Repulsion

Theodosius Repulsed from the Church by Saint Ambrose (1700/10)
Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749)

A few weeks ago I kept my sons home from school so that they would not be taught something that I find objectionable. I put my foot down. I was afraid there might be a fight, but my position was simply that this was how things would be, and everything was fine and wonderful. I try not to do this very often, but in my mind this warranted it. So instead of school that day, we went to an art museum. 

We were the first to walk into this particular room as the museum opened, and my older son beheld this image on the wall, and we stood there for a moment in awe. Somewhere in my backlog of posts, I have a draft of a rant called, "Art Is a Teacher." I intend to publish it, but for now I will simply assert that this is so, and offer our stunned silence as an example.

Look at the painting. 

Stunning.

I am a Philistine, and know nearly nothing of history. The ubiquitous placard beside the painting was therefore helpful to me. In museums of contemporary art such placards are very important because they are what let you know which things you are supposed to be shocked when the janitor throws them out. In museums which contain art, by contrast, the placards are important because usually the art has outlasted the social order in which it came to be.*  

So here it is:

​This painting depicts a historical event from the year 390 when Ambrose, the archbishop of Milan, refused to give communion to Emperor Theodosius I until he made public penance for the massacre of thousands of innocents after an insurrection. Theodosius, the last emperor to command the entire Roman Empire, eventually submitted to the archbishop’s moral authority.

The image is powerful in its own right -- knowing nothing about it, three of us stopped. My nine-year-old audibly uttered, "wow." Yet, in this context, the image becomes even more powerful.

A man saying 'no' to an emperor. The emperor. And yet, however small a thing this is (some say it is nothing at all), this man had the authority to deny it to this emperor. And this denial was enough to bring an emperor to his knees in contrition.

This is my favorite painting for a while now.† 

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Notes:

* There's got to be a pithy way to say this. The distinction is that in one case the placard clarifies the artistic value of an artifact of social critique. In the other case, the placard clarifies the social context of something the artistic value of which is obvious. 
† We went to the museum weeks ago, but I just had to write this tonight when I thought of this painting. What made me think of it was this bit of news:
www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251305/archbishop-cordileone-nancy-pelosi-communion-abortion