due to this blockage, condensate (natural gas liquids NGL) Pump B stopped and could not be restarted. As the entire power supply of the offshore construction work depended on this pump, the manager had only a few minutes to bring the pump back online, otherwise the power supply would fail completely. A search was made through the documents to determine whether Condensate Pump A could be started.

9:52 p.m. The permit for the overhaul was found, but not the other permit stating that the pump must not be started under any circumstances due to the missing safety valve. The valve was in a different location from the pump and therefore the permits were stored in different boxes, as they were sorted by location. None of those present were aware that a vital part of the machine had been removed. The manager assumed from the existing documents that it would be safe to start Pump A. The missing valve was not noticed by anyone, particularly as the metal disc replacing the safety valve was several metres above ground level and obscured by machinery.

9:55 p.m. First Explosion Condensate Pump A was switched on. Gas flowed into the pump, and because of the missing safety valve, produced an overpressure which the loosely fitted metal disc did not withstand.

Gas audibly leaked out at high pressure, drawing the attention of several men and triggering six gas alarms including the high level gas alarm. Before anyone could act, the gas ignited and exploded, blowing through the firewall made up of 2.5 by 1.5 m (8 by 5 ft) panels bolted together, which were not designed to withstand explosions. The custodian pressed the emergency stop button, closing huge valves in the sea lines and ceasing all oil and gas extraction.

Theoretically, the platform would then have been isolated from the flow of oil and gas and the fire contained. However, because the platform was originally built for oil, the firewalls were designed to resist fire rather than withstand explosions. The first explosion broke the firewall and dislodged panels around Module (B). One of the flying panels ruptured a small condensate pipe, creating another fire.

10:04 p.m. The control room of Piper Alpha was abandoned. "Mayday" was signalled via radio by radio operator David Kinrade. Piper Alpha'sdesign made no allowances for the destruction of the control room, and the platform's organisation disintegrated. No attempt was made to use loudspeakers or to order an evacuation.

Emergency procedures instructed personnel to make their way to lifeboat stations, but the fire prevented them from doing so. Instead many of the men moved to the fireproofed accommodation block beneath the helicopter deck to await further instructions. Wind, fire and smoke prevented helicopter landings and no further instructions were given, with smoke beginning to seep into the personnel block.

As the crisis mounted, two men donned protective gear and attempted to reach the diesel pumping machinery below decks and activate the firefighting system. They were never seen again.

The fire would have burnt out were it not being fed with oil from both Tartan and the Claymore platforms, the resulting back pressure forcing fresh fuel out of ruptured pipework on Piper, directly into the heart of the fire. The Claymore platform continued pumping oil until the second explosion because the manager had no permission from the Occidental control centre to shut down. Also, the connecting gas pipeline to Tartan continued to pump, as its manager had been directed by his superior. The reason for this procedure was the huge cost of such a shut down. It would have taken several days to restart production after a stop, with substantial financial consequences.

Gas pipelines of both 16 in (41 cm) and 18 in (46 cm) diameter ran to Piper Alpha. Two years earlier Occidental management ordered a study, the results of which warned of the dangers of these gas lines. Because of their length and diameter, it would have taken several hours to reduce their pressure, which meant fighting a fire fuelled by them would have been all but impossible. Although the management admitted how devastating a gas explosion would be, Claymore and Tartan were not switched off with the first emergency call.

10:05 p.m. The Search and Rescue station at RAF Lossiemouth receives the first call notifying them of the possibility of an emergency, and a No. 202 Sqn Sea King helicopter, "Rescue 138", takes off at the request of the Coastguardstation at Aberdeen. The station at RAF Boulmer is also notified, and a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod from RAF Kinloss is sent to the area to act as "On-Scene Commander" and "Rescue Zero-One".

10:20 p.m. Tartan Gas Line Rupture Tartan's gas line (pressurised to 120 Atmospheres) melted and ruptured, releasing 15-30 tonnes of high pressure gas every second, which immediately ignited. From that moment on, the platform's destruction was assured.

