Western Art

To follow up on the advancement of western art, I have a theory. If the Schism separated the western Church from its Mother, then that put the west in a painful position. If the eastern Church still lived with both it's parents, then they are in happier place. Perhaps this explains the aching longing in western art. The steeples are even stretching to reach something they don't have. This may also explain why orphans are so popular in western literature, and why Aslan and Gandalf visit so infrequently. C.S. Lewis' mother died when he was nine. Tolkien's father died when he was three. Lewis incorporates girls in the Narnia books, Tolkien seems to like a male bunch. That's slightly tangential, but I wonder also if this separation from parents idea also influences how Mary is venerated differently in the western Church, she is by herself more than in eastern veneration.

So the hole left by a missing parent seeks desperately to be filled, and sometimes we are comforted by a tangible echo or by making up a different scenario, which leads me to the western medieval concept of courtly love, which Lewis writes about incidently. "In 1936 C. S. Lewis wrote the influential The Allegory of Love further solidifying courtly love as "love of a highly specialized sort, whose characteristics may be enumerated as Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and the Religion of Love".^[2]"(from Wikipedia) Dante's love for Beatrice is described as being of this sort. The idea of being painfully separated from the heart's desire.

If the east retained both parents through maintaining the tradition of the Orthodox faith, then that could explain a certain lack of "progress" in her countries. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But that does not explain the advanced nature of Christian Byzantium for 1000 years. I hypothesize that her expression came more from a center of contentment and overflowing opportunity. But perhaps She grew complacent and lax and was thus able to be overthrown. I hope to be further enlightened on this subject.

Another thought on parental separation, If a child has a secure relationship with both parents, he is not as "needy" towards others. Not that parents are the only ones who can give security to their children. This is why I think monastic life, instead of romantic love, is so idealized in eastern Christian countries, as it was initially in the west. Monasteries provide an environment supportive of our relationship with God as it is intended to be, in constant communion with our Lord and His family, the Saints.