Today I went to the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya, or MNAC. Their four main permanent art collections - Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance/Baroque, and Modern - are massive. Room after room after room, until you wonder if you'll ever get out. The Romanesque and Gothic sections were especially heavy, featuring a seemingly endless number of ways to portray Jesus on the cross, and the Virgin Mary. Art pertaining to religion isn't really my thing, but I did find the above picture really interesting. Of all the representations of the Virgin Mary, this was the only one that included a small ring on her middle finger.
A minute, yet significant detail. Surely the artist had some reason to include some modest finger bling on the carving? As neither a student of religion or of art history, I won't even try to hypothesize. But to me this one little discrepancy reflects a way of thinking about culture in general. We all do things - anything, from the significant to the mundane - a certain way, rarely stopping to question why. Is it simply habit, or is there some practical or emotional reason? Until one day, someone does it a little bit differently. Someone else notices and starts to question why, using this difference to push off of the status quo.
I feel like I'm writing really abstractly, and maybe it's because it's 3:13AM here in Barcelona. Time for bed.
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