10:30 p.m. The Tharos, a large semi-submersible fire fighting, rescue and accommodation vessel, drew alongside Piper Alpha. The Tharos used its water cannon where it could, but it was restricted, because the cannon was so powerful it would injure or kill anyone hit by the water.

10:50 p.m. MCP-01 Gas Line Rupture The second gas line ruptured (the riser for the MCP-01 platform), ejecting millions of cubic feet of gas into the conflagration and increased its intensity. Huge flames shot over 300 ft (90 m) in the air. The Tharos was driven off by the fearsome heat, which began to melt the surrounding machinery and steelwork. It was only after this explosion that the Claymore platform stopped pumping oil. Personnel still left alive were either desperately sheltering in the scorched, smoke-filled accommodation block or leaping from the various deck levels, including the helideck, 175 ft (50 m) into the North Sea. The explosion also killed two crewmen on a fast rescue boat launched from the standby vessel Sandhaven and the six Piper Alpha crewmen they had rescued from the water.

11:18 p.m. Claymore Gas Line Rupture The gas pipeline connecting Piper Alpha to the Claymore Platform ruptured, adding even more fuel to the already massive firestorm that engulfed Piper Alpha.

11:35 p.m. Helicopter "Rescue 138" from Lossiemouth arrives at the scene.

11:37 p.m. Tharos contacts Nimrod "Rescue Zero-One" to appraise him of the situation. A standby vessel has picked up 25 casualties, including three with serious burns, and one with an injury. Tharos requests the evacuation of its non-essential personnel to make room for incoming casualties. "Rescue 138" is requested to evacuate 12 non-essential personnel from Tharos to transfer to Ocean Victory, before returning with paramedics.

11:50 p.m. With critical support structures burned away, and with nothing to support the heavier structures on top, the platform began to collapse. One of the cranes collapsed, followed by the drilling derrick. The generation and utilities Module (D), which included the fireproofed accommodation block, slipped into the sea, taking the crewmen huddled inside with it. The largest part of the platform followed it. "Rescue 138" lands on Tharos and picks up the 12 non-essential personnel, before leaving for Ocean Victory.

11:55 p.m. "Rescue 138" arrives at Ocean Victory and lands the 12 passengers before returning to Tharos with 4 of Ocean Victory's paramedics.

00:07 a.m., 7 July "Rescue 138" lands paramedics on Ocean Victory.

00:17 a.m. "Rescue 138" winches up serious burns casualties picked up by the Standby Safety Vessel, MV Silver Pit.

00:25 a.m. First seriously-injured survivor of Piper Alpha is winched aboard "Rescue 138".

00:45 a.m. The entire platform had gone. Module (A) was all that remained of Piper Alpha.

00:48 a.m. "Rescue 138" lands on Tharos with three casualties picked up from MV Silver Pit.

00:58 a.m. Civilian Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of Bristow Helicopters arrives at Tharos from Aberdeen with Medical Emergency Team.

01:47 a.m. Coastguard helicopter land on Tharos with more casualties.

02:25 a.m. First helicopter leaves Tharos with casualties for Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

03:27 a.m. "Rescue 138" lands on Tharos with the bodies of two fatalities. "Rescue 138" then leaves to refuel on the drilling rig Santa Fe 140.

05:15 a.m. "Rescue 137" arrives at Tharos and after landing, then leaves taking casualties to Aberdeen.

06:21 a.m. Uninjured survivors of Piper Alphaleave Tharos by civilian S-61 helicopter for Aberdeen.

07:25 a.m. "Rescue 138" picks up remaining survivors from Tharos for transfer to Aberdeen.

At the time of the disaster 226 people were on the platform; 165 died and 61 survived. Two men from the Standby Vessel Sandhaven were also killed.

Consequences

Lots of rain means burns in spate and, for some, the risk of flooding.

P101-9161 Taken at: Buckie Braes, Perth, Scotland.

It was a long walk back...

بيني وبين سعادتي بحر عميق والناس حالوا بين قلبي والطريق فلكم أعالجهم وبي سقم الضنا

ولكم أنجيهم وكنت أنا الغريق يا رب إن ضاقت الناس عما فيا من خير

ـ عفوك لا يضيق

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HONESTLY DEDICATED TO FAKE PEOPLE

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© 2011. All rights reserved. All photographs appearing under this profile are the property of Yara Gad, are protected by copyright law, and are not to be reproduced in any way without written permission. Please do not copy, distribute, display or perform your derivative works based upon it. Offenders will face severe legal consequences.

