Sanctuary and Iconology the Piece

Sanctuary and Iconology The piece "Sanctuary" by Mandem (available from mandemic.com) is a complex surrealistic piece designed to visually accompany a poem called "Prometheus." The work portrays the flaming body of a titanic Prometheus as he flees through the sunlight of a church, cradling the burning Mars in his arms. Superimposed and morphing into the architecture of the building is the foreboding image of an overlooking deity.

The Watcher appears in the traditional pose of the faithfully arranged dead, with his arms crossed and a seal on his forehead and mouth. The iconography of the story deals with Prometheus' theft of fire and its associations with the romantic rebellion against deity (as seen in the church and the ritually dead Watcher). The iconology is far more complex, for it seems to base its imagery around a complex of historical links between Prometheus, Loki, and Lucifer and between Zeus/Jove, Jehovah, Odin the All-Father, and Osiris.

Visually this work is quite modern (as defined as the period before post-modernism, in which the romantic worldview collided with Nitzschean theories of the Overman and the despair of the lost World Wars). The surreal quality has something in common with Dali, albeit far more aetherized and dreamy in nature, with something of a fae darkness hanging over it. There are certain neo-classical elements which contradict the sterile colors common in Dali's work.

For example, the rich use of detailed golds and purples seams to owe something to Reformation painters like van Eyck. The iconography of the art, which is to say the basic story that it tells, is ancient and classical. One knows from the context of the piece that it deals with Prometheus, and that is evident as well in the work. In the left-hand panel, one sees the hunched over figure thieving fire. The tale of Prometheus dates back to ancient Greece, and has been retold through-out history (see Hesiod).

Prometheus defied the gods to steal fire for mankind, and was bound for his crimes. His opposition to the Gods is here portrayed by the havoc he brings into a Cathedral. In ancient times, Prometheus was seen as a hero who would eventually be unbound. This conception has remained to this day, and the fact that in this image he is the most central and most brightly lit figure continues that view.

However (and here one begins to slip into the iconology of the piece), Prometheus is widely associated with Loki, the Norse trickster deity. Loki also was a deity who brought fire, and he likewise outraged the Gods and was bound to a rock for eternal punishment. However, unlike Prometheus, Loki has been almost universally seen as evil. His eventual freedom is said to presage the death of all the Gods.

This link between Loki and Prometheus, which has only (relatively) recently been understood by a culture versed in both Greek and Norse myths, is evidenced in this work by the fact that Prometheus' theft is being counter-pointed by the image of the Watcher deity posed for burial. In some ways, then, this piece suggests that Loki's judgment on the gods is welcomed. There is actually some historical precedence for this.

"Ragnarok may appear to be the termination of all things but the Voluspa makes it quite clear that Ragnarok is not the end but rather a cleansing." Prometheus is visually exalted and the Watcher seems somehow evil even in death. The church itself is filled with darkness and a sense of monstrosity.

So one would say that the iconology of this work is well-versed in the maltheism of the romantic movement that took "fallen angel" figures like Prometheus and Lucifer (another rebel figure bound for eternity) and set them up as heroic. This piece obviously owes a great debt to the past, while attempting to treat the subjects in a new way. It is unlikely that any ancient -or even most artists from the romantic era in which many of.