Blasphemy

& the cultural shift towards the absolute past

Sometime in the 18th century, historical paintings became rooted firmly in the past. Gone were depictions of biblical figures wearing contemporary clothing. Instead, a sense of nostalgia and reverence for a distant past became the norm in biblical imagery. With the "Age of Reason" and the Enlightenment focusing on material science rather than the absolutism of unquestioned faith, the metaphorical distance between biblical times and the modern era grew. The predominant sensibility of the industrialized world is a product of this. Were we to see depictions of the holy family in jeans or business suits, some might cry blasphemy, whereas an analogous situation with Lippi's Madonna and child wearing richly contemporary dress was the 15th Century norm.

Each of these modern works seeks to use the iconic image of suffering in the Pietà within a modern context. Though not all the works shown have an explicit political context, each has raised controversy because of its anachronistic juxtapositions of time and space.

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