Tag Game created by Laura Tonini. Thanks for tagging me, Laura!

Choose one of your dolls, give them a name and create a biography for him/her. Dress him/her up in style with her character and tell his/her story, his, her character, what he/she loves and what he/she hates. If you see this photo considered tagged too!

I decided to finally make some photos of a character I created a while back - the hero of my Rocky Mountain Romance, Rory Llewellyn! Here is his biog and story:

Name: Rory Llewellyn

Age: 34

Star sign: Leo

Profession: Horse veterinarian. Now also breeds Mustangs on a farm in the High Rockies

Marital status: single

Family: one daughter, Eden aged 16

Before starting his veterinary training Rory went travelling with his beautiful and headstrong girlfriend, Nusch, who, slightly older than him, had already started studying medicine hoping to go on to specialise as an obstetrician. Rory and Nusch were doing Voluntary Service Overseas when Nusch fell pregnant. She insisted on giving birth in the same conditions as the local women, with tragic consequences; she died from a post natal infection shortly after their baby daughter, Eden, was born. Rory was devastated by the loss of his first love who he had expected to spend the rest of this life with but he clung to the baby daughter they had conceived together. He brought Eden up entirely on his own and for many years they travelled the world together as he built an impressive career as a highly renowned Horse Veterinarian, caring for some of the world's top international race horses . Tired of living such a fast paced existence and above all feeling that he needed to give Eden some roots he has taken the dramatic step of moving them to a horse ranch in the Rockies. Rory has been single for a long time dedicating himself to his beloved horses and his beloved daughter but Eden is hoping that, now they have settled in one place, he will meet someone special. Two local ladies have already noticed the handsome newcomer and may be looking to find a way to meet him...

* I slightly changed Rory's story so I could make him younger... I didn't want him to be in his fifties (not that there is anything wrong with that but it fits my story better for him to be younger... ;-))

SA's most agreeable kites are putting on a show again: sitting on their second clutch for the Summer. The local mouse population is suffering the consequences.

2119

Jan Miense Molenaer. 1609-1668. Haarlem. Fête rustique. Rustic festival.

Nimes Musée des Beaux Arts.

LE RÉALISME NÉERLANDAIS.

Le réalisme néerlandais, plus exactement flamand et néerlandais, s'enracine dans une culture qui correspond au peuplement germanophone des Pays Bas au sens large (Pays Bas et Belgique actuels).

La partie sud du pays, flamande, se développe beaucoup plus précocement que la partie nord, néerlandaise. Dès le 11è siècle la Flandre est avec la plaine du Pô un des tous premiers moteurs de la Renaissance de l'Europe après les Ages Sombres consécutifs au lent dépérissement de l'Empire Romain et à la série d'invasion germaniques, scandinaves et arabo-berbères qui l'accompagnent et en aggravent encore les conséquences.

En peinture l'école de Bruges, que certains historiens d'art appellent encore "les primitifs flamands", n'a rien de primitif et constitue un excellent témoin du développement économique et politique de la Flandre au 15è siècle et 16è siècle.

L'Europe de l'ouest étant catholique, les oeuvres de ces peintres sont essentiellement orientées par les thèmes religieux. Mais le réalisme naturaliste, l'esprit concret et pragmatique de cette population apparaît déjà très clairement comme en témoignent Jérôme Bosch (1450-1516) et surtout Bruegel Pierre l'Ancien (1525-1569). Ce dernier notamment peint tout aussi souvent des tableaux profanes que des oeuvres sacrées, notamment ses kermesses, danses de mariage, travaux des saisons. Mais en outre ses tableaux religieux relèguent bien souvent le thème spécifiquement sacré en fond de scène, et en fait un prétexte à une restitution très détaillée de la vie quotidienne à son époque.

