Further to my comments earlier on the illiteracy of "Art Historians" who speak with immense confidence and total innacuracy: another example during the "Sunday" programme on the Home Service this morning. An "expert" from the V & A, talking about Christening Robes, told us that babies were baptised soon after birth in the Middle Ages because it was believed that "otherwise they would go to Purgatory".
If these pompous ignoramuses so often get it wrong in matters where I do have some knowledge, have I any reason to believe that what they say is any less crass when they talking about things where I do not have the competence to be spot their misinformation?
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who has had that insight. Thanks for making a person feel less lonely!
ReplyDeletePurgatory??? Now if they had said 'Limbo' that could have opened up a different discussion - but one that goes back much further than the Middle Ages!
ReplyDeleteI remember a French 'Art Expert' on a TV documentary, explaining an icon in a Copt Monastery in Ethiopia.
ReplyDeleteHe said something like: "The monks here were very interested in ecology, as you can see by the depiction of animals in the icons: a bird, a cow, a lion..." It seems he knew nothing about the tetramorphos or about St. John, St. Luke, St. Mark and St. Matthew.
I felt that I had a lot more in common with those Copt monks than with the ignorant French expert.
Bruno (Spain)