Crucifixion Art No Longer Commands Auction Prices

Paintings and sculptures of what may be the most iconic scene in the history of art — the crucifixion of Jesus — are no longer commanding the auction prices they once did.

While it’s common for individual works to occasionally sell for less than they are worth, consider:

• In January, a late 14th-century Florentine painting of Jesus on the cross estimated between $80,000 and $120,000 sold at Sotheby’s for $86,500.
• An Italian Crucifixion from the same period, estimated between $100,000 and $150,000, sold for $110,500 at the same auction.
• The previous December, Sotheby’s London sold a mid-16th century Netherlandish Crucifixion sculpture estimated at $31,500 to $47,000 for about $27,500.

Even images of Crucifixions by established masters can be purchased on the cheap, said Joaneath Spicer, curator of Renaissance and baroque art at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Spicer hasn’t purchased Crucifixions for the museum in some time.

In part, she said, Christian art has become the victim of its own success.

“If I want more Crucifixion bronzes, there are some in storage that are quite nice,” she said.

But there are other cultural factors that may be contributing to the declining sales prices. One of them may be changing worship styles that rely more on words and music and less on visual images. A bigger one may be an unwillingness to openly and publicly display one’s religious commitments…

The Huffington Post has the rest.

 

Catholics and Lutherans to Mark Reformation Split Together

500 years on…

Senior Roman Catholic and  Lutheran officials announced on Monday they would mark the 500th  anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 as a shared event rather than highlight the clash that split Western Christianity.

The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) presented a report in Geneva admitting both were guilty of  harming Christian unity in the past and describing a growing consensus between the two churches in recent decades.

The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, the doctrinal challenge that launched the Protestant Reformation,  will be the first centenary celebration in the age of ecumenism, globalisation and the secularisation of Western societies.

“The awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that  the struggle of the 16th century is over,” the report said. “The  reasons for mutually condemning each other’s faith have fallen  by the wayside.”

They now agree belief in Jesus unites them despite lingering  differences, it said, and inspires them to cooperate more closely to proclaim the Gospel in increasingly pluralistic societies.

“This is a very important step in a healing process which we  all need and we are all praying for,” LWF General Secretary  Martin Junge said at the report’s presentation in Geneva.

“The division of the church is something we cannot celebrate  but we can see what is positive and try to find ways towards the  future together,” said Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican’s  department to promote Christian unity.

Rest here as common ground is sought.

 

Egypt to Tourists: Don’t Come Here

On November 17th, 1997, the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya terrorist group massacred 62 men, women, and children–4 of them Egyptians and rest foreign tourists–at the famous Deir el-Bahari ruins in the culturally rich city of Luxor, one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

This week, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi named Al-Gama’a member Adel Asaad al-Khayyat as the new governor of Luxor.

The group allegedly renounced terror in 1997. Before the attack on Luxor.

They renounced it again in 2003, and are now part of the grand rainbow coalition of insane radical Muslims…

Oh, and one more thing: Al-Gama’a still hates tourists…

Read the rest of this fair warning over at God and the Machine.

 

Muslim Cleric Given a Suspended Sentenced for Burning Bible

In the Huffington Post:

A hard-line Muslim cleric received an 11-year suspended sentence Sunday for tearing up and burning a Bible, Egypt’s official news agency said.

Cairo’s Nasr City court sentenced Ahmed Abdullah and his son was given a suspended sentence of eight years over the same incident, the Middle East News Agency reported. The two were ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($700). The ruling can be appealed.

Abdullah ripped up a Bible and burned it during a Sept. 11 rally by ultraconservative Salafi Muslims in front of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, protesting an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

It was a rare prosecution over attacks on faiths other than Islam. Over the past two years, attacks by extremist Muslims against followers of other religions, mostly Christians, have been on the increase.

According to Egyptian law, showing contempt toward Christianity, Islam and Judaism known as “heavenly” religions is a crime. Lawyers and rights groups complain the definition of contempt of religion is vague and has been used most often against critics of Islam.

Blasphemy charges were not uncommon in Egypt under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, but there has been a surge in such cases in recent months. The trend is widely seen as a reflection of the growing power and confidence of Islamists, after election victories by the Muslim Brotherhood and strong showings by the Salafis, who practice a form of the religion as they believe it existed around the seventh century.

Writers, activists and a television comedian have recently been charged with blasphemy, but Christians seem to be the favorite target of Islamist prosecutors. Abdullah’s case brought a rare sentence against a Muslim cleric.