Cette caractéristique flamande va se développer encore, après la Réforme, aux Pays Bas du Nord dont le démarrage économique plus tardif prend tout son essor au 17è siècle.

La Réforme de tendance calviniste qui triomphe aux Pays Bas est religieusement presque iconoclaste. Le protestantisme néerlandais n'interdit certes pas absolument les représentations imagées religieuses -heureusement pour Rembrandt- mais il les limite considérablement. Les intérieurs des églises sont dépouillés du décor peint ou sculpté des temps catholiques. Les thèmes religieux qui demeurent sont essentiellement tirés de l'Ancien Testament, la Vierge et donc le Christ enfant, les Saints et les Saintes disparaissent. En outre l'Eglise ayant été chassée du pays un mécène essentiel disparaît.

Les artistes des Pays Bas du Nord doivent se reconvertir, ils vont le faire de manière exemplaire, en devenant les inventeurs d'une peinture profane, séculière, tout à fait particulière, qui restera originale en Europe encore jusqu'au 19è siècle.

Les artistes néerlandais n'ont peut être pas, dans l'absolu, créé les genres de la peinture de paysage, de la peinture de nature morte, ou de la peinture de moeurs, mais ils leur ont donné un tel développement, bien avant les autres régions de l'Europe, que cela équivaut à une invention.

Avant les artistes des Pays Bas du Nord le paysage est presque toujours le décor d'une scène historique ou mythologique. C'est aux Néerlandais que l'on doit le développement du paysage sans autre thème que la nature, et les banales et quotidiennes activités humaines contemporaines. Le thème certes déjà connu "des travaux et des jours" se généralise, se sécularise, et sort des livres d'heures.

Les peintres des Pays Bas vont aussi considérablement développer la peinture de moeurs en quittant les milieux aristocratiques pour s'intéresser aux paysans, artisans et bourgeois. Un domaine où leur réalisme et leur sens de l'observation font merveille. Les artistes flamands et néerlandais nous permettent, bien mieux que les peintres baroques ou classiques des écoles de l'Europe du Sud ou de l'Allemagne d'observer les modes de vie de l'époque.

Une vache qui pisse, un cochon qui ronfle, une femme qui boit, qui range son linge dans l'armoire, ou épouille sa fille, des paysans avinés qui se disputent, ou des bourgeois qui patinent sont des thèmes très distinctifs des Pays Bas. Des thèmes qui ne se rencontrent pas, ou très peu, ailleurs en Europe. Ce n'est pas du tout la peinture française de l'époque de Louis XIII et Louis XIV. Même les frères Le Nain sont très loin du réalisme flamand et néerlandais.

Enfin la nature morte, qui peut avoir quelques vagues connotations religieuses avec les "vanités", prend aussi un essor qui est spécifique de cette région de l'Europe.

Dans le domaine du portrait l'Europe catholique avait depuis longtemps ouvert la voie et les Pays Bas sont moins originaux, sauf à privilégier le portrait bourgeois par rapport au portrait aristocratique. Mais quand le milicien bourgeois des "grandes compagnies" porte l'épée on voit bien qu'il n'est pas un aristocrate. De même que les régentes des hopitaux, béguinages, orphelinats et oeuvres charitables diverses ne peuvent pas se confondre avec les grandes dames de la noblesse - et de la religion- française, hispanique ou germanique.

Les artistes des Pays Bas nous restituent ainsi, encore une fois, avec réalisme, le décor humain de leur époque, à un niveau social que les peintres du sud de l'Europe ignorent car leur clientèle est toujours ailleurs: Les Rois, les Princes, l'Aristocratie ou une très grande bourgeoisie assimilée, et bien sûr l'Eglise.

THE NETHERLANDS REALISM.

The Dutch realism, more precisely Flemish and Dutch, is rooted in a culture that corresponds to the German-speaking population of the Netherlands in the broad sense (the Netherlands and Belgium today).

The southern part of the country, Flemish, develops much earlier than the northern part, Dutch. From the 11th century Flanders was, with the plain of the Po and Tuscany, one of the first engines of the Renaissance of Europe after the Dark Ages consecutive to the slow decline of the Roman Empire and to the series of Germanic Scandinavian and Arabic-Berbers invasions that accompany it and further aggravate the consequences.

