| Popis: |
There is no doubt that strong correlations between culture and economy are important in understanding the internal mechanisms and dynamics of societies. One of the most wellknown of those who revealed these correlations is Max Weber. Weber's thesis, which examines capitalism through culture, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” is still one of the most cited works today. He highly underlines the Protestant notion of worldly asceticism to analyze one of the many components and conditions of the overall matrix from which the capitalist spirit emerges. However, when we look at the basic dynamics of Christianity, it will immediately become clear that its preaching of pain and asceticism is not something that comes with Protestantism. The Vatican, which uses visual arts very well, has been able to use it as an instrument towards the people –who are mostly illiterate– and had turned it into a propaganda tool. This study, it is aimed to reveal the relations with asceticism by examining the iconographies in these paintings that are encountered in the daily life of the people and to provide an interdisciplinary reading. In the events that the images and icons in catholic iconography date back to the 11th century, something systematic emerges, and this is precisely asceticism, one of the central components in the occurrence of the spirit of capitalism that Weber pointed out. Furthermore, in this study, it will be discussed what the icons and images in some significant paintings, murals and frescoes depicting the events in question reflect about the spirit of capitalism. |
