Post by Melifeather on Jan 23, 2017 5:17:02 GMT
My daughter got me started watching The Young Pope on HBO. In a nutshell it's appealingly weird. It combines religion with mystery, awe, horror, and the nature of evil. Jude Law plays the main character, Lenny Belardo, newly elected Pope Pius XIII. He's young and handsome on the outside, but an old militantly conservative man, perhaps even outright medieval, on the inside. He drinks Cherry Coke Zero, smokes like a chimney, and is pop-culture literate. His plan is to restore authority to the church by serving up fear and mystery to the masses. This "saintly" man is a monster.
As a young boy he was abandoned by his parents to a Catholic orphanage. His spiritual mother is Sister Mary, played by Diane Keaton, and he keeps her close even as Pope by making her his chief of staff. After graduating high school he took one week "off" and then went straight into seminary school where he was mentored by a conservative man that later becomes Cardinal Spencer. Spencer was the most experienced Cardinal up for consideration for pope, but when the Cardinals voted they ended up choosing Belardo instead. The thinking was Spencer was too conservative, and the other main candidate was too liberal, so the thinking was that Belardo would be somewhere in the middle...but they were wrong.
The opening credits has a bit of a mystery that would be fun to decipher. It has Jude Law/Pope Pius XIII walking a hallway with ten paintings. There is a comet/meteor falling through the paintings as he walks culminating in hitting Pope John Paul II in the last painting. Here is the list of ten paintings:
1. Gerard van Honthorst, The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Adoration of the Shepherds is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. In painting it is often combined with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. This painting was destroyed in 1993 by Italian Mafia in Via dei Georgofili bombing.
2. Pietro Perugino, Delivery of the Keys
The scene, part of the series of the Stories of Jesus on the chapel’s northern wall, is a reference to Matthew 16 in which the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” are given to Saint Peter. These keys represent the power to forgive and to share the word of God thereby giving them the power to allow others into heaven.
3. Caravaggio, Conversion on the Way to Damascus
This painting depicts the moment recounted in Chapter 9 of Acts of the Apostles when Saul, soon to become the apostle Paul, fell down on the road to Damascus. He heard the Lord say “I am Jesus, whom you persecute, arise and go into the city”. Tge scene shows the very moment Paul is overcome with the spirit of Jesus Christ and has been flung off of his horse.
4. The Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the nature of the Son of God and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Creed of Nicaea, establishing uniform observance of the date of Easter, and promulgation of early canon law.
5. Francisco Hayez, Peter the Hermit riding a white mule with a crucifix in his hand and circulating through the cities and villages preaching the Crusade
Peter the Hermit was a priest of Amiens and a key figure during the First Crusade. The legend say that Peter the Hermit was the true author and originator of the First Crusade, although later Catholic historians disagreed with it. Everything happened because during an early visit to Jerusalem some time before 1096, Jesus appeared to Peter the Hermit and bade him preach the crusade among the paupers.
6. Gentile da Fabriano, St. Francis Receiving Stigmata
Here, St. Francis is receiving the stigmata of Christ, whom he sees in the form of a seraph (yes, this is how seraphs looked like in Middle Ages and at the beginning of Renaissance) while praying on Mount Alverno. That’s a classic manner of representation of St. Francis – first time presented this way by Giotto around 1300.
7. Mateo Cerezo, St. Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms
St. Thomas of Villanova was a Spanish friar of the Order of Saint Augustine who was a noted preacher, ascetic and religious writer of his day. He became an archbishop who was famous for the extent of his care for the poor of his see.
8. Domenico Cresti, Michelangelo Presenting the Model for the Completion of St Peter’s to Pope Pius IV
St. Peter’s Basilica as we know it now wasn’t always like this. The first building of the Basilica stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries and it built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero. By the 15th century the church was falling into ruin, so it had to be demolished. Pope Julius II was the pope who decided to rebuild it yet his plans were so costly and lavish, that they inspired Martin Luther to reform the Church.
9. François Dubois, The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted series of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place five days after the wedding of the king’s sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France). This marriage was an occasion for which many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.
10. Maurizio Cattelan, The 9th Hour
The Ninth Hour represents Pope John Paul II lying on the ground after being stuck by a meteorite. The title of the work alludes to the moment when Christ cries out : “Why have you forsaken me ? ” and dies on the cross. This installation can also evoke other interpretations: perhaps Cattelan, a Roman Catholic, suggests the degradation of the Church as a result of scandals and quickly changing social values. Because the meteor has apparently fallen from the sky – literally from the heavens – it may interpreted be that God himself has assaulted the Church. As the Pope survives and clings to the Papal Cross, perhaps he represents the Church’s eternal fortitude. Oppositely, we may conclude that he is only a man and should not be venerated.
