Monday, May 31, 2010




Gothic painting is usually never something that today's art world is concerned with, because in these modern times we all lack time for reflection and contemplation. Whilst in Sweden I became aware of this strange medieval atmosphere only in certain places of that beautiful land you can visualize stories of knights and religiously uplifting background. Something that I was interested in was truth in Gothic painting and storytelling trough symbols of painting. I discovered back then Albertus Pictor (1440 - 1507), who was a fresco painter who did thirty churches around Lake Mälaren in central Sweden certainly a form of unique treasure of Medieval art in northern Europe. He had such a great sense of Medieval sensibility and religious symbolism that his work still to this day leaves a significant mark on the mind of a modern man. His work compared things in life that make the audience question their existence, and ponder their choices in life. This affected many even Ingmar Bergman, famous film maker, he put Albertus in his movie Seventh Seal. Seventh Seal is one of the finest movies of all time story that is set in Medieval Sweden. It tells a story of our ultimate ending but trough a fairy tale about a knight Antonius Block who just came back from a crusade to his native Sweden. He ends up playing chess with Death in order to prolong his life, that is full of questions about God, and the ultimate meaning of our existence.


   

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