Relic

Pardon His Hypocrisy: The Pardoner and the Nature of Evil The Pardoner is certainly a character who requires extensive interpretation in order to understand his actions and justify his tale. He serves as a complete antithesis to what the holy road of the pilgrimage symbolizes, selling fake religious relics for personal profit while still preaching “Radix malorum est Cupiditas” (Pardoner’s Prologue 334). Blatant hypocrisy combined with despicable character makes the Pardoner seem like the lowest of the low when compared to the circle of Dante’s Inferno in which the ninth circle is reserved for people like the Pardoner. By practicing what he preaches against as a holy figure, the Pardoner establishes himself as an evil character. However, his evil character is challenged by his upfront honesty and the idea of the Pardoner as a tester of faith. By inviting the pilgrims to kiss his relics even after they know the truth about the falsified nature of them, the Pardoner is performing both an evil and holy task, challenging the notion of him being ultimately evil. In terms of how the Pardoner defines evil, he states that “[his] theme is alwey oon, and evere was—/Radix malorum est Cupiditas,” affirming that greed is…

In this technique, you first would engrave the design on the soft copper of the pre-reliquary chasse depicting the life of the saint whose relic was suppose to be contained within it along with other symbols that were associated to the saint. Engraving out the copper to construct the design would enable the metal worker to add the enamel into the carved out spots to produce the brightly colored designs. Enamel was powdered glass that came in different colors. In order to add the enamel onto the…

Reliquaries are the containers that store and display relics. Since the relics themselves were considered to be valuable spiritual objects it is appropriate that they be enshrined in vessels, or reliquaries, crafted of or covered by gold, silver, ivory, gems, and enamel. These precious objects constituted a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the middle Ages. Reliquaries were also fashioned into full-body statues; the distinction between the meaning of an…

There are several different types of relics in the Catholic world. The first type is a body part of a saint, like a bone, and instruments of the Passion of Christ. The second type are object s owned or touched by a saint; and the third type are objects that have come in contact with relics, and through the close proximity, have gained holiness. Since relics of God himself are unavailable, the churches utilize the cult of the saints as a way to legitimize their power in the Catholic world.…

everything more holy. This idea caught on and soon Rome, Venice, Constantinople, and many other cities started collecting the bones of the saints and relics. And it was the elite, especially the bishops, who were doing all of this. The bishops would start to gift relics and the like to bishops in other cities. The “vulgar” had almost nothing to do with this. One of the reasons they collected all these relics is the link between heaven and earth, but also because they were like themselves. On a…

Relics, crusades and people Relics obtained in the crusades became a significant part of pilgrimage, in fact the church adapted a larger apes for better storage. Relics such as the crown of thorns justify Jesus (the son of god) and his word because many people where poor they went on crusades for relics, land, wealth, and the word of god. I intend to argue and utilize artifacts obtained in the crusades. The majority of images will come from Art History fifth edition by Maryn Stostand and as…

A Childhood Relic It is the October of 2009. My feet hit the smooth, cool wooden floorboards as I rush out the door. I am filled with vitality as I take in a deep breath of fresh air. It is a late autumn afternoon; the orange leaves are falling gently from above. The clouds dominate the sky, shrouding any sign of blue from my sight. I quickly make my way to the backyard where my bike rests. The leather seat and rubber handlebars are speckled with yesterday’s rain. As I walk up to the sleek,…

The Real Relic Project obtained new financial backing after the successful interview I had with the three founding Jesuits. Other Real Relic Project operators began venturing back in time after my guinea pig run in 1560’s Rome. Much of the tweaks and mishaps have been fixed by the engineering team. One instance was the accidental blending of past and present when a cannon ball blasted a hole through the machine room’s wall during an experimental operation we were doing. The new commercial and…

The straight and curved lines appear “to work together to create an image of the wholeness and unity of creation” (Sayre 71). This painting has the creation of the universe as its theme. It characterizes a Chinese prostitute surrounded by representations of China like “pi” and the butterfly. In front of the prostitute, in the middle of the painting, is a red square is the characters symbolizing “female” and “Nu-Wa.” Nu-Wa was the Chinese divine creator. It is said to believe that Nu-Wa was the…

One of the most interesting points of Lowenthal’s reading, as I found, is that he made every effort to elucidate the fact that the past could never be accurately re-enacted. It is a constructed vision based on our memory, history, and relics. “Memory, history, and relics continually furnish our awareness of the past….and the ultimate uncertainty of the past makes us all the more anxious to validate that things were reputed.” A very significant method to connect these dots is the construction of…