In painting the school of Bruges, which some art historians still call " the Flemish primitives", is nothing primitive and is an excellent witness to the economic and political development of Flanders in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Western Europe being Catholic, the works of these painters are essentially oriented by religious themes. But the naturalistic realism, the concrete and pragmatic spirit of this population, already appears very clearly as evidenced by Jerome Bosch (1450-1516) and especially Bruegel Peter the Elder (1525-1569). The latter, in particular, paints profane paintings as often as sacred works, notably his kermesses, wedding dances, works of the seasons. But in addition his religious pictures often relegate the specifically sacred theme to the background, making it a pretext for a very detailed restitution of everyday life in his time.

This Flemish characteristic will continue to develop after the Reformation in the Northern Netherlands, whose later economic growth took off in the 17th century.

The Reformation of Calvinist tendency which triumphs in the Netherlands is religiously almost iconoclastic. Dutch Protestantism does certainly not absolutely forbid religious images - fortunately for Rembrandt- but he limits them considerably. The interiors of the churches are stripped of the painted or carved decoration of Catholic times. The religious themes that remain are essentially drawn from the Old Testament, the Virgin and therefore the Christ Child, the Saints and the Holy Women disappear. In addition the Church having been expelled from the country, an essential patron disappears.

The artists of the Low Countries of the North must reconvert, they will do so in an exemplary way, becoming the inventors of a profane, secular painting, quite particular, which will remain original in Europe until the 19th century.

The Dutch artists may be not have, in absolute terms, created the genres of landscape painting, of still life painting, or painting of manners, but they have given them such a development long before other regions of Europe, that is equivalent to an invention.

Before the artists of the Low Countries of the North the landscape is almost always the decor of a historical or mythological scene. It is the Dutch to development of the landscape with no other theme than nature, and the banal and daily contemporary human activities. The theme already known "works and days" is generalized, secularized, and comes out of the books of hours.

The painters of the Netherlands will also considerably develop the painting of manners by leaving the aristocratic circles, to take an interest in peasants, craftsmen and bourgeois. An area where their realism and their sense of observation are wonderful. Flemish and Dutch artists allow us, far better than the Baroque or classical painters of the schools of Southern Europe or Germany, to observe the ways of life of the time.

A cow that pisses, a pig that snores, a woman who drinks, who puts her clothes in the cupboard, or chases his daughter's lice, drunken peasants who dispute, or bourgeois who skate, are very distinctive themes of the Netherlands . Topics that do not meet, or very little, elsewhere in Europe. This is not at all the French painting of the time of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Even the Le Nain brothers are far from Flemish and Dutch realism.

Finally, still life, which may have some vague religious connotations with the "vanities", also takes a boom that is specific to this region of Europe.

In the field of portraiture Catholic Europe had long opened the way, and the Netherlands is less original, except to favor the bourgeois portrait in relation to the aristocratic portraiture. But when the bourgeois militiaman of the "big companies" bears the sword, it is clear that he is not an aristocrat. Just as the regentes of hospitals, beguines, orphanages and various charitable works can not be confused with the great ladies of the nobility - and of the French, Hispanic or Germanic religion.

The artists of the Netherlands thus restore to us, once again, with realism, the human decor of their time, on a social level that the painters of southern Europe ignore because their clientele is always elsewhere: The Kings, Princes, The Aristocracy or a very large assimilated bourgeoisie, and of course the Church.

This girl is based on the story of Midas, who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. Warned of the consequences he persisted, and turned many of his possessions to gold. All went wrong when he touched his beloved daughter, and she too turned to gold.

Base doll is a wave 1 Cleo Denile. Her torso has been blushed and her forearms painted gold. He fingernails and toenails have been painted, and he love leg jointed have a very light spray of glitter.

Her gold eyes have glitter, as do her eyelids. Jewels adorn her forehead in the middle of rune inspired golden markings.

White flecks and transparent spirals decorate her cheeks, representing the sadness of Midas' daughter.

Lips are black matte with a golden stripe down the middle of the bottom lip.

