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| Verona, Italy |
I love this genre of Late Renaissance religious painting. This photo of this alcove was taken at the main cathedral in Verona. I wish I had jotted down more information: can't recall who painted this one. What I like is how they have the spiritual action taking place in ascending levels above the head of the central figure, who, in this case, must be Mary (always a good bet). Immediately above her head is Christ giving a Benediction, and above that, the crucified Christ, with what must be God the Father looming behind him.
The reason I like this mode of depiction so much is that, in my view,
it corresponds nicely with the experience of mantra meditation. When engaged in mantra
meditation, after a period of time it can seem like the mantra is
actually spinning a few feet above your head, as opposed to inside your
brain. The aural equivalent is found in a lot of the spiritual jazz that
Coltrane put in motion in the 60s. His recording
A Love Supreme is possibly the first and greatest instance. In this case he even chants the phrase/mantra "a love supreme" to start things (if I recall the sequence properly). The musical pattern based on those four syllables gets reworked in a number ways throughout the four movements of the piece. As he works variations on that pattern, and with the rhythm section stirring things up beneath him, the performance does indeed rise to another level, with some power inside the sound bleeding through to produce a trance-like experience.
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