An Effective History Approach on Brazen Serpent with Post-Renaissance Paintings as Examples

• Main Authors: YOUNG, ROBERT POWEI, 楊伯威
• Other Authors: CHENG, YANG-EN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/k2tx97

碩士 === 台灣神學研究學院 === 神學研究道學碩士班 === 107 === The brazen serpent was the symbol which Jesus made an analogy to himself on the cross, and thus formed a crucial motif in Christian paintings. Skillful painters conveyed different ideas and emphasis via their renditions on this matter. The thesis attempts to explore what the masters tried to tell the viewers by analyzing four masterworks. Pioneering reformer Martin Luther established his core concept of reformation around the Theology of the Cross and his contemporary Lucas Cranach Sr. made an artistic depiction of the theology. Hans Holbein Jr.'s later rendering nevertheless confounded Cranach's idea. Michelangelo's work on Sistine Chapel revealed eminent Greco-Roman tradition and the maestro's great emphasis on human bodies which irritated many among the Roman clergy and gave primal impetus to the restraining tone of Council of Trent that set the guidelines of counter-reformation. After the Council, Peter Paul Rubens painted the subject in his usual grandeur but with underlying notions of counter-reformation.