During the great persecution
of 18... an image of the Blessed Virgin form the Dutch ship "De Liefde"
belonging to Von Siebold played a crucial part. It was layed on the ground
and all persons, suspected of beeing Christians, were obliged to step on the
image. Those who refused were killed...
One
of the most commonly used forms of hidden Christian art was the Madonna, disguised
as a Bouddha image. One can see how the woman is holding a child. The image
functioned as image of the Blessed Virgin for the Japanese Christians.
When
a panel is removed from this bouddha statue, a crucifix shows up.
On
first sight this looks like a normal mirror made of steel. When it reflects
the sun however, it projects a crucifix. There is no better way to hide a Christian
mystery, because the mirror does not show any abnormality. This effect is created
by carving the relief of a crucifix at the back side of a round piece of steel;
the relief is carved up to a distance of a few micron to the front side. Afterwards,
the front side is polished to a parabolical shape. The polishing instrument
cannot work on the thin parts because of the minimal proportions of these. The
thin parts simply sink down during the polish. The mirror gets an overall parabolical
shape and the thin parts stay invisible for the human eye. But the light of
the sun, that reaches the mirror, touches the thin parts too and reflects an
image with a figure in it.
Madonnas
De
spiegel
Von
Siebold
Christ
the Judge?
At the back side of this image
of a soldier there is a crucifix in reliëf. This becomes clear with a
mirror as a background. the image is of an extreme beauty. Is it a symbol
of Christ as the Judge?
Source: Rose Technologies
A
crucifix
Hidden Christian
Art in Japan
This year we celebrate that 400 years ago relations were established between
Japan and Holland. We would like to show some objects of Christian Art as they
have been developed in Japan during the latest centuries. As Christianity has
been for a long time a forbidden religion in Japan, persecutions were the result.The
Japanese Christians who wanted to continue practise their faith have developed
objects of worship that were not recognizable as such for the outside world,
but that had a Christian meaning for the initiated.
