Danielle Vujovic
Paris: Shift in Catholicism
During our time in Paris, we visited very many religious places. Some
were churches while others were museums. However, all in some way
challenged the Catholic faith when shifting towards a more secular age. You
could certainly see the ways in which all these places had to conform in order
to meet the need throughout society at the time. Some changes may have been
for the better while other changes may have been for the worse, but all shaped
society to be the way it is today. All places we visited, in one way or another,
helped to contribute to the modernity of the Catholic faith.
In Paris, we had the opportunity to visit Notre Dame, the Sacred Heart,
the Louvre museum, as well as the museum D’Orsay. We were also fortunate
enough to visit the Notre Dame de Chartres in the small village of Chartres. All
places were very spectacular to see and all had very unique features to each
and every one of them. Some of these features may have even been
controversial to the Catholic faith but ultimately that is what has helped the
religion to grow and develop over the years.
At the three churches, both Notre Dames and at Sacred Heart, something
very noticeable that each had in common was their verticality. All three
churches were built tall in order to become nearer to transcendence and closer
to God. All three were enormous on the outside and on the inside. I have never
seen churches as big as these before so it was very overwhelming to take it all
in at once. To make them even taller, Notre Dame de Chartres and Sacred
Heart were built on top of large hills. This could symbolize the fact that they
wanted religion to be the center of attention in their town and that is why they
built it on higher ground. These churches were built in the hopes of getting
more people to come and worship God. They hoped that it would attract more
people with their unique styles.
Both Notre Dame churches took on a Gothic style. Verticality was one of
the major themes of this gothic architecture as well as lighting. Notre Dame de
Paris is one of the most famous gothic churches in all of Europe. Gothic
churches are best known for having pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying
buttress, and at both Notre Dame churches they had all three of those pieces of
architecture. Coming away from the gothic style, the Sacred Heart church took
on more of a byzantine style. This byzantine style is one that was approved
through the culture of rites by the Catholic Church. It put an emphasis on
universality and it encompassed lots of faiths. Most of the surviving byzantine
architectures are sacred in nature, with secular buildings mostly known
through contemporaneous description. A good example of this is Sacred Heart
considering that you were not allowed to take pictures inside. In a byzantine
church they want to make sure that everyone that comes is dedicated to prayer
and to God and not to only to the beauty of the church itself. They wanted to
take away all distractions and make it easier for one to reach a place of
transcendence. Sacred Heart was by far one of my favorite churches because
not only was it beautiful but it was easy to find a connection with God. What
struck me most from inside this church was the beautiful mosaic on the
ceiling. It had a picture of Jesus opening his heart to everybody. However,
these people were not all of one sort; there were many different people of many
different backgrounds and ethnicities. At Sacred Heart, they wanted to show
how God loves all people and it doesn’t matter who you are or what you look
like or what religion you follow. Seeing this image made it easier to find
transcendence because it made you feel more welcomed and wanted. This idea
of God loving everybody for who they are could definitely be considered as part
of a shift in modernity. There was a shift from a time where only one religion
was accepted to a time where all people and all religions were accepted.
The two museums we visited in Paris were good examples of the shift
from a pre-modern time to a more modernized time. It was easy to recognize
this difference in D’Orsay because as we walked through and saw all the
artwork, you could kind of visualize how the times were changing with how the
artwork was progressing. When we first walked in and looked at all the
artwork, it had a more mystical and enchanted feel to it. The paintings were
religious drawings with lots of angels and Gods and Goddesses with wings and
such. This type of enchanted feel was accepted by many at the time, until
people started to become more humanistic and individualistic. This is the time
where art started changing. Impressionism started to take over and this style
was where artists drew whatever they wanted. This was typically a more
realistic or disenchanted style from what people are used to, so you could
believe that the beginning of impressionism was an aim for a lot of controversy.
With its rejection of established styles and incorporation of new ideas and
depiction of modern life, impressionism became the new push towards a more
modern art.
Another museum that we visited in Paris was the Louvre. At the Louvre,
the style of the artwork was more medieval. Many of the paintings depicted
transcendence with their elegance and enchanted style. There were many
paintings that involved God in one way or another. They also had extravagantly
rich colors with peaceful backgrounds. The one picture that really stood out to
me was the grandioso painting of ‘the wedding at Cana.’ The first thing that
stood out to me in this painting was the fact that Jesus, Mary, and some
Apostles were seated at the center of the table while the bride and groom were
off to the side. Jesus is the only individual who is actually making eye contact
with the observer, indicating that He is the most important person in this
piece. What was also very interesting was that there was a mix of contemporary
and antique art within the artwork itself. It had older architecture with people
who have transformed to a more modern and extravagant look. Also, the story
of water to wine, from the Gospel of John is thought to be depicted in this
piece. This wedding painting was drawn at the time where religion was very
predominant in society that is most likely why Jesus took center stage in it.
Overall, Paris was a very fabulous city with so much history behind it. It
is unbelievable to think how old some of the architecture is. It is even harder to
believe that we got the chance to be see the artifacts and places up close.
Seeing these places that were so old and dear to the history of France was
really something special. What else was awesome, was that we were able to
visualize and learn how the history went from a pre-modern state to become
more modern with the changing times and events. These events are what led
Paris as well as Catholicism to conform to the new secular age.