True perspective.OUR WORLD MAY BE ONE OF STRUGGLE or even combat. It was a Battle of Issus in 333 B.C. that Alexander the Great changed the course of the then-world's history; yet how small and remote it is in Altdorfer's painting. We are above it all, distanced by the immensities of time and space, looking down from a heavenly height at the tiny passions of those who fight. From here even the mountains seem small and inconsiderable in·con·sid·er·a·ble adj. Too small or unimportant to merit attention or consideration; trivial. in , and the only real event is in the skies, where light encounters darkness--the daily and fore-destined battle we call dawn and sunset. Silence, distancing us, shakes our life into perspective, and we learn not to care for what is ephemeral and insignificant. By SISTER WENDY BECKETT Sister Wendy Beckett (born February 25 1930) is a South African-born British art expert, consecrated virgin and contemplative hermit who became an unlikely celebrity during the 1990s, presenting a series of acclaimed art history documentaries for the BBC. of Norfolk, England, well-known for her BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. and PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, television art series and her popular art books. Reprinted with permission from: Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations (DK Publishing, 1998; 888-342-5357). Painting: The Battle of Issus, 1529, Albrecht Altdorfer Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 near Regensburg – February 12, 1538 in Regensburg) was a German painter and printmaker, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht Dürer. He is best known as a significant pioneer of landscape in art. , Alte Pinakothek, Munich. |
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