As a young boy he was abandoned by his parents to a Catholic orphanage. His spiritual mother is Sister Mary, played by Diane Keaton, and he keeps her close even as Pope by making her his chief of staff. After graduating high school he took one week "off" and then went straight into seminary school where he was mentored by a conservative man that later becomes Cardinal Spencer. Spencer was the most experienced Cardinal up for consideration for pope, but when the Cardinals voted they ended up choosing Belardo instead. The thinking was Spencer was too conservative, and the other main candidate was too liberal, so the thinking was that Belardo would be somewhere in the middle...but they were wrong.
The opening credits has a bit of a mystery that would be fun to decipher. It has Jude Law/Pope Pius XIII walking a hallway with ten paintings. There is a comet/meteor falling through the paintings as he walks culminating in hitting Pope John Paul II in the last painting. Here is the list of ten paintings:
1. Gerard van Honthorst, The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Adoration of the Shepherds is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. In painting it is often combined with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. This painting was destroyed in 1993 by Italian Mafia in Via dei Georgofili bombing.
2. Pietro Perugino, Delivery of the Keys
The scene, part of the series of the Stories of Jesus on the chapel’s northern wall, is a reference to Matthew 16 in which the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” are given to Saint Peter. These keys represent the power to forgive and to share the word of God thereby giving them the power to allow others into heaven.
3. Caravaggio, Conversion on the Way to Damascus
This painting depicts the moment recounted in Chapter 9 of Acts of the Apostles when Saul, soon to become the apostle Paul, fell down on the road to Damascus. He heard the Lord say “I am Jesus, whom you persecute, arise and go into the city”. Tge scene shows the very moment Paul is overcome with the spirit of Jesus Christ and has been flung off of his horse.
4. The Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the nature of the Son of God and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Creed of Nicaea, establishing uniform observance of the date of Easter, and promulgation of early canon law.
5. Francisco Hayez, Peter the Hermit riding a white mule with a crucifix in his hand and circulating through the cities and villages preaching the Crusade
Peter the Hermit was a priest of Amiens and a key figure during the First Crusade. The legend say that Peter the Hermit was the true author and originator of the First Crusade, although later Catholic historians disagreed with it. Everything happened because during an early visit to Jerusalem some time before 1096, Jesus appeared to Peter the Hermit and bade him preach the crusade among the paupers.
6. Gentile da Fabriano, St. Francis Receiving Stigmata
Here, St. Francis is receiving the stigmata of Christ, whom he sees in the form of a seraph (yes, this is how seraphs looked like in Middle Ages and at the beginning of Renaissance) while praying on Mount Alverno. That’s a classic manner of representation of St. Francis – first time presented this way by Giotto around 1300.
7. Mateo Cerezo, St. Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms
St. Thomas of Villanova was a Spanish friar of the Order of Saint Augustine who was a noted preacher, ascetic and religious writer of his day. He became an archbishop who was famous for the extent of his care for the poor of his see.
8. Domenico Cresti, Michelangelo Presenting the Model for the Completion of St Peter’s to Pope Pius IV
St. Peter’s Basilica as we know it now wasn’t always like this. The first building of the Basilica stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries and it built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero. By the 15th century the church was falling into ruin, so it had to be demolished. Pope Julius II was the pope who decided to rebuild it yet his plans were so costly and lavish, that they inspired Martin Luther to reform the Church.
9. François Dubois, The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted series of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place five days after the wedding of the king’s sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France). This marriage was an occasion for which many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.
10. Maurizio Cattelan, The 9th Hour
The Ninth Hour represents Pope John Paul II lying on the ground after being stuck by a meteorite. The title of the work alludes to the moment when Christ cries out : “Why have you forsaken me ? ” and dies on the cross. This installation can also evoke other interpretations: perhaps Cattelan, a Roman Catholic, suggests the degradation of the Church as a result of scandals and quickly changing social values. Because the meteor has apparently fallen from the sky – literally from the heavens – it may interpreted be that God himself has assaulted the Church. As the Pope survives and clings to the Papal Cross, perhaps he represents the Church’s eternal fortitude. Oppositely, we may conclude that he is only a man and should not be venerated.