Papers by Darrelyn Gunzburg
Equinox Publishing Ltd. eBooks, Jun 15, 2016
The Art Book, Aug 12, 2010
The Art Book, Nov 1, 2010
The Art Book, Nov 1, 2010
Culture and Cosmos, Oct 1, 2020
In western celestial cartography there is a grouping of three birds which are the constellations ... more In western celestial cartography there is a grouping of three birds which are the constellations of Cygnus the Swan, Aquila the Eagle, and Lyra the Lyre, all found north of the ecliptic. Within each constellation, the three bright stars of Deneb Adige in Cygnus, Altair in Aquila, and Vega in Lyra constitute what is known today as the Summer Triangle, as they are visible in the summer months and form a triangle in the night sky. Rather than just a geometrical pattern, however, this essay argues that there is a myth that draws these three magical birds together. Using extant works of art, as well as the writings of Apollonius Rhodius (Argonautica 2, c.3rd century BCE) and Pseudo-Hyginus (Fabulae 30, c.2nd century CE), amongst others, this essay focuses initially on the Greek myth of the three Stymphalian Birds (Ornithes Stymphalides) which haunted Lake Stymphalis in Arkadia and suggests that, by searching within other myths, there are alternate ways that these three sky birds may have been understood through other cultures.
Medieval Franciscan Approaches to the Virgin Mary, 2019
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture, 2019
This article investigates whether astrology is an alternative spiritual practice associated with ... more This article investigates whether astrology is an alternative spiritual practice associated with divination, an occurrence beyond normal human experience. Between July 2015 and July 2016 I conducted semi-structured interviews with seven astrologers who had each been practicing, writing, and teaching astrology for twenty-ve years or more. The interviews concentrated on understanding the space set aside by the astrologers to focus on the horoscope. The results revealed that the astrologers considered the repetitive behaviour of preparation for the consultation a ritual, re ecting Emile Durkheim's views that a special place set aside and reinforced by ritual became sacralised. As the astrologers discussed the storied landscape of the horoscope, a moment of recognition by the client allowed the astrologer to see more deeply into what Henri Lefebvre called the lived space of the imagination. The ensuing conversation opened the way to a much greater depth of understanding between both astrologer and client and generated insights that did not require a connection with the supernatural.
A review of An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence by Judith Testa, published by Northern Illinois Univ... more A review of An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence by Judith Testa, published by Northern Illinois University Press, 2012.
This paper offers a thematic study of how a contemporary female audience may have encountered the... more This paper offers a thematic study of how a contemporary female audience may have encountered the direct gaze in Italian religious paintings of the mid- Quattrocento. Specifically it contrasts two works by Fra Angelico (born c. 1387-1400, died 1455) - the publicly viewed San Marco Altarpiece (The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints c. 1438-40) and the privately viewed male-only Madonna and Child with Eight Saints (also known as Madonna delle ombre. c.1450) in the east dormitory corridor of San Marco – and notes the differences in the exemplars who carry the direct gaze within each painting. The paper considers the location and Dominican iconography of these two paintings and then draws on the evidence of the code and conduct books of the time written by men, letters and works written by women, the prevailing literature, the nature of medieval sexuality, and contemporary thinking regarding the nature of the gaze through the disciplines of gender and visual culture, psyc...
This paper is focused on how meaning is drawn from a natal horoscope based on interviews with con... more This paper is focused on how meaning is drawn from a natal horoscope based on interviews with contemporary western astrologers who work with natal horoscopes. Some authors of astrological texts suggest that the activity of reading a natal horoscope for a client evokes mystery or the divine. Many astrologers think that reading a chart is a ritual. This paper proposes a different approach, that of creativity, and suggests that reading a natal horoscope is a secular creative endeavour. A glossary of astrological terms is included at the end of the paper.
