Relations between rites and Renaissance artists

Art

Renaissance Artists

The first reading, Territorial passage and the classification of rites by Arnold van Gennep is an interesting look into the traditional rites of passage. He discusses types of rites of passage and how these rites are combined with rituals in society. The second work by Cyrilla Barr, a Renaissance Artist in the service of a singing confraternity illustrates how a mediocre artist may become a part-time singer or other performer in addition to his "workshop productivity" in art. This work indicates the variety of work open to a working artist during the Renaissance, and looks at the pageantry of the singing confraternity and its annual singing production.

Both of these works look at specific areas of society and culture, including the elaborate pageantry of the Renaissance that had its origins in the Middle Ages. The rites of passage that the author describes and have become so familiar in many cultures is only one illustration of this type of grand pageantry. The singing groups described in the other work illustrate the growth of pageantry and spectacle, especially in religion, that developed during the Middle Ages, and shows how these two works really go hand in hand. Van Gennep maintains that rites of passage and rituals are intertwined, and thus, many of them can be related back to the religious rites celebrated in the other article. In fact, the artist in question created many religious items used in religious rituals in addition to his religious singing performances.