So I may have mentioned in one of my previous Kathe Kollwitz posts that I am starting my printmaking block in the studio. I’m doing lithography which I am really excited about as it is one of the mediums used by Kathe Kollwitz. The reason this is relevant to my lecture blog is that I was inspired by something I saw in my image lecture.
So we have to create imagery for our printing next week with a starting point of a random number, my number being 5. I googled the number five and began investigating many five related things. The one that connected to my lecture and that got me the most excited was the fact that members of the rosaceae family or the rose family all have five sepals and five petals (though cultivated roses can have many petals they retain their five sepals). The rose family is not just roses, it also includes apples, strawberries, plums and almonds. Now as I was investigating the shape of sepals and petals, I found myself at first thinking of Freud’s idea that eyes symbolises the vagina. The sepals have an oval shape thus this connection arose. But I was also reminded of another use of this oval shape from my image lecture two weeks ago. Where we were shown the art of the Dark ages. In many examples of Dark ages Christian imagery a form called a mandorla or a vesica piscis came up. A mandorla is a form of whole body halo or aureole in which Christ and the Virgin Mary are portrayed. The oval shape is created by the intersecting of two circles, symbolising among other things Heaven and Earth and it is often associated with rebirth, resurrection and the Ascension. Now the reason this fitted in so nicely with my floral, female idea was that mandorla is the Italian word for almond, the almond is part of the rose family. The almond has connotations of holding something precious making me think of wombs and the Virgin Mary. Further still the mandorla/ almond shape is viewed by many to be symbolic of the vulva and also a fertilised uterus. This goes back to the fruit and flowers which symbolise fertility and female reproductive organs. If found this whole research very exciting and interesting, mostly because everything seems to link in and reflect each other. Everything just fell into place. So far so good. I really enjoyed the lecture on medieval art as it is a very interesting and dynamic period in history.
I love the interconnecting symbols in religious and non – religious art. For example the mandorla not only exists in Christian art but also in Buddhist and Hindu art. Much like the mandala the mandorla could be argued as a universal spiritual symbol. The mandala is more common in eastern religions and in meditative practice. It is a joint symbol of the universe and the soul. But is also present in Christian imagery as the points of a cross can be smoothly joined by a circle. Which is the core of the mandala, which is a collection of concentric circles. I find it really interesting that simple shapes such as oval and circles have such a resonance with religion and spirituality. Even before I knew what I mandala was I was attracted to circular forms in art, as I found the shape and composition both calming and pleasing. This made sense when discovered mandalas and their significance. The image is a close up of one of my sketches for my printmaking project.
Here is a link to an interesting mandorla related post on the website the Theosophical: http://www.theosophical.org/publications/1348 accessed 23.10.2013.
robynglendinning 