Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Art and Beauty Tuesday--Gustave Courbet


Gustave Courbet's A Family of Deer in a Landscape with a Waterfall illustrates what water often means in art and poetry--life. Water is essential to life. Without it, we would cease to exist.

From the top to the bottom of this piece, life just bursts out. We see a bit of sky with white clouds, which are immediately taken over by the tops of green trees. Our eyes travel down and we begin to see the top of the miraculous waterfall which spills down to the deer family enjoying the bounty it brings. In the foreground, the water sparkles in the sunlight.

This is a kind of Eden, a life-giving oasis, of the kind that exist in the dessert. When it they are real and not a mirage, they are a precious gift of God.

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Dymphna's favorite quotes


"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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