Christ the Redeemer, Heitor de Silva Costa (1921)

          Christ the Redeemer is a gigantic statue built in Rio de Janeiro in 1921 to honor god.  This statue stands 125 feet tall atop a mountain that overlooks Rio.  The statue is made of sandstone –chosen for its durability-- and stands above a chapel.  It was constructed to honor God and has been named one of The Seven Wonders of the Modern World.  Its constructed cost $250,000 and today would be the equivalent of $3,068,097 today. 

                This statue appears to watch over the town of Rio de Janeiro from atop the mountain and can be seen from many parts of the city.  At night it is lit up so that it can be seen at all hours.  This statue is much larger than any human giving God this feeling of being bigger than any one person.  It is posed with its arms straight out to the sides a symbol of peace and also makes the statue resemble the shape of a cross.  Everything about the statue from the material to the way in which it is posed underwent huge planning and deliberation showing how important it is to some people to glorify God.

Cross in the Mountains, Caspar David Friedrich (1808)

                This painting by Caspar David Friedrich shows a sunset happening on a mountaintop where, slightly off center of the painting, there is a cross with a figure on it.  This piece was a unlike any other religious artwork that had been made up to the time.  First of all it is a landscape painting where a large amount of the focus of the painting is not on its subject but on the rocks, trees, and clouds that make up the surrounding area.

This painting conveys God’s Glory less through depicting him or a symbol but by showcasing his work.  The sunset in the background is shooting over the mountains in rays and the trees are thriving at the very tip of a rocky mountain where little healthy soil exists.  The Mountain itself helps showcase God’s superiority.  At the very tip of the mountain is a cross.  The highest thing in the picture even higher than sun is only outreached by a cross.

     

Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Bernini (1652)

                This sculpture created by Bernini in the 17^th century depicts St. Theresa, a woman from the century before Bernini, who wrote an autobiography describing the visions she had.  This particular sculpture is depicting one scene where St. Theresa envisions that she is being repeatedly penetrated by an arrow that the angel in front of her is holding.  This piece follows the baroque style; it portrays the ideas of the painting in a very tangible way.  The angel is wearing a robe that is soft, loose, and flowing implying something otherworldly or holy while St. Theresa robe has many edges and corners built into it and her robe appears rough this gives her a much more earthly appearance when one looks at the art piece.  Bernini’s sculpture is in a chapel that was paid for by the Cornaro family.  In fact the Cornaro family was Bernini’s patron at the time meaning that they paid for much of his art that he created.

                This art piece is very flashy and exalts God.  The Golden rays of light descending on the scene induce a sense of the participants in the scene being higher than the viewer.  This coupled with the fact that this scene actual is elevated from the viewer really emphasizes that God is a higher being.