#pope julius

[videoreligion]

Silent Night, Deadly Night IV: Initiation (1990)

“It's way past time we change up the “holiday” season. It's really gone to shit under its current management style. How could it work? They just kind of plopped that Jesus shit on top of someone else's seasonally appropriate celebration, leaving us with a broken mass of morals, judgment, and fictional bullshit. Half of the correlations make absolutely no sense or just straight up contradict. It's been a long fucking time since Pope Julius and the Catholic church slapped their messiah’s birthday on the ancient celebration. Obviously, I wasn't there to know for sure, but I want to think that's when it all started getting really bad. During the cultural rebranding ( probably not for evil reasons), the church did its best to mix saints and values into the random pieces of local flavor it could live with, creating some kind of a mash of magic, uppity god-monsters and special meal times. There's a lot going on in the lore of the holidays, and nearly all of it is fucking bonkers or just a straight-up motivated lie. In my yearly confusion, I'm left with a never-ending stream of questions. What does the portly “Santa” cryptid have to do with the demi-god super baby? Why are both these supposedly divine creatures involved in some kind of plot to publicly tie a parents’ economic status to how good their child was? Why does it have to be December to get anything with peppermint flavoring? Honestly, regardless of the answer to these questions, It's pretty fucking lame, and It's time for a change. For one, let's just dump all the current icons, they're a bulk of the problem. They have all kinds of baggage and contrived origins. I have a few ideas about who (or what) we can use instead, but, really, the possibilities are endless. I'm just spitballing here, but what about Star Trek captains? It's kind of the same thing, as they’re obviously fictional characters that embody some kind of ideal. I haven't even seen anything past The Next Generation, but I'm pretty sure they would altogether make a more cohesive and helpful whole than whatever the fuck we have now. And that’s just one idea. If, maybe, you would miss the mystic chaos of it all, we could go with bugs and witches like in Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990)...” - RevTerry

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[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF POPE SAINT JULIUS I Feast Day: April 12

Julius I is remembered for setting 25 December as the official date of birth of Jesus Christ, starting the tradition of celebrating Christmas on that date.

He also asserted his authority against Arianism, a heretical cult that insisted Christ was human and not divine.

Julius was born in Rome but the exact date of his birth is not known. He became pope in 337 AD, four months after his predecessor, Pope Mark, had died.

In 339 Julius gave refuge in Rome to Bishop St Athanasius the Great of Alexandria, who had been deposed and expelled by the Arians.

At the Council of Rome in 340, Julius reaffirmed the position of Athanasius.

He then tried to unite the Western bishops against Arianism with the Council of Sardica in 342. The council acknowledged the Pope’s supreme authority, enhancing his power in ecclesiastical affairs by granting him the right to judge cases of legal possession of Episcopal sees.

Julius restored Athanasius and his decision was confirmed by the Roman emperor Constantius II, even though he himself was an Arian.

During the years of his papacy, Julius built several basilicas and churches in Rome.

Although the exact date of birth of Jesus has never been known, Julius decreed 25 December to be the official date for the celebration. This was near the Roman festival of Saturnalia, held in honour of the god Saturn from 17 to 23 December. Part of the reason he chose this date may have been because he wanted to create a Christian alternative to Saturnalia.

Another reason may have been that the emperor Aurelian had declared 25 December the birthday of Sol Invictus, the sun god and patron of Roman soldiers. Julius may have thought that he could attract more converts to Christianity by allowing them to continue to hold celebrations on the same day.

Julius died in Rome on 12 April 352 and was succeeded by Pope Liberius.

He was buried initially in the catacombs on the Aurelian Way but his body was later transported for burial to Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the churches he had ordered to be completed during his papacy.

Source: italyonthisday.com

[meuralblog]

In the collection: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel

Each week, we bring you the backstory of work featured in our collection, written by a member of our curatorial team.

“This work has been and truly is the beacon of our art, and it has brought such benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting, restoring light to a world that for centuries had been plunged into darkness.” — Giorgio Vasari on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Ceiling

by Haley Temin, Associate Curator

The year is 1506 and Pope Julius II has devised a plan to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He commissions the prodigious Michelangelo—a sculptor, not a painter—who’s very reluctant to take on the vast project due to the fact that he was already occupied with a very large sculpture for the Pope’s own tomb. Pope Julius, however, was particularly adamant that Michelangelo be the one to paint the ceiling, leaving the artist with no choice but to accept the Pope’s offer. Conveniently enough, a war broke out with the French that same year, diverting the Pope’s attention and leaving Michelangelo the perfect chance to flee Rome and continue with his true passion: sculpting.

Fast forward two years. 1508. The Pope has returned from war, victorious, and again orders Michelangelo to begin work on the ceiling. The simple scheme originally proposed by the Pope was for twelve apostles—but Michelangelo has a much grander and detailed plan. The scheme suggested, and finally accepted, would be comprised of 343 figures, and would take four years to execute. The plan of the ceiling contained nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, including the most well known scene (The Creation of Adam), as well as the large and acclaimed fresco of The Last Judgement. Each figure found in the scenes differs from the next, expressing a diverse spectrum of emotions and intensity far exceeding any biblical representations that came before it. The variety of poses taken on by his human figures demonstrate the sheer talent of the artist, and became a huge influence of the human model for artists ever since. These painted scenes are unprecedented, demonstrating the diverse talents of Michelangelo, and would go on to change the course of Western art forever.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sistine Chapel: The Last Judgement, Fresco, 1538-1541

Out of the many myths surrounding the story, only a few facts hold true. Contrary to popular belief, Michelangelo did not paint the ceiling laying on his back, but in fact painted in a standing position on a scaffold he built himself. According to Giorgio Vasari, a friend of Michelangelo’s as well as a painter and historian, the work was done in very uncomfortable conditions, and Michelangelo had to paint with his head tilted up for the majority of the time. In fact, working on the ceiling was so unpleasant Michelangelo wrote a poem about it!

“I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture,” he wrote. He complained that his “stomach’s squashed under my chin,” that his “face makes a fine floor for droppings,” that his “skin hangs loose below me” and that his “spine’s all knotted from folding myself over.” He ended with an affirmation that he shouldn’t have changed his day job: “I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.” (source: history.com)

Apart from the less than accommodating working conditions, Michelangelo still managed to exceed the work of any of the masters before him, breaking away from the conventional way of painting fresco (using a stencil to outline onto the plaster surface), painting directly onto the ceiling instead. Despite his passion for sculpture, Michelangelo’s versatile talents in painting, architecture, and every facet of his life is undeniable and historically transcendental. Giorgio Vasari writes in his book, “The Lives of the Artists”:

“Thus, any person who has good judgement and an understanding of painting will see in this work the awesome power of the art of painting, for Michelangelo's figures reveal thoughts and emotions which were never depicted by anyone else...and in studying his labors, the senses are confused solely at the thought of how other paintings, both those that have been executed and those to come, would compare to this one.”

Needless to say, if you haven’t seen this masterpiece in person, I’d hop on the next plane to Rome! It’s worth every last euro.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Ceiling

[il-rinascimento-blog]

"I'm having the Sistine Chapel done up as well," continued the Pope [Julius II]. "It's so dull! So I've commissioned that bright young artist from Florence, Michelangelo what's-his-name, to paint some frescoes on the ceiling. Lots of religious scenes, you know the kind of thing. I'd thought of asking Leonardo, but his head's so full of ideas that he scarcely ever finishes a big painting. Pity. I rather liked that portrait he did of Francesco del Giocondo's wife..."

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood the novel, Oliver Bowden