{"id":64,"date":"2025-11-21T03:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/?p=64"},"modified":"2025-11-21T03:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:21:17","slug":"sacred-cultures-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/?p=64","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Cultures In Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salisbury Cathedral is a great example of Gothic architecture, being finished in 1258. Its most striking feature is the huge 404 foot spire that shoots straight up and makes the whole building feel like it\u2019s reaching for heaven. Inside it has pointed arches that let the walls go high and thin, including giant stained glass windows. Almost 40% of the walls fill the space with colorful light. The decoration is graceful but not over the top. You can see delicate stone carvings of leaves, flowers, and even bible stories on the columns and doorways. The stained glass windows act like picture books, showing scenes from the bible and the lives of saints so everyone and those who couldn\u2019t read, could understand the faith. All these choices reflect what medieval Christians believed in. Light streaming through the windows stood for God\u2019s presence and truth coming into the world. As Valerie Spanswick explains in the khan academy article \u201cThe cathedral\u2019s design, with its towering spire and vast windows, embodies a spiritual aspiration, reaching towards the heavens as a manifestation of divine light and truth.\u201d (Spanswick, 2017) This tells us that the building doesn\u2019t just hold worship services, it lifts people\u2019s hearts and eyes toward God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan Academy<\/em>, Khan Academy, 2017, www.khanacademy.org\/humanities\/medieval-world\/gothic-art\/gothic-art-england\/a\/salisbury-cathedral.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, England, begun 1220, photo: Dr. Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ashokan pillars are tall standing columns made of polished sandstone that Emperor Ashoka set up across India in the 3rd century BCE. They usually stand 40 to 50 feet high, have no base, and were meant to last forever as public monuments. The top part is the most eye catching since there\u2019s an upside down bell shape like a lotus flower (a Buddhist symbol of purity), and on top of that sits a sculpture of animals, with the famous Sarnath, one showing four lions facing all four directions. The long shafts are covered with Ashoka\u2019s messages carved in Brahmi script as well as the letters are described as \u201cbeautifully cut\u2026 round and spindly, almost like little pin-men,\u201d (BBC, 2014) written in everyday languages so ordinary people could read them. These designs show Ashoka\u2019s new Buddhist beliefs, especially his idea of living morally and kindly such as when he says, \u201cAll men are my children,\u201d (BBC, 2014) promising to care for everyone, respect all religions, and rule with compassion instead of war. By using the lotus, the lions looking everywhere, and clear public writing, the pillars turned stone columns into a way for a changed emperor to spread his message of peace and good to the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA History of the World – about: Transcripts – Episode 32 – Pillar of Ashoka.\u201d\u00a0BBC<\/em>, BBC, 2014, www.bbc.co.uk\/ahistoryoftheworld\/about\/transcripts\/episode32.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shelby, Dr. Karen, et al. \u201cLion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath.\u201d\u00a0Earth Is Mysterious<\/em>, 24 May 2020, www.earthismysterious.com\/lion-capital-of-ashoka-at-sarnath\/.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salisbury Cathedral is a great example of Gothic architecture, being finished in 1258. Its most striking feature is the huge 404 foot spire that shoots straight up and makes the whole building feel like it\u2019s reaching for heaven. Inside it has pointed arches that let the walls go high and thin, including giant stained glass… Continue reading Sacred Cultures In Art<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddg.usnh.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}