Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols | The audacity of Christian art

Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols | The audacity of Christian art | National Gallery

Рет қаралды 62,087

6 жыл бұрын

This episode looks at the visual language of signs and symbols known as iconography. Chloë Reddaway considers the surprising appearance of a snail in Crivelli’s ‘The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian’ (1491) and asks how it might help in the seemingly impossible task of painting Christ.
‘The audacity of Christian art: The problem of painting Christ’ is a seven-part series in which Dr Chloë Reddaway, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Curator in Art and Religion at the National Gallery, explores the theological and artistic challenges involved in painting Christ as fully human and fully divine, and reveals some of the ingenious and surprising ways in which Renaissance artists responded.
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Пікірлер: 90

@blinkdoge 5 жыл бұрын

LOL I laughed when there was the little lady in the painting, so unexpected

@CallieMasters5000 3 жыл бұрын

She didn't pay extra to be painted as beautiful as the Virgin. She looks plain af.

@seujorge1989 6 жыл бұрын

She needs her own BBC art documentary 👏 I hope she does get a show in the future, she's very talented.

@gypsysnickerdoodle4354 5 жыл бұрын

She needs to ***smooth her vocal delivery***. She comes off a touch too robotic to listen any longer than a few minutes

@claumeister1 5 жыл бұрын

@@gypsysnickerdoodle4354 Speaking as an American man, her vocal delivery is divine. Brains, beauty (that swanlike neck!), and that elegant "posh" accent. Lucy Worsley, step aside!

@patrickgleason2066 2 жыл бұрын

I totally agree. Her knowledge of the ideas is extraordinary.

@mozdickson 2 жыл бұрын

@@gypsysnickerdoodle4354 Your YT name tells us all we need to know, I think.

@nybe 2 жыл бұрын

Chloë, herself looking like she stepped out of one of these magnificent paintings, is ever mesmerizing and thought provoking. Really enjoy her conceptual explorations in art history.

@EmilySweet 6 жыл бұрын

These are the most facinating videos I've seen on KZfaq. I've never thought about any of these questions and I find them really thought-provoking. She is a great speaker too! I'm impressed

@stevemiller7271 6 жыл бұрын

Excellent series. Great resolution of the images, clear, concise and beautifully presented by Chloe R.

@anthony........ 6 жыл бұрын

Beautiful!!! Looking forward to the next episode.

@TheRaphaelxau 4 жыл бұрын

I just live for analysing Christian iconography in art. Could watch it for months...

@dangerspouse4741 4 жыл бұрын

I wonder if this painted snail carries the same meaning as the many, and famous, snails found in Medieval marginalia which are often depicted fighting armored knights.

@Diana-dx2eg 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for opening us hidden beauty of religious paintings

@mindreader 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you again for deep dive into this religious art. Fascinating.

@DanimationMovies 2 жыл бұрын

my interpretation of the snail is that it is looking towards christ, yet cannot conceive of him in his totality. it seems positioned in such a manner that makes us relate to it in this way

@nielsnielsen8373 6 жыл бұрын

Superb! One can only hope Chrloe Reddaway is giving tours or classes the next time I'm able to visit your wonderful museum.

@ladidah100 6 жыл бұрын

Very well done!

@brandonburrell8517 4 жыл бұрын

Beautiful presentation.

@edrandomed 6 жыл бұрын

Paradoxical objects interactions with thoughts about these paitnings. I am learning so much. thank you.

@lotfibouhedjeur 3 жыл бұрын

Her passion and delivery are awesome.

@10Slayer01 4 жыл бұрын

A great little video.

@Bagheera23608 2 жыл бұрын

I honestly can't take religious iconography seriously but it's such important information to preserve and to be aware of. Excellent work (her voice is perfect for instruction). can't wait for more

@magicknight13 2 жыл бұрын

She and these beautiful paintings and this rich history are all amazing!

@jessewilliams15 Жыл бұрын

I appreciate the hosts depth of understanding of theological representations.

@angelamalek 2 жыл бұрын

Or maybe the artist liked snails. This series is well-written and delivered. Bravo.

@petervernon4010 6 жыл бұрын

Yes, a fascinating discussion. I can see the argument from the negative (apophatic), but doubt the iconographic interpretation. Daniel Arasse, (to whom you may have made a glancing reference), in On n'y voit rien, writes about the outsize snail, in the Francesco del Cossa Annunciation, in terms of perspective--not so much what we see, but rather how we see. It would be interesting if you could talk a little more about structure, but in any case thanks very much for the series so far. Peter

@lynnblack6493 2 жыл бұрын

What a great discussion. I too would love to hear and see more! The snail. I might have missed it totally...

@joshuataft5541 3 жыл бұрын

This is exelent.so glad I found this...wow👍👍🙏

@nobodyoxfordian9500 2 жыл бұрын

What about the hand gestures in this and other paintings, do you have a video on the significants?

@naecarol.1988 5 жыл бұрын

So beautiful.

