The Eye of the Beholder

 

‘I know what I like, and I like what I know…’

(from ‘I know what I like (In your wardrobe)’ by Genesis, from the album ‘Selling England by the Pound’, 1973)

 

 

Much has been said about Donald Trump’s decorative additions to the White House. Not much of what has  been said is complimentary! The gold leaf applied to so many features, and the numerous gold ornaments, and so on, are certainly not to my taste. Compared with what I thought was the noble grandeur and classical grace of the unadorned White House interior, I (along with many others, including Barak Obama) consider the new decorations to be tacky and tawdry, cheap and crass.

But perhaps it is just a question of taste?

I recall that much of classical Greek architecture, such as the Parthenon in Athens – now  a noble and grand ruin, starkly white – was originally brightly coloured and much adorned. Perhaps stark simplicity is simply my (our?) taste, and what to our eyes seems gaudy and over the top is actually beautiful in the eyes of some beholders (and certainly seems to have been considered beautiful in times past).

All of which thoughts arise out of my recent visit to the beautiful and wonderful city of Prague and – in particular – to the Church of St Nicholas in that city which is regarded as one of the best examples of Baroque church architecture.

I do not much care for Baroque architecture in general. But in churches it feels to me to be particularly inappropriate. All that richness, and decoration, and visual ‘busyness’ – is that really what we want to be portraying about Christianity?

But, it was as I was sitting in the Church of St Nicholas in Prague (which, it should be noted, had a somewhat unexpected but welcome atmosphere of peace, prayerfulness, and ‘presence’) that I began to challenge my preconceptions and prejudices.

Is it simply a matter of taste and experience? ‘I know what I like’ is often really a case of simply ‘I like what I know’!           `

As a Scottish Presbyterian, I am more used to simple churches with somewhat starker decoration. Instinctively, that seems more fitting to me, and more in keeping with my understanding of Christian faith, and the person of Jesus.

That said, I do like church architecture, and stained glass, and beauty in sanctuaries (I was for several happy years the Minister of St Cuthbert’s in Edinburgh, after all!). And I totally get that for most of Christian history, most of the worshippers were illiterate, and – until the arrival of the  printing press – few of those who could read had access to copies of Scripture, and so folks relied on other senses (sight, sound, smell, as well as sermons) to ‘tell the story’.

But that in itself raises the question of just what story is being told by the rich and (to my eyes) gaudy adornments of Baroque church architecture?

These musings were reawakened a few days later when I was reading in the Book of Revelation. John’s vision of heaven is really quite something! Jasper, carnelian, an emerald rainbow, golden crowns, white robes, a sea of crystal, not to mention incense, and altars, and weird beasts, and horsemen on horses of various colours, and angels, and elders and….!!!

And that all took me back to the Baroque interior of the Church of St Nicholas in Prague. And I found myself wondering if the intention of the architect was to convey something of the majesty and richness of the heavenly realms; to display the glory of God; to lift the eyes and the spirits of the worshippers above the difficulty and drudge of this world, and the privations and pains of this life, to see that greater and glorious reality that lies behind the veil.

Perhaps.

And perhaps our familiar, simple Scottish Kirks, which feel comfortable and fitting to me, fail to convey something of the glory of heaven.

And perhaps it all exposes my own preferences and prejudices.

And perhaps I am guilty of liking what I know (ie – that with which I feel comfortable and familiar)

And perhaps beauty is simply in the eye of the beholder?

Perhaps.

But I still don’t much like Donald Trump’s gold adorned White House!