Hidden Art

[Cartoonist]

This is the Church I attended as a child. Note the long green rectangles to either side of Jesus. Those are hangings covering up vertical murals. Let me try to describe them.

I have to go by memories from 50 years ago. Funny how something you looked at every day of your life cannot be recalled in full. Only its impression remains, and it's not a pleasant one.

The paintings depicted figures from the Old Testament. The Big names, like Noah, Moses, Abraham, and even Jonah. They were all old men with white beards looking piously out on the congregation. As a kid, I was unable to identify them all, but they all looked mean.

I don't recall any discussion in school about these paintings, and I have been unable to find any images of them online. I don't know when they began covering them up, but every image I find has them concealed.

I wasn't necessarily frightened by them, but they filled me with an uncomfortable unease. The one of Jonah particularly disturbed me, as I recall it depicted him either being swallowed or emerging from the whale.

I'm guessing that I wasn't alone in my discomfort. Other kids probably were disturbed as well. This may have led to them finally being covered up. I don't know for certain.

[MineralMan]

1. Religion makes adjustments as needed. You are not to recall old things.

It would be interesting to see a transcript of the discussion held before those images were hidden:

Priest: We need to modernize the sanctuary.
Deacon: In what way?
Priest: Those paintings adjacent to the crucifix are distracting and ugly.
Deacon: But, Father, they have always been there.
Priest: So has your tendency to stray in your marriage...
Deacon: Perhaps we can cover them with hangings.
Priest: Good idea.

[Cartoonist]

2. My imaginative scenario

Concerned members of the Catholic Daughters of America meet with the Monsignor.

Mom #1: Those paintings are giving my son nightmares!

Mons. : But they are Holy Men.

Mom #2: Even that guy with the knife?

Mons. : That would be Abraham.

Mom #3: Do we need to see a man being eaten by a whale?

Mons. : It ends well for him.

Mom #4: Why are there no women depicted?

Mons. : (hemming and hawing) Perhaps we can commission a new mural.

Mom #5: First, cover up the old one. Especially the one on the left. If that's supposed to be Adam, then I feel sorry for Eve.

[uriel1972]

3. Four legs good, two legs better....