@martijnkeisers5900 Жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@jennieivins 5 жыл бұрын

What does the cucumber represent? I find it hanging among the flowers and peaches much more odd than the snail at the bottom.

@dominiklukic9334 4 жыл бұрын

The cucumber may have been used as a symbol of the resurrection.

@jennieivins 4 жыл бұрын

@@dominiklukic9334 Why??

@dominiklukic9334 4 жыл бұрын

@@jennieivins I'm familiar with the interpretation which says it's because cucumbers are filled with seeds, suggesting a sort of rebirth...

@samehgayed 6 жыл бұрын

Outstanding

@greysieltus2021 5 жыл бұрын

Where in the museum is this painting displayed. I was there today and could not find it.

@jamesmichael4185 2 жыл бұрын

Lovely

@johnladuke6475 4 жыл бұрын

Okay, but what's going on with the margins of illuminated manuscripts where knights are fighting snails? Inquiring minds must have an answer for this mystery. It's repeated far too often to be coincidence, and seeing a snail tucked in at the corner of this pice only deepens the mystery.

@ivanho7958 Жыл бұрын

Does anybody know what is the meaning of the fruits in this painting?

@luckyman1071 Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Dr. Reddaway; great stuff and fascinating. I wonder if you are familiar with Edward Nason West's, "Outward Signs: The Language of Christian Symbolism" (1989). Be well.

@noahwalters2732 2 жыл бұрын

What if the painter just wanted to add a snail because he liked snails?

@xyzllii 5 жыл бұрын

Even though I know you never answer questions...I'll ask...who was the painter who commissioned this painting?

@nationalgallery 5 жыл бұрын

Hi there, Oradea, the widow of Giovanni Becchetti, founded an altar dedicated to S. Maria della Consolazione (Holy Mary of Consolation) in the church of San Francesco at Fabriano in 1490. This fulfilled her husband's wish, expressed in his will. Crivelli painted the altarpiece in the following year. The inscription along the base in Latin emphasises the expense of the commission. You can learn more here: bit.ly/2yxHO9b

@DarryanDhanpat 5 жыл бұрын

Oct 12 2018

@marie-thereseelia2140 3 жыл бұрын

ADORABLE !

@marthaellenconner98 Жыл бұрын

Wish she had been my teacher in Art History in college !

@robbielu22 2 жыл бұрын

Yes she does make one question whatever was behind the images.

@nikolasao 5 жыл бұрын

May be the snail is scale for the lady that commissioned the painting. The earthly is portrayed small. The Saints an Christ are bigger.

@ivanho7958 2 жыл бұрын

I think some things in paintings change their meaning according to context, for example a snail can be interpreted as a symbol of sinners and the laziness because it make no effort to find what to eat.

@The_Butler_Did_It 5 жыл бұрын

Or an alternative explanation....Studio assistant 1 "I bet you a gallon of Prosecco that you can't paint a snail in this picture and get away with it" Studio assistant 2 "You're on! pass me my brushes"

@slugabuny9949 Жыл бұрын

Even the smallest in creation Are included

@minui8758 2 жыл бұрын

Visual Apophaticism - amazing

@josuetw 2 жыл бұрын

Chloe is so charming and elegant

@maddieeemoo 3 жыл бұрын

❤️❤️

@fayfolkstudios5247 6 жыл бұрын

The snail would most likely suggest the tedium of snail travel.

@pufwuf 5 жыл бұрын

'Snaps 'n' snails 'n' puppy dogs tails...' This is the same snail. 's'nails!' was a common interjection shortened from 'God's nails' and quite possibly gave the snail its name. Christ is exactly like a snail for 'christ' means 'the anointed' which, if you happen to understand how mythology works (it is drawn, cartoon-style, from pictures in the night sky), is what the snail is also. Es-car-got is the French and translates bilingually as 'you're for god'. Nonsense comes in many forms but some of it makes more sense than we might realise: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iqeaqK-Kt5i4las.html

@user-mq9dn2hn2v 10 ай бұрын

1:17 marble:)

@vyvienvp3413 3 жыл бұрын

Is it possible that the snail represents humility? That Christ is present in everything, (in nature), even in the humblest little creature - a snail?

@lukegehring5305 2 жыл бұрын

I wish people would use terminology correctly. Iconography literally means to write a holy icon or image and refers to the discipline of Eastern Christian icons, which has precious few symbols. In the West St. Barbara carries a tower, and St Catherine a wheel to identify them. In the East, both carry a cross of martyrdom, because the why of their deaths is more important than the how. The elaborate systems of symbols belong to Western symbolism and not iconography.

@igguhs324 2 жыл бұрын

The snail seems to the most confusing visual symbol in religious works....in art snails appearance in Annunciation scenes is an obvious symbol due to the belief in snails immaculate conception. One of the most puzzling to me has been a page in Les Riches Heures where Christ is preaching and the border is of intertwined snails and the flower is columbine - that symbol is obvious. As COMPLETE CONTRAST in manuascripts the incessant fighting between knights and snails.....WHY? The easy answer is that it's a joke, the futility of a snail daring to fight with a knight - but that is not how it is always shown.....the snail often wins. If there's anyone who can clarify?? There's also the reference to snails as representing the Lombards....and on and on it goes

@lin60332 Жыл бұрын

M symbol on the hands 😮

@ht7461 4 жыл бұрын

Superb!!! 4:11 Just as the earth is rendered fertile by rain... So, I'm also assuming subtle souls come from rain, then enter into the food webs/chains, which are then consumed...

