Narrative by Wolfgang Kemp - Book Report/Review Example

In his article Narrative Wolfgang Kemp initiates a discussion about the panel from the doors of the church if Santa Sabina in Rome. There are severalnarratives intermingled in the panel. Named the "Calling of Moses" there are series of other episodes accompanying the panel, presumably depicting in one of the rows the story of Christ's life. This relief is connected with various oral narratives among which the Book of Exodus. Kemp proposes to see the relief as the beginning of the iconographic tradition which is based on the oral narration. The transmission is further complicated, building on the idea of typology. The life of Moses is the pre-text and the figure of Christ is elevated on a higher level. Kemp concludes that in its basic and natural form the structure of the door of the church of Santa Sabina represents a transcultural and transhistorical phenomenon. The narrative intensifies life, because if we see the relief through the Judeo-Christian traditions the scene of calling, or the vocation demonstrates the special relationship between God and the nation of Israel. That is why this narrative is closely linked with the Book of Exodus 3, where human and superhuman (an angel) meet. The angel summons the human to carry out a task that exceeds his abilities, but which he accepts to perform. Kemp comments that both in the Book of Exodus as well as in the relief, these elements are methodically arranged. Moses is pasturing the flocks, afterwards comes the divine which summons him in the form of a burning bush and a personification of an angel and then come God's charges to Moses. The episode of Moses and the encounter with the burning bush represents the starting point of the whole biblical narrative. The embodiment of the creator surpasses all doubts when he hands to Moses the scroll of the covenant. What is depicted in the relief is the sacred, biblical historical narrative. The narrative is situated within the context of the fulfillment and the promise. Furthermore, the idea and concept of the covenant is deeply rooted in the structural study of this particular narrative in Santa Sabina Church relief. The pictorial narrator shows the transitional state - Moses chosen as a messiah and God in the form of sheep. In the relief, Moses is sitting while the angel approached him. Moses posture speaks about his submission to the omnipresent power and humbly comprehending his mission. His sitting position conveys the idea that he is below God and that the almighty possess him. In the relief the pastoral closeness to nature can be felt around. The divinity can be best delivered among the surroundings of nature. The scene with the angel speaking to Moses and he listening clearly marks the approval of Moses and his vocation. Kemp says that the narrative in the panel of the doors of Santa Sabina Church is eternal. There are several lines of dialogue - between the narrator and the audience and Moses and God. Another theme that is inscribed in the relief is the narrative of giver and receiver. This implies the concept of communication between humans and superhuman. The narration consists of reception and communication storyline. The manifestation of this exchanged is celebrated when Moses is handed the scroll. This representation of communication exchange and the physical transformation indicates the profound meaning behind the pictorial narrative. What Kemp notes in his article is that the story of the relief demonstrates the "utterance in which an awaited (or desired) transformation occurs (Kemp, 66)." In the other article, the author analyses two windows in Chartres and Bourges depicting the Prodigal Son. The author shows that even though both have the same preconditions, they end on different narratives. Of the works handles the two-dimensional geometry of the windows, and the other does not. The Prodigal Son window in Chartres delineates an older stage, because it does not apply the hypotactic structures in the geometric forms. There are multiform patterns which are divided and which present the elements of the narrative. A summary of the scene can be given in the following way: preparation for the journey, the journey itself, two parts of the life in luxury in the brothel, expulsion, swine-head life, journey back home, the preparations for the feast at the father's home, the very feast and finally Christ in glory. What is important to discuss here is that the establishment of vertical axis, which appears to be the third structural moment besides the other geometric dispositions. The applied principals vertically and horizontally equally contain the additional axis. Windows of this kind are an example of medieval narrative in action. The theme of the Prodigal Son is a popular motif on the stained glass religious buildings in the medieval ages. The Prodigal window in Charter represents a cyclic narrative, however is terms of special positioning is distanced from its time. The panel exploits the formal skeleton with single scenic unity and independent primal dispositions of the geometric figures. The Prodigal Son window in Charter discovers subcycles within the larger framework of Christian frescoes and mosaics. This realizes the different perception - that of fluid cinematic narration. The majority of 13th century stained glass embodied namely this expression of the ideal. What is important to observe in Bourges window is that it geometric figures reconstruct the wind-barrier system. The latter is limited to the horizontal elements that are cut through the pictorial panels. This creates in the viewer a sense of independent picture. In comparison with Charter, the relationship between the complicated forms is more balanced in Bourges. In Bourges, they depict two feasts - in the brother and at the return to the father's home. The narrator here is not preoccupied with the subdivision of the different storyline. He is rather interested in representing the reconciliation. Thus, each scene is mirrored in depicting the opposition between values - good and evil, home and the outside worlds, before and after. The way in which the framework is organized, highlights the argument in the narrative and the different cycles. In Charters, the vertical reading of the core panels is feasible, because they illustrate the Christ's passion. In Bourges the typological scenes in the circular panels correspond to the symbolic equivalent of the Old Testament. The differences are not only in the size of the window and the positions of the panels, there are differences concerning the overall flow of the narrative. The scenes in Charter can be seen not as chronological but as completed and singled out. Comparing the two stained glass panels in Charter and Bourges one can better comprehend the overlapping figures and framework and also exploit the two-dimensional geometry of the storyline. Although they took on one and the same parable, both the Prodigal Son in Charter and in Bourges narrative it in different structural forms and geometric plan. Reference: Kemp, Wolfgang, Narrative, pp.58 - 69 Chapter 2-3, The Prodigal Son Window in Charter: Narrative in Sequences; The Prodigal Son Window in Bourges: Narrative in Figures Read More