Pictures of religious scenes are often massively anachronistic. Just think of all the medieval representations of the Annunciation ,Visitation, Nativity etc. which take place in Italian scenery with characters wearing typical clothes of whatever the period was in which the works of art were created.
Over the last few weeks there will have been massive numbers of dressed dolls representing the Nativity .It will generally have been a custom to represent the Virgin Mary wearing a blue robe, whereas Joseph often has a brown cloak and the baby Jesus will wear white garments. Almost every Catholic church in the world will have such a scene and many other Christian churches also. Some of these scenes/tableaux will feature figures wearing garments of cloth. They will vary in size from huge to tiny and most people accept them as attempts to convey in human form a message which somehow relates to the divine.
When I think of the Infant of Prague and his' liturgically correct' garments I often think of the statue in Brussels of the 'mannekin pis' (it's a statue of a small boy doing a pee into a fountain), which is not religious but certainly a popular tourist attraction in Brussels. He, just like the Infant of Prague, has lots of sets of clothes which he changes most days and which have been offered to him by many organisations and states.
I think context plays into all of this, of course. People are used to Nativity scenes with clothed figurines. I bring one down from the attic every Advent that my late wife made with her sister and parents when she was a girl.
What people are less used to seeing, unless they are RCs on the Iberian Peninsula or tourists there, are life-size or larger 'dolls' wearing clothes of some kind.
These can be quite disconcerting in the way that a Flemish Renaissance landscape or altar piece aren't.
Sure, it's a 'cultural' reaction. My cousin who lives in Spain and is married to a Spaniard acceots these figures as 'normal' now and doesn't turn a hair. When she first lived there they freaked her out.
I don't think Protestant fundies would regard any of that imagery as 'biblically derived.'
I'm not sure I would either, come to that ...
Well, probably not a fundamentalist with a strong understanding of his own faith's theology, no. But I was thinking more someone from the culture, doesn't like icons for the usual reasons, but would still recognize the images portrayed as biblical.
Comments
Over the last few weeks there will have been massive numbers of dressed dolls representing the Nativity .It will generally have been a custom to represent the Virgin Mary wearing a blue robe, whereas Joseph often has a brown cloak and the baby Jesus will wear white garments. Almost every Catholic church in the world will have such a scene and many other Christian churches also. Some of these scenes/tableaux will feature figures wearing garments of cloth. They will vary in size from huge to tiny and most people accept them as attempts to convey in human form a message which somehow relates to the divine.
When I think of the Infant of Prague and his' liturgically correct' garments I often think of the statue in Brussels of the 'mannekin pis' (it's a statue of a small boy doing a pee into a fountain), which is not religious but certainly a popular tourist attraction in Brussels. He, just like the Infant of Prague, has lots of sets of clothes which he changes most days and which have been offered to him by many organisations and states.
What people are less used to seeing, unless they are RCs on the Iberian Peninsula or tourists there, are life-size or larger 'dolls' wearing clothes of some kind.
These can be quite disconcerting in the way that a Flemish Renaissance landscape or altar piece aren't.
Sure, it's a 'cultural' reaction. My cousin who lives in Spain and is married to a Spaniard acceots these figures as 'normal' now and doesn't turn a hair. When she first lived there they freaked her out.
Well, probably not a fundamentalist with a strong understanding of his own faith's theology, no. But I was thinking more someone from the culture, doesn't like icons for the usual reasons, but would still recognize the images portrayed as biblical.