Seeing from within, versus observing from without

Seeing from within, versus observing from without

 

Chartres rose window
At Chartres.
Please click on this image to enlarge it.
In fact, click on it again and enlarge it further.

 

A nice metaphor from the presentation given here this morning in Darmstadt by Terryl and Fiona Givens:

 

They actually used the rose window from Chartres Cathedral, as seen above.  Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a useable photo of that window from the outside, so I’ll use a rose window from the cathedral at Strasbourg to relay their point (very summarily):

 

Interior of Strasbourg Cathedral
Inside Strasbourg Cathedral

(Click to enlarge.)

 

How beautiful that window looks from within the cathedral!

 

But look at it from the outside:

 

External view of Strasbourg
Outside the Cathedral of Strasbourg
(Click to enlarge.)

 

Not nearly as colorful.  Rather bland.

 

(The contrast at Chartres, for which I couldn’t locate a good and legally available image, is perhaps even clearer.)

 

It’s the same window, of course.  The difference is in the perspective.  One view is from inside the church.  The other is from outside the church.

 

It’s not hard to see the application.

 

I marvel, sometimes, when I read comments from those who have rejected the Restoration, at how vehemently they dismiss it as stupid, silly, ridiculous, shallow, contemptible, and, sometimes, downright evil, whereas it seems to me — perhaps, of course, because I’m simply too superficial and ignorant to know better — beautiful, rich, and profound.

 

Posted from Darmstadt, Germany

 

 


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