@michaeljohnangel6359 Жыл бұрын

Joseph Campbell wrote, rightly I think, that a myth [or symbol] that needs explaining isn't working. Allegory invites the viewer (reader or listener) to interpret the allegory for himself/herself-in doing so, the viewer discovers things about himself, his/her predjudises and general understanding. It is a type of self-analysis, NOT an attempt to solve an absolutism.

@rachelc274 2 жыл бұрын

I also disagree with her saying that Christ is not like a snail. Anyone familiar enough with snails will know how easily crushed they are. The snail is possibly an allusion to the suffering servant described in the Old Testament passage of Isaiah 53:5, the one "crushed for our iniquities". Although the passage in Isaiah speaks of this crushed and suffering servant in the past tense, in the Christian tradition the words are also taken to be a prophecy about the Messiah to come (Christ). I take the point about dissemblance, but she never even touches upon how the snail might first be a metaphor for Christ, before she concludes that Christ isn't like the snail in any way.

@neuronneuron3645 2 жыл бұрын

A bit like Christ. His divinity is in his humanity. In his dissimilarity from God.

@rachelc274 2 жыл бұрын

A key mistake she makes: the snail reproducing asexually cannot be a metaphor for the Immaculate Conception of Mary by her mother St Anne. Because the conception of Mary herself was not asexual. It was the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit which is what the asexual reproduction of the snail is more likely to refer to.

@TheDove25 2 жыл бұрын

Does the snail represent the androgynous.?

@mtrmann 2 жыл бұрын

Snails are true hermaphrodites having both male and female organs.

@ohr1000 4 жыл бұрын

We should also pay attention to the Virgin's right hand the holds the Child Jesus. Her fingers display the 'Priestly Hand Sign" that conceals the mysterious Biblical code 1.666666... This code was discovered only recently by the biblical researcher Amir Tuchman and his book "The Divine Equation and the Holy Temple" The code was known to Noah, Moses, King Solomon, and Jesus.

@rickb1973 Жыл бұрын

Okay, so what's up with that cucumber then?

@josephmetz890 2 жыл бұрын

The snail represents a snail. Period.

@RocLobo358 2 жыл бұрын

Pseudo Dionysus was such a silly man

@romulusbuta9318 6 жыл бұрын

Snail maight reprezent the average beliver, becouse it is a slow-wolking ...And so,the true beliver needs a lot of time of praying and makeing religious canons to go to , and finally arive near by God . "A true beliver prepares himself all his life, by being a good cristian, to meet his God ."

@pmichael73 9 ай бұрын

The Immaculate Conception is not the Virgin Birth!!

@jojones4685 4 жыл бұрын

Clothes look like nails?

@metaphoricalcats 4 жыл бұрын

jo jones hi Jo, she is saying ‘cloves’ - they are a spice which resemble nails. Hope this helps :)

@jojones4685 4 жыл бұрын

@@metaphoricalcats thank you

@michaelboylan5308 5 жыл бұрын

Carnations smell a bit like cloves,,and cloves look a bit like nails.What a world we have lost,,Villons iilliterate mother would have read this painting easily,,but we cant,Weird to see Catholic art discussed in Dawkinsland,,for 400 years it was just primitive superstition,,now its just Art,,so thats OK, Shame the painting is not back in its original friary,,and properly appreciated,I dont step on/eat snails anymore,,,I see them differently

@michaelboylan5308 5 жыл бұрын

One comment below a recent documentary on early medieval Christian art was,,,Christianity ?,,,what is this filth ? Some of the comments on this superb series are like that, Should i thank Ms Reddaway for taking Christian art iconology seriously? Should I thank the N,G, for not dumping, all the Christian paintings in a basement ? Blake said,,,as a man is so he sees, G,B, has profound problems, The contempt for creative human experience is one

@nobodynowhere7163 2 жыл бұрын

ask the English Puritans of the late 16th Century and their answer would be: you DO NOT paint Christ.

@4got102c 6 жыл бұрын

Saint Francis--.Patron saint of animals, merchants & ecology St. Sebastian-- Patron saint of soldiers, athletes & those desiring a saintly death.

@outofoblivionproductions4015 4 жыл бұрын

3:51 ...Allowed the Virgin Mary to be conceived without "the stain of Original Sin"- to be precise. It's an important distinction. All babies conceived in legitimate marriages are conceived without sin. However all babies are conceived with the stain of Original Sin, except for the Mother of God- Mary.

@j.kaimori3848 3 жыл бұрын

The closest you could get to accurate is that a baby born in a Christian marriage is born into the baptism.