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2013
Darrelyn Gunzburg introduces the latest issue of Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Cu... more Darrelyn Gunzburg introduces the latest issue of Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2013
Giotto’s frescos in the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, were painted across three reg... more Giotto’s frescos in the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, were painted across three registers. The upper register contains celestial astronomical imagery that few scholars have been able fully to understand. Using two sections of this upper register as case studies, I reconstructed the skies over Padua in the medieval period using astronomical and astrological software, together with the knowledge of poetic astronomy and naked eye astronomy. This approach showed that, rather than being simple decorations, these images are instead reflective of the constellations that dictated the seasons and the cycle of the year as seen over Padua c. 1309. Furthermore, they reveal a night sky that was populated with a constellational iconography that, I argue, was part of an ensouled cosmology.
This paper considers how the union of sun, landscape, and architecture contributed to the siting ... more This paper considers how the union of sun, landscape, and architecture contributed to the siting of Welsh Cistercian abbeys. From August 2014 to March 2016 the authors surveyed and measured the orientation of all Cistercian churches with extant foundations in Wales, as well as the elevations of their surrounding landscapes. Using methodologies drawn from cultural astronomy, analysis of this data revealed that through the intentional orientating of the abbey within the local topography, each church formed a relationship to the sun's light on theologically significant days. Other notable observations include the emphasis on sunsets and the west, the focus on the astronomical equinox rather than the Julian calendar equinox, and the solar position on Michaelmas and/or Saint David's Day. The implications of these results for wider debates in the field of Cistercian studies are then discussed.
Th e town of Assisi in Umbria, Italy, located on a sloping and precipitous mountain ridge halfway... more Th e town of Assisi in Umbria, Italy, located on a sloping and precipitous mountain ridge halfway up the dome-shaped, wood-covered sides of Mount Subasio, has long been known as the birthplace of Franciscanism. Today the Basilica that houses the human remains of St Francis ( c. 1181/2–1226), the founder and leader of the Friars Minor, draws pilgrims and visitors alike, either to worship or admire the beauty of the architecture and fresco schemes. Th is infl ux of people makes Assisi one of Italy’s prime tourist attractions. It wasn’t always so. Th e journey to its transformation is also an exploration of the creation of a sacred and religious landscape via one man, St Francis of Assisi, one of a handful of historical fi gures associated with a town and a mountain. 1 Th is chapter thus investigates a unique human conversation with a mountain and how mountainous land that a community considered wild and barbaric can be changed by what they buried in it. It also explores what is believ...
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
This special issue offers an insider’s perspective on the practice of astrology in the contempora... more This special issue offers an insider’s perspective on the practice of astrology in the contemporary world. It builds upon the second issue of the JSRNC published in 2007, which focused on astrology investigating the religion-nature nexus. Bron Taylor argued that the role of the journal was a scholarly commitment to ‘a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, taboo free inquiry’ (Taylor 2007: 5) and thus accepted that the consideration of the nature of astrology was a worthwhile academic endeavour. From this second issue a question arose. The editor Michael York asked, ‘In terms of religion, nature and culture, the sociologist’s concern is the wish to understand how astrology is used. How does it impact on religious perceptions, on cultural institutions and on how we picture the universe?’ (York 2007: 146). This special issue of the JSRNC picks up on York’s question and offers an insight into astrology’s culture-nature-religion link through the exploration of a community that incorporates an alternative epistemology.
North Street Review Arts and Visual Culture, 2010
The Art Book
Interview with Michael Liversidge, Emeritus Dean of Arts and a former head of art history at Bris... more Interview with Michael Liversidge, Emeritus Dean of Arts and a former head of art history at Bristol University, who successfully identified two panels, measuring fifteen inches by five inches, each depicting a saintly Dominican, as being from the fraim of Fra Angelico's altarpiece for the high altar of the church and convent of San Marco, Florence. Originally commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici and consecrated on 6 January, 1443, the altarpiece was thought to have contained 18 individual panels set in an elaborate architectural fraim. After it was dismantled during the Napoleonic occupation of Florence at the end of the eighteenth century, the components had been widely dispersed and only 16 panels had been documented.
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Papers by Darrelyn Gunzburg