Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Ugly is not in the eye of the beholder

Ugly is not in the eye of the beholder... instead it is in a side chapel of the Catholic Cathedral of Dresden (compare this Roman Catholic atrocity with the beautiful Frauenkirche!).

In the photos you can just see what might have been.  Most of it has been removed and something, I know not what, has been put upon the foundations of the beautiful past.  They say it is Mary but whose Mary?  Not the blessed Virgin Mother of Our Lord!  Thanks to the family from Dresden who drew my attention to this, well, travesty of art.

Here is the exterior:

















Here is a view of the chancel:























Here is the "new" chapel design:























Which picture captures ugliness?  God keep us from artists and the arts gone awry.  Ugliness is no servant of the liturgy or worship.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2014 at 9:38 AM

    Wow I thought that kind of stuff died with disco in the mid 1980s

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  2. Pastor Jim WagnerJanuary 15, 2014 at 11:23 PM

    With due respect, we were at this chapel a couple of years ago and found it deeply moving, especially when one remembers the WWII history of Dresden and the cathedral itself.
    Our real love in Dresden however was the Nikolai church from which the 1989 revolution began, and which has been restored in a very simple yet beautiful style.
    As for the Marian church -- a grand restoration, but in the end, just another grand restoration.

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  3. Pastor Jim WagnerJanuary 16, 2014 at 4:36 AM

    Upon reflection I should have written Kreuzkirche which was originally the Nikolaikirche, and Frauenkirche instead of Marian church. And the revolution started at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, not Dresden. So much for a old man's memory.
    The Frauenkirche is something of a miracle of reconstruction. When my son visited Dresden in the 90s it was still a pile of rubble. Now it is totally restored to its former glory albeit with modern wiring, heating and plumbing. I did not mean to belittle the church -- it just did not touch our hearts like the Kreuzkirche.

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2014 at 6:29 PM

    The new design looks very "Masonic" in nature. Notice the two pillars on each side of the altar with a checkerboard floor design. The Masonic symbolism is everywhere in our society--from architecture to media. Here is a link to an image of their altar structure if you haven't see what it looks like...
    http://ffrreeyyoouurrsseellff.tumblr.com/post/32990518730/freemason-checkerboard-floor-pillars-etc-you

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2014 at 6:42 PM

    I can just hear the argument for the new chancel....."the old one is too old fashioned" or "the new one is modern and will attract younger people/families." UGH!

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