内藤コレクション 写本 — いとも優雅なる中世の小宇宙

Finished — 2024-08-23

An exhibition of illluminated manuscripts from the private collection of one Dr. Naitō, at the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno.

The strongest impression to me was one of devotion to knowledge and skill. A part of me can surely understand the view that accomplishment at this depth is what’s to strive for and admire, and that most of us alive today is frankly pathetic in comparison.

I also recognize that we’ve made a world where people can have a geometrically expanding breadth of experiences instead, and in an arguably “healthier” way. Arguably. And! We’ve made a world where someone like me can glimpse the eternal much more easily and reliably and and truly than any of these dudes who spent their whole life on it, arguably.

The pages of supremely authoritative text on how to punish disobedient slaves highlights just how much disproportionate, wasteful suffering there was in a few dudes’ pursuit of the Eternal, and of course in the typical human pursuit of selfishness.

Evolution of calligraphy and illustration styles across regions and centuries, and of the structure and purpose of various documents: psalter, breviary, book of hours; one day some monk or nun comes up with a ridiculous folly or an absolutely badass way of embellishing an ‘S’.

The inspiration that of course I should learn 13th-century English-style calligraphy.

The unbroken lineage of Catholicism from Jesus all the way to my parents.

The story of the donor, an eccentric doctor who eventually came to accept that discovering and collecting these pages could be his contribution to the history of art; feels like a reflection of the bigger shift above from devotion and accomplishment to preserving and understanding and making sense in a wider picture of the world and of a new conception of the Eternal.

The sense that “these could be my people” — Any person in there admiring the pages could have been a dear friend, if only there was a way to make a connection.