In one of the most recent cases, a Coptic teacher was sentenced to pay a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,000) for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad while teaching.

Abdullah, also known as Abu Islam, has become known for hate speech against Coptic Christians in his preaching. Last year, he launched new Islamic TV channel that is run primarily by women covered from head to toe with only their eyes showing. He is a frequent guest on other TV channels.

 

An App for Archaeological Sites in Israel

Using advanced augmented reality technology, Architip lets users visualize ancient sites in their original form.

This is fantastic! Times of Israel reports:

Visitors to Israel’s many archaeological sites are often told to come equipped with a camera, and an imagination. The camera is to take photos of themselves and their companions at these famous sites — and the imagination is supposed to help them visualize what many of the faded, ancient, and time-worn places looked like during their heyday.

There are loads of aids to help prompt those imaginations, from guidebooks to audio recordings to professional guides. But Architip, a new app created by a team of image and archaeology professionals, takes a decidedly high-tech approach to the issue. Using augmented reality (AR) technology, the app lets users see what sites actually looked like long ago, bringing to virtual life a view of the ancient world.

Augmented reality is a technology that uses mathematics, models, location services, camera technology, and advanced algorithms to impose a virtual image that melds into a real-life one. “For example, you might look at an ancient mosaic on the floor of a synagogue or church, and barely see the decorations on it because of the fading,” said Yaron Benevisti, CEO of Architip, which is located in Jerusalem and has been operating for about six months. “With Architip, you would see the mosaic in full color, with all its drawings intact.”

Because each site needs to be mapped and augmented separately, Architip is being marketed as a “white label” engine, which will be used at specific sites. As a pilot, the Architip R&D team, led by Israeli AR and computer vision pioneer Sagiv Philipp, has mapped and “virtualized” the Tel Lachish archaeological site in central Israel. Tel Lachish was a fortified city surrounded by towers, and had many stately buildings, but looking at the site today, it’s hard to visualize the city as it was. With Architip, users can see the site in all its ancient glory just by holding up their smartphone’s camera at the location and looking at the screen.

“With Architip, you can see Tel Lachish as it was,” Benevisti said, “walking through its streets and seeing the reconstruction through your device.” All a user has to do is point their device at a specific point, and Archtip’s technology does the rest.

AR technology, of course, has a million and one uses, and the engine developed by the team does as well. But Benevisti has a soft spot for archaeology — one of the reasons he convinced the team to gear their first commercial application to it. “Archaeology is my passion,” said Benevisti. “We wanted to help bridge the ‘imagination gap,’ between what you see and what’s behind the plain view. People want to experience more, and our technology is perfect for that.”

Archaeology — applied to sites that attract tourists — is also the basis of Architip’s business model. “Sites will want to use our technology to enhance the visitor experience. They can offer the download for a few dollars, or make it a part of the admission package, and give every visitor the experience of having a personal guide.” Adding voice to the app would also be possible, he said, so the Architip app could be used as a substitute for real-life tour guides.

Philipp has been working in the AR area for a decade, and on Architip’s technology, but the company started marketing the app only late last year. The company, so far self-funded, recently got its first customer, a tourist site in Jerusalem —  Benevisti declined to identify the site – and the app will be available in the summer…

HT

 

Byzantine-era Church Unearthed in Gerasa (Jerash) Jordan

Gerasa was one of the cities of the Roman Decapolis. Ammon News reports:

 

Looting of archaeological sites in Jordan is a widespread problem, yet this time it has brought to light the mosaic floor of a previously undiscovered Byzantine-era church near the Roman city of Jerash.

“Underneath about a metre of soil, the mosaic floor of Kanisat Qirmerl was almost perfectly preserved,” Jacques Seigne, director of the French Archaeological Mission at Jerash, told The Jordan Times.

The floor, around five by seven metres in size, is in full colour and depicts an unusual scene of men climbing up trees to hide from bears and lions.

According to the inscription, which mentions the patron and mosaicist of the floor, the mosaics date back to AD 589-590.

The remains were found outside the ancient city of Jerash, located around 40km north of Amman, on private property, Seigne said.

Jerash, known as Gerasa during the Greco-Roman period, reached its greatest size in the 6th century AD as part of the Byzantine Empire.

The Department of Antiquities (DoA), under the leadership of its Jerash director, Rafe Harahshah, has just concluded a 45-day rescue operation to uncover and secure the site with the help of Seigne and his team.