Included is the doll as she is, along with the gold wrap.

Please FM me for details, or email me at hiritai@gmail.com.

Follow me on my social sites:

www.facebook.com/PortfolioMV

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"In consequence of her extraordinary learning, Saint Catharine is regarded as the patroness of Christian philosophy: and this circumstance, taken in connection with her successful apostolate for souls, is doubtless the main cause of her being considered as a special Protectress of the Order of Preachers, which glories in the name of the Order of Truth and has ever been distinguished alike for its eminent learning and its zeal for souls. The Saint has herself deigned on several occasions to manifest a particular interest in the children of Saint Dominic, as the lives of their Saints testify. To mention but three instances. It was she who, together with Saint Cecilia, accompanied our Blessed Lady when she anointed Blessed Reginald and gave him the habit of the Order, which she is said to have taken from the hands of the Virgin Martyr of Alexandria. The same two Martyr Spouses of Christ were again in attendance on the Mother of God when she showed herself to our Holy Father in the dormitory at Santa Sabina, sprinkling the Brethren with holy water as they slept. Finally, it was Saint Catharine who, in company with the other holy Protectress of the Order, Saint Mary Magdalen, came with the Queen of Heaven to bring the miraculous picture of Saint Dominic to Soriano."

This window of St Catherine of Alexandria, whose feast is today, is in the Priory of St Albert the Great in Oakland, CA.

A personal consequence of BREXIT?

Haus Lange in Krefeld is an address of pilgrimage for architectural studies and those people interested in Ludwig Mies von der Rohe’s style setting early work. Splendid and ageless architecture and garden environment.

Most recently this building became a new home for BREXIT refugee family that felt no longer welcome in England. Has it really become ‘a home’? If you watch the series of photos I took you might feel shocked as I was when I first lingered thru the stylish rooms. The car was still packed. The door was open… I entered as invited, saw valuable furniture, most goods still in boxes, piles of books. The pantechnicon obviously just left. Also very obvious: The landlady, mother and wife also left and will stay absent: ‘You will never see me again’ written on the mirror. That wasn’t a good sign. I felt sorry.

Then to my utmost horror I found the host floating dead in the pool… A husband, a father: dead! And nobody seems to care!

Even more desperate the boy hiding in the dining room – his distressed body language seems to ask: Can this my home? Where is my mother? Who is my mother? Where are my roots?

You may form your own opinion on this photo story – but being uprooted is the worst prerequisite for a new and positive start. Reasons are manifold. But if it comes to politics as a cause: Think before you vote, choose well whom you elect. It might affect your families’ life, too.

The artists Michael Elgreen and Ingar Dragset make us think with their fictive story and installation of an unhappy start in Haus Lange, Krefeld.

I as a photographer tried to transfer this mood and the atmosphre into 17 picture series ‘Die Zugezogenen’.

Krefeld, February 2017

Thomas Kopf

Processed with VSCOcam with m5 preset

David Teniers II. 1610-1690. Anvers.

Interior with a man filling his pipe. vers 1645.

Hertogenbosch. Het Noordbrabants Museum

LE RÉALISME NÉERLANDAIS.

Le réalisme néerlandais, plus exactement flamand et néerlandais, s'enracine dans une culture qui correspond au peuplement germanophone des Pays Bas au sens large (Pays Bas et Belgique actuels).

La partie sud du pays, flamande, se développe beaucoup plus précocement que la partie nord, néerlandaise. Dès le 11è siècle la Flandre est avec la plaine du Pô un des tous premiers moteurs de la Renaissance de l'Europe après les Ages Sombres consécutifs au lent dépérissement de l'Empire Romain et à la série d'invasion germaniques, scandinaves et arabo-berbères qui l'accompagnent et en aggravent encore les conséquences.

En peinture l'école de Bruges, que certains historiens d'art appellent encore "les primitifs flamands", n'a rien de primitif et constitue un excellent témoin du développement économique et politique de la Flandre au 15è siècle et 16è siècle.

