{"id":342920,"date":"2014-03-30T03:09:27","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T01:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/dialogue-on-art-beauty\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:12:11","slug":"dialogue-on-art-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/dialogue-on-art-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue on Art & Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Journalist and art critic Mario Dal Bello<\/strong> used an interesting approach to explain the major points of the Focolare Spirituality<\/a> and the thought of its founder, Chiara Lubich<\/a>. In his <\/span>Dialogue on Art & Beauty <\/em>he examines a series of European masterpieces to describe the ideal of unity, since \u201cthere is a very strong common link between this art and this spirituality,\u201d claims Dal Bello, \u201cand it wasn\u2019t by chance that while admiring Michelangelo\u2019s <\/span>Pieta, <\/em>Chiara Lubich prayed God to send artists into the world who were saints. Because what is sanctity if not the perfection of love, and transmission of the beauty of God who is Love<\/a>? \u201d The event was offered by the city of Udine in honour of Chiara Lubich in the 70<\/span>th<\/sup> year since her birth and the 6<\/span>th<\/sup> anniversary of her Heavenly birth. It was a reflection on her words: \u201cBeauty is harmony, and harmony is highest unity.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u201cMany seek to explain art, but that is an impossible feat,\u201d admitted Dal Bello who explains art for a living. \u201cIt is ineffable, like the Spirit. It draws us for no reason, like falling in love.\u201d Therefore Dal Bello began with a Christ by El Greco,<\/strong> \u201cfrom the gaze that one feels for a beloved with which one is bale to grasp the face of God.\u201d This is seeing God in the other and grasping the love there which is one of the key points of the spirituality of Chiara Lubich. And if the Good Shepherd, <\/em>indeed the \u201cbeautiful shepherd,\u201d as Dal Bello points out, \u201cloves his sheep, then we must also love our neighbour. And this was illustrated in the magnificent mosaic of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna. Here Christ is shown surrounded by the flock. He is Risen and clothed in light. He points to the jeweled cross he is holding, which is a symbol of the Resurrection.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em> By virtue of this mutual love Jesus is present<\/a> wherever two or more are gathered in his name. This is shown in Rembrandt\u2019s Supper at Emmaus, <\/em>in which \u201cJesus enters into our everyday life, to the point that the others don\u2019t even realize it, not even that he breaks the bread.\u201d And this is a presence that makes a change in the community; it makes a difference as can be seen in Raphael\u2019s Transfiguration<\/em>, in which there is a strong contrast between \u201cthe superior level, with Jesus, Moses and Elijah clothed in clear colours and an inferior level where the Apostles are left confused, where darkness prevails.\u201d \"\" To illustrate love for Jesus forsaken<\/a> on the Cross, which is another aspect of Chiara\u2019s spirituality, Dal Bello examines The Crucifixion <\/em>by Dali: \u201cChrist is seen from above. He seems to bend over humanity and draw everyone to himself. It is significant that we don\u2019t see his face: because we are all in his face.\u201d Another central figure <\/strong>emerges \u2013 but only to the eye of the expert \u2013 from the Final Judgment <\/em>by Michelangelo: \u201cIf you look carefully,\u201d Dal Bello points out, \u201cMary watches an angel who is raising the souls of the saved, with a Rosary. Mary<\/a> appears as the one who takes Christians to Heaven and, indeed, the Focolare Movement is also called the Work of Mary.\u201d Finally there is the Ghent altarpiece<\/em> by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, where the Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation with the entire Church gathered around it, is represented by a contemporary city. This recalls the commitment that focolares are called to bring to the local communities in which they live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art critic Mario Dal Bello examines the spirituality of unity, through several masterpieces of European art in Udine, Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}