“Looters were digging in the night and discovered the mosaics by chance,” Harahshah and his colleague Ali Al Owaisi told The Jordan Times…

Rest here.

 

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Meet

For the first time:

Pope Francis met the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, for the first time this morning.

In an address after the meeting the Pope said Catholics and Anglicans should work together to challenge secular society, especially on subjects such as “the sacredness of human life or the importance of the institution of the family built on marriage”.

He also stressed the importance of calling for an “economic system that is at the service of man” and of “giving a voice to the cry of the poor”.

Both leaders remarked on the coincidence of their March installations. Francis celebrated his inaugural Mass on March 19 two days before Justin Welby was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Before the meeting Archbishop Welby and his wife, Caroline, were expected to visit the tomb of St Peter beneath St Peter’s Basilica before stopping to pray at the tomb of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

You can read the complete translation Pope Francis discourse at the meeting, followed by the complete text of Archbishop Welby’s address over at Vatican Radio here.

Both are very diplomatic.

Naturally, Pope Francis would have had to touch on the raw nerve:

I am grateful, too, for the sincere efforts the Church of England has made to understand the reasons that led my Predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to provide a canonical structure able to respond to the wishes of those groups of Anglicans who have asked to be received collectively into the Catholic Church: I am sure this will enable the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral traditions that form the Anglican patrimony to be better known and appreciated in the Catholic world.

The BBC also reports on the meeting, as does the Guardian.

 

Virtue on Hepworth Latest

Virtue Online:

Australian Roman Catholic Monsignor Ian Dempsey was cleared of all charges relating to accusations of homosexual assault made by the former Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) John Hepworth. Monsignor Dempsey returned to work last week after he had stood aside for 12 months.

“I think my case rests that I have been unjustly and maliciously, falsely accused by John Hepworth of acts that were never committed,” he wrote in an e-mail to VOL.

The Monsignor said the Director of Public Prosecutions, Adam Kimber SC, issued the following statement, “Today this Office has advised both Bishop Hepworth and Monsignor Dempsey’s solicitor that no charge/s will be laid with respect to the matter. The Director does not propose to make any further comment about the matter”.

Dempsey, who holds the rank of Monsignor, is also a parish priest of Brighton/Hallett Cove parishes in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. He has also been Director General of Navy Chaplains, Vicar General of the Adelaide Archdiocese, and was awarded Officer of Order of Australia (AO).

Dempsey thanked VOL for its support of him through the crisis. “The support of all who know me is the good that comes from the evil.”

Hepworth has fallen on hard times. He was expelled as Archbishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion when eight bishops brought charges against him for financial irregularities. He was subsequently found guilty. Following his expulsion he formed the Saint Benedict Fellowship. It is not known if he has any followers or how many.

Hepworth, who was instrumental in seeking his church’s reunion with Rome, was forced to resign as the global head of the TAC in April, seven months after he raised allegations that he had been raped by Adelaide priest Ian Dempsey and two others in the 1960s.

His American disciple, David Moyer, was created a bishop in the Anglican Church in America (ACA/TAC), but has since renounced that position. He was formerly a priest in the Episcopal Church, The Diocese of Pittsburgh, The Anglican Province of Central Africa, The Anglican Church in America and, more recently he has sought entry into the Roman Catholic Church through a papal offering of an Ordinariate for Anglicans wishing to enter Rome while still retaining certain Anglican practices. His application was denied.

Hepworth who lives in Adelaide did not return e-mails seeking a response to this story.

How strange, he used to love Virtue Online.

I wrote in support of Msgr Dempsey from the start. And again, I think he should seriously consider suing Hepworth for his good name that was so viciously slandered.

 

 

New Website for Anglican Communion News Service

Anglican Communion News Service has a new website.

The news service of the Anglican Communion has today launched its first ever purpose-built news website AnglicanNews.org

The site comes almost 20 years after the electronic news service was first launched. Since then subscribers around the world have received thousands of news articles via email…

So if you care to read about things like the Revd Judith Alltree’s severe wheat allergy and her use of gluten-free communion wafers in Toronto, then you are more than welcome.

The website is here.

 

Chief Rabbi: Atheism Has Failed…

Only religion can defeat the new barbarians. The West is suffering for its loss of faith. Unless we rediscover religion, our civilisation is in peril.

This is the warning from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

The Spectator has the rest.