L'Europe de l'ouest étant catholique, les oeuvres de ces peintres sont essentiellement orientées par les thèmes religieux. Mais le réalisme naturaliste, l'esprit concret et pragmatique de cette population apparaît déjà très clairement comme en témoignent Jérôme Bosch (1450-1516) et surtout Bruegel Pierre l'Ancien (1525-1569). Ce dernier notamment peint tout aussi souvent des tableaux profanes que des oeuvres sacrées, notamment ses kermesses, danses de mariage, travaux des saisons. Mais en outre ses tableaux religieux relèguent bien souvent le thème spécifiquement sacré en fond de scène, et en fait un prétexte à une restitution très détaillée de la vie quotidienne à son époque.

Cette caractéristique flamande va se développer encore, après la Réforme, aux Pays Bas du Nord dont le démarrage économique plus tardif prend tout son essor au 17è siècle.

La Réforme de tendance calviniste qui triomphe aux Pays Bas est religieusement presque iconoclaste. Le protestantisme néerlandais n'interdit certes pas absolument les représentations imagées religieuses -heureusement pour Rembrandt- mais il les limite considérablement. Les intérieurs des églises sont dépouillés du décor peint ou sculpté des temps catholiques. Les thèmes religieux qui demeurent sont essentiellement tirés de l'Ancien Testament, la Vierge et donc le Christ enfant, les Saints et les Saintes disparaissent. En outre l'Eglise ayant été chassée du pays un mécène essentiel disparaît.

Les artistes des Pays Bas du Nord doivent se reconvertir, ils vont le faire de manière exemplaire, en devenant les inventeurs d'une peinture profane, séculière, tout à fait particulière, qui restera originale en Europe encore jusqu'au 19è siècle.

Les artistes néerlandais n'ont peut être pas, dans l'absolu, créé les genres de la peinture de paysage, de la peinture de nature morte, ou de la peinture de moeurs, mais ils leur ont donné un tel développement, bien avant les autres régions de l'Europe, que cela équivaut à une invention.

Avant les artistes des Pays Bas du Nord le paysage est presque toujours le décor d'une scène historique ou mythologique. C'est aux Néerlandais que l'on doit le développement du paysage sans autre thème que la nature, et les banales et quotidiennes activités humaines contemporaines. Le thème certes déjà connu "des travaux et des jours" se généralise, se sécularise, et sort des livres d'heures.

Les peintres des Pays Bas vont aussi considérablement développer la peinture de moeurs en quittant les milieux aristocratiques pour s'intéresser aux paysans, artisans et bourgeois. Un domaine où leur réalisme et leur sens de l'observation font merveille. Les artistes flamands et néerlandais nous permettent, bien mieux que les peintres baroques ou classiques des écoles de l'Europe du Sud ou de l'Allemagne d'observer les modes de vie de l'époque.

Une vache qui pisse, un cochon qui ronfle, une femme qui boit, qui range son linge dans l'armoire, ou épouille sa fille, des paysans avinés qui se disputent, ou des bourgeois qui patinent sont des thèmes très distinctifs des Pays Bas. Des thèmes qui ne se rencontrent pas, ou très peu, ailleurs en Europe. Ce n'est pas du tout la peinture française de l'époque de Louis XIII et Louis XIV. Même les frères Le Nain sont très loin du réalisme flamand et néerlandais.

Enfin la nature morte, qui peut avoir quelques vagues connotations religieuses avec les "vanités", prend aussi un essor qui est spécifique de cette région de l'Europe.

Dans le domaine du portrait l'Europe catholique avait depuis longtemps ouvert la voie et les Pays Bas sont moins originaux, sauf à privilégier le portrait bourgeois par rapport au portrait aristocratique. Mais quand le milicien bourgeois des "grandes compagnies" porte l'épée on voit bien qu'il n'est pas un aristocrate. De même que les régentes des hopitaux, béguinages, orphelinats et oeuvres charitables diverses ne peuvent pas se confondre avec les grandes dames de la noblesse - et de la religion- française, hispanique ou germanique.

Les artistes des Pays Bas nous restituent ainsi, encore une fois, avec réalisme, le décor humain de leur époque, à un niveau social que les peintres du sud de l'Europe ignorent car leur clientèle est toujours ailleurs: Les Rois, les Princes, l'Aristocratie ou une très grande bourgeoisie assimilée, et bien sûr l'Eglise.

