Op-Ed: Is smearing food on the ‘Mona Lisa’ a productive form of climate change protest?
How is it that a painting of the Virgin Mary can make one feel like a target for hate speech when there is no one on the planet today who doesn’t have a different opinion than yours on anything?
If you are a Christian, you may have your own answer for that—and, if you are a believer, you probably have a list of reasons why you are right and others are wrong (and why your list outweighs theirs, no matter how many people make that list).
As Christians, we look at what the Church has said on a given topic and we are confident that whatever the Church says is absolutely right. But, if you believe another point of view, there is no solid proof that it is the truth.
For that reason, it can be a difficult thing to consider the topic of the Mona Lisa as part of that debate. I wanted to look at a different way to approach the topic. I wanted to look at what we can learn from painting the Mona Lisa a different way. Instead of trying to disprove or disprove again that the Mona Lisa is the same as the world’s greatest painting of the Virgin Mary, I want to consider the painting itself in its own context.
I want to examine each of the painting’s four corners. To see if a painting in one corner, or even two of its corners, can be used to disprove the painting as a whole.
I have already spoken at length about what paintings are, and I have mentioned that the purpose of art is to be understood, not to be understood, or perhaps even to be understood to its absolutemost limit. So, what has the Mona Lisa been used for?
The first two sides down are her feet. The painting has been used to show the beauty and power of nature.
The feet of a woman are powerful and beautiful. She can crush men with her feet, and she can crush the world with them.
The artist was trying to show the female beauty of Christ. But, you can’t have it both ways. Christ is both a powerful God and a vulnerable human being.
By placing the feet of the painting on the ground, the artist is