Skip to main content

Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.


by Riley DeJardin '20
(exhibition catalogue)

The other articles focused on very specific parts of my research: fashion’s effect on the portrayal of
Catholic imagery and the fashion which is involved in the church. This is the official book from The
Metropolitan Museum of Art about the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination Met
Gala in 2018. This article specifically talks about why this theme was chosen and how it was executed.
It has a lot of pictures and information about the pieces that were given to the Heavenly Bodies exhibit
from the Vatican, which helps give me an idea which pieces were significant and why. According to the
article, this partnership was monumental, saying that “Heavenly Bodies, the first collaboration between
the Vatican and The Costume Institute, follows in the footsteps of a number of landmark exhibitions
featuring treasures from the Vatican,” (9). The cooperation of the Vatican was vital in making this theme
a possibility and it gave people the opportunity to express a religious part of themselves through fashion.
This article also talks a lot about the process of the designers of these historically important donated
pieces, sharing the importance of the forms and colors of these garments. 
What I found most interesting for my research was the museum’s justification of the theme: “In
some periods the leading Catholic thinkers are not the official theologians but rather the great artists.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example, the most original Catholic theologians were
the artists Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Caravaggio, and Bernini,” (10).
To me, this sounds like they are giving the designers and stylists the artistic license to create whatever
they believe represents this theme well. I believe this because it seems like the museum is giving them
the freedom to just be an artist and make whatever comes to them versus studying to adopt the knowledge
of an “official theologian.” Like all the other famous artists before them, they want to express something
through art and they use their creativity to that. They do not use their faith and scholarship to create a
work of art. They have to be able to access both parts of the project-- the religion and the fashion-- and
merge them together into something stunning, but still accurate and appropriate. This idea of bringing
fashion and religion can be very challenging but Bolton, the author, touches on this topic, saying,
“Historically, fashion and religion have been inexorably intertwined, inspiring and informing one
another. This relationship, though complex and sometimes contested, has given rise to some of the
most innovative creations in the history of fashion,” (9). Bolton agrees that the merging of these two
things can be done but it is tough because it can backfire greatly. But the risk could be worth the reward
because art surrounding religion has the ability to become some of the greatest pieces in all of history,
such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, The Creation of Adam, or The Birth of Venus.

Bolton, Andrew. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2018.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

From Charity to Security: The Emergence of the National School Lunch Program

Olivia Pieterse 20' (journal article) This article, titled From Charity to Security: The Emergence of the National School Lunch Program, discusses the creation and formalization of the national school lunch program. It also showed how the national lunch program would not be a federal issue if not for World War II and the Great Depression. The article begins by providing the reader with general information about the early beginnings of the school lunch program in addition to stating what the rest of the article will be about. The article continues to describe how the United States created its own system influenced heavily by other nations, specifically Great Britain. The author relates Great Britains’ lunch system with the Boer War and relates the U.S. system with World War II.  The article then transitions and goes into detail about the beginnings of the national school lunch program. The first account of a feeding program in the US was at the Children’s Aid Society...
Read more

St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Elizabeth Rosenberger 20' (book) “The Lawful treatment of Animals” was written by Thomas Aquinas with the goal to use Catholic teachings and scriptures to determine “Whether it is Unlawful to Kill Any Living Thing”(Aquinas). In Thomas Aquinas’s early life he attended the Benedict House for five years studying many scholars and theologians, primarily Aristotle. Thomas Aquinas’s writing about “The Lawful treatment of Animals” is based on Aristotle’s teachings  that “an act is good or bad depending on whether it contributes to or deters us from our proper human end”.  Aquinas’s intended audience is for theologians, students, followers of the Catholic faith who are discovering the Catholic religion’s perspective of animals, and any person who is challenging their perspective on how animals should be treated. Aquinas uses evidence and facts from the Bible to support his claims. Aquinas’s writing titled “ Whether it is Unlawful to Kill Any Living Thing” relates t...
Read more

Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses

Greta Coontz 20' (journal) This article discusses how consumers see sustainability and what their priorities are. Though there was a major lack of attention toward sustainability, the public is beginning to notice the dire need for a more eco-friendly society. The article pulls the definition of sustainable development from the United Nations in 1987 which states that sustainable development means “to meet the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations 1987). The article also states that consumers care about the economy just as much as they care about the environment. The most logical way to be sustainable and keep the public happy is by balancing the economy and the environment. Without a healthy balance there is no point in attempting to create a fully sustainable society as it would collapse economically. This article is actually quite different from the other sources I have read. It takes a mid...
Read more