THE NETHERLANDS REALISM.

The Dutch realism, more precisely Flemish and Dutch, is rooted in a culture that corresponds to the German-speaking population of the Netherlands in the broad sense (the Netherlands and Belgium today).

The southern part of the country, Flemish, develops much earlier than the northern part, Dutch. From the 11th century Flanders was, with the plain of the Po and Tuscany, one of the first engines of the Renaissance of Europe after the Dark Ages consecutive to the slow decline of the Roman Empire and to the series of Germanic Scandinavian and Arabic-Berbers invasions that accompany it and further aggravate the consequences.

In painting the school of Bruges, which some art historians still call " the Flemish primitives", is nothing primitive and is an excellent witness to the economic and political development of Flanders in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Western Europe being Catholic, the works of these painters are essentially oriented by religious themes. But the naturalistic realism, the concrete and pragmatic spirit of this population, already appears very clearly as evidenced by Jerome Bosch (1450-1516) and especially Bruegel Peter the Elder (1525-1569). The latter, in particular, paints profane paintings as often as sacred works, notably his kermesses, wedding dances, works of the seasons. But in addition his religious pictures often relegate the specifically sacred theme to the background, making it a pretext for a very detailed restitution of everyday life in his time.

This Flemish characteristic will continue to develop after the Reformation in the Northern Netherlands, whose later economic growth took off in the 17th century.

The Reformation of Calvinist tendency which triumphs in the Netherlands is religiously almost iconoclastic. Dutch Protestantism does certainly not absolutely forbid religious images - fortunately for Rembrandt- but he limits them considerably. The interiors of the churches are stripped of the painted or carved decoration of Catholic times. The religious themes that remain are essentially drawn from the Old Testament, the Virgin and therefore the Christ Child, the Saints and the Holy Women disappear. In addition the Church having been expelled from the country, an essential patron disappears.

The artists of the Low Countries of the North must reconvert, they will do so in an exemplary way, becoming the inventors of a profane, secular painting, quite particular, which will remain original in Europe until the 19th century.

The Dutch artists may be not have, in absolute terms, created the genres of landscape painting, of still life painting, or painting of manners, but they have given them such a development long before other regions of Europe, that is equivalent to an invention.

Before the artists of the Low Countries of the North the landscape is almost always the decor of a historical or mythological scene. It is the Dutch to development of the landscape with no other theme than nature, and the banal and daily contemporary human activities. The theme already known "works and days" is generalized, secularized, and comes out of the books of hours.

The painters of the Netherlands will also considerably develop the painting of manners by leaving the aristocratic circles, to take an interest in peasants, craftsmen and bourgeois. An area where their realism and their sense of observation are wonderful. Flemish and Dutch artists allow us, far better than the Baroque or classical painters of the schools of Southern Europe or Germany, to observe the ways of life of the time.

A cow that pisses, a pig that snores, a woman who drinks, who puts her clothes in the cupboard, or chases his daughter's lice, drunken peasants who dispute, or bourgeois who skate, are very distinctive themes of the Netherlands . Topics that do not meet, or very little, elsewhere in Europe. This is not at all the French painting of the time of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Even the Le Nain brothers are far from Flemish and Dutch realism.

Finally, still life, which may have some vague religious connotations with the "vanities", also takes a boom that is specific to this region of Europe.

In the field of portraiture Catholic Europe had long opened the way, and the Netherlands is less original, except to favor the bourgeois portrait in relation to the aristocratic portraiture. But when the bourgeois militiaman of the "big companies" bears the sword, it is clear that he is not an aristocrat. Just as the regentes of hospitals, beguines, orphanages and various charitable works can not be confused with the great ladies of the nobility - and of the French, Hispanic or Germanic religion.

The artists of the Netherlands thus restore to us, once again, with realism, the human decor of their time, on a social level that the painters of southern Europe ignore because their clientele is always elsewhere: The Kings, Princes, The Aristocracy or a very large assimilated bourgeoisie, and of course the Church.

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