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Pope Francis Interview: What His Taste in Art Says About Him



Although the Holy Father’s rather limited comments on sexuality in his recent interview got the most media play, as an Art Historian I found his discussion of Art, and the artists he likes, completely fascinating. First of all, the Pope mentions Caravaggio several times. Caravaggio was the Italian Baroque master most famous for his dramatic use of chiaroscuro. Not surprisingly then, Francis also talked about his love of films; because the Baroque and motion pictures have much in common. Both are big and grandiose, loud and flashy, but also capable of reaching into the complete subtlety of the intimate and the personal. The Baroque period came after the turmoil of the Protestant schism. In the Counter-Reformation, the Church was returning to the basics. But, it was also the time of great mysticism. The Baroque mirrored this duel emphasis upon the tangible relevance of the Church and the mystical exuberance of saintly visions. Similarly, films reached an apogee of creativity and experimentation in the age of Technicolor and CinemaScope, when television drew movie-goers away at record numbers. Art was becoming a small-scale experience, only seen in a tiny corner of the home. As art retreated, films just got bigger; mostly notably with the 1950s craze for 3-D. This all reached a triumphant apex with the mesmerizing and swirling power of the famous biblical epics: “The Ten Commandments,” “The Robe,” and “Ben-Hur.” I compare these movies to the incredibly painted ceilings, scene all over Rome, created during the Baroque period, that literally lift the gaped-mouth viewer upward into an ecstatic trip of zero-gravity. With the age of the internet and Youtube, experience has again become peculiarly small; often relegated to the mere inches of a hand-held device. In this atmosphere, Francis marks a return to the Baroque. As British novelist turned-Catholic Evelyn Waugh wrote, his spiritual awakening began with a “conversion to the Baroque.” Like Waugh, Francis is not merely an intellectual, but a person of intense fervidness and open to making daring statements. He stirs the mind and the emotions. He makes us think. He takes us out of the humdrum and complacency associated with everyday technological existence. I think he is offering a wider-view, to a world locked into an imaginary reality, that isn’t afraid to incorporate the panoramic.            





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