The First Funeral, Museums, & the Power of Observation

I miss museums.

I know I'm spoiled to live in Southern California with some amazing museums within an hour drive from my home. But I miss walking in Paris, which feels like a living museum itself, and then just deciding last minute to walk into the Petit Palais because it's free, and being astounded by rooms like this...

Not far after entering the Petit Palais when we were in Paris a few months ago, did we stumble across this sculpture. It wasn't until I saw the title of the work "Les premières funérailles" (The First Funeral), that I realized what the subject of this work was.

Adam and Eve carrying their deceased son Abel, in their arms.

My daughter pointed out the mastery of the artist depicting with such accuracy, the weight distribution of Adam's body, showing how heavy Abel's body was. How literally heavy were the consequences of the fall...shown so movingly through chisel and stone.

The idea of museums is wild if you think about it. People decide to collect remnants of history and beautiful artifacts so that crowds can come and look at them. There are no performers or acts to entertain. Just images or still objects in a collection under one roof. And people come and stare.

C.S. Lewis (can you tell by now he's my close friend?) says in An Experiment in Criticism:

The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whether the work before deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out.)

When I first read this, I was surprised at how almost "new age" he sounded. Surrender when you look at art? But this comes in the context of Lewis critiquing people who learned about art just to check off their list the "things they should know". Those who came with preconceived ideas on what was a masterpiece and what wasn't.

He really didn't like utilitarian education and you see this replete in all his fiction as well.

So what happens when you heed Lewis' advice when you receive art and get yourself out of the way? It turns out you simply observe and appreciate the beauty that it presents at face value, without overly academizing it. (is that a word?)

Charlotte Mason seemed to have a similar philosophy. She said in Home Education Vol 1:

A few words about the picture may be added, but no attempt should be made to ‘talk’ the children into admiration.

As homeschoolers, we are great about intentionality, but often I notice that we tend to overcomplicate things.

If we are to present a feast of education to our children in order to train them to appreciate beauty, we sometimes make the mistake of not only cutting the meat for them, but also forcing them to chew and swallow. And then the feast becomes less festive.

Mason said that education is "science of relations". And so we ought to let our children develop their own relationships with all the most beautiful living ideas themselves, and then see how all those things relate to each other. So what does that mean with art?

Let them observe. Let truth, goodness, and beauty do its work in them. Let them foster their own meaningful relationships with it all. I know, it seems too easy.

I tell my students that they would be my favorite people to go to museums with. They have the most simple yet astute observations about art and I always come away appreciating new things about works I've seen multiple times over decades.

This week, we looked at this painting in my French 1A class and next week, they will be sharing their own sentences in French about some of the people depicted. They observed, admired, and now they will communicate using a language that most have them have learned for only a few months now.

They get to actively participate in the beauty of this work, using the beauty of a new language, and for me it's a thrill to see them make these connections. It's something so small but so enjoyable.

Charlotte Mason also said in Ourselves, Vol. 4:

A child who does not know how to appreciate beauty is at a loss in a world which is full of it.

This is so true. And how wonderful is it that putting before our children the beautiful things will anchor them in this world. This fallen, yet still beautiful world.

The Lord does that with us. He created the Heavens and even after the fall, allows each one of us to marvel at the skies, because:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 19:1

The Creator of beauty Himself, calls us to look to His creation because they declare His glory. He uses all His creative beauty to draw our hearts toward Him.

Mountains, blazing sunsets, wildflowers. And then through men created in His image...paintings, sculptures, bridges, food...can all be a means for us to behold Him.

Beauty declares His glory. And we get to put this glory before our children. What an honor!

I took the picture of the funeral sculpture several weeks ago but it wasn't until today that I actually took the time to observe the picture. If you scroll back up, you'll see it too.

Behind the weight of death in marble form, we see a painting and framed just so, the illumination of Christ bearing His own imminent death, carrying His cross.

And there it is. A fallen world, made beautiful by the death of the Son of God.

Beauty matters. How blessed we are to have it point us to eternal hope!